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Icelandic Dream Tours

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Icelandic Dream Tours - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

Icelandic Dream Tours

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ICELANDIC DREAM TOURS (Reykjavik) - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go

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+354 571 4577

[email protected]

Experience the Adventure of Glacier Hiking in Iceland

Filter by tour type, filter by months, filter by difficulty level, filter by category.

Vatnajökull Glacier Walk

• Duration: 4 hours
• Group size: 12

Glacier Adventure Summer Tour

• Duration: 5 - 6 hours
• Group size: 8

Private Glacier Walk

Glacier Magic: Glacier Walk & Zodiac Boat

• Duration: Glacier Walk: 4 hours
• Duration: Zodiac boat tour: 2 hours

Glacier Action: Glacier Walk & Snowmobile Tour

• Duration: Glacier Walk / 3,5 - 4 hours / 1,5 on the ice
• Duration: Snowmobile / 3 hours, 1 hour on the glacier

Glacier Dream: Glacier Walk & Jökulsárlón Kayaking

• Duration: Glacier Walk 4 hour
• Duration: Kayak tour 1,5 hour
• Group size: 8-12

Glacier Pristine: Zodiac Boat & Glacier Walk

• Duration: Glacier Walk 3,5 - 4 hours
• Duration: Zodiac Boat 1-1,5 hour

Glacier Passion: Amphibian Boat & Glacier Walk

• Duration: Amphibian boat tour: 30 - 40 min

Glacier Unique: Glacier Walk & Kayaking Adventure

• Duration: Glacier Walk - 4 hours
• Duration: Kayak tour - 4 hours

Glacier Wonder: Glacier Adventure & Amphibian Boat

• Duration: Summer Tour 5-6 hours
• Duration: Amphibian Boat Tour 30 - 40 min

Snowmobile Adventure on Europe´s Largest Glacier

• Duration: 3 - 3,5 hours
• Group size: 2-12

Jökulsárlón Zodiac Adventure with Ice Lagoon

• Duration: 2 hours - 75 min on the boat

Jökulsárlón Kayaking Tour

• Duration: 1,5 hours
• Group size: 8 per guide

Fjallsárlón Zodiac Boat Classic

• Duration: 75 - 90 minutes ( 45 min in the boat )
• Group size: 10 per boat

Jökulsárlón Amphibian Boat Tour

• Duration: 30 - 40 min
• Group size: 20

Canyoning under Vatnajökull Glacier

• Duration: 5,5 hours
• Group size: 8 guest per 2 guides

Ingólfshöfði Puffin Tour

• Duration: 2,5 - 3 hours
• Group size: 30

Glacier Jeep Adventure

Heinabergslón Kayak Adventure

Ice Climbing Adventure

• Duration: 5-6 hours / 3 hours on ice
• Group size: 4

Other local tours

Glacier Hike & Ice Cave Tour with Ice Guide

• Group size: 2-8

Ice Cave and Helicopter Tour with Ice Guide

• Duration: 2 hours

Ice Cave Tour with Ice Guide

• Duration: 3 hours
• Group size: 12-14

Aurora Hut / Igloo Boat

• Duration: 15 hours
• Group size: 2

Jökulsárlón Zodiac Boat Tour with Glacier Lagoon

• Duration: 1 - 1,5 hours
• Group size: 10

Follow our adventures through our blog

Acoustic Monitoring Report

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Caroline Wexter, a student in SIT, did a drone mapping research project at Breiðamerkurjökull glacier…

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Easy access to glaciers is one of Iceland’s bigger tourist attractions. The issue with glacier…

8 Ultimate Steps for Planning Your Dream Vacation in Iceland

• Last Updated: October 18, 2021
• Norbert Zohó

Before every great trip comes a well-thought-out plan. Organizing your vacation to Iceland can, however, start to feel like a chore, especially if you’re keen to just be there already. Finding the best deals, deciding where to stay, what attractions to visit, and finalizing your itinerary can be quite overwhelming. 

With more and more people adding Iceland to their bucket lists, planning ahead is vital for the best experience. It’s not unusual to find that accommodations, trips, transport, and attractions are fully booked for some time ahead, especially for peak travel periods. Iceland’s climate can be a challenge too, with detailed planning needed to really make the most of your visit.

Don’t worry if your trip preparation is a struggle—this article will lead you through everything you need to consider for an amazing Icelandic holiday. Follow the steps for clearer organization and benefit from handy tips to help make your planning process that much easier.    

Examine Your Personal Preferences

Research the best time of year to visit iceland, short breaks, more than two weeks, your travel budget, research areas, top attractions, and activities, create your iceland bucket list – if you don’t already have one, traveling independently, traveling with local guides, camping, hiking, and backpacking, book your trip (flight, accommodation, activities), prepare for your trip, be a responsible tourist and take the icelandic pledge, pick a time to travel.

Firstly, think about when you can travel to Iceland. You might have fixed dates, with vacations depending on school holidays, when you can have time off work, family obligations, or similar. You may be planning a trip to celebrate a special occasion, such as a birthday or anniversary. If your travel dates aren’t flexible you don’t need to give further thought to this step—simply find the best flights (taking into account factors like price/flight times/number of layovers) for your dates and book them. 

If you have some flexibility with your travel dates and no set period when you need to take your trip, there are several things to think about. 

Would you prefer to save money and/or dodge the tourist crowds with a trip during the off-peak season? Is the weather important to you? Are there any festivals you want to attend? 

Is there a certain time of year that you would rather experience in Iceland? For example, do you dream of basking on volcanic beaches in the sunshine, enjoying the never-ending daylight of the midnight sun, and admiring the lush green scenery of the summertime? Or would you rather see the Northern Lights illuminating the wintry skies, explore naturally formed ice caves, and enjoy snow activities? 

If you still can’t decide when you want to take your trip, check out ou r comprehensive guide on the best time to travel to Iceland . You’ll learn more about traveling in each season, including the weather, temperature, and helpful pros and cons. There are details about all major festivities and events throughout the year too. This information will hopefully help you to decide when to plan your trip for. 

When planning your trip to Iceland, do remember that seasonal differences can greatly affect travel times and the amount you can do in any day. Summer sees many more hours of daylight than winter; it takes almost twice as long in winter to visit the same amount of places. 

While the long summer days mean you can enjoy bright sunshine right around the clock, there are only around 3–6 hours of daylight at the height of winter. Traveling in the dark means you would miss seeing much of Iceland’s stunning scenery. Planning a winter visit to Iceland needs much more preparation and organization than a summer vacation. 

You would need to spend longer exploring Iceland in the winter months to see the same as you would on a shorter summer trip. 

Determine a Length for the Trip

If you have a limited amount of time for your vacation, this isn’t a big factor in your planning process; this decision has been made for you. If, however, you have the flexibility to decide how long to stay in Iceland, you’ll need to choose between a short getaway and a longer vacation. These pointers might make your decision a bit easier. 

It is possible to spend 2–3 days discovering the Icelandic capital of Reykjavík and surrounding areas. Any trip to Iceland is fun! A longer trip, however, lets you enjoy even more of this beautiful country and scratch beyond the surface. 

Spending a little longer in Iceland allows you to comfortably visit some of the country’s most well-known attractions, such as Reykjavik, the Golden Circle , and destinations along the South Coast . With a vacation of 4–6 days you can easily check off the capital’s main sights, such as the unique architecture of Hallgrimskirkja, as well as some of Iceland’s most famous geysers, waterfalls, glaciers, and volcanoes. There’s also plenty of time to enjoy a variety of exciting activities, take leisurely strolls along striking black sand beaches, and explore unusual landscapes.    

A longer stay of around 7–10 days is really recommended for travelers flying from farther afield; it can take a couple of days to combat jetlag and adjust to a different timezone. You can spend the first day or two exploring Reykjavik at a relaxed pace while regaining your energy to fully make the most of excursions and trips around the country.

If you stay in Iceland for a week or longer, you can plan to visit more remote areas in addition to the popular tourist routes around the Golden Circle and South Coast . Your holiday can also include destinations like the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, the Diamond Circle, and the Reykjanes Peninsula. Plus, you can take part in more activities too. 

You could also explore the entire island during a ten-day stay in the summer, although you would need to be willing to spend several hours traveling each day.      

The perfect duration for the best holiday in Iceland is around 10–15 days. With this amount of time you can easily hit all of the famous highlights and discover even more of the island’s remote treasures. You’ll have plenty of flexibility and freedom to add beautiful destinations like the Icelandic Highlands, the Eastfjords, and the Westfjords to your itinerary. And, with a longer holiday of around two weeks you’ll have lots of time to take long walks in dramatic nature and wander around charming coastal communities. 

If you are lucky enough to be able to stay for more than two weeks in Iceland you can travel at a slower pace and take time to appreciate the smaller details for a greater understanding of the local culture and way of life. Spending more than two weeks in Iceland allows you to start experiencing the country more as a local. Take time to watch fascinating local wildlife, sample lots of Icelandic cuisine, explore destinations away from the beaten path, discover hidden gems, and mingle with the locals.  

Naturally, your budget is a vital consideration when deciding how long to stay in Iceland. Check the average costs of accommodations, excursions, car hire, and activities for a better understanding of how much you can expect to pay while on holiday. Keep in mind that prices usually vary a lot between peak travel seasons and off-peak times. Also, some activities are not available at certain times of the year. Connected to the above point, it’s important to still balance the fact that while winter costs are normally cheaper, you would probably want to stay longer to have the best Icelandic experience. 

When you’ve got a good idea of the dates you want to travel, you can begin thinking about Iceland’s famous attractions and activities. You’ve likely already got some great ideas in mind, but there are sure to be other terrific things that you don’t yet know about. Be prepared to amend and add to your list of things to do in Iceland when you realize just how much fun awaits you!

Research the top things to do in Reykjavik and the popular surrounding areas of the Golden Circle and the South Coast . As the most sought-after places in Iceland, you’re all but certain to want to add these to your wish list. If you plan to stay longer in Iceland and want to discover more of the beautiful island, you’ll need to research these areas too.  

This part of your planning is easy, thanks to our comprehensive articles on West Iceland (including Reykjavik and the Golden Circle), South Iceland, North Iceland, and East Iceland. We’ve done all the legwork for you and gathered all the top places to visit. You’ll get loads of inspiration to create your ultimate Iceland bucket list!   

While you’ll want to cram as much as you can into your vacation and see everything there is in Iceland, practically you’re going to have to have some limits when it comes to your must-visits. Realistically, you’ll need to skip some places because of time, distance, budget, or seasonal closures. 

Before you get into the nitty gritty of creating your itinerary, it’s handy to make a list of all the top things you want to see and do on your holiday. Rank your list in priority order and locate everywhere on a map for a good idea of how long it would take you to get between places. Think about how long you would want to stay at each place too. 

Once you’ve mapped out all of the places you want to visit, if you find they are dotted right around the island you’ll probably want to consider traveling all around Iceland. If time is short, however, you’ll need to reassess your options and remove any places that would simply be impossible to get to in your time frame. Your bucket list will help you to prioritize and plan your adventure. 

Choose Your Travel Style

Understanding your preferred travel style is an important factor when making your travel plans. For example, do you prefer to organize most things independently, or do you enjoy booking excursions and leaving the finer details and logistics up to a company? Your travel style affects the amount of research you need to do before (and sometimes during) your vacation, your budget, and the feasibility of getting to certain destinations. 

Many travelers love the flexibility and freedom of exploring Iceland independently. Renting a car and driving around Iceland is immensely popular. If you choose this option you should keep in mind that you will still need a fairly rigid itinerary, as you’ll need to book many accommodations and activities with plenty of advance notice, particularly during the peak summer period. 

Organizing your vacation can be a fabulous experience in itself. You can put your dreams into action and start preparing for your trip months in advance. It really lets you enjoy the buildup to your holiday! You’ll likely spend hours poring over travel guides, looking at amazing images, reading blogs, comparing suggested itineraries, and gathering inspiration and ideas. 

A big plus point of planning your own trip is that you can fully tailor your accommodations based on your needs and desires. Maybe you’ve seen a guest house or hotel that you’ve completely fallen in love with? You can choose exactly where you stay and when. 

You can plan how long to stay in each destination, the number of stops along your route, how long you want to spend in the car each day moving from place to place, and so on. Practically, you have the full flexibility to stop for toilet breaks and to grab food at any time you want, and if something catches your eye while you’re on the road, there’s nothing to prevent you from pulling over for a closer look. 

You can change your plans as you go, spending longer or shorter times at different places and adding in extra attractions if you wish (within the framework of already booked places to stay and things to do).

Your holiday will be planned based on your tastes and interests, with you as your own personal travel guide at the helm. There’s a great sense of achievement in completing a trip that you planned yourself.   

Independent travel offers a fantastic opportunity to spend quality time with your travel companions or enjoy plenty of peaceful moments if traveling solo. Couples can enjoy romantic times without traveling in a group of strangers, families can bond, and friends can share as many inside jokes as they like. 

Other pros of independent travel is that it is typically cheaper than joining organized group tours (or private tours), and there is usually a greater sense of adventure.   

Some travelers like the luxury of having someone else take care of trip planning, leaving them with little responsibility beyond showing up and enjoying the experience. There’s definitely a sense of safety and security on guided excursions.

Some destinations around Iceland are quite difficult to access independently. It can be tricky, at best, to reach some places by rental car, while some destinations aren’t accessible at all (especially in the winter) unless you have a specialized vehicle. If you book a guided tour to difficult-to-reach places, you know you’re going to get there. It’s common for local guides in Iceland to have the relevant permits and licenses to safely drive specialized vehicles. Plus, they have the skills and experience to tackle terrain that you may not be used to. 

Booking a multi-day trip around Iceland saves you the time and energy of coming up with your own plan and making all the necessary arrangements by yourself. If you book a multi-day Iceland vacation all aspects of planning, arranging, and booking your holiday are included in the package.

Traveling with a local guide means you can often benefit from lots of inside stories and tips. They can give you interesting facts about history and local culture that you may not otherwise have discovered on your own. 

Some travelers enjoy meeting new people on group tours. It can definitely be a good way for sociable travelers to strike up conversations and make new holiday friends. 

Tours are often more expensive than making your own plans. However, when you weigh up the cost of car rentals, accommodations, and activity fees against the price of an all-inclusive tour, you will likely be surprised to find that there isn’t such a large price difference overall.    

Camping, hiking, and backpacking are the most flexible ways to explore Iceland, and you can enjoy lots of spontaneity. Many hiking enthusiasts and lovers of the great outdoors dream of exploring Iceland’s dramatic landscapes, with volcanoes, glaciers, and lava fields aplenty. 

Imagine setting up your tent beneath crisp skies filled with twinkling stars (or even the dancing colors of the Northern Lights!), snuggling in your sleeping bag, and then waking up to some of the most stunning views on the planet. It would certainly be a memorable adventure. Plus, camping is the best way to sleep for cheap in Iceland; budget travelers can save lots of money by opting for a few nights under canvas. 

Although backpacking, camping, and hiking give you lots of freedom when actually traveling around Iceland, this type of exploration does generally need more preparation than other travel styles. There are many more things to consider, such as rules about camping, how to access water and supplies, natural hazards, and mobile network coverage. The weather and number of daylight hours also come into play more when you’re spending more time exposed to the elements. You’ll also need to carry high-quality gear that is suitable for the Arctic conditions. You should already have experience planning similar trips.  

Iceland’s landscapes can be wild and conditions can change quickly. Away from major tourist centers, you should only camp and hike if you already have experience; it’s not a place for novice outdoor adventurers. If you are keen to camp/hike in Iceland but have no prior experience, you can join specialist hiking tours with a professional guide to ensure your safety and enjoyment. 

Finally, after you’ve completed the previous steps, it’s time to start booking your holiday! 

Find the best deals on your flights and book those first. Then, book your accommodations and activities. 

If you opted for a multi-day tour, you don’t need to worry about booking places to sleep as this will be included in your package. With this option, you don’t need to do much planning beyond confirming your trip and waiting for your holiday date to arrive! 

If, however, you decide to travel independently, you should compile a detailed travel itinerary so that you can book your activities and any pre-bookable tickets in advance. You should also confirm your booking for a hire car.   

As highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, booking refundable flights and hotels is highly recommended; many service providers have this option, though you may need to pay a small surcharge. It’s worth it, though, for your peace of mind and protection.  

Don’t scrimp when it comes to travel insurance either. The ideal cover will include the option to “Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR)”. This means that you will get back up to 75% of your travel costs if you need to cancel your vacation for reasons outside of the standard cover terms. No matter what life may throw at you, you can rest easy knowing that you can get most of your money back if needed.  

You won’t need to prepare much (except packing your bags!) if you chose to take a multi-day excursion with a local guide. The tour operator will provide you with all relevant information. During your tour you’ll be given lots of details about Icelandic nature, culture, and history to help you better understand the country and get the most from your memorable trip. 

If you will travel to Iceland independently, take some time before your departure to learn a little about the country. Read up on local customs, traditions and culture, flora and fauna, history, geology, and anything that you would like to know to help you gain a deeper understanding of Iceland. 

Regardless of your traveling style or type of trip, everyone should take the time to learn more about the typical weather and daylight hours over the time you will visit Iceland. This article covers everything you may need to know about the weather and seasonal changes, and there’s even a helpful clothing guide to help you out when it comes to packing.  

To help preserve and protect the country’s unique landscapes and nature, as well as show respect for local people, the Icelandic Tourist Board has created the Icelandic Pledge. All travelers should agree to abide by this promise before beginning their adventure. Naturally, you should be a responsible traveler when in Iceland. These are the pledge details:

I pledge to be a responsible tourist. When I explore new places, I will leave them as I found them. I will take photos to die for, without dying for them. I will follow the road into the unknown, but never venture off the road. And I will only park where I am supposed to. When I sleep out under the stars, I’ll stay within a campsite. And when nature calls, I won’t answer the call on nature. I will be prepared for all weathers, all possibilities, and all adventures.

You can take your personalized pledge here .

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Featured vacation packages, adventure-packed carbon neutral premium self-drive iceland tour – 8 day, sustainable iceland family adventure – 8-day co2 neutral self-drive tour, activity-filled co2 neutral self-drive tour – 5 days, action-filled luxury summer adventure, activity iceland by icelandia.

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Special offer

For a limited time on selected super jeep tours.

• 7 days / 6 riding days
• 09.08 – 15.08

Sprengisandur

This part takes us along the river Skjálfandafljót in Bárðardalur Valley and the abandoned quiet Valley Mjóidalur up to the highland plateau of Sprengisandur with the oasis of Laugafell and warm natural pool in the middle of nowhere! We head down to the green valleys of Skagafjörður where we end the ride at Farm Sveinsstaðir. Great combination of green valleys and soft trails along riverbanks and a real highland experience at the highest grounds of Iceland. The ancient trail across Sprengisandur has been one of our highlights in our tour selection through the years.

The meeting point is at Eagle air airport in the morning for a flight up north to Húsavík airport.

We start the ride at farm Landamót and ride up along river Skjálfandafljót to farm Eyjardalsá located at the river banks.

On the way home to our accommodation at Saltvík farm, we‘ll spend some time visiting Goðafoss waterfall nearby!

We ride along the river Skjálfandafljót through one of Iceland’s longest valleys; Bárðardalur. The ride ends at farm Mýri which for centuries has been the „gate“ to the highlands for travelers crossing the remote Sprengisandur trail.

We stay overnight at a nice guesthouse nearby.

We head up to the wilderness following the trail used by Icelanders since settlements. Peace and quiet get a new meaning while riding by lake Ishólsvatn and up along the valley Mjóidalur until we come to our resting point at Fossgilsmosar near Kiðagil Canyon. After the ride, we drive by bus back to our guesthouse for another night.

We ride across Sprengisandur desert following the „Stonemen“; old waypoints used before times of GPS and maps! The glaciers Vatnajökull, Tungnafellsjökull, and Hofsjökull shine in the distance if the sky is clear and give the surroundings a special glimpse as guardians of the highlands. We come to Laugafell, an oasis in the desert with green fields and hot springs in the middle of nowhere. A dip in the hot pool is well deserved after the long ride through the desert. We stay overnight at a mountain hut sharing one big room. Every guest gets a mattress and a sleeping bag for the night.

We get up early to feed the horses and after breakfast, we saddle up and ride down to Skagafjörður. The ride ends at Þorljótsstaðir farm deep in the valleys of Skagafjörður. We stay at the farm overnight in an old farmhouse.

Today we ride down the valley Vesturdalur along the glacial river Jökulsá until we come to Sveinsstaðir farm where the tour ends.

After breakfast, a bus is waiting to take all guests back to Reykjavík. ( 4 hours drive) Estimated arrival at BSI bus station at 14.00

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[email protected] +354 892 4645 Saltvík, 641 Húsavík

The Ultimate 10-Day Iceland Itinerary

Day 1 - Reykjavik

• Day 2 - Caving & Hveragerdi

Day 3 - Waterfalls, Reynisfjara, & Klaustur

Day 4 - skaftafell & jokulsarlon.

• Day 5 - The East Fjords & Egilsstadir
• Day 6 - Asbyrgi

Day 7 - Myvatn

Day 8 - husavik & akureyri, day 9 - husafell.

• Day 10 - Reykjanes & Homecoming

Discover 10 adventure-filled summer days of authentic travel—our ultimate 10-day Iceland itinerary is sure to cater to your highest expectations. In addition to guiding you to incredible landscapes and secret natural gems, this well-thought-out selection of Iceland's must-see attractions covers the Ring Road and more. Read on to explore the best 10-day Iceland itinerary.

Many travelers wonder how much time they need in Iceland. We believe 10 days is optimal to take in a range of incredible attractions and activities. 

• Book this  10-Day Summer Self-Drive Tour of the Complete Ring Road with a Taste of the Central Highlands
• Join this fantastic 10-day guided circle trip around Iceland in winter

Popular package tours

Scenic 4-day northern lights tour of vatnajokull ice cave, jokulsarlon & the south coast, amazing 5-day northern lights winter vacation package in iceland with ice caving & the blue lagoon, breathtaking 6-day northern lights hunting package of iceland with ice caving.

Other Considerations for This 10 day Iceland Trip Itinerary

• The following is a 10 day Iceland summer itinerary. Take this trip between May and September to allow sufficient daylight hours to see all our recommended attractions.
• You will spend one night in each location, allowing you to complete the entire Ring Road and uncover hidden gems.
• Because the summer months in Iceland are busier, we advise you to pre-book your accommodation . 
• Although this is a summer itinerary, you will still need to bring warm clothing to Iceland.
• See also The Right Clothes and Gear for Tours in Iceland

Mode of Transport for Your 10 day Iceland Travel Itinerary

Iceland has no railway system, and although the Icelandic bus system is relatively accessible and straightforward, trips are both expensive and infrequent.

When traversing the country, therefore, we recommend that you rent a car , as it allows you to control your own pace and explore hidden paths and less-used roads where you are sure to discover many secrets.

With the speed limit set at a modest 56 miles per hour (90 kilometers per hour), Iceland's quiet highways provide ideal road trip conditions where you have ample opportunities to marvel at the breathtaking scenery.

And remember that if you do not have the necessary means of driving by yourself, you always have the option of going on a  Guided Ring Road of Iceland Tour .

With your sights set on central  Reykjavik , where you have booked your accommodation, pick up your car at the Keflavik International Airport . First, drive through the lunar vistas that make up the Reykjanes Peninsula . Here you can immerse yourself in Iceland's spectacular landscapes, spontaneously discovered by simply looking out your car window.

Over 70 percent of the people who visit Iceland make their way to the Blue Lagoon  geothermal spa, making it Iceland's single most popular attraction, and with good reason. Named in 2012 as one of National Geographic's "25 Wonders of the World," this outdoor spa is in the middle of a rugged black lava field in  Grindavik . The Blue Lagoon, located 13.4 miles (21.6 kilometers) from Keflavík Airport, has warm milky-blue water and supposed extraordinary healing powers.

Should you arrive in Iceland early in the morning, a visit to the Blue Lagoon would be an ideal choice for the day. The journey ahead will provide you with ample opportunities to bathe in many of Iceland's magnificent natural and artificial pools. You could also visit the Blue Lagoon on your last day or skip it altogether.

When you have checked into your accommodation, take advantage of the closeness to Reykjavik's thriving city center. You can discover a multitude of shops, museums, restaurants, and cafes and explore the old harbor district of  Grandi . It recently transformed into a vibrant arts venue filled with workshops, restaurants, and galleries. 

In the evening, dine at one of  the best restaurants in Reykjavik  before joining the radically liberal  nightlife in Reykjavik , which is famed for its avant-garde atmosphere and flamboyant crowds.

Just make sure that you save some energy for the journey ahead.

Top Blue Lagoon Tours

• See also Top 10 things to do in Reykjavik

Day 2 - Caving & Hveragerdi  

Start the second day of your 10-day Iceland itinerary by driving 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) east of Reykjavik into the  Blafjoll Country Park . Spend the late morning and early afternoon exploring what is widely considered the most magnificent natural phenomenon of its kind, the empty magma chamber of the Thrihnukagigur  volcano.

Photo from  6-Hour Volcano Tour Inside the Magma Chamber of Thrihnukagigur with Transfer from Reykjavik

After a 1.8-mile (3-kilometer) hike through Blafjoll's volcanic wonderland, an open cable car will take you through a narrow, funnel-shaped opening and slowly lower you 393 feet (120 meters) into the enormous Thrihnukagigur magma chamber.

A  Thrihnukagigur volcano tour  is an excursion into the cold heart of a dormant volcano, where orange and scarlet walls tell stories of ancient cataclysms and terrible destruction.

Hot water perpetually pours from the Reykjadalur's surrounding hills, forming a warm stream at the bottom of the valley, where you can bathe and unwind while enjoying the mesmerizing scenery.

If you are thirsty for a more daring approach, a guided horseback tour  takes you further into the mountains above Hveragerdi. Here you will discover mighty lava fields and geothermal hot spots of bubbling mud pools, solfataras, and fumaroles. At the same time, you will enjoy riding the pony-sized Icelandic horse .

The third day of your 10-day Iceland road trip takes you further east, across the southern lowlands where Seljalandsfoss , one of Iceland's highest waterfalls, awaits you by the highway.

Seljalandsfoss waterfall drops over 197 feet (60 meters) over a misty cavern where you can walk behind the cascade. Experience its mystical force from the point of view rarely granted by mother nature.

Your next stop of the day is Seljavellir, where an old path takes you to  Seljavallalaug outdoor pool , one of Iceland's oldest swimming pools and the south's most iconic construction.

Since 1923, the pool has collected the lukewarm water that steadily seeps from the hills. You are free to bathe in this stunning example of organic architecture to this day.

Six miles (10 kilometers) east of Seljavellir, the mighty  Skogafoss  waterfall, one of Iceland's most significant, plummets 197 feet (60 meters) from the towering cliffs that make up the border between the coastal lowlands and the Icelandic Highlands .

After accosting this mighty aqueous guardian of the south, you would do well to visit the Skogar Folk Museum , whose six buildings display more than 15,000 regional folk craft artifacts.

Spend the late afternoon exploring  Reynisfjara  beach, one of the world's most beautiful black sand beaches.

Perpetually hammered by the ruthless North Atlantic surf, Reynisfjara has titanic rock formations and hexagonal basalt columns that make up an enormous cliff face on which strange dark caves gape towards the open sea. 

Please be advised that strong undercurrents, heavy surf, and cold water temperatures make  entering the sea extremely dangerous , and one should not do so under any circumstances. 

• Book a  Reynisfjara South Coast Tour  now

Photo by Regina Hrönn Ragnarsdóttir

After exploring Reynisfjara, you head east towards  Kirkjubaejarklaustur  town, where you will lay your head for the night. 

The bright summer evening provides the perfect conditions for exploring the Systrafoss waterfall and the magnificent Systrastapi (Sister's Rock). This strange rock hill towers from the southern lowlands, 0.8 miles (1.3 kilometers) from the village. 

Top South Coast Tours

On the fourth day of this epic 10-day Iceland Ring Road itinerary, enjoy the journey into  Skaftafell  nature reserve. This incredible landscape covers over 2,982 square miles (4,800 square kilometers) of utterly surreal wildlands. Black desert sands meet a birchwood oasis under a spur of the Vatnajokull ice cap.

Skaftafell is famed for its warm summer climate, and locals offer excellent services, including guided glacier hiking tours and ice cave tours , transportation, food, and accommodation. From Skaftafell's visitor center and campsite, many hiking trails will take you into dreamlike realms of mesmerizing beauty.

On Fossaleid (Trail of Falls ), Hundafoss waterfall will be the first and highest of a set of cascades on the path to the majestic  Svartifoss  (Black Falls) waterfall. It tumbles from a tall row of black basalt columns in a forest clearing, like a reality gap. 

Thirty-four miles (54.7 kilometers) east of the campsite, you will find one of Iceland's most treasured masterpieces of nature, Jokulsarlon  Glacier Lagoon.

Jokulsarlon is a glacier lagoon in which you can join countless seals traveling amongst the towering mountains of ice that have broken off from the Breidamerkurjokull  glacier in the north.

For decades,  Jokulsarlon tours  have attracted large crowds worldwide, and to this day, they remain one of Iceland's most popular tourist activities.

But when the titanic icebergs of Jokulsarlon have melted to the size of a mere cubic meter, the Jokulsa a Breidamerkursandi glacial river ferries them south into the sea. Here, the waves polish them into table-sized blocks of ice that eventually wash onto the obsidian sands called  Diamond Beach . 

Diamond Beach is where 1,000-year-old glacier fragments slowly fade into unity with the significant drop of water called the Atlantic Ocean.

Spend the rest of your day here before heading back to Skaftafell for a well-deserved good night's sleep under a glacier bathed in the scarlet rays of the midnight sun . 

Top Jokulsarlon Tours

Day 5 - the east fjords & egilsstadir  .

On day five of your 10-day trip to Iceland, you set your sights on the small township of Egilsstadir , the largest settlement in the Eastern Region , where folklore and science have waged a fierce battle for centuries.

Lagarfljot , Iceland's third-largest river, splits the unofficial Eastern capital. It is allegedly home to the Icelandic equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster , the serpentine creature known as Lagarfljotsormurinn .

Documented sightings of the great worm of Lagarfljot first occurred in 1345 and continued well into the 21st century. Still, it wasn't until 2012 that a video recording finally provided the irrefutable evidence that ultimately proved the creature's existence.

And within the blink of an eye, legend had become fact.

Before you have the possibility of chancing upon a close encounter with the Lagarfljot Worm, enjoy the three-hour morning drive towards Egilsstadir. Your reward is crowd-free vistas of windswept mountains, picturesque villages, and an array of waterfalls so stunning that they are even said to rival their southern counterparts.

The dramatic east coast has long fjords with steep sides and jagged glacier-forged peaks. The fjords contrast with fertile farmlands, blooming meadows, and green groves.

Fifteen miles (25 kilometers) south of Egilsstadir, the  Hallormsstadaskogur  National Forest covers over 740 hectares (7.4 square kilometers) of varied landscapes, making it the largest forest in Iceland.

Forests are a rare phenomenon in Iceland, and before you reach Egilsstadir, a visit to the forest would be well worth your while. Hallormsstadarskogur boasts over 24.8 miles (40 kilometers) of footpaths and marked trails, two fully-equipped campsites, and boat and horse rentals.

Top Eastfjords Tours

Day 6 - asbyrgi  .

Day six of your 10-day Iceland road trip takes you 118 miles (190 kilometers) northwest of Egilsstadir and into the mystical horseshoe-shaped  Asbyrgi  canyon (The Shelter of Gods). According to numerous local sources, their steep sides are towering cliffs that are the principal dwellings of the hidden Icelandic people (Huldufolk).

Photo by Regína Hrönn Ragnarsdóttir

One of those paths is a stone-stepped trail that leads to the crystal clear and still Botnstjorn pond. This small body of water is all that remains of a nameless waterfall, which in primordial times fell roaring from the cliffs above.

Today, Botnstjorn has a viewing platform that allows for a peaceful moment where you can pay a silent tribute to the aquatic spirit that once was the master of this realm.

Legend claims that Asbyrgi formed when Odin's eight-footed horse, Sleipnir, graced the earth with a touch of one of its hooves. Most geologists, however, maintain that catastrophic ice-age flooding of the Jokulsa a Fjollum glacial river brought Asbyrgi into existence.

Spend the day in Asbyrgi's soft but rocky embrace and secure a night of sweet dreams by remembering to pay your respects to the hidden people in the cliffs above you. 

• Book a  Ring Road Self-Drive Tour With Asbyrgi  here 

From Asbyrgi, head northeast inland and onward to Lake Myvatn , 55.7 miles (89.7 kilometers) away. Here you will traverse ethereal landscapes formed in a cataclysmic volcanic explosion more than 2,000 years ago.

Myvatn is one of Iceland's largest lakes, famed for its multiple bird communities, vibrant plant life, and the many natural wonders surrounding the lake itself. These include the bubbling sulfuric mud pools of the  Namaskard  pass, the enormous tuff ring volcano crater of  Hverfjall , and the massive  Krafla  volcanic caldera. Krafla is fiercely active and last erupted in 1984.

You will find one of Iceland's most precious natural marvels, the  Dimmuborgir  (Dark Cities) lava fields east of the lake.

Legend has it that Dimmuborgir came into existence when Lucifer was banished and cast from the heavens. Upon landing east of Myvatn, the fallen angel quickly amassed an infernal hoard of lost souls and established the Catacombs of Hell, much to the dislike of the local light elves.

There was chaos and confusion. Demons fought light beings under a burning sky. Still, eventually, the elves drove Satan's army far into the nether regions before turning the unusually shaped lava fields into a cross-dimensional elven capital of their own.

Stories like this may come across as nonsensical at first. Still, when you consider the area's incredible geothermal potency, Myvatn's mythological association with fire, brimstone, and burning underworlds becomes quite understandable.

Around the lake, you are more than likely to happen upon numerous caves filled with hot water, many of which rank amongst the world's most magnificent natural baths.

But since small earthquakes regularly alter the area's geothermal conditions—sometimes raising water temperatures to extreme and even life-threatening levels—you should always  connect with locals  before bathing in the caves. 

From Myvatn, a picturesque morning drive takes you into the northern Skjalfandi Bay  and the quiet little town of  Husavik , which has made a name for itself as the whale watching capital of the world.

Because of the multiple species of whale that flock to their feeding grounds in the waters of Skjalfandi bay, Husavik is the very best whale watching harbor in Iceland, with local operators boasting an unmatched 99 percent success rate.

On a  Husavik traditional whale watching tour , you are more than likely to encounter the white-beaked dolphin, the harbor porpoise, and even the titanic blue whale. However, the gentle minke whale is by far the most commonly sighted animal, its curious nature often allowing visitors to watch it from a very short distance. 

In the early afternoon, visit the local  Whale Museum  and the Exploration Museum , whose ancient artifacts and fishing vessels witness Iceland's incredible maritime history.

Top Whale Watching & Puffin Tours

From Husavik, a 56-mile (90-kilometer) drive takes you west to Akureyri , the largest town in Iceland outside of the capital area, with a population of 20,000. 

Although Akureyri lies only 62 miles (100 kilometers) below the arctic circle , the town greets you with mild, pleasant weather and an easy-going atmosphere. 

Akureyri has started to rival Reykjavik as Iceland's go-to cultural hot spot. Before you rest for the night, spend the late afternoon and evening exploring the town's many attractions, including an abundance of cafes, restaurants, and museums. 

• See also:  13 Best Things to Do in Akureyri

On the second to last day of your 10-day Iceland road trip, start your day early and drive to the old pastoral hamlet of Husafell , 196 miles (316 kilometers) from Akureyri.

Set in dense birchwood forests between two glaciers, this ever-popular outdoor activity center makes for an ideal place to spend a day of easy hiking and sightseeing.

Excellent footpaths and hiking trails lead into the beautiful Husafellsskogur forest, towards the Ok and  Eiriksjokull glaciers, and onto the vast Hallmundarhraun lava field. The lava field is home to numerous caves, including Surtshellir  and the enormous Vidgelmir .

Vidgelmir cave is 0.9 miles (1.5 kilometers) long, with gigantic domes reaching astonishing heights of over 49 feet (15 meters). These measurements make it the most extensive cave of its kind in Iceland and one of the largest lava caves in the world. 

Although Vidgelmir's sheer size is spectacular to behold, the cave's true uniqueness lies not in its enormity but its beautiful vibrant colors. They come to life in numerous locations, where a lights system ensures that visitors thoroughly enjoy their underground adventure. 

• Book a  Vidgelmir Cave Explorer Tour  here

Just over 9 miles (15 kilometers) southwest of Vidgelmir, you will find another natural marvel, the  Hraunfossar  waterfalls flowing into the Hvita River.

Do not miss Hraunfossar waterfalls, ranked among Iceland's most magnificent waterfalls. They are only a short drive from Husafell's service center. Husafell has a small grocery store, a filling station, a swimming pool, and an information booth where you can book cottages, reserve space on the campground, or book a room for the night in the local  Hotel.

Day 10 - Reykjanes & Homecoming  

On the very last day of your 10-day Iceland road trip itinerary, you will travel 119 miles (192 kilometers) southwest of Husafell onto the ultra-volcanic  Reykjanes Peninsula . Marvel at the massive ridge of black and red lava fields where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates drift apart.

Around every turn, you will stumble upon superb examples of Iceland's volcanic nature, such as the steaming  Kleifarvatn lake and the vibrant  Gunnuhver  and Seltun geothermal fields with bubbling mud pools and steaming fumaroles.

In Sandvik , a footbridge overarches a small canyon on the peninsula's southern point. Here, you can walk between the two separating continents.

It is easy to lose track of time and space in Reykjanes' volcanic landscape, so make sure to save a moment for the Blue Lagoon, should you not have gone there on your first day.

The steamy world of black rock and milky-blue water makes for the perfect finish to your visit to Iceland. In the misty lake, you are bound to soak away all of your tension and prepare your body for the journey back home.

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The Ultimate 4 Days In Iceland Itinerary

May 30, 2021 //  by  Iceland Trippers //   14 Comments

Planning to spend 4 days in Iceland and looking for the perfect itinerary? We’ve got you covered. Despite being a small country, Iceland has an incredible amount of beauty and adventure to offer.

The island is one stunning natural wonder after the next. Even your drive from one place to the next will have you staring out the window in awe.

Exploring Iceland in a long weekend will allow you the time to cover some of the country’s most extraordinary sites, while still leaving you with plenty to keep you coming back for more.

Planning your trip to Iceland last minute?

Make sure to book your hotels and tours in Iceland in advance to ensure availability! The longer you wait, the more difficult it gets. Here are my top picks for your trip :

Top Experiences And Tours In Iceland:

• Golden Circle Full Day Tour From Reykjavik (Likely to sell out!)
• Silfra Snorkeling Tour (Includes photos + only small group)
• South Of Iceland Full Day Trip (Our pick!)
• Whale Watching In Reykjavik (On a luxury yacht)
• Northern Lights Bus Tour (Great to go with a local)
• Ice Cave Tour And Glacier Hike (Likely to sell out)

Tickets You MUST book in advance:

• Keflavik > Reykjavik Bus Airport Transfer (Skip the line!)
• Sky Lagoon Entrance Ticket (Includes 7-step spa ritual)
• Blue Lagoon Entry Ticket With Drink (Likely to sell out!)

Top picks for places to stay in Iceland:

• Hotel South Coast (Great central location)
• Grandi Reykjavik (Includes free breakfast)
• Hotel Kria (Close to black sand beach)
• Hotel Skaftafell (Mid-range price)

Our Iceland itinerary will have you visiting thundering waterfalls, brilliant white icebergs, black sand beaches, and canyons that look like something out of a fairytale. Iceland’s landscape is incredibly diverse making each stop unique and fascinating.

No matter what time of year you are visiting you’ll have more than enough activities to keep you busy.  Feel free to alter this Iceland itinerary as you see fit given your own time constraints and energy levels. Get a FREE printable “Hidden Gems In Iceland” E-book by joining our private  Iceland Facebook Group  and share your photos and ask for tips and tricks.

We definitely recommend renting a car for your 4 days in Iceland. It is possible to book tours that will take you to a number of stops on this itinerary, however in order to complete this itinerary in full or adjust your schedule as you see fit, most people find a car is the ideal option for getting around the country. This will allow you the chance to explore Iceland’s natural beauty on your own terms.

Driving in Iceland is not cheap, but we guarantee it will enhance your overall trip experience. Do take note, that unlike in the United States, many of the rental cars have a manual transmission, so if you don’t know how to drive a manual car, double check to make sure your rental car has an automatic transmission!

We’ve been to Iceland many times and are very fond of the country. The information you’ll find in this Iceland itinerary is the information we wish we had on our first visit to the land of fire and ice. We hope our past experiences will help make planning your trip a little easier!

4 Days In Iceland Map:

If you’re more of a visual person, we’ve provided this road trip map for your 4 days in Iceland below so it’s easier for you to see where each stop is located. For the driving route, check out the link to the map. This map will show you an idea of where all of the stops are along this route!

Click Here For Iceland in 4 Days Map

Day 1: Begin Your 4 Days In Iceland In And Around The Capital City

Stop 1: soak in a natural river at reykjadalur hot springs.

After a long flight and drive from Keflavik to Reykjavik, there’s no better way to start your trip than stretching your legs and getting your blood pumping on a beautiful hike. If you’ve ever wanted to bathe in a hot river in the middle of nature, you’ll be excited that the Reykjadalur Hot Springs is the first stop on your Iceland itinerary.

No matter what time of year you are visiting Iceland, bring a swimsuit! Understandably, it does seem counterintuitive to bring a swimsuit to a country called Iceland, but we guarantee you won’t regret having one handy.

Located in South Iceland, just 45 minutes from Reykjavik, Reykjadalur Hot Springs is the perfect quick nature escape from the capital. The hike to the hot springs is roughly 45 minutes-1 hour, and is easy to moderately difficult. The hike starts with a relatively steep uphill climb before leveling out.

The path is well maintained and clearly marked. Your hike will take you through a valley filled with steam, past a cascading waterfall and many grazing sheep.

As you approach the hot springs you’ll be greeted with the distinct smell of rotten eggs, which is attributed to the sulfur in the boiling water surrounding the hot springs. The boiling water is mesmerizing, but don’t touch it. The real prize is waiting for you, just mere steps away.

When you reach the part of the river that is safe for bathing, you can change on a wood platform with partitions. Privacy is lacking, but no one cares. Everyone is there to relax and have a good time.

Find your perfect spot in the river and enjoy bathing while the sheep suntan 10 yards away. The best spots in the river are right up against the rock piles dividing the river into sections. There you’ll find the deepest pockets of water.

In summer, the water in this section of the river resembles that of a Jacuzzi and is perfect for bathing. As the weather gets colder, you may need to hike a little further upriver to find a spot warm enough to enjoy for extended periods of time.

Arrive in the early morning or late evening (when you can enjoy the midnight sun in the summer) to avoid the biggest crowds. There is nothing quite like bathing in a river surrounded by stunning nature, and you’ll no doubt be glad you made this stop to kick off your 4 days in Iceland.

This is one of the best stops around Iceland’s Ring Road . If you happen to be driving in Iceland , you will want to ensure that you make time to see it! 

Stop 2: Downtown Reykjavik

Now that you’ve had a taste of Iceland’s natural outdoor beauty, we suggest taking a walk around downtown Reykjavik to explore the colorful capital. Laugavegur is the main shopping street downtown filled with shops, café’s, restaurants, galleries, etc. You can do anything from buying Icelandic wool sweaters to enjoying a delicious cup of coffee on this street.

Laugavegur along with Bankastræti and Austurstræti streets will take care of your shopping needs. There are also a number of wonderful museums in and around Reykjavik including Perlan, the former water towers turned observation deck and “Wonders of Iceland” museum, the Reykjavik Maritime Museum along the harbor, the underground Settlement Exhibition with an excavated longhouse, and the Arbær Open Air Museum where you’ll find preserved old Icelandic buildings with sod roofs.

A day in downtown Reykjavik would be incomplete without a visit to the iconic Hallgrimskirkja Church, designed by architect Gudjón Samúelsson with an outside meant to resemble the basalt columns found in Iceland’s nature. It’s the tallest building in downtown Reykjavik and as a result is very difficult to miss. The area in front of the church is dominated by a statue of the famous Leifur Eiriksson, the first European to set foot in North America even before Christopher Columbus.

The inside of the church is minimalistic in design and not particularly grand, though the large pipe organ inside is eye-catching. The real draw of the church however is the spectacular 360 views you’ll find at the tower up top.

Entrance to the church alone is free, but admission to the tower is 1000 ISK per person. Once you pay at the church shop you’ll take an elevator up to the tower where you can take your time enjoying the views over all of Reykjavik and beyond.

Another stop you’ll want to make while in Reykjavik is to the Harpa Concert Hall, the beautiful concert venue downtown with 714 honeycomb-like glass panels that light up at night. Like Hallgrimskirkja, the design was meant to resemble basalt columns. The site is somewhat controversial as it was an expensive project completed shortly after the 2008 financial crisis with money that many people felt should have been invested elsewhere.

Whether or not its completion was warranted, it stands today as an architectural beauty, recipient of the Mies Van der Rohe award for architecture and home to festivals, concerts of all music genres, conferences and more. Even if there are no concerts happening during your visit, it’s worth wandering the impressive building to admire the architectural work.

For those with a sweet tooth we’ve got a couple of locations you won’t regret visiting. The first is the Brauð & Co. bakery where you’ll delight in the most delicious pastries. The cinnamon and vanilla rolls and chocolate croissants are particularly fantastic and addicting.

The name of the bakery is not well marked on the building, but the outside is very distinguishable with its colorful street art, and the smells waft down the street so it can’t be missed! Our other suggestion is Valdis ice cream. The idea of eating ice cream in a cold climate can sound strange and yet Icelanders absolutely love their ice cream all year round.

This is a tried and true favorite of both locals and visitors alike. There are a large variety of flavors that are constantly changing. It’s hard to go wrong with this delicious ice cream.

Stop 3: Relax In The Hot Tubs At The Local Swimming Pool

Every town in Iceland has at least one swimming pool complex (Reykjavik has many), and there’s no better way to finish off an adventurous day than with a soak in one or all of the multiple hot tubs of differing temperatures. This is the perfect way to spend one of your four days in Iceland!

There are a couple things you should know about the public swimming pools. After you pay to use the pools (1030 ISK for adults), you’ll leave your shoes outside the locker room on a shoe rack.

You’ll be given a wristband or key to lock your individual locker. When you enter the locker room, don’t be alarmed if everyone is naked. In fact it’s a requirement that you shower naked before putting on your bathing suit and getting in the pool.

In Iceland, it’s entirely normal, and no one is paying attention to you anyway, so there’s no need to feel self-conscious. Most of the showers are communal, but if you’d feel more comfortable with some privacy there are sometimes a handful of shower stalls with doors. When returning from the pool you also have to dry yourself completely after showering before you can enter the locker room area.

We suggest heading to Laugardalslaug, the largest of Reykjavik’s pool complexes located right next to Iceland’s National Soccer Team Stadium. This complex is made up of an indoor pool, an Olympic sized heated outdoor pool, a kiddie pool with a slide, hot tubs of varying temperatures (38°C, 42°C, and 44°C) as well as a salt water hot tub. For those daring souls perhaps trying to recover from aches and pains, there is a cold tub as well, though as you might expect, it gets far fewer visitors.

This pool complex is a favorite of locals and tourists at all times of the year. And in the winter, there’s nothing quite like sitting in a steaming hot tub, surrounded by snow while reflecting on the adventures of your day.

Stop 4: Try To Catch A Glimpse Of The Elusive Northern Lights

If you’re visiting Iceland in the winter, we highly suggest driving out of town to try to see the lights or paying for a tour. The Northern Lights have the potential to be seen from September-April. A strong Northern Lights show makes your heart want to leap out of your chest with excitement, but the Northern Lights are inconsistent and elusive.

One minute the sky is dancing in brilliant hues of green and purple, and the next, clouds are obscuring anything and everything in the sky. In Iceland, there’s precipitation approximately 300 days a year on average, meaning the sky is more often than not cloudy or at least slightly overcast.

This makes the northern lights search particularly frustrating when you know there’s solar activity, but the lights are hidden behind clouds. Sometimes patience wins out, and the clouds will part long enough for you to see the lights; sometimes it never clears, and you’re just out of luck.

If you’re hoping to maximize your chances of seeing the Northern Lights, you have two options. Your first is paying to take a guided Northern Lights Tour . These tour guides are extremely knowledgeable and seek out the Northern Lights for a living, so they know the best places to wait and watch.

Remember though, nature is the only one in control of the Northern Lights, so even with a guide there is no guarantee you’ll see the lights. If you don’t see the lights on your first trip, most tour companies allow you to rebook a second trip at no extra charge.

The other option is to take your car, drive away from the city lights and search for the lights yourself. Dark, clear skies give you the best chance of seeing the lights so the longest nights of the year will give you the highest percentage of both.

You can track the aurora strength and visibility yourself, and you can continue to check it throughout the night as it continuously updates. The Northern Lights are a remarkable sight and worth taking a chance on!

Where to stay in Reykjavik:

Affordable: Hotel Klettur  Check rates: Booking.com

Mid-range: Fosshotel Reykjavik  Check rates: Booking.com

Luxury: Hotel Borg  Check rates: Booking.com

Day 2: Explore The Waterfalls Along Iceland’s South Coast

Stop 1: hrunalaug hot springs.

Hrunalaug is one of the many fantastic natural hot springs in Iceland, perfect for bathing and relaxing. Everything about this spot and its surrounding nature is picturesque and ideal, however recent surges in tourism and visits to the sites by large tour buses have worn down the site to the point where the owner considered bulldozing the whole thing down. The natural hot spring was built up to accommodate humans, but it remains very small and is not designed for large groups of people.

A small little turf hut acts as a changing room. Behind the hut is a small two-person rectangular hot pot that is designed almost more like a bathtub. To the left of the changing room as you face it is a slightly larger pot, but even that only holds perhaps 8-10 people.

As a result of the limited space, early morning and late evening is the best time to visit the natural hot spring to avoid the biggest crowds. The hot pot is also particularly popular because it is known to maintain a comfortable water temperature all year long. It is the perfect stop when spending 4 nights in Iceland!

If you’re fortunate enough to get one of the coveted spots in the hot spring, you’re in for an incredibly enjoyable experience soaking up the welcome heat of the water while gazing out at the undeniable natural beauty around you. 

We cannot express the importance of keeping this location clean, being respectful and picking up after yourself. For the most part, the changing hut and pools are clean and well maintained mostly thanks to the owner who comes by now and then to see to its upkeep. But as we mentioned, this wonderful natural hot spring is at risk of being shut down for good, so please play your part in preserving it so it can remain for future visitors to enjoy.

Stop 2: Visit The Þjóðveldisbærinn Saga-Age Farm

Have you ever wanted to learn more about how the Vikings lived? Well now is your chance at the Þjóðveldisbærinn Saga-Age farm, an impressive replica of Stöng, the excavated manor farm in Þjórsárdalur. You might find their buildings to be more charming and majestic than you had expected.

The reconstructed Settlement farm was built in honor of the 1100th anniversary of the Settlement of Iceland and opened in 1977. The idea was to provide an example of a medieval Icelandic farm, and it was thought a replica of Stöng would be the best representation of a farm from that time period.

Stöng was located dangerously close to the volcano Hekla. It is thought that the farm and the rest of the surrounding settlement was destroyed and abandoned after the 1104 Hekla eruption, however, Hekla also erupted many other times in later years, so the exact time of its final destruction and abandonment is unclear. Despite being covered in white volcanic ash, the remains of Stöng underneath were remarkably well preserved.

The farm was reconstructed with much love and care in an attempt to get every detail both on the interior and exterior exact and preserve an important piece of Icelandic history. Of course, without a full original to copy, there are aspects of the reconstructed work that had to be imagined, estimated, or pulled from story and folklore, but by all accounts, the finished result is remarkably accurate. You won’t regret immersing yourself in this fascinating piece of history when seeing Iceland in 4 days!

Stop 3: Admire One Of The Highest Waterfalls In Iceland At Haifoss

Right on the edge of the highlands in South Iceland sits Haifoss, an impressive 400-foot waterfall. It is one of the highest waterfalls in Iceland. Haifoss thunders down right next to its partner waterfall, Granni (which translates to neighbor).

Though Granni’s flow is slightly less powerful, the two waterfalls side by side are a sight to behold. Haifoss by itself eclipses most other waterfalls you’ll see in your lifetime. The two waterfalls are located in a gorge created by the Fossa River.

It is possible to hike down to the falls if you’re spending a significant amount of your day at the waterfall and its surrounding valley, but the view from the top is incredible, and easily accessible from the parking lot. From the parking lot, you can walk along the edge of the gorge taking in the waterfalls from multiple viewing points which is the perfect thing to do with 4 days in Iceland!

In the winter, Haifoss is usually inaccessible unless you are driving there in buses or jeeps designed for winter weather and icy gravel roads. Don’t attempt the drive unless you are in an appropriate vehicle. Even in summer, the gravel roads are rocky and full of potholes and require slow driving and patience.

Because of its distance from the more popular Golden Circle stops along the South Coast, and the rockiness of the road, the gorge is never crowded, and there’s always plenty of time and room to take pictures and take in the waterfalls in all their glory. If you can brave the drive to get there, the view at the end of the road is unforgettable, and you won’t regret making the drive, however bumpy.

Stop 4: Relax In The Hidden Oasis of Gjain

Gjain is a stunning valley that you won’t want to miss during your 4 days in Iceland, particularly in the summertime when the vegetation is at its peak. The valley truly comes alive with beauty. It’s full of a whole collection of small waterfalls, brilliant blue pools of water, carved out shallow caves, green growth of all kinds, flowers and birdlife.

When the weather is nice it’s the perfect place to bring a blanket and have a picnic. Because it’s a valley it feels very private and secluded giving you a welcome peace and quiet to your experience. It becomes your own little slice of paradise.

You’ll hardly ever find crowds here as it’s off the main road and not a stop that general tour buses make. The valley is beautiful at other times of year as well but it can just become harder or impossible to reach in the winter as the roads and paths turn icy.

Getting to Gjain is fairly straightforward from Haifoss. You’ll continue back down the road the way you came then turn right when you reach the fork in the road instead of heading all the way back to road No. 32.

To reach both Gjain and Haifoss it’s recommended you have a 4×4 with ground clearance because of the bumpy roads. The drive itself isn’t anything particularly spectacular as you pass through expanses of lava fields and rock, but it makes arriving at this hidden oasis even more spectacular and magical. It is a must see when visiting Iceland in 4 days!

Stop 5: Walk Behind A Thundering Waterfall At Seljalandsfoss

Seljalandsfoss, a 200-foot waterfall, is right off the Route 1 (Ring Road) on the South Coast of Iceland. There is no hiking required to see this waterfall. This is one of the most famous Waterfalls In Iceland! It is the perfect stop when spending 4 days in Iceland because there are multiple waterfalls nearby!

It is just a short walk from the parking lot, and it can even be seen from farther away as you drive up to it along the Ring Road. Though Iceland is graced with an endless display of stunning waterfalls, Seljalandsfoss’s unique quality is that it is possible to walk behind the waterfall.

A path leads from the parking lot up to the front of the waterfall and then loops around the sides and back so you get a view of the waterfall from every angle. We suggest wearing raingear, as you’ll likely get wet, particularly on a windy day.

With a waterfall as powerful as Seljalandsfoss, the spray is far-reaching. It is entirely worth walking the loop though, and being that up close and personal makes you appreciate the sheer size and power of the waterfall.

Seljalandsfoss is fed by the famed glacier-capped volcano Eyjafjallajokull that erupted in 2010 disrupting air traffic across Europe. The waterfall is relatively narrow, but its power is mighty as is evident when standing behind it inside the cave in the cliff. In the summer, the cliff and ground surrounding Seljalandsfoss are a brilliant green, and everything is dotted with yellow wildflowers creating a colorfully picturesque landscape.

Though the path gets wet, particularly on the backside of the waterfall, it is a well-marked path, and easy to navigate. In the winter, when the snow turns to ice and the path gets slippery, the path is often partially closed off. This is for your own safety.

Don’t try and circumvent the restricted area. Though closures may alter your experience, it isn’t lessened.

Seljalandsfoss is beautiful even in winter. For much of the winter, everything is coated in white, and the impressive waterfall becomes part of a winter wonderland. No matter when you visit, this waterfall should top your 4 day trip to Iceland!

Stop 6: Find Seljalandsfoss’ Hidden Neighbor Gljufrabui

Gljufrabui is often overlooked as it is slightly hidden and is smaller than its towering neighbor, Seljalandsfoss. However, we suggest that anyone completing this 4 day Iceland itinerary should take some time to explore this hidden gem as well. Why not when it’s right next door!

Gljufrabui is within walking distance of Seljalandsfoss. When you finish your loop around Seljalandsfoss, head to the right (if you’re facing the parking lot), and walk until you hit the campground.

On your right will be a sign for the waterfall, and you’ll see a cavern with a river running through it. To get to the waterfall you’ll have to walk through the river, so be prepared with waterproof boots or a change of shoes.

Oftentimes the river rocks will rise out of the water just enough for you to step from rock to rock and avoid getting anything more than the soles of your boots wet. After heavy rain though, the water level rises and it becomes a bit trickier to maneuver your way into the cavern. Once inside the cavern, you’ll be greeted with a beautiful waterfall that looks as if it’s pouring through a skylight in nature’s ceiling.

The sun lights up the cavern, illuminating the green, mossy walls and highlighting the streaming, crystal clear water. There’s a giant boulder in the middle of the cavern, which is easy to climb and perfect for taking pictures.

When you’re done you’ll exit the cavern that same way you came in. Just be careful to wait your turn and make sure no one is on the rocks trying to enter the cavern at the same time.

It’s also possible to view the waterfall from above, looking down on the waterfall from the skylight opening. The pathway up the hill though is steep.

Particularly after it rains the path becomes muddy and slippery, so if you go this way, use caution. Though the waterfall is of course still beautiful when viewed from above, the best view is from inside the cavern where you’re surrounded and almost consumed by your natural surroundings.

Stop 7: Climb To The Top Of The Impressive Skogafoss Waterfall

Skogafoss is just a 25-minute drive from Seljalandsfoss and Gljufrabui. It is also visible from the road and is easily accessible from the parking lot. At 197 feet, Skogafoss is roughly the same height as Seljalandsfoss but its width is an impressive 82 feet.

This is our favorite waterfall in Iceland, and a trip hasn’t begun until we see this site! It is truly the best!

The Skoga River flows along a wide pebbled path leading right up to the waterfall. The path is flat and easy to walk. The waterfall is forceful, and you will get unrelentingly sprayed as you approach it from its base, so you’ll want to consider wearing water resistant clothing.

But the feeling of standing that close to such a powerful force of nature is incredible. You might even see a rainbow on a sunny day, adding its finishing touch on an already stunning waterfall.

After you’ve spent some time appreciating the enormity of the waterfall from its base, you can climb the steps to view the waterfall from above. There are a little over 500 stairs to the top of the waterfall. It is definitely a quadricep workout, but the view is worth it.

From the viewing platform, you can see the Skoga River which flows to the top of the waterfall before plummeting over the edge. This is a much less photographed view of Skogafoss, but it’s still remarkable.

After spending some time viewing the waterfall from above, most people head back down the staircase to the parking lot. However, there is a hiking trail that follows the Skoga River back into the valley, and it’s filled with additional waterfalls if you’re up for a long, extended day hike. Assuming you’re returning to the parking lot, you’ll turn back to face the staircase and be greeted with a beautiful, sprawling view of South Iceland below.

Stop 8: Walk To The Secluded, Picturesque Kvernufoss Waterfall

Right next door to Skogafoss is the waterfall Kvernufoss. Kvernufoss is one of South Iceland’s less frequented gems. Fewer tourists know of its existence, but it’s certainly not lacking in beauty.

To get to Kvernufoss, you’ll take the same exit off the Ring Road as you would to get to Skogafoss, but instead of following the signs to the left for Skogafoss, continue straight down Skogar to the end of the road and turn right. You’ll park near Hotel Edda and walk the rest of the way into the valley. In the summer, it takes about 10-15 minutes to reach the waterfall.

The walk is comfortable, requiring very little in the way of elevation hiking or rocky terrain. From the hotel you’ll climb a short ladder over a fence and make your way back into the valley where the path is clearly marked. You might even run into a few Icelandic horses grazing by the river.

The waterfall itself is similar in looks to its neighbor, Seljalandsfoss. You can even walk behind it too! This is one of our favorite hidden gems to visit with 4 days in Iceland as it is so close to other waterfalls!

The whole valley is beautiful. It’s green and lush in summer, and sparkling white in winter. Best of all, it’s not overcrowded with tourists at any time of year. 

Though the path is easily navigated in the summer months, in the winter, it is often covered in ice and can be dangerous. Bring crampons to stabilize your feet on the slippery ground and exercise caution. It might be best to view the waterfall from farther away.

Where to stay in/near Vík:

Affordable/Mid-range: Þ akgil Campground . Check rates: thakgil.is

Mid-range: The Garage Apartments . Check rates: Booking.com

Luxury: Hotel Kria . Check rates: Booking.com

We have an entire article about Where To Stay In Vik Iceland so if you are searching, this is the place to check out even more detailed suggestions! 

Day 3: Black Sand Beaches And Plane Wrecks

Stop 1: explore the eerie remains from the solheimasandur plane wreck.

This popular tourist destination is the result of a DC-3 US navy plane running out of fuel and crashing on Solheimasandur Beach in 1973. Fortunately everyone survived, but the body of the plane was abandoned. The white wreckage of the plane lies in sharp contrast with the black sand of the beach, and together they make for hauntingly beautiful photographs.

There is a designated parking lot for visitors to the plane wreck located right along the Ring Road just 10 minutes down the coast from Skogafoss. Though at one time you could drive right up to the plane wreck you now have to walk 2 miles from the parking lot.

The path is flat and relatively easy, but will take you roughly 45 minutes to 1 hour each way. There is very little to see besides vast expanses of rocks and black sand, and on a windy day the walk can be particularly frustrating, as you have to fight the wind resistance as well.

If there is one thing to skip on your 4 days in Iceland, this would be it, as it takes quite a bit of time to go see! It is still epic, but if you are looking to save time, this is what we suggest cutting out!

The plane doesn’t come into sight until the end of your walk. Get your camera ready, and be prepared to photograph the wreckage. There are a lot of tourists and slim windows for getting pictures without other people in them.

So bring a friend and catch up on life as you hike to this unique, beautiful wreckage stranded in the middle of the beach. If you’re willing to power through the walk, it’s worth the trip.

Recently a shuttle bus has been provided to the plane for 2500 ISK round trip or 1500 ISK one way giving you roughly an hour to explore the wreck before you head back if you choose the round trip ticket. This is a fairly new development however that is still being tested out, so don’t depend on it being a reliable mode of transportation on your trip. As we said, if you’re willing and able (and the weather isn’t too bad), walking to the wreck can actually be quite enjoyable. 

Stop 2: Climb The Basalt Columns At Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach

One of the most famous stops on your 4 days in Iceland itinerary is Reynisfjara Beach, known for its signature black sand and towering basalt columns. This beach is among Iceland’s most impressive black sand beaches, and was even featured in the TV show Game of Thrones .

There are so many incredible spots along the beach to enjoy. However you should be aware that the beach is developing a reputation for its large sleeper waves. So take your pictures, but be aware and don’t let your desire for the “perfect” photo affect your judgment.

The beach and its surrounding waters boast an impressive collection of rock formations including the cliff of basalt columns that seems to rise out of the sand. This is a prime photograph location and you’ll see many tourists climbing the uneven columns to pose for a picture.

When facing the roaring Atlantic Ocean, to the left are the Reynisdrangar rock formations. These pointy basalt pillars rise straight out of the ocean, like man-made sculptures in the water. To the right is the Dyrholaey rock formation, an arched bridge-like formation with a large hole in the bottom.

Stop 3: Mulagljufur Canyon

Mulagljufur Canyon is one of Iceland’s lesser-known canyons along the South Coast, but it is certainly a gem to see during your 4 days in Iceland! Once you reach the gravel parking area you’ll hike along a moderately difficult trail for roughly 1.5 miles to reach the canyon.

Wear sturdy, waterproof hiking boots. You will get wet crossing rivers and squelching through mud, but the views are more than worth it. Trekking to Mulagljufur is the perfect way to leave the South Coast crowds behind and marvel at the beauty that nature has created.

Though steep canyon walls and flowing rivers would be enough to draw anyone in, this canyon also offers a look at two beautiful waterfalls, Hangandifoss and Mulafoss. At 50m, Mulafoss is perhaps not the most impressive of the waterfalls you’ll experience along the South Coast, but it carries its own beauty streaming from the canyon walls.

Hangandifoss on the other hand is quite tall at 123m and paired with the imposing canyon walls, it would surely be a well-trafficked South Coast staple if it were more easily accessible and clearly marked. For now, be thankful it is neither as you’ll feel particularly special getting to appreciate the magnificence of the waterfall all on your own.

Stop 4: Fjallsarlon Glacier Lagoon

Though Fjallsarlon is smaller and less frequented than its neighbor Jokulsarlon, these are exactly the reasons that this glacier lagoon is magical. This lagoon is a must-see during your 4 days in Iceland, and if you could only pick one glacier lagoon, it should be this one!

You’ll find this gem on the south end of the Vatnajökull glacier (Europe’s biggest glacier outside of the Arctic) just 15 minutes down the road from Jokulsarlon, and yet many tourists don’t even know of its existence. You’re also unlikely to find the big tour buses here, meaning you’re free to absorb your natural surroundings in relative peace and quiet.

In the silence you can sit along the edge of the water and listen to the ice breaking and colliding as the scene slowly but constantly continues to shift. Though there’s still a lagoon separating you from the glacier, at Fjallsarlon your experience with the majestic, calving glacier is far more intimate.

Fjallsarlon is conveniently located right off the Ring Road just before you reach Jokulsarlon. Once you park you’ll have to walk a short distance to reach the edge of the water, but you’ll be face to face with sparkling icebergs in no time.

Because Fjallsarlon is smaller in size, you might find that standing on the shore and taking in the views is enough to give you a complete experience at the lagoon. If however you wish to get even closer, you can take a boat tour which will allow you to navigate through the icebergs on a small boat with a knowledgeable guide.  The actual time spent on the boat is roughly 45 minutes.

Stop 4: Watch The Floating Icebergs At Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon

Next up on your 4 days in Iceland itinerary is the Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon . This stop is so vastly different from anything else you’ll have seen along the rest of the coast. Located on the east part of the South Coast, Jokulsarlon is a stunning lagoon filled with floating icebergs.

The lagoon is ever-changing as the surrounding glacier continues to melt and new ice blocks fall. During the summer, you can take a boat tour through the lagoon and get an up close view of the icebergs.

All year long you can view the lagoon from the shore, walking along its edge to see the icebergs from varying angles. The enormous glacier looms large in the background.

Across the street is a black sand beach called Diamond Beach. It sets itself apart from other black sand beaches like Reynisfjara Beach, because the entire beach is covered in clear sparkling ice. Pieces of the icebergs floating in the glacier lagoon break off and wash ashore, scattering themselves around the beach. This is such a cool stop on your 4 day trip to Iceland!

The contrast of the black sand against the clear ice is striking and makes for some powerful photographs. The beach becomes even more fairytale-esque at sunset when the sky is painted yellow. As the day comes to a close you’ll be thrilled you continued your drive up the coast to this natural beauty. Don’t forget to check out our Ultimate Guide To Iceland’s Glacier Lagoon!

Where to stay in/near Hofn:

Affordable/Mid-range: Old Airline Guesthouse . Check rates: Booking.com

Mid-range: Glacier World-Hoffell Guesthouse . Check rates: Booking.com

Mid-range/Luxury: Dima Studio Apartments . Check rates: Booking.com

Day 4: Visit A Striking Mountain Before Driving Back To Reykjavik To End Your 4 Days In Iceland

Stop 1: marvel at the imposing vestrahorn mountain.

You’ll begin the last of your 4 days in Iceland with a trip to one of the country’s most striking mountains. Think jagged snow-capped mountains seemingly rising from the edge of the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by dunes of pitch-black sand spotted with tufts of brilliant green sea grass.

When the lupines are in bloom the scene is even more fantastic, adding various shades of purple to the mixture. It’s impressive and picturesque to say the least.

When a thin layer of water covers the beach you can see the reflection of the mountain and yourself as you appear to be walking on water. It makes for a truly stunning photograph. Be careful though as you photograph from the beach as the waves can sneak up on you if you’re not careful and they have the potential to be high and strong.

The mountain itself is called Vestrahorn or perhaps you might have heard it referred to by its nickname, Batman Mountain. You’ll find this mountain on the Stokksnes Peninsula roughly 10.5 miles east of Hofn where you’ll have spent the night the previous day. About half of that distance will be driven on the Ring Road before branching off on a gravel road.

Typing in Vestrahorn Mountain into your GPS will take you to the exact location. When you reach the Viking Café you’ll have to pay the 800 ISK entrance fee. The fee is well worth the sites you’ll see.

This is also the perfect spot to catch a dramatic sunrise or sunset as the brilliant colors light up the mountain. It’s also a great spot for Northern Lights viewing given the right weather conditions, because the sky is so dark out at the beach.

Stop 2: Walk The Edge Of the Magical Fjadrargljufur Canyon

As if you haven’t seen enough picturesque landscapes during the course of your 4 days in Iceland, the next stop on your Iceland itinerary is at the magical Fjadrargljufur Canyon. This impressive canyon was thought to be formed at the end of the last Ice Age by a glacial river that carried sediment with it ultimately creating a 100-meter deep slice through the earth. The whole canyon is lined with moss that is a vibrant green in the summer with flowers blooming in the spring and summer.

In the winter the landscape is sometimes covered in lacy snow making it a whole different kind of magical. You’ll have to be careful though and potentially bring crampons to make your way over icy patches in the winter. Even when there’s no snow and the moss is more of a brownish color, you can’t help but find beauty in the canyon anyway.

A river runs down the center and you might even spot a waterfall or two as you wander along. Walking the edge of the canyon is a breathtaking experience, but we implore you to please stay on the designated path. At various points along the designated path, you’ll find viewpoints, each with a view seemingly more beautiful than the last.

As long as the water level remains low, you also have the option of walking down to the base of the canyon along the water. If you choose this option you’ll definitely need waterproof shoes.

In 2015, Justin Bieber released the music video for his song “I’ll Show You” in which he was seen frolicking around various Iceland locations including Fjadrargljufur. This video brought a surge of attention to the small island, but not all of it was positive. The number of tourists visiting the canyon surged and many of the visitors, following in Justin Bieber’s footsteps, were not respectful of the fragile landscape of the canyon.

As a result, the vegetation and stability of the edge of the canyon were severely damaged. Eventually, the Icelandic Environment Agency closed the canyon to visitors in an attempt to reverse some of the damage, some of which will take decades to restore. It has also been closed down in the springtime when the ice and snowmelt make the path too muddy and dangerous.

For now, the canyon is again open to the public but will only continue to remain open if people respect the environment and let nature thrive. If the canyon happens to be closed during your visit, you’ll just continue the drive west back towards Keflavik to end your 4 day Iceland itinerary.

Stop 3: Visit The Blue Lagoon

To finish off your 4 days in Iceland with a bang, we’re recommending you go to the Blue Lagoon , one of Iceland’s most famous attractions/activities and a hot spot for tourists and even celebrities. Another reason why it’s crucial you pack your swimsuit for your 4 days in Iceland!

This stop is in a great area and actually on our list of Best Places To Stay In Iceland . In this post, we offer suggestions for where to stay around the Ring Road!

The Blue Lagoon is conveniently located in Grindavik, only 13.5 miles from the Keflavik International Airport, making it the perfect final stop on your Iceland itinerary before heading to catch your flight home. You’ll need to book well in advance on the Blue Lagoon website to guarantee a time slot due to a heavy increase in tourism. Despite the crowds and hefty prices, this is an experience that is definitely worthy of a visit at least once.

Contrary to popular belief, this geothermal slice of heaven is not actually a natural hot spring. Though Iceland is filled with natural hot pots, this particular lagoon is actually a man-made lagoon resulting from activity at the nearby geothermal power plant, Svartsengi.

Though that sounds less than glamorous, the water is truly wonderful, safe to enjoy and is renewed every 48 hours. In fact it might just be the most relaxing, healing experience you’ll have during your 4 days in Iceland.

Like the public swimming pool complexes you’ll be required to shower naked prior to entering the lagoon, however there are private shower stalls available. When you’re showered and ready to go, it’s time to enter the Blue Lagoon and bask in its glorious waters. It is possible to enter the lagoon from the inside and swim to the outside so you don’t have to brave the cold air walking to the water.

You should take note, that while the water is wonderful for your skin due to its mineral richness, it is terrible for your hair. It will very quickly dry out your hair so we suggest keeping it dry (and tied up if it’s long) or if you’re set on getting it wet, prepare to condition it like crazy afterwards.

We are not kidding, getting your hair wet here sucks!!! And it will take 3-4 washes to get your hair back to normal! How do we know? Because we have made that mistake before.

The temperature of the Blue Lagoon varies, but you can always find an area of the huge lagoon that’s a suitable temperature for you. It’s easy to spend hours relaxing in the water.

As tourism has expanded, so has the Blue Lagoon and all that it offers. There is a bar in the lagoon itself where you can buy drinks (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic) without having to get out of the water. They charge the amount to your wristband and you’ll pay on your way out.

There are also a number of restaurants on the property as well as additional spa experiences you can pay extra for. Though the Blue Lagoon welcomes an enormous number of tourists these days, you don’t feel cramped when in the lagoon. There’s plenty of space and the number of guests allowed in is limited.

This is definitely a pricey experience as the lowest entrance package is $55-$95 depending on the time of day you visit, and the price seems to be constantly rising as tourism increases. However there is no doubt you’re in for a wonderful time in these blue waters surrounded by natural lava and moss.

As we said before, it’s an experience we think you’ll want to have at least once in your life. And boy will you feel good on your plane ride home!

From the Blue Lagoon you’ll drive the relatively short distance to the Keflavik International Airport to catch your evening flight home. If you are not flying out until the next day, you have the option of driving back to Reykjavik to spend the night, or staying in Keflavik for a quick and easy drive to the airport in the morning.

Where to stay in Keflavik:

Affordable: A. Bernhard Guest House . Check rates: Booking.com

Mid-range: Hotel Jazz by Keflavik Airport . Check rates: Booking.com

Luxury: Hotel Berg by Keflavik Airport . Check rates: Booking.com

The Golden Circle And Why It Was Left Off Our Iceland Itinerary

If you’ve begun planning a trip to Iceland, you’ve likely heard of The Golden Circle , one of the most famous and heavily trafficked tourist routes in the country. This route includes the Thingvellir National Park, Gullfoss (the golden) Waterfall, and the Strokkur geyser with additional optional stops at places such as Kerið crater and the Secret Lagoon.

We’ve chosen to leave the Golden Circle off of our itinerary because of its heavy tourist crowds, and because there are equally if not more spectacular spots to explore throughout the rest of Iceland that are more peaceful and isolated.

That being said, the stops along the Golden Circle are still wonderful and probably exceed many other natural wonders you’ll see in your lifetime. Because of that we wanted to provide you with information on the Golden Circle and leave it up to you whether you want to include it and swap it out for other stops currently included in our Iceland itinerary. If you decide to include it, at the very least it can make for a great introduction to all that Iceland’s nature has to offer.

Thingvellir National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site where Iceland’s first parliament was formed back in 930 AD. It was conveniently accessible from all corners of the country by horse or foot. This is where the chieftains met to create and change the country’s laws.

Meetings continued to be held there until 1798. The parliament would later be moved to Reykjavik in 1844.

Thingvellir National Park is also the site of a giant rift valley, which marks the meeting of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. Between the impressive rift valley, unbelievably clear waters, and Oxararfoss waterfall, Thingvellir National Park is certainly a beautiful stop.

Your next stop will be Geyser, the geothermal hot spot. While the actual Geyser is no longer active, its neighbor, Strokkur still erupts at 5-7 minute intervals. Crowds of tourists gather around Strokkur in anticipation of its burst of water and steam shooting up into the air.

While the main attraction is the geyser, the surrounding landscape is full of pots of boiling water. As you might expect, the water would be dangerously hot to the touch, so steer clear and enjoy the natural phenomenon at a safe distance.

You’ll wrap up the three stops with Gullfoss Waterfall. In the summer months, it is common to see a rainbow arching over the waterfall, earning it the name Golden Waterfall.

Though Iceland spoils you with an abnormally large number of impressive waterfalls, Gullfoss is rightfully among the top. It’s an impressive sight at any time of year. The waterfall has both upper and lower viewing platforms, and we suggest spending some time at both.

Where to stay along the Golden Circle:

Affordable: Selfoss Hostel . Check rates: Booking.com

Mid-range: Icelandair Hotel Fludir . Check rates: Booking.com

Luxury: Ion Adventure Hotel . Check rates: Booking.com

We’re thrilled you’ve chosen to spend 4 days in Iceland, the enchanting land of fire and ice. We have no doubt you’ll leave Iceland with an abundance of unforgettable experiences and more fantastic pictures than you can count. We hope you find this Iceland itinerary to be helpful as you plan your trip, and encourage you to comment below with any questions or stories you might have of your own Iceland adventures.

Reader Interactions

June 6, 2021 at 10:06 pm

This 4 day drive trip looks amazing!!!!! I did your GOT in Ireland and that was amazing a couple of years ago. so driving this 4 day adventure works for me. Thank you you guys are awesome with . Going the end of June 2021.

June 7, 2021 at 4:05 am

OMG!!!!!! REALLY!!! That is so amazing to hear! The GOT trip is sooooo fun I am glad you loved it! Enjoy! You won’t regret this itinerary!

June 27, 2021 at 4:51 am

Hi, I stumbled onto your site and finds it very informative and very useful. Thank you! I assumed this 4 days itinerary is more suited for the summer months. If it’s winter months (late Nov/early Dec), which places of interests would you drop due to shorter day light hours?

Given a choice, which waterfall (Seljalandsfoss vs Skogass) is preferred?

June 28, 2021 at 3:23 am

Hello! So this itinerary can be done pretty much all year round!! The only trouble may be hiking to the hot spring river which is difficult in winter. The two waterfalls are within 15 min drive of each other so you don’t have to choose just one! you can EASILY do both!!!!

August 24, 2021 at 11:08 pm

Hello, thank you for providing such useful guides on Iceland. We’re headed there for 10 days next month and was thinking of doubling the time in this itinerary. Do you think it’s overkill or should we spend time elsewhere?

I’m worried that 10 days on the full ring road would be too rushed

August 27, 2021 at 8:24 pm

Hello! you could EASILY double the time of this itinerary! We stay near Skogafoss area for 4 days on our trips! And then an additional 2+ in glacier lagoon area! You can easily double it! If you wanted, you can add a trip to Westman Islands which is nearby and easily doable in 10 days OR you can ‎Visit Snaefellsnes Peninsula for a day or two which is still nearby! I totally approve doing this over 10 days!

February 14, 2022 at 11:12 pm

Hi planning for end of June early July for a 4 day trip as our day 1 we arrived late evening so definitely not counted. We would still like to do the golden circle though, do we do this at the start after Reykjavik? Thank you your itinerary is amazing .

February 15, 2022 at 7:14 pm

Hello!!!! so YES! You do this at the start after Reykjavik! That is my suggestion!!! Do that part on your first day when you get started and then continue with this itinerary! Cut out parts you don’t have time for!

May 16, 2022 at 2:16 pm

HI – great site and most informative. For the four day itinerary, did/would you overnight in one or two spots and do day trips. Or spend three/four nights in different places. I have three clear days after arriving and a half day before leaving. Thoughts?

May 30, 2022 at 7:50 pm

I would overnight in the Vik/south coast region!! Thank you!

June 3, 2022 at 2:50 am

We’ve never been to Iceland, so we are totally lost! Find this itinerary and it is so complete, we feel like just doing it! Only question, is how does this vary from the Golden Circle. Would you recommend this itinerary or the Golden Circle? What important stops would we miss if we do this versus the Golden Circle?

June 4, 2022 at 8:47 pm

Personally i do not like or suggest the golden circle, i highly suggest this much more! golden circle is alright, but very touristy, a lot of driving, and this just generally has more epic sites! you won’t regret skipping it, i promise!

June 2, 2023 at 8:59 pm

Hello! I would love to do this itinerary for January to celebrate my 50th birthday. I have been looking through the flights. If I leave late from Houston, I arrive early morning, but I do not know to what city I should come. Which would you suggest, and since it is winter which stops should I do? I most definitely want to see the Northern lights! But also like all the scenery you have suggested. I did notice your post was in 2021. Is it still this amazing?

June 3, 2023 at 1:55 pm

Hello! Yes this is still amazing! I have done this route twice in 2022, once including in winter! I think you should fly into Keflavik Airport which is the closest one to Reykjavik. And then you can do this itinerary or some version of it in winter! Most of these stops are doable in winter!

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Ice Cave Adventure Tour With Glacier Hike

Tour description.

The tour departs from the beautiful Jökulsárlón (Glacier Lagoon), from there we will drive towards the glacier on a super jeep, which usually takes about 30 minutes each way.

We will go through all the equipment that we need to use, and most of the time, we need to hike on the glacier part of the way. Therefore, it is important to have the proper gear. Glacier Trips provides all the safety gear like crampons, helmets, harnesses, and ice picks. We start by visiting a beautiful blue ice cave. We will have plenty of time to photograph and explore the ice cave and enjoy the magnificent shapes in the ice cave.

After we take our time with the cave, we will head on to explore the glacier a bit more, where we will take a hike in the beautiful glacier landscape with all the wild and unspoiled nature. We take our sweet time on the hike, giving everybody time to enjoy and capture the moment.

Difficulty Moderate / Hard for some – Accessible to all those in good health.

Important Good clothes, hats, gloves and hiking shoes are very important!

Gear Provided Crampons, helmets, harnesses, and other safety gear if needed.

Ice Cave – Adventures Dream booking info availability October – April

Departures All Days 10:30 Private tour contact [email protected]

Group Size Maximum 8 persons

Duration Depends on Conditions 5 – 5.5 Hours

Meeting point Jokulsarlon (glacier lagoon / ice lagoon)

Note: Natural Ice caves in Iceland are very popular, many people travel from all parts of the world want to come and see this magnificent phenomenon so we might not be the only ones in the cave, but we do try to organize the tour in a way that you will get the most out of it.

Meeting point Latitude: 64.048399 | Longitude: -16.179443 Jökulsárlón (Parking Area) [email protected] +354 – 7792919 Note: Be at least 30 minutes before departure

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• May 1, 2024

Tips for taking a dream vacation to Iceland

ABC News' Ashan Singh joins us from the Seljalandsfoss waterfall and shares ways you can take this bucket list trip without breaking the bank.

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Northern Lights tourism in Iceland: You can seek, but you may not find

Amelia Nierenberg

ICELAND – From the outside, it may seem like the Northern Lights dance across Iceland’s skies each night. On Icelandair ads, planes fly across shimmering curtains in the sky. On social media, travellers gaze at the green bands above them. The lights are even on some recycling bins in Reykjavík, the capital: “Keep Iceland Clean”.

In the past decade or so, an aurora borealis industrial complex has boomed in Iceland. Many rent a car and go out on their own, but there are Northern Lights big bus tours and Northern Lights minibus tours and Northern Lights Super Jeep tours. There are private guides and boat cruises. There is an observatory base camp. There is even a museum.

But the lights can be elusive.

“Tourists sometimes expect, like, ‘At what time do you turn them on?’” says Mr Bjorn Saevar Einarsson, a forecaster at the country’s meteorological office, chuckling. “Like we have a switch in the back room.”

In 2024, the letdowns have been especially intense.

The Northern Lights, which are also called the aurora borealis, are most visible when there are solar flares, which are big eruptions on the sun that send charged particles towards earth. This year, the sun is approaching the peak of its 11-year cycle of activity, which some assume means that the displays could peak too.

But the enhanced solar activity does not necessarily mean the northern lights will be brighter or more frequent, scientists wearily explain. Instead, they mostly mean that the lights can be seen farther south than usual. In recent months, they have been visible in Arizona and Missouri in the United States, and southern England.

That does not mean much for Iceland.

In fact, Icelanders and scientists said, this winter is nothing special. Sometimes, the lights are there. Sometimes, they are not. Just like always.

Hunting the lights

But nothing special, with the Northern Lights, is still very special. And so tourists keep coming.

In February, I joined the fray. For four nights, I looked for telltale sky shimmers in and around Reykjavík.

I booked my tickets riding high – this was the best year yet, right?

But as I learnt more, and as my flight neared, my hopes ebbed. Scientists and tour leaders gently told me that the skies were cloudy and the solar activity seemed quiet.

“Just to let you know the forecast doesn’t look too good,” Ms Inga Dis Richter, chief commercial officer at Icelandia, a tourism agency, wrote in an e-mail two days before I planned to take a minibus trip with Reykjavik Excursions, one of its tour operators.

“But,” she added, “this can change.”

To find the lights, guides and travellers often rely on aurora forecasts, which overlay cloud cover and solar activity. They check them constantly, like a bride with an outdoor wedding in mid-April.

Some of the forecasts are free, like the aurora forecast run by Iceland’s meteorological office or Iceland at Night, which includes space weather. Some are not – Aurora Forecast, which costs US$12.99 (S$18) a year, sends alerts. Many people also turn to Facebook pages, where enthusiasts hungrily swop sightings.

Luck, though, is everything.

“There’s only one thing less predictable with the Northern Lights, and that’s the Arctic weather,” said Mr John Mason, a global expert on the lights. “An aurora forecast is barely worth the paper that it’s written on.”

The guides work hard to explain the science, and set expectations. Most companies offer a free rebooking option if the lights do not show up.

On my first night of aurora stalking, despite Ms Richter’s warnings, I joined an expectant group on the Reykjavík Excursions minibus. For US$88, I got a seat on the 19-person bus, which left the city’s central bus station at 9.30pm.

Over the next three to four hours, we would drive through the Icelandic night together. I would either see something astonishing with these strangers – the sky, banded with light – or shiver with them shoulder to shoulder, awkward in the cold.

As we pulled onto the road, Mr Gudjon Gunnarsson, the guide, set the mood early. “We are going hunting for the lights,” he said, emphasising the word “hunting”. “It’s similar to going out fishing in a lake.”

He drove for about 45 minutes, letting Reykjavík’s glow fade behind us. The city has about 140,000 people, and no real skyscrapers, so there is limited light pollution. Although the Northern Lights can appear over the city, it is best to see them in total darkness.

Then he paused and consulted with another guide.

“It is too cloudy here,” he told his flock. “So we will keep driving.”

But as we kept driving, clouds turned to a dense fog, so thick that the moon all but disappeared.

Mr Gunnarsson turned off the main highway about an hour after we left Reykjavík. He parked in a parking lot. Or maybe it was a side street? The darkness was so deep that I could make out only the moonlight on the ocean, and only then after my eyes adjusted.

We disembarked and stood dutifully beside him, staring up at the sky. Then, one woman pointed towards Reykjavík. Were those the lights? No. That was light pollution.

Mr Christof Reinhard, 65, who owns a medical laser company and was visiting with his family from Paris, mused that our search was a little bit like a safari. Sure, the desert is amazing, but it is much better with lions. Or, maybe, was this more like a whale watch?

“Instead of a boat,” he said, “you have a bus.”

Mr Gunnarsson watched the group stomp their feet and bend into the wind. Fifteen minutes. Then, half an hour. The clouds hung thick above. “There’s nothing happening here, as you can see,” he finally said to relieved chuckles. “It’s one of those nights where you just have to give up.”

Tourists can get mad, Mr Gunnarsson and other guides said. It is rare, but it does happen.

“It’s the trip that has our worst reviews,” said Mr Eric Larimer, digital marketing manager for Gray Line Iceland, a day tour and airport transport company.

A wake-up call for the aurora

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hotel Rangá (@hotelranga)

For some, the joy is in the search, even if there is no find. A few focus on astronomy, often opting to stay at Hotel Ranga, which is just off the main ring road (Route 1) near Iceland’s south coast.

The hotel looks unassuming – low-slung and wooden – but it’s one of the most famous in Iceland. A standard room costs more than US$300, depending on the season.

But Hotel Ranga does not just cater to celebrities. It also draws astronomy buffs, enticed by its “aurora wake-up call” service and its observatory, which has state-of-the-art telescopes.

“One thing is to sell them,” said Mr Fridrik Palsson, the hotel’s owner, speaking of the Northern Lights. “Another thing is to deliver them.”

About 20 years ago, before the Northern Lights industry took off, he delegated the night security guard to monitor the sky. The guard pokes his head out every few minutes to look for the telltale flicker. If he sees the lights, he alerts the guests.

The service aims to address one of the main issues with hunting for the lights: They are usually visible only on winter nights, when it is very cold, very windy and very late.

“To be a good Northern Lights observer, you need the constitution of an insomniac polar bear,” Mr Mason said.

My room phone, alas, stayed silent. But I did dream about the lights – great Wonka colours swirling, strangely, behind the Chrysler Building.

Mr Palsson built the observatory, too. Even if the lights did not show up, he figured, the stars are still magnificent – and, for city dwellers, also rare.

The hotel contracts astronomers to work the telescopes and explain the stars to guests. On my second night in Iceland, as twilight slipped below happy-hour skies, I crunched across the snow to the observatory with Mr Saevar Helgi Bragason, an Icelandic science communicator who leads the astronomy programme.

He bent into a toddler-sized telescope, focusing it on the moon’s craters. They looked clearer than the hotel, just a short walk away. It was too early for the lights, he said. And that evening seemed too cloudy (on earth) and too quiet (on the sun).

Bragason joked that the lights can get in his way. They create a mist over the stars he really wants to see. But tourists often come specifically to see them. And sometimes, he said, as they wait impatiently, they can miss the real wonder.

“You’re left with these beautiful skies above you,” he said. “Basically, literally, another universe opens up.”

Creating a lights season

Hotel Ranga was a pioneer in Iceland’s Northern Lights tourism industry. About two decades ago, people came to Iceland for the long summer days, and left as daylight slipped farther south.

“I found it rather stupid in the beginning,” admitted Mr Palsson, speaking of Northern Lights tourism.

But spreading tourism throughout the year made sense. Partly, that was an environmental concern. The tourists would crowd the country’s extraordinary natural sites over just a few months. It was also economic. When the visitors left Iceland, tourism jobs would ebb with the sunlight.

So the Northern Lights, which are reliably visible from September to March, became the backbone of the country’s winter branding, said Mr Sveinn Birkir Bjornsson, marketing and communications director at Business Iceland, which promotes the country.

“To be able to sell this product of cold and darkness, you have to have something to offer,” he said.

Now, even though June, July and August are the busiest months, tourism has evened out over the seasons. In 2023, there were about 1.1 million international visitors to Iceland during the aurora months, based on departures from Keflavík Airport, according to data from Iceland’s tourist board. From April to August, there were about 1.1 million too.

About a decade earlier, when overall tourism to Iceland was lower, there were about 336,000 departures from the main airport in the colder months, and about 446,000 in the spring and summer.

The winter travellers are drawn by the lights – and the hot springs, glaciers and icy waterfalls. It is also cheaper than the summer season.

Some try to visit volcanoes, but the country recently warned tourists to avoid the lava flows – Iceland is living in an unusually active period of seismic activity. In January, lava flowed into a small town, and last week, a volcano erupted with just 40 minutes’ notice near the Blue Lagoon thermal springs, one of the country’s biggest attractions.

The final attempts

Near midnight on my last night, a Sunday, I drove to the Grotta Lighthouse, a popular spot on the outskirts of Reykjavík.

A few die-hard experts had warned me – many tourists go there because it is darker than most of Reykjavík, but then do not think to turn off their headlights. It was also raining, greatly diminishing my chances of seeing the lights.

But I only had three hours before I had to leave to make my predawn flight. I felt a little desperate, a little dazed. I parked and approached two people who were sitting in the rain on a wet wall, looking at the water in the darkness. I climbed over seaweed, and introduced myself. What would it mean to them, I asked, if the lights suddenly appeared?

“It’d be a little bit like the cherry on top,” said Ms Catherine Norburn, 29, who was visiting from England.

She and her husband were set to fly out the next morning. They had not yet seen the lights.

“We don’t have high hopes,” said her husband, Mr Reece Norburn, 29, “but it’s now or never.”

We did not see the lights. And I did not see them later, even after pulling off the highway halfway between Reykjavík and the airport at 3.30am, half convinced by a shimmery cloud.

But I did spend more time looking up at the sky. And it is a marvel.

In New York City, where I live, the night sky blooms orange-mauve. In Iceland, the nighttime darkness is just that – darkness. Clouds roll, breaking the deep blue. Stars actually shine. Northern Lights or no Northern Lights, it was still cosmically beautiful. NYTIMES

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Vote for your favorite adventure tour operator!

USA TODAY 10Best Readers' Choice Awards

These 20 adventure tour operators — nominated by an expert panel — cater to travelers who crave excitement, challenge, and fun in their vacations. Whether you're looking for an individualized journey or group tour, they'll have something for you, with activities ranging from hiking and biking to rafting and kayaking. Which adventure tour operator would you most like to book with? Vote for your favorite once per day until polls close on Monday, May 27 at noon ET. The 10 winning tour operators will be announced on Wednesday, June 5. Read the official  Readers' Choice rules . 

These 20 adventure tour operators — nominated by an expert panel — cater to travelers who crave excitement, challenge, and fun in their vacations. Whether you're looking for an individualized journey or group tour,...   Read More

Best Adventure Tour Operator Nominees

Photo courtesy of Todd Mintz

Adventure Canada

Equipped with a fleet of small-scale cruise liners, Adventure Canada has mastered the art of both Arctic and Antarctic excursions. Across Canada, the Northwest Passage voyage highlights the idyllic beauty of Nunavut, while those hoping to spot polar bears in the wild should spring for a Heart of the Arctic expedition, with both featuring highly educated naturalists and archaeologists aboard the ship.

Photo courtesy of Tyson Mayr

Aurora Expeditions

A pioneer of Antarctic travel in the 20th century, Aurora Expeditions has evolved into a force within the industry that offers trips all across the globe. Polar voyages are particularly popular, with options ranging from the shores of Antarctica to the High Arctic, while other cruise routes include Costa Rica, Scotland, and Iceland.

Photo courtesy of Bindlestiff Tours

Bindlestiff Tours

Bindlestiff Tours specializes in small group adventures with a focus on the American Southwest, Alaska, and western Canada. Guests enjoy fully customized touring vehicles with enlarged viewing windows, free Wi-Fi at most campsites, and the myriad benefits of insider expertise, like the best spots to photograph a sunset or favorite local restaurants.

Photo courtesy of Kirstie Mullikin

Explorer Chick Adventure Co.

From snorkeling around the Galapagos to gorilla trekking in Uganda, Explorer Chick’s curated tours span five separate continents — and each one is crafted specifically by women, for women. Founded in 2014 by Nicki Bruckmann, this adventure company provides ample opportunity to explore gorgeous landscapes and forge new friendships all across the globe.

Photo courtesy of GomezDavid / E+ Getty Images

Frontiers North Adventures

While northern Canada may not be the most easily accessed region, Frontiers North Adventures is perfectly equipped for making your dream excursion come true. In addition to polar bear safaris and beluga whale watching, the company's Northern Lights and Winter Nights excursion offers an opportunity to catch one of the planet's most stunning natural phenomena in real life.

Photo courtesy of G Adventures, Inc.

G Adventures

Launched in 1990, G Adventures has earned acclaim for their wide array of high-end tours and strong commitment to positive social impact. Whether it's hiking in Iceland or biking in Vietnam, each trip is designed to reflect the company's G for Good philosophy, a concept that seeks to benefit all people and communities visited during a trip.

Photo courtesy of HX & Espen Mills

HX (Hurtigruten Expeditions)

HX (Hurtigruten Expeditions) has earned widespread acclaim for their lavish cruises, with destinations ranging from the frigid depths of Antarctica to the sunny shores of the Caribbean. For wildlife lovers in particular, the company's Galapagos expeditions shine a spotlight on the rich biodiversity of the archipelago, while a Svalbard voyage is perfect for spotting polar bears in their natural habitat.

Photo courtesy of Intrepid Travel

Intrepid Travel

Toronto-based Intrepid is a treasure trove for small-scale sustainable tours, with more than 100 countries available to visit. With itineraries like lemur-spotting in the rural depths of Madagascar and cultural immersions across the Middle East, this storied adventure company is perfect for accessing some of the most remote corners of the globe.

Photo courtesy of Journeys International

Journeys International

Journeys International builds private and group trips to a variety of worldwide destinations, centering each adventure around the individual's or groups' travel goals. Each party is assigned an adventure specialist who makes personalized choices of locations and activities to include in the experience. All journeys are designed to give every person involved a special and unique trip of a lifetime.

Photo courtesy of Ralph Lee Hopkins, Lindblad Expeditions

Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic

New Zealand, French Polynesia, and Greenland are just a few of the dazzling destinations frequented by Lindblad Expeditions, a storied tour operator that's been working in tandem with National Geographic since 2004. While warm weather destinations span from Baja California to the Amazon, the company has earned abundant acclaim for their immersive Antarctic expeditions focusing on native wildlife amidst stunning scenery.

Photo courtesy of KenCanning / E+ Getty Images

Maple Leaf Adventures

The spectacular beauty of Canada is on full display with Maple Leaf Adventures, a small-ship cruise operator that's been in the business since 1986. While the bulk of their itineraries focus on showcasing locations across western Canada, gastronomes can also join in on the fun with a curated Craft Beer Cruise or Wines And Islands excursion across British Columbia.

Photo courtesy of Karin Watkins MT Sobek Photo File

MT Sobek has been a leader in the adventure travel industry for more than half a century. Today, travelers can choose from some 200 journeys around the world. Each one is designed to inspire and exhilarate, with interest categories like multi-adventure, family adventure, wildlife and safari, adventure cruising, hiking and trekking, cultural discovery, and rafting and kayaking.

Photo courtesy of Nantahala Outdoor Center

Nantahala Outdoor Center

Beginning as a small-scale rafting tour company back in 1972, Nantahala Outdoor Center has expanded far beyond just the rivers of North Carolina, operating tours from southern Iceland to the Zambezi River. Though their scope has expanded on an international scale, the company still excels at domestic adventure, showcasing the incredible rafting opportunities across the Southern United States.

Photo courtesy of REI Co-op / REI Adventures

Adventure travelers have long turned to REI to outfit their travels; with REI Adventures, they’ll also find more than 100 fully curated experiences across the United States. These active travel itineraries might involve cycling near Zion National Park, hiking through Yellowstone and Grand Teton, kayaking at Point Reyes, or enjoying a weekend of backpacking close to home.

Photo courtesy of Stubborn Mule Travel

Stubborn Mule Travel

A perfect fit for all ages, Stubborn Mule Travel has curated a wide variety of itineraries designed specifically for traveling families. Destinations span across five continents, and as an added bonus, the company also offers unique itinerary stops based off of the interests of each individual guest.

Photo courtesy of 104kelly // Getty Images

Thomson Safaris

Best known as the home of Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania has earned worldwide acclaim for its abundant natural beauty — a quality that Thomson Safaris has been highlighting for more than 40 years. While there’s no going wrong with a classic safari, the company also offers food-focused tours and even plane excursions, each one led by a team of expert local guides.

Photo courtesy of Urban Events Global Team

Urban Events Global

Kevin Knight founded Urban Events Global as a travel company for African American adventure seekers looking to explore with like-minded travelers. The company hosts regular camping weekends, as well as group tours to destinations like Ghana, Dubai, Greece, and Jamaica. They can also plan a custom trip itinerary for you.

Photo courtesy of Ren Fuller // Women High On Adventure

WHOA Travel

WHOA Travel works with women guides and business owners to build unique travel experiences. WHOA group adventures are scheduled all over the world, from Kilimanjaro and Peru to Iceland and Bavaria. 

Photo courtesy of Wild Women Expeditions

Wild Women Expeditions

Wild Women Expeditions specializes in “amazing outdoor adventures for all women.” The company leads trips to more than two dozen countries around the globe, with activities like canoeing, kayaking, cycling, hiking, surfing, sailing, and yoga.

Photo courtesy of Beth Peluse / Zephyr Adventures

Zephyr Adventures

Equipped with a roster of trips that span from strenuous mountain hikes to e-biking excursions, Zephyr Adventures offers a diverse range of options for your next getaway. For a glimpse into the beauty of coastal New England, the Acadia National Park Hiking Adventure is a top choice, while those who prefer a more laid-back itinerary can spring for the Czech Republic Breweries and Walking Adventure.

About 10Best Readers' Choice Awards

Nominees are submitted by a panel of experts. 10Best editors narrow the field to select the final set of nominees for the Readers’ Choice Awards. Readers can vote once per category, per day. For any questions or comments, please read the FAQ or email USA TODAY 10Best .

The Experts

Brandon withrow.

Brandon Withrow is a travel journalist based in...   Read More

Brandon Withrow is a travel journalist based in Northwest Ohio, covering ecotourism, wildlife, outdoor adventures, and eco-friendly stays, as well as the secrets of underrated cities. He appears in The Daily Beast, BBC Travel, Canadian Geographic, Business Insider, The Hill, and Sierra Magazine. You can find him at  www.brandonwithrow.com ,  @bwithrow  on Twitter, and  @bgwithrow  on Instagram.

Chez Chesak

‘Chez’ Chesak is Executive Director of the Outdoor...   Read More

‘Chez’ Chesak is Executive Director of the Outdoor Writers Association of America, an adventure travel writer, board member of the Society of American Travel Writers and 22-year veteran of the outdoor and travel industries. While he’s lived all over the U.S. and traveled to more than 30 countries, he has the most fun when he’s exploring with his wife Sally and two daughters. An avid outdoors person, he’s happiest on a trail, on skis, or nestled into a sleeping bag. Learn more about him and his work at www.chezconnects.com .  

Dave Stamboulis

Dave Stamboulis is a travel writer/photographer...   Read More

Dave Stamboulis is a travel writer/photographer based in Bangkok. Born in Athens, Greece and growing up in the U.S., Dave first discovered Bangkok while on a 45,000-kilometer bicycle trip and moved there for good in 2005. Dave's photos appear in publications around the world. He's the author of Odysseus' Last Stand , which received the Silver Medal for Travel Book of the Year from the Society of American Travel Writers. In addition to updating the Fodor's Guidebook to Thailand, he is the author of 500 Hidden Secrets to Bangkok, and his travel stories and photography appear in publications around the globe. 

Jacky Runice

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Born in Bucktown when bulletproof was a home safety choice and not a coffee order, Jacky Runice has been knocking around Chicago as a professional print, online and broadcast journalist and editor specializing in separating the riff from the raff in culture, entertainment, food, travel and pure unadulterated fun. Jacky is a member of the International Food, Wine & Travel Writers Association (IFWTWA). In her best Chicagoese, Jacky asks, "Who has the time or money to blow on hotels, attractions, restaurants, exhibits and activities that blow?"

Jamie Davis Smith

Jamie is an attorney, writer and photographer. She...   Read More

Jamie is an attorney, writer and photographer. She was born with deeply ingrained wanderlust and has visited 45 countries and counting. She often brings her children along for the adventure and is passing her love of travel on to the next generation. Jamie has written for   Insider,   Fodor's Travel ,   Yahoo ,  the Huffington Post , the  Washington Post,   Viator  and  Reviewed  among many other publications. Jamie is from Philadelphia and now lives in Washington, DC, where she takes advantage of everything the region has to offer.    Jamie can be reached at  [email protected]  and can be found on  Twitter ,  Instagram  and  TikTok .

Marla Cimini

Marla is an award-winning writer with a passion...   Read More

Marla is an award-winning writer with a passion for travel, music, surfing and culinary adventures! An avid globetrotter and guidebook writer, she has covered topics such as the Hawaiian islands (including food trends and luxury beachfront resorts), as well as European getaways and global destinations. Her articles have appeared in many publications worldwide, including USA Today. Marla lives in New Jersey (Philadelphia area) and is a frequent visitor to Hawaii and Southern California, and often covers those destinations. Her travel website is:  www.marlacimini.com  

Meg St-Esprit

Meg St-Esprit is a journalist based in Pittsburgh...   Read More

Meg St-Esprit is a journalist based in Pittsburgh who covers family travel, lifestyle, education, and parenting. With their four kids in tow, she and her husband love to travel anywhere and everywhere — but have a soft spot for camping and outdoor adventures. In fact, her kids are well on their way to achieving their goal of visiting all 124 state parks in Pennsylvania. Meg believes travel doesn’t need to be luxurious or costly to be valuable, and aims to share that with her audience. Meg’s work has appeared in publications such as  The New York Times, Thrillist, The Washington Post, Fodor’s, Yahoo, Good Housekeeping, Romper , and more. Follow Meg on Instagram and Twitter at @megstesprit or check out her work on  https://megstesprit.com/

Melanie Reffes

Melanie is an island girl at heart . Born in...   Read More

Melanie is an island girl at heart . Born in Manhattan, she now lives on the sunny island of Montreal and covers  the Caribbean for a variety of publications  including  USA TODAY 10Best, CaribbeanTravel.com and MarryCaribbean.com.  A journalist with a boatload of writer awards under her belt, Melanie's affection for the Caribbean started  young when her family vacationed in Puerto Rico.   An avid fan of spicy food,   Melanie enjoys the diversity of Montreal - especially during the warmer months -when she's not en route to the Caribbean. She  holds a Masters Degree in Social Work from the University of Toronto. 

Nicky Omohundro

Nicky Omohundro is the founder and editor of Read More

Nicky Omohundro is the founder and editor of LittleFamilyAdventure.com , the popular family travel & lifestyle website that inspires families to leave no child left inside. Since 2013 LFA has been providing inspiration to get families outdoors, eat well, and travel everywhere from their own backyard to around the world. Always up for a family adventure, she has traveled to 37 states and 6 countries to zip-line through a Costa Rican rainforest, see Finland’s Northern Lights, and go camping throughout the US. Nicky is the co-founder of Tourism WorX a travel consultancy group. Connect with her Twitter  and Instagram .

Olivia Christine Perez

Olivia Christine Perez is an outdoor + travel...   Read More

Olivia Christine Perez is an outdoor + travel wellness expert, author, and the creator of  O. Christine : a travel and wellness platform inspiring thousands of people to travel more and get outdoors for their wellness. Living with an autoimmune disease herself, Olivia helps people find wellness through the outdoors, self-care adventures, and mindful travel experiences. You can follow her work at  ochristine.com  and  instagram.com/ochristine.

Shea Peters

Shea Peters is a NYC based writer and frequent...   Read More

Shea Peters is a NYC based writer and frequent world traveler that looks to the history of a location in order to tell the story. Growing up in a Southern family that loves to travel, Shea has seen 44 of the 50 US states and believes that every place has a story worth telling, regardless of how populated or rural. She's currently a regular contributor discussing travel, culture, history, food, wellness, and business at Travel + Leisure, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Oprah Daily, Women’s Health, TripAdvisor, Cosmo, and Revolt TV. When she's not traveling, rooting for some unlikable sports team, or taking a pilates class, you can find Shea in her rooftop garden that is currently flourishing above the streets of New York City. You can follow Shea on  Instagram  and  Twitter .

Tamara Gane

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Tamara Gane is an expert panel member for 10Best Readers' Choice Awards. She's based in Reno/Lake Tahoe and in addition to USA Today 10Best, her work has been published in Travel & Leisure, Fodor's Travel, The Washington Post, SF Gate, Houston Chronicle, Lonely Planet, and more.

10Best Editors

USA TODAY 10Best provides users with original,...   Read More

USA TODAY 10Best provides users with original, unbiased and experiential travel coverage of top attractions, things to see and do, and restaurants for top destinations in the U.S. and around the world.

More From Forbes

Falcon’s club: a private members club that pays for your experiences.

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Many affluent travelers seeking unique, intimate, local experiences while globetrotting will consult a specialist travel agent to arrange a custom itinerary off the beaten track. But sometimes, this can lead to travel agents promoting partners that provide hefty commissions rather than the most unique experience.

Here enters Falcon’s Club —an invitation-only luxury travel members club that receives 0% commissions from its partners and connects its members to some of the best local travel experts on the planet.

Falcon’s Club was built on the legacy of Founder Alex De Valkeneer’s grandfather, Willy De Valkeneer, a pharmacist and avid globetrotter who also used to advise his patients on how to get more unique experiences from their travels.

Willy De Valkeneer

“He always stayed at boutique hotels, where he’d meet the owners personally. When he went to France, rather than the most famous vineyard, he’d go to a local vineyard, meet the owners, have dinner with them, and have a private tasting,” says Alex De Valkeneer.

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“People always used to say that when Willy goes on vacation, he always gets those unique experiences that no one else does, and that’s what inspired Falcon’s Club.

We always say our experiences deliver deeper cultural connection and a strong sense of place because it’s with the local people,” adds Alex.

From MacLean & Bruce whisky tours of Scotland led by the ancestors of one of the lost kings of Scotland, where you’ll join whisky tastings in ancient distilleries with Charles Maclean MBE, dubbed ‘the whisky nose of Scotland’ to African Horse Safaris in Kenya, Falcon’s Club offers total destination immersion.

Trump Turnberry, Scotland

Once you become a member of Falcon’s Club, you’ll get access to their private platform and be asked to fill in your Falcon’s Club Passport.

This includes details like your age, location, who you’re traveling with — if you’re a couple or a family, if you have a dog (even the name and breed of the dog), how many trips you usually take per year, which destinations you’re interested in visiting from Iceland to Oman, whether you’re looking for city breaks, ski trips, spa holidays, cruises or golf breaks.

If you like to travel by car, plane, train, or boat, your annual budget for travel, whether you’re interested in staying in an apartment, villa, cottage, chalet, penthouse, or even castle, and what kind of experiences you’re interested in.

This can range from hot air ballooning to dog sledding, paragliding, dog afternoon tea, private dinners with Michelin-starred chefs, and visits to castles, operas, and ancient temples.

Camels in Wadi Rum

Based on those data points, Falcon’s Club can customize and personalize the private platform to suit your interests and provide personalized 24/7 travel advice.

When you explore different itineraries on the platform, you’ll see the local travel experts that Falcon’s Club works with, familiar with the nuances of their regions. A contact form will then appear so you can get in touch with the experts directly — bypassing the travel agent, planning fees, and commission-focused recommendations.

“Our travel experts get to know our members very well.

They know how they want to be addressed and with whom they are traveling. If it’s their first time in Scotland let’s say, do they have experience with Scotch whisky? Do they like a malt Scotch whisky or a smoked one?” says Alex.

“They know a lot of information so that they can make a really bespoke itinerary,” adds Alex.

Unlike travel agents, Falcon’s Club takes a 0% commission from its experience partners. Instead, this commission is used to offer extra complimentary experiences to its members.

If you have a city trip to New York, you’ll get complimentary helicopter flights.

When you visit Rome, you will go to Vatican City for a private tour after hours, exploring the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica without the crowds— alongside Falcon’s Club’s ‘Standard Benefits’ such as room upgrades, early check-in, late checkout, and welcome amenities.

“Falcon’s Club is more than a travel service; it’s an elite community of like-minded individuals who seek the extraordinary. It’s a lifestyle choice for those who demand the best and accept nothing less. Our members don’t just see the world; they experience it in ways that most can only dream of,” says Alex.

“As a Falcon’s Club member, you’re not just a traveler but an explorer with VIP access to the world’s most unique experiences: private after-hours tours of world-renowned museums, helicopter tours landing on skyscrapers, and underwater dining in the Maldives are just the beginning,” concludes Alex.

To become a Falcon’s Club member, visit here .

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Imperial : Private airport transfer / Check-in at the luxurious Four Seasons Moscow***** only a minute from the Kremlin and Red Square

Volga dream experience:

Gold: City Tour / Novodevichy Cemetery Imperial, Platinum:  City tour / Lunch in a Moscow City Skyscraper / Novodevichy Cemetery / Sparrow Hills

Meals: Breakfast

Platinum / Imperial

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Gold:  Moscow Kremlin / Armory Museum / Red Square / GUM Department Store

Platinum:  Moscow Kremlin / Armory Museum / Red Square / St. Basil’s Cathedral / GUM Department Store / Park Zaryadye

Gold:  Tretyakov Gallery / Moscow Metro Tour.

Platinum:  Leo Tolstoy House-Museum in Hamovniki / Tretyakov Gallery / Moscow Metro Tour.

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Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Gold, Platinum:  Town of Uglich / Church of St. Dmitri-on-the-Blood

Volga dream experience: Costumed Russian Tea Ceremony & Russian Cooking Class

Gold, Platinum:  Yaroslavl City Tour / Governor’s house 

Volga dream experience: Sun Deck Barbeque

Gold:  Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery  

Platinum:  Ferapontov Monastery

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Russian Dinner with Vodka Tasting

Gold, Platinum: Kizhi Island / Lake Onega

Volga dream experience: Piano Concert – Compositions by Tchaikovsky and Rakhmaninov

Gold, Platinum:  Svirstroy village / Local resident’s home / Local primary school

Volga dream experience: Farewell Dinner, Captain’s cocktail

Gold:  City Tour / Peter and Paul Fortress

Platinum:  City Tour / St. Isaac’s Cathedral / Canal boat / Yusupov Palace

Gold:  The State Hermitage Museum / Peterhof: Park and a historic Cottage

Platinum:  The State Hermitage Museum (Early Entrance!) / Gold Room / Peterhof: Park and a historic Cottage

Gold:  Catherine’s Palace / Amber Room

Platinum:  Faberge Museum / Catherine’s Palace / Amber Room

Meals: Breakfast / Imperial

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New on Peacock in May 2024 — all the movies and shows to watch

All the new Peacock shows and movies you shouldn't miss this month

• Originals and exclusives
• Everything new

Live sports and events

May on Peacock brings some pretty major live events, including the annual Eurovision Song Contest, plus two of the year’s biggest sports milestones: the Kentucky Derby and the Indianapolis 500. This marks the 150th year for the prestigious Kentucky horse race, while the Indiana auto race is only slightly behind, celebrating its 108th edition.

This is also a big month for reality TV on Peacock, with season premieres of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” and Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” plus an “extended and uncensored” version of the season finale of “Real Housewives” spin-off “Vanderpump Rules.” Peacock’s own original reality show “Love Undercover” makes its debut, following a group of superstar soccer players as they try to find love without revealing their true identities. 

Here’s what you can look forward to on Peacock this month.

New on Peacock in May 2024: Top picks

'the tattooist of auschwitz'.

Love can blossom under even the most horrific circumstances, which is what happened for two Jewish inmates at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. This limited series adapts Heather Morris’ bestselling novel about the enduring romance between Holocaust survivors Lali (Jonah Hauer-King) and Gita Sokolov (Anna Próchniak). 

Morris herself is a character on the show, played by Melanie Lynskey in a framing sequence as she interviews the elderly Lali (Harvey Keitel) about his relationship to Gita, just as the real-life Morris did in researching her book. Through flashbacks, the show chronicles the ordeal that Lali and Gita went through to stay together. Thanks to his small position of influence as the person tattooing numbers on incoming inmates, Lali is able to keep them safe while holding onto the hope of freedom.

Premieres May 2 on Peacock

Eurovision Song Contest 2024

Although it’s an institution going back nearly 70 years in Europe, this international music competition has been slower to catch on in the U.S. Still, its popularity has grown as it’s become easier to watch in the U.S., and Peacock has been live-streaming the annual event since 2021. This year’s contest features entries from 37 countries in Europe and surrounding areas, hoping to top last year’s winner, “Tattoo” by Swedish singer Loreen.

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Because Loreen won last year, this year’s competition will be held in Malmö, Sweden, where musicians vying for the title include Olly Alexander of pop band Years & Years representing the U.K., and returning performers from Moldova and Iceland. The glittery pop aesthetic of Eurovision is pure cheese, and it’s steadily winning over American fans.

Premieres May 7 on Peacock

'We Are Lady Parts' season 2

It’s been nearly three years since the first season of this delightful British comedy streamed on Peacock, and fans have been waiting since then to see what happens with all-female Muslim punk band Lady Parts as they work to establish themselves in the London music scene while navigating complex personal relationships.

In the second season , the band will complete their first U.K. tour and start recording an album, while facing a rival band out to steal their thunder. They’re also still dealing with messy offstage lives and trying to balance their musical ambitions with family and home. Creator Nida Manzoor promises more original songs this season, along with choice covers, as the band members struggle to find their own definition of success.

Premieres May 30 on Peacock

Peacock originals and exclusives in May 2024

May 2: The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Peacock Original)*

May 3: The American Society of Magical Negroes (Peacock Exclusive)*

May 4: Kentucky Derby

May 7: Eurovision Song Contest 2024 (Peacock Exclusive)*

May 8: Vanderpump Rules, Season 11 - Finale - Extended/Uncensored Version (Bravo)*

May 9: Love Undercover, Season 1 (Peacock Original)*

May 16: Caillou, Season 1 - New Episodes (Peacock Original)*

May 26: The 108th Indianapolis 500

May 30: We Are Lady Parts, Season 2 (Peacock Original)*

Everything new on Peacock in May 2024

New Episodes Weekly

• America’s Got Talent, Season 19 (NBC)
• Below Deck, Season 11 (Bravo)
• Chicago Fire, Season 12 (NBC) 
• Chicago Med, Season 9 (NBC)
• Chicago PD, Season 11 (NBC)
• Chucky, Season 3, Part 2 (SYFY)
• Days of Our Lives, Season 59 (Peacock Exclusive)
• Deal or No Deal Island, Season 1 (NBC) 
• El Señor de los Cielos, Season 9 (Telemundo)  
• La Casa de los Famosos, Season 4 (Telemundo) 
• Law & Order, Season 23 (NBC) 
• Law & Order: Organized Crime, Season 4 (NBC) 
• Law & Order: SVU, Season 25 (NBC) 
• Lopez vs. Lopez, Season 2 (NBC)
• OMG Fashun, Season 1 (E!)
• On Patrol: First Shift, Season 2 (Reelz)++
• On Patrol: Live, Season 2 (Reelz)++
• Password, Season 2 (NBC) 
• Race to Survive: New Zealand, Season 2 (USA Network)
• The Real Housewives of New Jersey, Season 14 (Bravo) 
• Saturday Night Live, Season 49 (NBC) 
• Snapped, Season 33 (Oxygen)
• Summer House, Season 8 (Bravo) 
• Summer House After Show, Season 1 (Bravo Digital)
• Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard, Season 2 (Bravo)
• Top Chef, Season 21 (Bravo) 
• Top Chef: The Dish with Kish (Bravo Digital)
• Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen, Season 21 (Bravo Digital)
• Top Chef VIP, Season 3 (Telemundo)
• The Valley, Season 1 (Bravo) 
• Vanderpump Rules, Season 11 (Bravo) 
• Vanderpump Rules After Show, Season 1 (Bravo Digital)
• The Voice, Season 25 (NBC) 
• The Weakest Link, Season 3 (NBC)
• Lopez vs. Lopez, Season 2 - Finale (NBC)
• 10 Things I Hate About You
• The 40 Year Old Virgin
• A Bride for Christmas
• A Royal Corgi Christmas
• Angels & Demons*
• As Luck Would Have It 
• Beijing Bicycle
• Boo! A Madea Halloween*
• Bruce Lee, the Legend
• The Cabin in the Woods*
• The Chronicles of Riddick
• Couples Retreat
• Cowboys & Aliens
• The Da Vinci Code*
• Dragon: Bruce Lee Story
• Enemy at the Gates
• Five Star Christmas
• Fletch Lives
• The Hurt Locker*
• Identity Thief
• The Irresistible Blueberry Farm
• The Joy Luck Club
• Jurassic Park
• Jurassic Park III
• Kindergarten Cop
• Knight and Day
• The Last Airbender
• Life of the Party
• Little Rascals
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park
• Love on Safari 
• Love Takes Flight 
• Love Under the Stars 
• Madea Goes to Jail
• Madea’s Big Happy Family
• Marry Me in Yosemite
• Mei Ren Yu (Mermaid)
• Memoirs of a Geisha
• Merry & Bright
• Midway to Love
• The Mummy Returns
• The Mummy (‘99)
• Nikki & Nora: Sister Sleuths
• No Time to Die
• Pitch Black
• Queen of Spain
• Return to Christmas Creek
• Rise: Blood Hunter
• Rome in Love
• Ruby Herring Mysteries: Her Last Breath 
• Ruby Herring Mysteries: Prediction Murder 
• Ruby Herring Mysteries: Silent Witness
• The Rundown
• The Scorpion King
• This Beautiful Fantastic
• Shrek Forever After
• Shrek the Third*
• Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams
• Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
• Step Brothers*
• Three Extremes II
• Three… Extremes
• Tortilla Soup
• War (2007)*
• Warrior (2011)*
• Why Did I Get Married?
• Why Did I Get Married Too
• Wonder Woman (2017)
• The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Season 1 - All Episodes - 6 episodes, 60 mins (Peacock Original)*
• Chucky, Season 3 - Finale (SYFY) 
• Saturday Church
• The American Society of Magical Negroes (Peacock Exclusive / Streaming Debut)*
• Kentucky Derby 2024
• A Lifelong Love (Hallmark)+
• The Real Housewives of New Jersey, Season 14 - Premiere (Bravo)
• Eurovision Song Contest 2024*
• Snapped: Killer Couples, Season 17 - Finale (Oxygen) 
• Vanderpump Rules, Season 11 - Finale - Extended/Uncensored Version (Bravo)*
• Love Undercover, Season 1 - Premiere, 4 episodes, 60 min (Peacock Original)*
• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish*
• A Whitewater Romance (Hallmark)+
• American Ninja Warrior Women's Championship, Season 15 (NBC)
• OMG Fashun, Season 1 - Premiere, 2 Episodes (E!)
• Perry Mason (1957), Seasons 1-5
• Cold Justice, Season 7 - All Episodes (Oxygen)
• Deal or No Deal Island, Season 1 - Finale (NBC)
• Best of the Tonight Show Special: 10 Years of the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC)
• Caillou, Season 1 (New Episodes) - 5 Episodes, 22 min (Peacock Original)*
• Love Undercover, Season 1 - 3 NEW episodes, 60 min (Peacock Original)*
• Law & Order, Season 23 - Finale (NBC)
• Law & Order: Organized Crime, Season 4 - Finale (NBC)
• Law & Order SVU, Season 25 - Finale (NBC)
• Family Practice Mysteries: Coming Home (Hallmark)+
• Dream Big: The Michelle Wie Story - Special (NBC)
• Everything Puppies (Hallmark)+
• The Voice, Season 25 - Finale (NBC)
• Love Undercover, Season 1 - FINALE - 3 episodes, 60 min (Peacock Original)*
• Chicago Fire, Season 12 - Finale (NBC)
• Chicago Med, Season 9 - Finale (NBC)
• Chicago PD, Season 11 - Finale (NBC)
• Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen, Season 21 - Finale (Bravo Digital)
• Knock at the Cabin*  
• Big Sky River: The Bridal Path (Hallmark)+
• Race to Survive: New Zealand, Season 2 - Premiere (USA)
• American Ninja Warrior Couple's Special, Season 15 (NBC)
• Below Deck, Season 11 - Finale (Bravo)
• America’s Got Talent, Season 19 - Premiere (NBC)
• We Are Lady Parts, Season 2 (Peacock Original)*
• May 1-5: La Vuelta Femenina 2024
• May 2 – PL Chelsea v. Tottenham (rescheduled from MW 26)
• May 3-6 – Premier League MW 36
• May 2-5: PGA TOUR CJ CUP Byron Nelson
• May 3: NXT Level Up
• May 3: Kentucky Oaks
• May 4: 150th Kentucky Derby
• May 3-4: Kentucky Derby 2024
• May 3-5: PGA Tour Champions Insperity Invitational
• May 4: WWE Backlash France
• May 4: WWE Backlash France (Spanish)
• May 4:  SuperMotocross World Championships – Denver, CO
• May 4-5: IMSA – Miami - Porsche Carrera Cup
• May 4-5: World Athletics Relays
• May 5: HSBC SVNS – Singapore
• May 5: Laureus Sports Awards
• May 6-8: NCAA PGA WORKS Collegiate Championships
• May 9-12: PGA TOUR Myrtle Beach Classic
• May 9-12: PGA TOUR Champions Regions Tradition
• May 9-12: PGA TOUR Wells Fargo Championship
• May 9-12: LPGA Cognizant Founders Cup
• May 10-11: INDYCAR – Indianapolis Grand Prix
• May 10: NXT Level Up
• May 10: PAC Women’s Rugby - New Zealand v. USA
• May 10: Wanda Diamond League - Doha
• May 11: Boxxer – Jessica McCaskill v. Lauren Price
• May 11: PAC Women’s Rugby- Australia v. Canada
• May 11-12: Premier League MW 37
• May 11: SuperMotocross World Championships – Salt Lake City, UT
• May 11-12: IMSA – Laguna Seca
• May 12: World Surf League Tahiti Bound - Margaret River
• May 13-19: Live From the PGA Championship
• May 16-19: LPGA Mizuho Americas Open
• May 17: NXT Level Up
• May 17:  PAC Women’s Rugby - Australia v. USA
• May 17: Black Eyed Susan
• May 18: Preakness
• May 17-18: Preakness 2024
• May 18: USATF LA Grand Prix
• May 18: USA Gymnastics Core Hydration
• May 18-19: Indianapolis 500 Qualifying
• May 19: Premier League Championship Sunday
• May 19:  PAC Women’s Rugby - New Zealand v. Canada
• May 19: Wanda Diamond League – Rabat
• May 20-22: NCAA Women's Golf Championships
• May 23-26: PGA TOUR Champions KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship
• May 23-26: PGA TOUR Charles Schwab Challenge
• May 24: PAC Women’s Rugby - New Zealand v Australia
• May 25: WWE King and Queen of the Ring
• May 25: WWE King and Queen of the Ring (Spanish)
• May 25: Pro Motocross Championship – Fox Raceway National
• May 25: Prefontaine Classic (Diamond League)
• May 26: INDYCAR – The 108th Indianapolis 500
• May 26-27: 2024 Roland-Garros Tennis
• May 27-29: NCAA 2024 Men's Golf Championships
• May 29-31: Live From the U.S. Women's Open
• May 30: Wanda Diamond League - Oslo
• May 30-31: U.S. Women’s Open
• May 30-31: PGA TOUR RBC Canadian Open
• May 30-31: 2024 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships
• May 31-June 2: PGA TOUR Champions Principal Charity Classic
• May 31: IMSA – Detroit

Josh Bell is a freelance writer and movie/TV critic based in Las Vegas. He's the former film editor of Las Vegas Weekly and has written about movies and TV for Vulture, Inverse, CBR, Crooked Marquee and more. With comedian Jason Harris, he co-hosts the podcast Awesome Movie Year.

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• Class Notes

The Latest News from Your Classmates

May / June 2024

CHECK OUT OUR NEW SECTION: GROUP NOTES!

Scroll down for the debut of Group Notes, which comprises alumni news about members of Cornell groups—including campus activities, alumni organizations, and more—across generations. Want to see your group represented in future sections? Email us for information!

Welcome back, classmates! Read on for another excerpt from the essay I wrote about my time at Cornell, originally written for and published by my fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi, and featured in the last two Class Notes sections:

We had regular parties in the basement at Alpha Delta Phi, but there was little or no hard liquor. We drank beer from a keg, the tapping of which was a skill we all learned. I think it was mostly the local Stegmaier’s, which was not a particularly good beer, but it was cheaper. Singing was a big pastime, and knowing the words to all the songs was important to your standing with your brothers and your date.

One event I will never forget occurred during the spring of 1946, when we were sharing the house with Kappa Alpha. At a Saturday night party downstairs, the president of KA was sitting on a stool at the bar, surrounded by co-eds who were listening, I suppose, to his war stories. Suddenly, he grabbed an ice pick from behind the bar and drove it into his lower leg! There were shrieks and shocked looks from the co-eds. Then he pulled out the ice pick, pulled up his pant leg, and showed a wooden leg that he had acquired as a result of war injuries!

Thomas Wells ’43 , BArch ’50, proposed to the fraternity that he decorate the walls of the two rooms in the basement, which were our bar and party area. We said OK, and he arrived with two co-eds from architecture or fine arts. Over weeks, they covered the walls with the “figures” of Abner Dean, a very popular cartoonist/artist at that time. For a time, it became the talk of the campus, and we got a big kick out of it. You can even see pictures of it in the background of a 1948 Cornellian yearbook: a picture of a group singing at the usual table in the Alpha Delt bar (on page 364) and then one of me between two women (at right on page 385), both with the paintings in the background.

Late one night, [ Peg Wilharm Tuttle ’48 and I] drove out the east bank of Cayuga Lake to watch the sunrise—and when it came up behind us, I proposed, and she accepted. Ray Tuttle ’48

I married a Cornellian, Margaret (Wilharm) , Class of 1948. She was an Alpha Phi, and I never dated her at Cornell. That we ended up married was a real series of incidents. One day in my fifth and final year, I got on the bus outside Olin Hall to go downtown. I recognized and sat down beside a girl I remembered from a course I was taking in industrial and labor relations (ChemEs were required to take a liberal arts course in year five, and my choice was career-oriented, not culture-oriented, as the ChemE school might have intended). Peg always sat near the front of the classroom next to the same boy, whom I assumed was her boyfriend but later learned was a Chi Psi brother of her boyfriend keeping an eye on her. We talked on the way downtown on the bus and learned an odd coincidence: my family and I lived in Cleveland, and I had just taken a job in Pittsburgh after graduation, while she had lived all her life in Pittsburgh, but her dad’s company had just moved to Cleveland, where she would go after graduation. So we parted with no plans to ever meet again.

Working in Pittsburgh, I used to go back to see my folks in Cleveland occasionally. On one trip, I joined my parents in grocery shopping, because next door was a sporting-goods shop and I wanted to buy a new squash racquet. After shopping, I joined my parents in the grocery store, and there was a somewhat familiar face at the cheese counter: Peg Wilharm! She later told me she was with her parents only because they were going to shop for a new car, and she went along hoping to persuade them not to buy another black Buick.

I asked her out for a beer and supper and soon learned that the boyfriend was no longer—and we dated in Cleveland and Pittsburgh, where she visited an uncle there to see me. I asked her back to an Alpha Delt house-party weekend and, late one night, drove out the east bank of Cayuga Lake to watch the sunrise—and when it came up behind us, I proposed, and she accepted. So Cornell and Alpha Delt had important roles to play. ❖ Ray Tuttle ( email Ray ) | Alumni Directory .

I hope you all took the time to fill out and return the Share Your News form that was recently mailed to you. If you haven’t yet, it’s not too late! Please do send us your news—via the hard-copy form or the online news form —so our future class columns can be full of news from all of you. Whether your news is ordinary or extraordinary, we want to hear it! ❖ Class of 1949 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

In my previous two columns, I highlighted short bios of some of the accomplished women of our Class of the Century. In this issue I highlight classmate Marion Steinmann , author of the book Women at Work: Demolishing a Myth of the 1950s (2005, Xlibris). Marion modestly included as co-authors “The Women of the Cornell Class of 1950.” Also, her book’s dedication, “To the men we married who encouraged us to follow our dream,” is gracious because, unlike those about whom she wrote, Marion didn’t marry until age 50, had no children, and did not earn an advanced degree.

The women that Marion interviewed demolished the myth that, in the 1950s, women had little choice but to be housewives and not be employed outside the home. These courageous women earned a total of 134 advanced degrees including 22 PhDs and five MDs. Among the 134 were 13 college professors, 11 attorneys, one judge, and five engineers, as well as others.

An education in the Cornell College of Home Economics, while including studies in science and the liberal arts, was not designed for advanced degrees. It’s therefore remarkable that our intelligent, energetic, and forward-looking colleagues were able, with good humor and perseverance, to overcome family responsibilities, academic obstacles, and gender prejudices to move into advanced degree programs in law, medicine, education, business, and other professional fields.

Marion attended West High in Rochester, NY, where she excelled academically and was editor of the school newspaper. She came to Cornell with national and state scholarships to major in microbiology in the College of Agriculture. On campus she was a member of Octagon and Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, was vice president of the Women’s Self-Governing Association, and with her intense interest in journalism served as news editor of the Cornell Daily Sun .

Remarkably, upon graduation, she (an Aggie, not a journalism major) was hired by the prestigious Life magazine. That speaks highly of a Cornell BS in agriculture and Marion’s high intellect and writing competence. At Life she was a reporter in the science department, writing on an amazing variety of subjects such as archeology, astronomy, genetics, moon exploration, lasers, holography, the first open-heart surgery, and bone transplants. Over her 22 years with Life , she was promoted from writer to assistant editor, and when the weekly Life ceased publication in 1972, she was the associate editor.

Henry Erle ’50 , MD ’54, lives in a high rise with views of the Robert F. Kennedy and George Washington bridges and the Weill Cornell college campus.

Thereafter she was a freelance author of books primarily in the field of medicine and healthcare, as well as articles for the New York Times Magazine , the Saturday Evening Post , Smithsonian Magazine , Cornell Alumni Magazine , and others. Her books included Island Life , Life and Health , The American Medical Association Book of Back Care , The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Parent’s Guide to Allergies and Asthma , and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Guide to Childhood Infections . In 1971 Marion received the American Medical Association’s award for an article, “Fighting the Genetic Odds.”

In 2000, accessing surplus class funds, our class approved publication of the history of our class with the title Curfews, Chaos and Champions , co-edited by Marion and classmate John Marcham . Because it was also a history of the tumultuous post-WWII times , it was subsequently republished under the title Postwar Cornell: How the Greatest Generation Transformed a University, 1944–1952 . The original book was also converted into an engaging film. At the 1965 class Reunion, copies of the film and original book were given to all attendees and later to those unable to attend.

For 10 years, Marion served with me as class co-correspondent, responsible for writing news of class members for the Class Notes section of each issue of the former Cornell Alumni Magazine . Our relationship was cordial and professional, but I learned little about her personal, non-work life. Her obituary was the lead in the obituary section of the April 20, 2020 issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer , which mentioned that she had climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. And after a late-in-life marriage to Charles Joiner, Temple University Chair of Political Science, they lived in Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia, where she enjoyed cooking, gardening, and entertaining.

I received a nice note from Henry Erle , MD ’54 (New York, NY), Weill Cornell Medicine Roberts Family Professor Emeritus of Internal Medicine. With his parents and younger brother, he escaped from Nuremberg, Germany, in 1939, where in 1938 his grandfather had been murdered during Kristallnacht. He attended Stuyvesant High School and came to Cornell on a Regents Scholarship. The highlight of his campus life was meeting Joan (Greenblatt) at Hillel House, whom he married in 1952 and, as he says, “made up for my lost childhood.” After Cornell med school, until retirement in 2007 at age 78, he practiced internal medicine at Cornell/New York Medical Center, now Weill Cornell Medicine.

Wife Joan earned an MD at New York University in 1954, did post-doc studies in psychiatry, and taught and did research at New York Psychoanalytic Institute. Joan died 10 years ago after a struggle with Parkinson’s disease. Henry has two physician sons, David and Steven , MD ’86 , and five grandkids. At the time of this writing, Henry was living on the 46th floor of a high rise with views of the Robert F. Kennedy (formerly Triborough) and George Washington bridges and the Weill Cornell college campus, studying a variety of contemporary topics, and planning a visit to his younger brother in Florida. ❖ Paul Joslin ( email Paul ) | 13731 Hickman Rd., #4207, Urbandale, IA 50323 | tel., (515) 278-0960 | Alumni Directory .

Frances Goldberg Myers writes, “The big event of the year was my 94th birthday. Living in an over-50 community, I am acknowledged mostly as a ‘role model’ by the newer, younger residents, since I speak up at meetings, participate in many community activities, and make new, younger friends as they buy into the community. With the death of Shelley Epstein Akabas in 2023, I have only one friend left who knew me when I was 17.

“My children, Ken ’77 (Yale PhD), Pam ’78 , and Nathaniel III ’82 , DVM ’87, are all active in their chosen careers and contributing to making the world a better place. Ken is the Gerson Curator of American Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts; Pam is executive director of the prize-winning, nationally recognized Asheville Art Museum (NC); and Nathaniel, known as ‘Chip,’ is a doctor of internal medicine in his own veterinary practice. The following generation of Cornellians is Sarah ’13 , daughter of Ken, a silviculturist for the National Forest Service in Nebraska with a Penn State MA (yes there is a forest in Nebraska, the only planted forest in the U.S.; planted by the CCC in the 1930s). We are waiting to see if Benjamin, son of Chip, will join the Cornellian family.

Living in an over-50 community, I am acknowledged mostly as a ‘role model’ by the newer, younger residents. Frances Goldberg Myers ’51

“I’ve been a widow since 2004 but keep busy making new friends and participating in a variety of activities and wondering what has happened to America. Social media has certainly changed society. I was in Home Ec but took advantage of all the wonderful Cornell professors in government, labor relations, Asian policy, architecture, and literature to get an introduction to the wide world. But Home Ec provided me with entry into various jobs, from publishing to mental health rehabilitation, community organizing for people with disabilities at the county level and volunteer work in several areas.

“I now find new areas to learn about, so life is exciting. I am happy participating in the community around me. My neighbors feel that I provide historical context to people who think of the ’50s as ancient times. I never felt that we were the Silent Generation—we were active in our communities, active politically and socially, raising solid families, and trying to build a better society. Looking back, those years were hopeful and optimistic, in which we believed the world would be a better place for all after surviving the Depression, a world war, the Holocaust, and an atom bomb.

“I am grateful for my Cornell education—I learned much, but mostly I learned to love learning. But clearly my favorite memory is meeting Nat Myers ’49 , BA ’51, on the first day of classes in September 1949 at the Ivy Room in the Straight. Thank heavens my 10 o’clock class in the History of Labor Unions was dismissed because the professor had been delayed in returning to campus. I had never been to the Straight at 10 o’clock before, but when I went in, I saw a table with people I knew. As I sat down, I was introduced to Nat, who had returned from his Navy enlistment. At 11, he joined me on my walk across campus to Balch. We talked for more than an hour and listened to the noon Chimes. And that was the beginning of the rest of my life. We celebrated 55 years of being together until his death in 2004.”

Thank you for writing, Frances! We hope any classmates reading this will send us a letter. ❖ Class of 1951 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

Joanne Holloway McPherson writes from Findlay, OH: “I recently moved to a new apartment, the second one since I sold the house I lived in for 29 years in 2019. With each move I downsized, but I still have too many possessions. I try to adjust to the new technology, which is supposed to make our lives easier but, at least in my case, makes it more difficult. The devices constantly need recharging. My solution is to take a nap and recharge myself.”

James Strub writes from Colorado Springs: “I gradually became a mountain hiking machine, and I reached all 54 of the Colorado 14ers and Mount Whitney in California by 1961, all by the grace of God—sometimes with more grace required than other times (e.g., little things like lightning). I’m regularly using a USFS-provided ponderosa pine pole for balance, everywhere I go.” James enjoys teaching the Bible to the Judeo-Christian residents at MacKenzie Place, a nearby retirement community—something he’s been doing for 12 years now.

I gradually became a mountain hiking machine, and I reached all 54 of the Colorado 14ers and Mount Whitney in California by 1961. James Strub ’52

James adds, “I’m also keeping in regular touch by phone or email with daughter Heidi and her husband, Charley, in St. Augustine, FL. They are planning to come out here in April for my 95th birthday. And I’m keeping in close touch with son Jordan ’81 and his very gifted and delightful wife, Michele, who made a very successful career as a principal manager for Progressive Insurance.” Some of his favorite memories of Cornell were “playing the carillon and playing the four-manual pipe organ we used to have on the Bailey Hall stage. I also enjoyed the architecture professors, especially John Tilton 1913 , MArch 1914, whose favorite teaching was: ‘Remember—there is a difference between a Venetian blind and a blind Venetian.’”

Bernard Patten writes: “I am a systems ecologist, long retired from University of Georgia but not retiring. I’m continuing my research on an environmental system theory, ‘Network Environ Analysis,’ and the proverbial magnum opus, ‘Holoecology.’” ❖ Thomas Cashel, LLB ’56 ( email Tom ) | Alumni Directory .

Alan Perlmutter writes from California that his son, Ben ’12 , is taking over the family business: Big Sur River Inn. “After many years as a consultant in organizational development and 36 years as the general partner of the Big Sur River Inn, I am happy to pass the reins to our son Ben, who is taking over as managing partner of the family business. Ben will continue to welcome Cornell alumni from all over the world as they visit the inn, which is Big Sur’s first restaurant and resort,” says Alan. He adds that Ben is still singing with the Hangovers and is well prepared for being the host of the popular and historic inn.

Have you ever had a broken leg? Bob Neff , JD ’56, can sympathize. He spent much of the first half of last year hopping around on one leg while healing broken bones in the other one. He then made up for that confinement—while escaping the chilly weather in North Carolina—as he enjoyed sailing in the South Pacific.

Hospitalization and healing similarly took up half of last year for Caroline Mulford Owens , former Class of ’53 president. She reports that she’s now back to normal with a daily visit to the gym and participation in several community organizations. “I’m fortunate to be living on a beautiful lake with a view of the sunset across the water,” she reports.

I’m fortunate to be living on a beautiful lake with a view of the sunset across the water. Caroline Mulford Owens ’53

Jack Brophy has documented his time in the U.S. Navy with photos and lots of stories. He found his Cornell experience useful when assigned to develop recreational activities for the crew of the USS White Marsh . “The captain authorized the crew to empty a large storage room in the bow and create a lounge and recreation room for the sailors off-duty. They were motivated to make something nice, and they did, with fresh paint and new furniture. For the opening, I decided to organize a talent show. We had a pedal pump organ used for religious services, and I found a fiddler from the South who was fantastic. As the ship rolled, he wrapped his bow arm around a Lally column and played on undaunted. The other acts were entertaining but not as memorable. I guess this qualified me as ‘Recreation Officer.’”

John Nixon sends special thanks to the 148 members of the Class of ’53 who donated nearly $5 million last year, setting a new donor record for any 70th Reunion in Cornell history. Our class also recently donated $10,000 to the Class of 1953 Tradition Fellowship, which provides an annual scholarship for an incoming student. Your generous donations serve many worthwhile causes.

Please share your current news. We’d love to hear from you! ❖ Caroline Mulford Owens ( email Caroline ) | Jack Brophy ( email Jack ) | John Nixon ( email John ) | Bob Neff , JD ’56 ( email Bob ) | Alumni Directory .

As you read this column, Dave , PhD ’60, and Mary Gentry Call report that more than 20 classmates have signed on to celebrate our 70th Reunion on campus. Hopefully a few latecomers will join them with a month to go and put us over 26 attendees. This would be a record for a 70th Reunion. Dave and Mary have planned a fun and informative program with easy transportation to and from all the events from our class headquarters at the Statler Hotel.

This has been a slow month for classmate news, but we did hear from two of you and we thank you. Barbara Jones Jenkins of Northfield, MN, writes that she spends much of her time reading and keeping her email inbox below the 300s. She also served as the financial director of the Cannon Valley Elder Collegium and took several of their courses. On a negative note, Barbara says that she has been trying to improve her tennis serve after 50 years but recently ruptured her right bicep reaching for a volley. Let’s hope Barbara will soon make a complete recovery and get back to working on her serve.

Allan Griff ’54 , who was in the Sage Chapel Choir and the a cappella Chorus, has written a song about Cornell.

Allan Griff of El Cerrito, CA, who did a lot of formal singing in his undergraduate days, including in the Sage Chapel Choir and the a cappella Chorus, has written a song about Cornell, the melody of which is an Irish traditional folk song, “Roddy McCorley.” It brings back memories of our days on the Hill. Called “Leaders of Us All,” here are the lyrics:

“All around the world Cornellians go to do what we do best. / We teach, we build, we serve, we fix, we earn our keep and rest. / We’ve caught the pass of knowledge, and we’re running with the ball. / And it can’t be denied, we’re our people’s pride, the leaders of us all. / Wherever we Cornellians meet, it brings a smile and tear. / We’ve got a bond of friendship that cannot disappear. / We tell of days and nights we shared when we were growing still, / And we feel a little warmer when we think of our days on the Hill. / We remember the Straight, the statues on the Quad, the gorges, and the lake. / Teagle, the Taylors, Sage and the Libe, all these our memories wake. / Engineers, Hotelies, Aggies, and Arts, HumEcs, ILRs, stand tall / ’cause it can’t be denied, we’re our people’s pride, / the leaders of us all.” ❖ Bill Waters , MBA ’55 ( email Bill ) | Ruth Carpenter Bailey ( email Ruth ) | Class website | Alumni Directory .

Frank Baldwin (Ithaca, NY) is planting trees and doing trail management in Pine Tree Wildlife Preserve on East Hill. He also attends a local folk song club on Sunday evenings. He recalls that “our group in Ithaca and Cornell induced the National Episcopal Church to support the treaty to abolish nuclear weapons.” ❖ Class of 1955 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

I hope you all took the time to fill out and return the Share Your News form that was recently mailed to you. If you haven’t yet, it’s not too late! Please do send us your news—via the hard-copy form or the online news form —so our future class columns can be full of news from all of you. Whether your news is ordinary or extraordinary, we want to hear it! ❖ Class of 1956 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

With our undergrad status of in loco parentis , one restriction denied freshmen the right to have an automobile on campus. Do you recall how one classmate protested that rule? In spring 1954, Edward Jay Epstein brought a horse and buggy to campus. Whether it was because of that infraction or something else, Ed was asked to leave Cornell. He later returned to earn his BA in 1965 and MA in 1966, both in government. His master’s thesis on the official government investigation into the Kennedy assassination became his first book, Inquest: The Warren Commission and the Establishment of Truth (1966).

Ed continued his graduate studies at Harvard, earning a PhD in 1973. His doctoral dissertation became the book News from Nowhere: Television and the News (1973). Ed taught at Harvard, MIT, and UCLA, and then decided to return to New York City and to focus on researching and writing books. Known for his keen, independent mind, Ed later investigated U.S. intelligence and counterintelligence, the international diamond trade, the business of Hollywood, and the data leak by NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Ed himself was the subject of the 2017 documentary Hall of Mirrors , which premiered at the 55th New York Film Festival. Of his many books and articles, his last book, Assume Nothing: Encounters with Assassins, Spies, Presidents, and Would-Be Masters of the Universe (2023), is considered this investigative journalist’s memoir. His recent passing in January 2024 was attributed to COVID. While he had no immediate survivors, he will be missed by all those friends who attended his many storied social gatherings at his Manhattan penthouse.

On the distaff side, we also note the passing of Ruby Tomberg Senie in September 2023. After earning her Cornell BS in 1957 and becoming mother to two sons, Ruby added a Cornell BSN in nursing (1975), an MA in teaching from Columbia University (1978), and a PhD from the Yale University Department of Epidemiology and Public Health (1984). She was an epidemiologist with the women’s health and fertility branch of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta when she was asked by then-Cornell President Frank H.T. Rhodes to be a panelist on the 1992 Reunion forum in Bailey Hall. The topic was “Ethical Issues in Healthcare: The Lessons of Tuskegee.” This coincided with our 35th Reunion, so likely some of us attended this discussion. (Special thank you to Cornell Archivist Evan Earle ’02 , MS ’14, for finding this information in an old Reunion booklet.)

In spring 1954, Edward Jay Epstein ’57 , BA ’65, MA ’66, brought a horse and buggy to campus.

Ruby also was on a 1996 panel at the Cornell Club in NYC. This forum, sponsored by the women of the Class of 1958, focused on lifelines submitted by hundreds of Cornell alumnae. Ruby was then a leading breast cancer researcher at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC. Ruby’s career continued and culminated as an associate professor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

On a personal note, Ruby and I met about a decade ago. Her dear friend, classmate Beth Ames Swartz , had come to NYC for the opening of her new art series at a gallery in Manhattan. At a restaurant meal that followed for our classmates, Ruby and I sat next to one another. Our paths had never crossed on campus, but we soon were deep in conversation. She told me of her book Epidemiology of Women’s Health (2013), a more-than-500-page tome that explored the major health challenges and conditions specifically affecting women. Ruby included contributions from leading authorities in the field.

She and I saw each other only a few times over the years when she rented a summer cottage in the Berkshires in Massachusetts, where she enjoyed the Tanglewood musical venue offerings. Through emails, we became fast friends. We last saw each other at our 65th Reunion. Ironically, it wasn’t breast cancer, but an undiagnosed tumor that, once discovered, gave her only a few more weeks of life. Ruby, a perpetual student, teacher, and author, had thoroughly enjoyed the rich culture of opera, museums, theater, and classical music so present in NYC. Earlier this month, Beth told me her new art series, Quantum Light, was inspired by Ruby. You can view her artwork here . Both Beth and I agree that it was our privilege to be close friends of such a remarkable woman.

On a lighter note, we saw Ron Dunbar and his spouse, Pru Dalrymple, at our 65th Reunion. Both having been widowed in the early 2000s, they found each other through Match.com and have been happily living together in Philadelphia for nearly six years. They are taking advantage of their good health to travel. Over a year ago, a Road Scholar trip had them island-hopping to see many ancient ruins in Greece. Last March they enjoyed a week in the Galápagos and then spent several days in a remote lodge in the upper Amazon watershed rain forest.

A more recent road trip included a visit with Bob and JoAnne Eastburn Cyprus , who have owned and lived for 30 years on a 60-acre farm near Nashville, TN. Ron and JoAnne had been high school classmates in Wellesley, MA. Ron and Pru fly to Seattle and Portland, OR, several times a year to visit Pru’s two sons and families. Ron’s Korean-born daughter and family live only 12 miles from Ron. After a long academic career, mostly in library science, Pru occasionally teaches online for Kent State University. Ron’s Cornell BEE degree remains in the background to the spreadsheet work he now does to help small nonprofits. ❖ Connie Santagato Hosterman ( email Connie ) | Alumni Directory .

Warren Wildes is living in St. Paul, MN, with his wife, Mary, spending three months of the year in California. He finds great satisfaction in working in the woodlands next door, raising wood ducks, and developing oak “nurseries” at the University of Northwestern, St. Paul, where they have lived since 1977. This passion continues as he and Mary fund Northwestern’s environmental science program, which places emphasis on the woods and the two lakes with campus shorelines. He is also a dedicated supporter of the Cornell Sapsucker Woods Ornithology Lab and participates in the FeederWatch programs while in California each winter. Warren has continued to express his interest in music by leading the Centennial Stompers Dixieland Band with Mary as vocalist, which plays at senior homes, churches, and centers in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. The band is in its 10th year with 18 performances in 2023, and excerpts can be found on YouTube .

Stefan Belman , DVM ’61, shares his favorite Cornell memory: “In Mann Library in 1959 I was seated in the informal reading room, and seated across from me was a most attractive blonde woman smoking. I walked over and bummed a smoke. A few minutes later I walked over to her again and invited her to walk with me to the pomology department and let me buy her an apple. Anita (Lesgold) ’60 , MS ’61, later returned to Sigma Delta Tau and told her roommate, Carrie Warnow Makover ’60 , about meeting this ‘interesting guy.’ Sixty-four years later, we have two children and four grandchildren.” Anita received her BS at Cornell, earned an MD from New York University’s medical school, then taught pediatric neurology there. Their son, Matt , DVM ’89 , practices in Salt Lake City and enjoys back country adventures. Grandchildren Ben ’19 , BA ’18, and Elisabeth ’18 graduated from Cornell with Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude recognition. Ben currently works for Amazon and attends Georgetown Law School. Elisabeth just graduated from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and is training for surgery at Beth Israel Hospital and Harvard. Stefan and Anita move between Columbia Falls, MT, Huntington, NY, and New York City.

Arthur Shostak and his wife, Lynn Seng, moved nine years ago from Philadelphia to Alameda, CA, to escape winter and be closer to their grandchildren. Before retiring, Arthur was a sociology professor at Drexel University. Arthur published 34 books; his latest, published in 2017, is titled Stealth Altruism: Forbidden Care as Jewish Resistance in the Holocaust. After researching survivors’ memoirs and interviewing those living, he developed a strong “help” narrative, to be learned in the future alongside the “horror” narrative that now dominates. The book’s cover photograph illustrates his thesis: men in striped pajamas stand in rows, with two men in the front row surreptitiously supporting a collapsing man between them. Arthur indicates that altruism arises out of innate impulses in people, is supported by the tenets of Judaism, and was encouraged by rabbis who took on leadership roles. He is preparing two more books: a study of ways societies have of memorializing and a lengthy memoir. His favorite Cornell memory: earning the highest GPA in the ILR school, which leveraged a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship for a PhD at Princeton.

Philip Getter ’58 is still producing shows, most recently Hadestown, winner of the 2019 Tony Award for Best Musical.

Philip Getter is still producing shows, most recently Hadestown, winner of the 2019 Tony Award for Best Musical, which has been on Broadway since April 2019. A touring company first presented Hadestown at the John F. Kennedy theater in Washington in October 2021 and is still touring the U.S. and Canada . A new company held a successful opening of Hadestown at the Lyric Theatre in London’s West End in February 2024. The CD of the original cast production won a Grammy. Philip also produced Once Upon A One More Time , featuring Britney Spears’s music, and was co-producer of A Christmas Carol starring Jefferson Mays, and Terrence McNally’s Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune starring Audra McDonald. Philip sits on several boards of corporations and foundations.

Philip’s wife, Elaine Sheinmel, passed two years ago. Elaine was his partner in Getter Entertainment, involved in producing Broadway shows. He is now a partner in Archer Entertainment Group with his stepdaughter, Courtney Sheinmel, who was a practicing attorney and wrote and published many young adult and children’s books. The partners are working on several future productions.

In February, Philip flew to London to see Hadestown, which was sold out and with such good prospects that the run was already extended. Courtney and her 4-year-old son, Archer, who loves musicals, accompanied him. Archer enjoyed his first airplane ride, double-decker bus rides, and packed performances of Hadestown . While in England, Philip spent a great deal of time with his oldest son, Douglas Getter, a London attorney, and his two granddaughters, Tesa, 17, and Sara, 20, both “brilliant, beautiful, and with great personalities.” He has two other children: Laura, who has three children, and Michael. ❖ Barbara Avery, MA ’59 ( email Barbara ) | Dick Haggard ( email Dick ) | Alumni Directory .

Linda Rogers Cohen sold her house in Great Neck—home for 56 years—and moved to the Upper West Side of NYC. “It’s an exciting change that eliminates worry about the roof when it rains and brings me practically next door to my daughter Carrie Cohen ’89 , her husband, Rick Lipsey ’89 , and their four children; brings me closer to the museums I love; and finds me surrounded by too many, too-tempting restaurants.”

Mary Gail Drake Korsmeyer also sold her house of 50+ years. She moved last November to Sherwood Oaks, a continuing care community in Cranberry Township, PA. “This community of some 300 residents is about 35 miles north of my old house and a short drive from my daughter’s residence. It has many active groups and services, including delicious meals, and is providing me with interesting new friends.” Mary Gail is retired from her partnership in the law firm of Peacock Keller in Washington, PA. Daughter Carol is a founding partner of Dupee Strengths-Based Consulting; son David is deputy director of the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA; and son Keith is a professor of marine science at Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu. In addition to grandchildren, she has three great-granddaughters and one great-grandson. About once a month, Mary Gail participates in a Zoom gathering with a baker’s dozen of ’59, ’60, and ’61 grads, all friends since Cornell and members of Delta Delta Delta, including Susan Kunkle Bogar , Sallie Whitesell Phillips , Linda Johnson Kacser , and Erna Fritsch Johnson ’61 .

Linda Rogers Cohen ’59 moved to the Upper West Side, where she is ‘surrounded by too many, too-tempting restaurants.’

Another move after 50+ years: Hardy Eshbaugh and his wife, Barb. They have moved to the Knolls, a retirement community in Oxford, OH. “Our children helped us with the move, which was accomplished with a minimum of difficulty,” writes Hardy. “We had an advantage in that our old house did not have an attic, basement, or garage, which meant we had not accumulated a lifetime of stuff. But there was still lots to part with, especially boxes of books! We have more or less settled in and have made many new friends. Even Roxy, our dog, is adjusting. Now it’s on to the next phase of our lives.” Hardy is professor emeritus of botany at Miami University in Oxford, known primarily for his research on chili peppers and on the flora and biogeography of the Bahamas.

About five years ago, Kate Sickles Connolly moved to River Woods, a continuing care retirement community in Exeter, NH. Prior to that, the retired clinical electron microscopist “lived a wonderful familial, professional, and municipal inclusion life associated with Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, NH. I am enjoying an active life in both mind and body and hope to continue my Cornell connection virtually for years to come.”

A nominations committee is working on a slate of officers to serve our class for the five years following our Reunion on June 6–9. The final slate is expected to be completed in early May. Any classmate interested in serving as an officer is encouraged to contact our Reunion chair, Jerry Schultz ( email Jerry ). The list of nominees will be displayed at our Reunion headquarters in the Statler Hotel and presented at the class gathering on the morning of June 9.

Closing factoid: At the beginning of February, living ’59ers included 1,108 degreed and 460 non-degreed members—a total of 1,568 alumni. ❖ Jenny Tesar ( email Jenny ) | Alumni Directory .

Still living in North Falmouth on Cape Cod with his spouse, Patty, Leonard Johnson writes, “I was sorry to hear that Neil MacDougal had died. I first met Neil in seventh grade in Boynton Junior High in Ithaca. He was one of the good guys. Last fall I went back to Ithaca for the first time in 10 years. We had a great reunion with Carol Treman des Cognets and several of my other childhood pals. A highlight was lunch at the Inn at Aurora, a must-visit. My favorite memory is walking down through the Baker dorms and watching the sun set over West Hill. What brings him the most satisfaction? Says Leonard, “Patty and I are still cycling a lot—2,000 miles last year! I am still involved in the effort to preserve open spaces here on Cape Cod. I also really like negotiating complicated land deals.”

Edith Rogovin Frankel , who lives in Freehold, NJ, sadly shares, “I lost my husband over 15 years ago and my partner some three years ago, so life has taken a change. However, I’m fortunate to be in good health, I also have two daughters and seven delightful grandchildren ranging in age from 14 to 27. I’m also still doing research and teaching and will leave my New Jersey home to spend a month in Florida, where I’ll be giving courses at Florida Atlantic University and in both Boca Raton and Jupiter in February. This is an annual practice and preparing the lecture series (two different ones this year) is great fun.”

David Ahl , who lives with his wife, Betsy, in Morristown, NJ, reports, “With the pandemic behind us, my wife and I are spending more and more time on mission trips to Guatemala, Haiti, and Peru, helping to build small schools and homes. We have also been on cruises to the Philippines, Vietnam, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Iceland, Greenland, and Hammerfest, Norway, the northernmost town on the planet. We like the smaller ships of Regent, and Betsy especially enjoys Silversea’s expeditions, which we’ve recently taken to Antarctica, Zanzibar, South Africa, the Seychelles, and some smaller ports in the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, excursions and construction work don’t agree with my advanced arthritis, so I’m looking at new hips and knees in 2024. My grandson Wyatt just started in the ECE College, so I’ll be visiting Ithaca more than in the past.”

Send your news to: ❖ Judy Bryant Wittenberg ( email Judy ) | Alumni Directory .

Guess what? Some of our classmates are going back to Cornell. It’s true. Read on to find out more!

First, we hear from classmate Gerold Yonas , who was interviewed for the Write on Four Corners podcast last August. A physicist and engineer, Gerold served as chief scientist for Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, or “Star Wars,” project, and worked as a vice president at the Los Alamos National Laboratory counterpart, Sandia Labs. You can listen to the episode here .

Ruth Schimel in Washington, DC, is writing her eighth book, Small Steps to Your Continuous Thriving, the Best is Yet to Be . “I have published monthly on YourTango about personal and professional development. Dipping into the arts, I’m showing collages at a neighborhood exhibit, and creating ways to include them in my career and life management consulting practice. I’m active and presenting for TTNWomen on finding meaning and purpose with one’s storytelling, for example. Happy to share my newsletter, launched last year, curated for recipients. I’d love to hear from you.”

From Cindy Johnson Pratt about going back to Cornell: “It was a great thrill to attend the Cornell graduation of my eldest granddaughter, Susie Foster ’23 (whose grandfather is the late Bert Foster ’60 ), in environmental engineering. I had graduated in February 1961 (in three and a half years), so I never had graduation pomp and circumstance. I borrowed my granddaughter’s cap and gown and had my picture taken in front of DG on Triphammer Rd. Now I’ve graduated properly! We just downsized and moved to a retirement community in independent living only a few miles from where I’ve lived for the last 50 years on Lake Minnetonka.”

Steven Stein sent a photo of his Cornell family, nine of whom are Cornell graduates. The impetus of the family gathering was to attend the graduation of his granddaughter, Mimi Stein ’23 , and to celebrate the family’s gift of a bench in memory of his late wife, Susan (Volpert) ’62 , and himself. “Three Generations of Stein Cornellians, 1961 to 2023.” Wow!

From Pat Laux Richards : “ Jack ’60 and I were thrilled to attend our granddaughter’s Cornell graduation last May. Anderson ‘Annie’ Rogers ’23 graduated from Bowers CIS.”

And, lastly, Marco Minasso writes, “I have great memories of Cornell. So it’s with great pleasure that my granddaughter, Sofia ’27 , is now attending Cornell. That makes five of us alumni in our Cornell extended family: my daughter, her husband, me, and two grandchildren! I’m still in Yonkers and after 60 years in the wine business I still drink wine!” Good for you and Sofia! ❖ Susan Williams Stevens ( email Susan ) | Doug Fuss ( email Doug ) | Alumni Directory .

The College of Veterinary Medicine has established the Stephen J. Ettinger 1962 , DVM 1964, Scholarship in honor of this outstanding veterinarian whose broad-reaching influence has impacted the college and the veterinary profession.

Stephen is considered a founder of specialization in veterinary medicine, having helped establish the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and serving as president of cardiology in that group—from which he received the inaugural lifetime specialty achievement award . He has authored hundreds of journal papers and key foundational textbooks, including Canine Cardiology (1970) and the Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine , the ninth edition of which published in January 2024. He has served on the Cornell University Board of Trustees, the Dean’s Leadership Council, and the Advisory Council and received a Daniel Elmer Salmon Award for Distinguished Alumni Service in 2010.

From San Antonio, TX, John Graybill , MD ’66, sends word that he has retired as emeritus professor of medicine. “I was chief of my division of infectious diseases for six years at University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio and had about 250 peer-reviewed publications, mostly in medical mycology and with AIDS patients, and a lot of non-reviewed publications. I left all of that in 2008. My wife, Sue, and I continue to enjoy retirement. For 30 years we have done medical volunteer work in Mexico, Bogotá, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. We have aged out of the volunteer work but have bought a home in Guatemala and spend 3–5 months a year there. With the hot summers here in Texas, it is great to be in Guatemala at 5,300 feet in the mountains, with a climate like Denver. We love Latino culture. My addictive hobby in Guatemala is growing orchid species, and Guatemala is a great place for it. I tie them to tree branches and have a few on tables, a thousand in all. Up in Texas (not healthy for orchids), I have gotten into HO and N gauge model railroading. My N gauge is coffee-table sized and can go with us when we move sometime, if ever, to a retirement home. I am finally reaching the point of knowing how outdated I am in my profession of clinical academic medicine and am stopping medical journals, medical societies, and ultimately my medical license. Age will claim us all, but orchids and model railroading are good hobbies to have.”

John Abel retired from the Cornell civil engineering faculty in 2004 but continues to live in Ithaca on the west shore of Cayuga Lake. His wife, Lynne (Snyder) , died in 2006, and since 2010 his son Bill has lived with him. “Together we enjoy movies, TV series, travel, and Cornell sports events, as well as lakeside living. We spend holiday seasons with daughter Britt Abel ’91 and her family in the Twin Cities. After 12 years on the board of the Cayuga Lake Watershed Network (mission: to advocate for the health of Cayuga Lake and its watershed in a changing world), I have decided to step aside this coming August. I served as treasurer during eight years of growth, but my proudest accomplishment was through working with three talented interns from Cornell, one each in three of the last four summers. I guided their creation, revision, and updating of two handbooks advising watershed residents how to help alleviate climate change while preserving the quality of the lake.

I am excited to have completed the conversion of our home to fully electric. John Abel ’62

“While writing about the effects of extreme weather on our lake and watershed, I decided to ‘walk the talk’ on climate change. I am excited to have completed the conversion of our home to fully electric using community-subscription solar power from a photovoltaic farm in nearby Newfield, NY. I installed deep geothermal heat pumps, discarded our gas furnace and water heater, upgraded our heating and electric infrastructure, and replaced our gas dryer with a ventless hybrid electric version and our stove with an induction stovetop. We were able to turn off our natural gas connection! I also drive a plug-in hybrid car since 2017.

“I remain active as former president and advisor for the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS), my professional association involving engineers, architects, and researchers. This coming year, after a pandemic hiatus of four years, I will resume international travel to annual IASS symposia, this year in Zurich and next year in Mexico City.

“Daughter Britt, on the faculty of Macalester College, will be teaching in Vienna again this spring semester (fourth time since 2009), and her husband, Scott Burglechner ’91 , is able to join her thanks to his remote work possibility for U.S. Bank. Grandson Will graduated from Colorado College in May and is starting his second social-service job in the Twin Cities while deciding about long-term plans. Granddaughter Natasha Burglechner ’25 will spend her junior spring semester at Cornell’s program in Seville, Spain.”

I’d be in denial if I didn’t admit that we are all beginning to wind down. Still, it is lovely to read the bits and pieces you send along detailing your lives and activities. Please keep them coming—until we can’t.

There’s a snowstorm raging outside my NYC window as I write this late spring column. To bridge this gap, I urge you to check out our class website , where you will find entries posted in a timely fashion in their entirety in our “Classmate News” section. We love to post your photos, so send them along too. ❖ Judy Prenske Rich ( email Judy ) | Alumni Directory .

I think my first sentence for the Class Notes column should be: Please send me news via email at this link ! I am running low on news. The news in this column comes from Christmas cards that I received from Cornell classmates.

Barbara Hartung Wade , MEd ’64, writes, “I was called out of retirement again, to teach two seventh-grade Spanish classes until the end of June 2023.” Even though she was employed, she and her daughter, Kimberly, went to Cancún in February, followed by a trip to Florida with Kimberly and her husband, Bernard. In September, Barbara and a friend had a good trip to Falcon’s Resort in Punta Cana for a week of sun, fun, and golf. In November the family went to their timeshare at the Westin Lagunamar in Cancún for a two-week getaway. “On the third evening there, it was dark and I tripped on an elevated round light in the cement that wasn’t lit and fell. With second-degree friction burns on arms, knees, and shoulder, I was hospitalized for 12 hours with painful surgery to close and clean the wounds.” Barbara had more to say about paying the hospital bill and then the scam involved when she had to change her flight home on Delta. “I’m recovering slowly but grateful it wasn’t worse. These bad experiences are what can happen at our age! We all learn lessons from them.”

Bill and Frankie Campbell Tutt live in Colorado Springs. Frankie writes: “We celebrated our 60th anniversary at our Ohio farm with the entire Campbell clan. We sold our home of 48 years and downsized to a gated community that we love. Going from 5,000 square feet to 3,400 square feet took some dumpsters, but we are in and can accommodate six guests.”

George Ehemann , ME ’66, and Diane Siegenthaler live in Lancaster, PA. “We enjoy visits from grandchildren including our engineering student enrolled at Cornell. We are active in church activities and German Club chorus. Our 60th wedding anniversary is coming up in the fall of 2024. My favorite memory of Cornell was the climb up the frozen gorge at Buttermilk.”

On the Parisian front, I’m teaching at Sorbonne University in the master’s program in orchestra management. Mary Falvey ’63

Mary Falvey splits her time between San Francisco and Paris, France. “On the Parisian front, I’m teaching at Sorbonne University in the master’s program in orchestra management. I gave a seminar there in 2019 and this year the professor asked if I would teach part of the course while he is on sabbatical. I’m giving six seminars together with colleagues of the San Francisco Symphony. I’m continuing as an entrepreneur-in-residence at INSEAD, a global business school in Fontainebleau. I also helped a French startup in the quantum dot space raise Series A financing. This fall I plan to rent a house in Brittany as a successor to my country home in Calistoga, which I sold in 2022, and to add to my three months a year in France. My oldest grandson, Colin, who holds a master’s in environmental engineering from Stanford, was married last year.”

We had dinner before Christmas with Jim , MD ’69, and Christine Newton Dauber . They are now living in a nice senior living facility. Jim writes: “After a 20-year hiatus, Chris and I returned in April to see Monument Valley, Lake Powell, Zion, and Bryce Canyon along with my older sister and her husband. We still spend part of the summer in our condo in Hillsboro, OR. Our Thanksgiving celebration was quiet but appreciated since Nancy Deeds Meister produced a traditional feast for us and her husband. We spent Christmas here in Tucson but traveled to Hillsboro for New Year’s Eve.”

Thanks to finding our home phone number through Mr. Google, we had a wonderful phone conversation with Tom Stirling , JD ’69, a week ago. Tom lives in Honolulu with his wife, Anita. Two recent milestones for Tom: “Upon my February 28 retirement as a Honolulu lawyer, Anita and I were off on a tour of Vietnam and Cambodia at considerably greater expense than my first tour (all paid for by the Army 57 years ago). Also, I just made my 200th blood donation (first time was at Cornell when I was told donors could get out of ROTC drill that day). Since each donation can be used for up to three recipients, I may have more than 500 blood relatives out there somewhere.” ❖ Nancy Bierds Icke ( email Nancy ) | 12350 E. Roger Rd., Tucson, AZ 85749 | Alumni Directory .

Welcome to my last column before our 60th Reunion—so I’m hoping if you have news for your classmates that you will see them at Reunion and regale them in person. Meantime, here’s the news I do have.

Wayne Mezitt , MBA ’66, who lives with wife Elizabeth (Pickering) ’65 in Hopkinton, MA, catches us up on a lot! He writes, “In July 2023, Beth and I published a book, For the Love of Gardening , which describes our family experiences as we commemorate the 100th anniversary of our family business, Weston Nurseries. I retired from full-time management of the nursery in 2007, and since then, our son Peter and his wife, Karen, have managed all operations of the business started by my grandfather and grandmother in 1923, where I still serve as board chairman. I also enjoy ‘playing’ at Hort-Sense, the tiny business I started in 2010 as a personalized horticultural production and advisory service.

“We’re justifiably proud that we’ve been successful in shepherding Weston Nurseries into our fourth generation of family ownership. Passing the business along to our fourth generation enables Beth and me to continue exploring our passions for horticulture, travel, and family/friend relationships.

“I am editor-in-chief for the Leaflet , Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s monthly member electronic newsletter. I also serve as chair of the Massachusetts Invasive Plant Advisory Group, a voluntary collaborative representing organizations and professionals concerned with the conservation of the Massachusetts landscape. Beth manages all our family and social relationships and serves as chair of our Hopkinton Public Library friends organization.

“Our youngest son’s family lives near our ski house in Vermont, and our other three children live near us, enabling us to spend time with our nine grandchildren. In November Beth and I visited New Zealand, where Beth’s dad was born, reconnecting with relatives and enjoying their springtime, just as our Hopkinton winter was setting in. We’re now discussing the possibility for traveling to Latvia, the Mezitt family’s origin, in July, avoiding Hopkinton’s oppressive humidity and heat.

I’ve begun composing a new book about Rhododendron ‘PJM,’ a now well-known plant that my dad, Edmund Mezitt ’37 , BLA ’39, developed decades ago. Wayne Mezitt ’64, MBA ’66

“I’ve also begun composing a new book about Rhododendron ‘PJM,’ a now well-known plant that my dad, Edmund Mezitt ’37 , BLA ’39, developed decades ago at Weston Nurseries. Peter and Karen have just added another garden center operation to our Weston Nurseries ‘family,’ all in Massachusetts, to now include Lincoln, along with Chelmsford, Hingham, and Middleborough, complementing our main base in Hopkinton. We applaud their commitment and enthusiasm!

“We still maintain contact with a number of Wayne’s Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity brothers and Beth’s Kappa Alpha Theta sorority sisters, although several have recently passed away. With all that keeping us busy, we’ve not paid much attention to most aspects of our Cornell experience, but we’ll welcome updates with any of our friends who have been out of touch.”

Next is David Evans , who with wife Sherry lives on St. Simons Island, GA. He writes, “I retired in 2019 after a career in project management services for large corporations providing governmental services to the U.S. government, while also spending 31 years in the Air Force and Air National Guard as a fighter pilot. Currently, Sherry and I are enjoying our retirement in the wonderful beach community, which is 80 miles south of Savannah, where my Welsh ancestors arrived in the 1650s. A shout-out to my freshman roommate Bill Lacy .”

In other news, Phyllis Rivkin Goldman , MS ’67, and Michael Troner are enjoying their retirements in Boston and Miami, respectively. They are co-chairs of the Class of ’64 Annual Fund and are busy planning to reach out to all of our classmates to support the Annual Fund and in particular our Class Legacy: the Class of 1964 JFK Award for Cornell seniors entering public service. They hope for a big turnout for our 60th Reunion and an even bigger response to their requests for support. Each of them has grandchildren at Cornell and the Troners especially look forward to the graduation in May of granddaughter Rachael Ricisak ’24 before our Reunion.

Lastly, a message from our class president, Ken Kupchak , JD ’71: “Sixty years ago this June we shed our obligatory bonds to Cornell. Celebrate we shall at Reunion. Our ‘modest’ footprint, however, continues and remains indelibly printed in Cornell’s story. This is especially true with respect to the then- and now-timely JFK Award. We have just transitioned this charge to a self-perpetuating board composed of our great awardees. This ensures that the Cornell Class of 1964’s influence will survive our playing time on Cornell’s fields. Hope to see you this June. If you ask nicely, I may save some healthy milk punch for you!”

That’s it for now. On behalf of our class officers, we hope to see you at our 60th Reunion on Cornell’s campus on June 6–9, 2024. As for your news, please keep it coming! Update me by email, regular mail, our class website , or our class Facebook page . ❖ Bev Johns Lamont ( email Bev ) | 720 Chestnut St., Deerfield, IL 60015 | Alumni Directory .

From Joan Hens Johnson : “There were 21 people attending the Cornell annual Florida luncheon arranged by Judy Kellner Rushmore in January. We all enjoyed sharing stories and congratulating the class gift committee on the success of the fall 2023 pilot project of our well-being coaching at the Skorton Health Center. This initiative, funded by the Class of 1965 student mental health fund, will continue because the program is so impactful. Jeff Kass , the leader of our gift committee, provided me with an excellent summary that I shared at the luncheon. He wrote, ‘All results thus far indicate our class gift is funding a program with real and positive impact on the lives of current and next-generation Cornellians.’ Students overwhelmingly supported these statements: ‘I am making progress toward my well-being goals’; ‘I am noticing positive changes in myself that are keeping me encouraged’; ‘I am substituting more healthy/helpful thoughts and behaviors for less healthy/helpful thoughts and behaviors.’ The news of the successful pilot program created a positive buzz among all those at the luncheon.”

Commenting on the highlights of the past year, Myron Jacobson spoke of the river cruise he and Michele took from Amsterdam to Budapest “even though the Danube dried up as we finished with a bus!”

Jim Bennett writes, “Failing any meaningful hobby, I’m looking for my fifth consecutive full-time role to give back to Northeast Ohio. It looks like it will be a major initiative funded by the City of Cleveland and private monies to assemble and remediate 1,000 acres of abandoned inner city properties, market individual sites to companies, and provide jobs for a number of economically disadvantaged residents along a five-mile inner city corridor.”

George , MD ’69, and Judy Arangio spent last October in the Italian regions of Piemonte and Tuscano, especially appreciating the Lucca symphony playing Mozart and Puccini operettas and the international truffle festival in Alba, as well as Barolo, Barbaresco, Moscato wine tasting, and visiting sites on Lake Como.

Dave Bridgeman relates, “Karen and I just celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary. The last six years have been the best of our entire lives! The cruises and vacations are nice, but the best part is getting to be with each other in perfect love, peace, and harmony.”

After four years’ absence, Stephen Appell ’65 traveled to Ithaca via the Campus-to-Campus bus for a weekend of Cornell basketball.

Judy Rushmore and Dave Koval and Linda and Walt Gadkowski are moving to Vi at Bentley Village in Naples, FL, where Ashok , ME ’65 , and Fay Thomas Bakhru , MAT ’66 , are already in residence. Before moving, Judy and her family are touring South Africa.

After four years’ absence, Stephen Appell traveled to Ithaca via the Campus-to-Campus bus for a weekend of Cornell basketball—and this time, to root only for the women’s team. Having apprised the Statler staff of the purpose of his visit, they welcomed him with a goodie bag of Cornell souvenirs, including a basketball cap, and made him feel like a VIP. Steve watched the women players defeat Dartmouth the first night and give a good battle to a formidable Harvard team the next. He was gratified that the coaches and players expressed appreciation for his show of support. Steve also saw the women’s team play at Columbia earlier in the season, and on February 10 he traveled to New Haven to see the outstanding men’s team give Yale all it could handle before succumbing in the last four seconds, 80–78, in an epic battle of undefeated Ivy teams.

Steve Hand is another avid Cornell sports fan. He notes that he is a fixture in Ithaca at all Cornell women’s and men’s hockey games. “Steve Appell joined me last weekend for women’s basketball, hockey, Glenwood Pines, and Purity ice cream.” In January, Steve Hand went on a trip to Disney World with his wife, son, and two grandchildren and everyone had a fun time. Thanks to Steve for managing the Cornell Class of ’65 webpage, which has information about classmates and past Reunions and photos, and also the link to find the Cornell Class of 1965 Freshman Register.

The subject of health is important all through our lives, and Bud Suiter , MBA ’67, has just finished reading two books of interest: Young Forever by Dr. Mark Hyman ’82 and Drop Acid by Dr. David Perlmutter. He states: “The books summarize amazing research results, particularly recent stuff over the last five years.”

Applause to Alan Lockwood , MD ’69, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Physicians for Social Responsibility in 2023. Alan is a CAAAN volunteer and frequent contributor to the Lifelong Learning series at Kendal at Oberlin.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the column and please continue to forward your news to: ❖ Joan Hens Johnson ( email Joan ) | Stephen Appell ( email Stephen ) | Alumni Directory .

As we near two years to our 60th Reunion, our classmates continue to report on the various jobs, activities, and travels that make up their lives. Susan Porter Bass never imagined working in farming but reports working in a vineyard and winery. Dick Lockwood , MNS ’68, spent 20 years as a part-time faculty member at Brandeis University’s Heller School. He was a union organizer with classmate Larry Bailis at Brandeis for adjunct and non-tenured faculty.

Currently Dick is a member of the board of directors of the Bullough’s Pond Association, a neighborhood environmental defense organization to keep the pond from becoming a swamp. His current hobbies are ice skating and swimming. Dick visited Vietnam last year with his oldest son, Dan ’94 , to show him the village in the Mekong Delta on the Cambodian border where he lived from 1968–70 with the International Volunteer Organization. He reports that 58 years have changed the country for the better. The family travels to Brazil every year to visit his wife’s family in Salvador, Bahia.

John Cobey has been practicing law for 55 years. He is also chairperson of Neighborhood Health, a charity that provides medical services for the homeless. He also chairs the Hamilton County (OH) Law Library, is on the Art Academy board, is an officer of the Literary Club (the oldest one in America), and is on the Rockdale Temple board. In ’66 he never imagined that he would someday have a lawsuit about an outer space problem—the world has certainly changed. John and his wife have two successful and happy sons.

Ira Sadoff retired as Arthur Jeremiah Roberts Professor of Literature at Colby College in 2015. He remains an active and publishing poet. In 2020, his ninth collection of poems, Country, Living , was published by Alice James Books. This past December the Academy of American Poets published a new poem, “ Thank You .” Ira is passionate about classical music and jazz. He lives near Woodstock, NY, where there’s “good music galore.” He never imagined he would be spending his life as a professor teaching literature and poetry, and writing poetry and criticism, for 50 years. At Cornell, he describes himself as a “poor student” taking all the wrong courses with the wrong professors. At the end of his junior year, he finally had the courage to try writing poetry. He feels blessed to have this lifetime passion.

Dick Lockwood ’66 , MNS ’68, visited Vietnam last year with his oldest son, Dan ’94 , to show him the village where he lived from 1968–70.

After 36 years, Marty Skelly Remis retired from the CDC as a Public Health Advisor, Quarantine Division. She spent 33 years at the Chicago Quarantine Station and three years as Deputy Bureau Chief, Quarantine Branch, Atlanta, GA, retiring in 2008. Although she never imagined living in Florida, she is active in many activities in Sarasota. They include NAMI Sarasota and Manatee Counties, Meals on Wheels, All Faiths Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity, and Key Chorale. She now enjoys playing tennis and mahjong. She and her husband have time to travel. Trips included an Alaska cruise, a vegan Caribbean cruise, and driving 192,000 miles in their Class B RV after she retired. In the summer, they spend time on Tuscarora Lake in Erieville, NY, with the whole family. The family visits them in Florida in winter.

Nancy Decker Stephenson is a retired registered dietician and office manager for a veterinary practice. Her activities include volunteering with meals for the homeless and the DAR. Hobbies now include gardening, reading, classical piano, and travel. She never imagined going to Japan and China. Other countries visited include family visits in the Netherlands, plus trips to Norway, Switzerland, France, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Scotland, Israel, and Colombia. Family activities include annual reunions, vacations, and holiday/birthday get-togethers.

Donna Swarts Piver is a retired educator. She volunteers at a nursing home and critical care facility. She continues to recover from a massive stroke and is making great progress with bi-weekly physical therapy sessions. In mid-December, she traveled to New Jersey to visit Anne Evans Estabrook ’65 , MBA ’66, and other friends. Donna recently moved to the Glenridge, a continuing care complex in Sarasota, FL. She reports that she loves it and the people.

Debby Kirschner Wolf sadly informed us of the passing of her husband, Marty ’63 , DVM ’66. They met at Cornell and were married for 57 years. They were blessed with two children and six grandchildren. Leith Mullings passed away in December 2020. She was an authority on the foundations of racial and class oppression and the intersectionality of race, class, and gender.

Paul Mlotok passed away in March 2021. He was an oil industry analyst who worked for various companies and was an advisor to the Department of State, the CIA, and various OPEC oil ministers. Anthony Rerecich passed away in June 2023. He was a computer programming professional who worked for various banks and computer companies. He was a veteran and accomplished runner, and he enjoyed sailing and genealogy. ❖ Susan Rockford Bittker ( email Susan ) | Pete Salinger , MBA ’68 ( email Pete ) | Alumni Directory .

Larry Dominessy , ME ’68 (Louisville, TN) reports: “I have been retired since my early 50s. I have remained active but have removed working for money from the equation. I have happened on some broad experiences in the military, Peace Corps, and Foreign Service, which built my confidence beyond the impression of a business teacher at Cornell.

“When I studied engineering at Cornell, as a fluke I took an elective in the business school. The teacher was a retired business executive. He had us write a paper and gave personal interviews to critique what we had written. I was in my fifth year at Cornell but basically, he called me an ignoramus with no ability to express myself. It shocked me but it was hard to argue with.

“I enjoy my informal study of recent history and wish I would have known what I am learning now earlier in life. All of the people whom I would like to ask questions of are dead. I guess I can’t blame myself because most of us are too busy with life to appreciate what is going on (good and bad) until it is too late.

“At Cornell, I got the distinct feeling I was in over my head, at least the first couple of years. Struggling with money certainly did not help. I took ROTC, which seemed to be a refuge from tough engineering courses. I did well the first year until I realized I just did not have the time to put in it, and ROTC did not count toward graduation anyhow. I finished second from the bottom of my ROTC class (the other person had a problem keeping in step!), but I still got a commission and a ticket to Vietnam. However, in the end I would not trade my experience of four years in the Army for anything.”

Peter Buchsbaum (Stockton, NJ) writes: “My wife, Elaine, and I, now married 56 years, are joining Dick and Eileen Barkas Hoffman ’69 for a cross-country rail trip in mid-May. Meanwhile, I’ve continued work with Jewish organizations, having been elected to the executive board of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, and I also joined the Commission on Social Action of the Union for Reform Judaism in the U.S.

We spend summers and parts of autumn at our island home near Acadia National Park in Maine. Peter Buchsbaum ’67

“We spend summers and parts of autumn at our island home near Acadia National Park in Maine and are completing 50 years of living in still semirural Hunterdon County, NJ. Our first grandchild is now a 1-year-old living in Rockville, MD. I’m somewhat creakier but still okay, which means I had to do some snow shoveling recently.”

Roger Abrams (University Park, FL), who was professor and dean emeritus of Northeastern University School of Law, previously dean at Rutgers University and Nova University law schools, and on the faculty at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, passed away last November 12. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Roger was an expert on sports and labor law and legal education. He served as a salary arbitrator for Major League Baseball and was a permanent arbitrator for the television, communications, electronics, and coal industries.

Roger practiced labor law, was a civil rights litigation attorney with Boston firm Foley, Hoag & Eliot, and wrote books on alternative dispute resolution, labor arbitration practice, and the business and history of sports, among other subjects. His Sports and the Law has been cited as the leading sports law casebook. A colleague, Libby Navarrete, recalled that Roger was the epitome of a great lawyer, dean, and arbitrator. “He was a very good listener, and always extremely careful and sound with his decisions. He handed out justice with precision.”

Lawrence McGuinn (Westfield, NY) died last November 20. “After graduation,” the Jamestown, NY, Post-Journal reported, “he took over the management of the Wilson Hill Farm and later expanded to establish Lin-Ary Vineyards. Larry enjoyed his lifetime career as a viticulturist. He served for a number of years as secretary and as president of the Westfield Maid Cooperative. Larry was a life member of the Sigma Pi fraternity. He was also a member of the Chautauqua County Cornell Cooperative Extension. Larry enjoyed his family, grape farming, sunsets over Lake Erie, photography, wildlife, the Buffalo Bills, and dogs.” ❖ Richard Hoffman ( email Richard ) | 2925 28th St. NW, Washington, DC 20008 | Alumni Directory .

With spring upon us and summer close by, I have more news from our classmates to share—but we’d like even more news, so please let us know where you are and what you are doing!

Corinne Dopslaff Smith has brought us up to date. She writes, “So very many decades have flown by since graduation that I don’t think I have submitted an update since serving as class correspondent way back in the ’70s.” Corinne remains active in our class and currently serves as our website community manager, a job that did not exist in the ’70s! She will be using this position to help connect classmates who want to reconnect with those they have lost contact with. Expect to hear from Corinne soon as she prepares to embark on this new initiative.

Corrine writes, “The first three decades of my working career—starting immediately after graduation—were spent at IBM, working both with clients internationally (favorite activity) and in internal marketing (not so favorite). About a month after full retirement in 1998, I was bored and initiated a new career, winding up at Milliman, an international actuarial firm. On the personal side, in 1971, I married Bob Smith, the most interesting private pilot/sailor/raconteur/fierce friend you would ever want to meet. No kids, but many, many wonderful doggies. Bob and I attended every Reunion but one, and he grew to love Cornell and all our dear Cornell friends and their spouses as much as I did. We loved living both down the shore in New Jersey and in our apartment near Lincoln Center in NYC. Bob sadly died last April. He is missed by all who knew him—most of all me. I continue to live down the shore (in Spring Lake) and in Manhattan.” Seven DG sisters from our class connect each month with Bernice “Neecy” Bradin as Zoom leader. The group includes Corinne, Neecy, Mary Sander Alden , Mary Jo Bastion Ashley , Beth Deabler Corwin , Susan Clark Norwood , and Janie Wallace Vanneman .

Jay Waks ’68 , JD ’71, his wife, Harriet, and classmate Joan Gottesman Wexler ’68 took to the sidewalks, logging nearly 2,300 miles through year-end 2023.

Susan Norwood writes that after a few years at Tulane University, where she received an MEd in counseling (1972) and served as the program director in the University Center, in 1973 she became the director of guidance and college counseling at an independent school in New Orleans. She was also active as a traveling ERB test consultant, a role she continued in for several years after leaving the independent school in 1995. “Even as I developed a practice as a family mediator, restorative practitioner, and trainer, working in juvenile and family courts, eventually I circled back into schools to apply mediation skills to practice restorative discipline—an alternative to suspension and expulsion. Now pretty much retired since 2016, my time is taken up volunteering for the New Orleans affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, serving on that board as well as conducting family education and support groups and Mental Health First Aid trainings.” Susan also serves on the board of the Center for Restorative Approaches, which provides training and tools for restorative approaches in schools, workplaces, and the criminal justice system. With all that she continues to do, Susan writes that she has the most fun on any given day playing pickleball!

Jay Waks , JD ’71, his wife, Harriet, and classmate Joan Gottesman Wexler turned pandemic isolation into outdoor social occasions by taking to the sidewalks and paths on a wide variety of routes in and around their Larchmont-Mamaroneck, NY, communities, logging, so they say, nearly 2,300 miles through year-end 2023. And Jay reports they are still at it!

Happy to report that Sharon Lawner Weinberg , PhD ’71, and I, Steve , MBA ’70, JD ’71, attended our fourth annual South Florida TEP reunion this past winter, with two other members of our class present, Jane Frommer Gertler (and husband David ’67 , ME ’68) and Gordon Silver . The event was hosted by Richard Marks ’67 , MBA ’68, and wife Carol. Also attending were Rick Bailyn ’67 , MD ’71, and his significant other, Margo Printz-Brandt, Ted Feldmeier ’67 , BS ’71, and wife Joan, Norm Stern ’66 and wife Jo, Norm Stokes ’66 , Lloyd Richard Dropkin ’66 , MD ’70, and wife Joan, Ralph Janis ’66 and wife Rhoda, Norm Meyer ’66 , Mike Caplan ’66 , and Myron Jacobson ’65 . A great time was had by all.

I look forward to receiving more news and updates from all of you! Please email me with news about you and your family that you want to share with our classmates. ❖ Steve Weinberg, MBA ’70, JD ’71 ( email Steve ) | Alumni Directory .

Our 55th Reunion: June 6–9, 2024! Our Reunion chairs, Cindy Nixon Dubose and Sally Knowlton , have been hard at work planning a great Reunion. Cindy writes: “We’ll celebrate our 55th Reunion on June 6–9, and we hope you’ll join us! It will be a great opportunity to enjoy our class events and gatherings, attend University lectures and forums, explore the beautiful campus, and, of course, reconnect with friends and make new ones! We hope you’ll stay in touch, encourage other classmates to attend, and plan to celebrate with us! The registration materials and schedule of events will be sent in April and will have all the details of our weekend. (By the time you read this, you may have already received the materials.) There is early-bird pricing for registration until May 15, so we hope you’ll register early.

“Our class headquarters will be in the brand new, fully air-conditioned Toni Morrison Hall. It has spacious common rooms for socializing and gathering, an incredible dining hall, and a very convenient location in the new North Campus area. For on-campus housing, the single and double rooms are arranged in suites, also with plenty of space and amenities. Our wonderful registration chairs, Larry and Nancy Jenkins Krablin , will be handling the room reservations and the accommodations.

“For those arriving Thursday, we’ll have a casual welcome dinner buffet in the HQ and a traditional ice cream social in the evening. We’ll join together for breakfast in the Morrison Dining Hall on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings. Everyone can attend and participate in our Friday morning class forum with Cornell historian Corey Earle ’07 . We’ll enjoy dinners (catered by the Heights Restaurant) on Friday and Saturday evenings, and a barbeque lunch with entertainment by the Sherwoods. In between our planned events during the weekend, there will be lots of time to explore campus, revisit familiar places, see new sights, and attend other engaging University events and programs. We hope to see you in June to celebrate our 55th together.”

Doug Mock ’69 is very talented with the guitar, harmonica, and kazoo, and if we’re lucky, we’ll get to see and hear him at our Reunion this June.

What a wonderful schedule that’s been planned by Cindy and Sally. If you’ve never been to a Class of 1969 Reunion, it’s never too late! We’re a welcoming group. It’s also worth coming to see all the new buildings and other changes on the Cornell campus.

Our presidents, Greg Baum and Robert Tallo , are asking everyone to consider being an officer for our next Reunion cycle—leading up to our 60th! We are looking for most positions, so feel free to nominate a classmate; we also accept self-nominations! We are definitely looking for a class correspondent.

We heard from our classmate Richard Hagelberg . He has been the CEO of Kidstuff Playsystems for the past 41 years. His wife thinks he should retire! Richard and his wife love to travel, especially on river cruises. His favorite Cornell memory: the camaraderie of the Big Red Band!

At our Zoom meeting this past January, we were entertained by classmate Doug Mock , who played folk songs from the ’60s and ’70s. He’s very talented with the guitar, harmonica, and kazoo, and if we’re lucky, we’ll get to see and hear him at our Reunion this June.

Lastly, fill in those forms and come to Reunion 2024! ❖ Ingrid Dieterle Tyler ( email Ingrid ) | Class website | Alumni Directory .

As I sit at my computer and assemble this column, the most amazing thing currently is that it is the beginning of February and the outdoor temperature here north of Chicago is above 50 °F, with absolutely no piles of dirty snow. It’s more like early spring than mid-winter here.

February is always time for the Cornell Alumni Leadership Conference (CALC), a gathering of class officers and other alumni, this year in Baltimore. Although I won’t be attending, CALC also indicates some milestones for class events. It will be preceded this year by an online meeting of our class officers with one of the most significant items on the agenda being preparations for our 55th Reunion, June 5–8, 2025. Even though, as I write this, Reunion is more than a year away, preliminary planning has already begun. If you have any thoughts or ideas, and wish to be involved or to volunteer, contact Sally Anne Levine , our class president. Find her contact info (and others) through the Alumni Directory .

Ellen Celli Eichleay (Pittsburgh, PA) writes, “I still live in Pittsburgh, where I have always lived, and have a large contingent of friends and family. Since the age of 37, I have walked two miles a day so I am in a lot better shape than many of them—so I spend a lot of time cooking, driving, and helping where I can. With the sudden realization that my twin grandsons were now the age of my father and his brother when they came to the U.S. in 1913, last year I wrote a book for them about the brave journey my grandparents took to come to the U.S. At the age of 30, with two little boys and speaking no English, they started by oxcart, then train, and then to the sister ship of the Titanic , the Olympic . They left the beautiful Casentino valley in Tuscany behind and came to the dirty, gritty town of Monessen, PA, where the steel mills provided work and there was real education for their sons. My uncle and father both went to Carnegie Mellon and graduated first and second in their respective classes and lived the American Dream. So my twin grandsons now have the place, names, and dates correct for future reference.

“I volunteer as a narrator of books with some Western Pennsylvania connection for the Library of Accessible Media, a division of the Carnegie Library. My husband, John ’68 , and I like to travel and we have done a lot in 2023. I only have one child in Pittsburgh, so I also travel to see these twins in North Carolina and my much younger granddaughter in New Mexico. I am very grateful for the charmed life I have led, and I think it all goes back to that decision my grandparents made to leave Italy in 1913.”

I celebrated happily with Bridget Murphy ’70 our 75th birthdays in New York City last summer. Ellen Celli Eichleay ’70

Ellen adds, “I celebrated happily with Bridget Murphy our 75th birthdays in New York City last summer. Bill , ME ’71, and Gail Post Wallis we see with some regularity, and it is always a great time when it happens. We met them for a weekend in Montreal in late September. We were wandering through the museum there and at the end of a corridor was a very modern painting. I asked them if it looked like a hockey mask and when we got up close, its title was ‘Dryden’!”

Continuing the creative energy that seems to envelop our classmates, Larry Kraft (North Springfield, VT) has had his first stage play, a tragicomedy titled Waiting for a Eulogy , both published and performed. This full-length play, which includes references to campus life at Alpha Sigma Phi, is inspired by Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Larry’s play was scheduled to have its “world premiere” by the Springfield (VT) Community Players in April. It has also been accepted for publication by OPEN: Journal of Arts and Letters , which “offers a range of contemporary aesthetic experiences made available through its several media platforms.”

More creative energy is evidenced by Ellen Saltonstall (New York, NY) in the publishing of her fifth book, Empowered Aging: Everyday Yoga Practices for Bone Health, Strength, and Balance. From the press release: “Embrace the journey of remaining active while aging. This comprehensive guide by seasoned yoga therapist Ellen Saltonstall offers a fresh perspective on living with courage, vitality, and grace. Drawing from the wisdom of yoga, this book provides professional guidance, gentle adaptations, and compassionate support to improve your bone health, strength, and balance while enhancing your overall well-being so you can enjoy the fullness of life at any age.”

Yet another creative classmate many of us know is artist Andrea Strongwater (New York, NY). You may remember her as the creator of the Cornell puzzle that was a Reunion memento. Her creativity is now a part of an exhibit at Cornell’s Mann Library called “From Nabokov’s Net.” A noted writer and professor of Russian literature at Cornell from 1948–59, Vladimir Nabokov was also impassioned by butterflies. While in Ithaca, he collected hundreds of specimens from across the U.S., which he donated to the Cornell University Insect Collection. The exhibit, part of which is a selection from his collection, also includes artwork by Andrea, including a butterfly describing in Latin the classification of the butterfly named after Nabokov. This butterfly is also being made into a sticker to be given away and used as a part of the publicity. The exhibit runs through August, so attendees to this year’s Reunion will have the opportunity to see it.

As always, you may contact me directly (see below) or you may use the University’s online news form . ❖ John Cecilia, MBA ’79 ( email John ) | Alumni Directory .

For those of you not on Facebook, you missed splendid images taken by Gilda Klein Linden and her husband, Jeff Krawitz, from their long winter trip to Southeast Asia. I’m glad I don’t have to select a favorite among those from Hong Kong (Victoria Peak, variously shaped double-decker buses, and more neon lights than discos in the ’60s), Cát Bà Island (seafood and cruising), Ha Long Bay, Hue, Mekong River sites, and a Vespa tour of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon, per localspeak), and still more pix from Bangkok, Phnom Penh, and Singapore. Actually, I would choose a favorite from Angkor Wat, the newly restored Hindu Buddhist temple near Siem Reap—if my top picks weren’t all of Gilda herself, a smile beaming in every shot she’s in.

During the pandemic, they traversed the U.S. and along the East Coast in their tow-behind camper trailer. They have now been to all 50 states. As soon as possible after COVID, the two were in the air to Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia. That’s not all. In toto, they’ve cruised the Caribbean, a thousand miles up the Amazon, and from Seville to Lisbon. Some jaunts include family (Tanzania/Zanzibar and London/Cotswolds). More is scheduled this year. She’s been to all seven continents and swum in all seven seas. Considering all the time away, it’s notable that Gilda’s been an EMT with the local ambulance corps near home in Fair Lawn, NJ, for 32 years and also volunteered to give COVID vaccinations in the first 18 months that these were available to the Bergen County Medical Reserve Corps. She can easily see two of her boys: her middle son lives six miles away with his wife and family while the older one and partner have moved to eastern Pennsylvania. Seeing her youngest son and his husband requires flying to London … and we can imagine what a joy that is for this traveling classmate!

Robert Bloch tells us that over last November’s 20–22 weekend, 23 Psi U fraternity brothers, with some of their wives and girlfriends and “wannabe Psi Us from SAE” enjoyed an informal reunion. The death, earlier in 2023, of Barry Cermak prompted them to get together. Attendees from the Class of ’70 were Steve Hirst and Art Walsh . From our class, attendees were Tom and Amy Brereton , Warren and Donna Baker , Leo , ME ’72, and Laurie Bettan Reinsmith ’72 , Eddie Kosteva , MBA ’73, Gary Cokins , and Robert and Nancy Bloch. From the Class of ’72 were Ed and Tracy Marinaro , Mike Jones , Chris Hart , PhD ’83, Chuck Parr , Mike Kozel , David Commito , John Gollon (and his girlfriend, Jen), and Fred Hoefer . Brothers from ’73 were Ed Mace , Kellen Smith , Stu Millheiser , Pete Durkalski , Dick Bell , and Mike Dempster . Joining from SAE were John Morehouse ’72 and Steve Kramer ’72 . Happy stragglers streamed through the State Diner Sunday morning.

Gilda Klein Linden ’71 has been to all seven continents and swum in all seven seas.

A highlight of cocktails and dinner along Cayuga Inlet at the Boatyard Grill included a sampling of fine wine from brother Mike “Vittler” Jones ’72’s Lagunita Vineyard (Amador County, CA). They tailgated the next afternoon and had barbecue at the Antlers after a tour of the old Psi Upsilon house (now repurposed as a grad student residence and activity center). Brothers took side trips to Taughannock and other parks and wandered the campus. They saw much that had changed, yet a demonstration in front of the Straight suggested much had not!

Howard Rodman is still screenwriting (an adaptation of a novel for Amazon Studios), television writing (staffed on “The Idol” from HBO-MAX), novel writing (latest, The Great Eastern, “a sprawling, lavish, literary, 19-century, anti-colonial adventure novel from Melville House”), teaching (professor at USC), and cultural “bureaucrating” (VP of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences). He had been named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Republic of France and this year was promoted from Chevalier (Knight) to Officier.

Some have asked me to report on a Cornell’s Adult University’s January expedition to Antarctica. Ordinarily your correspondent has easy access to words … and words and words. But, in the case of the planet’s southernmost, least-populated, fifth-largest, and most arid continent, I still struggle to articulate the awe of what our merry band experienced aboard the SH Vega . The quiet. A wider range of blues and grays than you can imagine. Vast emptiness. More kinds of ice than you’ve heard of. Nearly no falling snow. Proximity to creatures of land, sea, and air—who were unconcerned as we walked nearby on ice or snow and cruised close on small Zodiacs or our 150-passenger ship. Superb Cornell teaching, exquisitely appointed ship, fine food and drink, and as companionable a group of Cornell alumni and friends as one might like. Because of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, ships operate within the Antarctic treaty system and aim to have minimal impact on the fragile environment. Thus, once we’d left Ushuaia, Argentina, we saw only one other boat as we plied the Beagle Channel and Drake Passage and meandered meaningfully among the icebergs, sea ice, and islands of the Antarctica Peninsula that’s closest to South America. Put this wondrous place on your list and until you get there, explore online. Ask me for the short film of our excursion if you wish. ❖ Elisabeth Kaplan Boas ( email Elisabeth ) | Cara Nash Iason ( email Cara ) | Alumni Directory .

I just returned from the Cornell Alumni Leadership Council (CALC) meeting in Baltimore—something new for me, but, as it turns out, an event that hundreds of alumni from all graduations have been attending repeatedly for years. It was great meeting up with classmates and meeting new friends. Cornellians came from all over the country and even abroad. Among the events I attended was an impressive lecture on leadership during challenging times by four-star general, former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, and distinguished senior lecturer of leadership at the Johnson School, George W. Casey Jr., and an informative discussion of antisemitism and racism on the Cornell campus. A dinner in a nearby restaurant organized by our enthusiastic and energetic class president, Nancy Roistacher , was delicious, but more importantly lots of fun. For those of you in the Class of ’72 who may be interested in attending a future meeting, there is no need to be a class officer or in a leadership position to attend CALC—all Class of ’72 alumni are welcome.

News from our classmates continues to come in. Richard Joslyn , PhD ’77, writes in from Jenkintown, PA, that he retired in 2020 after a 44-year career at Temple University as a professor of political science, associate dean, vice provost, and dean of Temple’s campus in Japan. He recently published a book with Temple Press, called The History of Temple University Japan . Currently he and his wife, Kathleen, get the most satisfaction from taking care of their granddaughter, Anabel, age 13. His summers are spent at a cottage on Keuka Lake, one hour west of Ithaca, where he and Kathleen kayak, drink wine, and have a boat that goes 8 mph! Among his memories of Cornell are singing with the Glee Club and going to hockey games at Lynah Rink, becoming politically active, and standing outside Willard Straight when the students who had occupied it in protest of racism on campus came out bearing guns, thus witnessing, in real life and real time, the famous Newsweek magazine cover photo.

Richard Joslyn ’72 , PhD ’77, spends summers at a cottage on Keuka Lake, one hour west of Ithaca, where he and Kathleen kayak, drink wine, and have a boat that goes 8 mph!

Nancy Kollisch (Rancho Santa Fe, CA) is grateful that everyone in her family is doing well, and that she continues to walk and travel in her retirement. She fondly remembers having a great time at Cornell, despite, she claims, being a “nerd!”—which actually may have been a good thing, she says, for it kept her out of trouble. Clearly, she worked hard and accomplished great things.

Mark Schimelman writes that he retired 12 years ago and is enjoying the freedom and time with his family. He sadly recalls the passing 12 years ago of Joel Shapiro ’73 , his best friend in college (besides his wife, Shelley (Grumet) ’73 ).

Elias Savada , another attendee of CALC, writes in from Bethesda, MD, that after graduation he moved to the Washington, DC, area and settled into a career in film history and archiving, starting with the American Film Institute (then based at the Kennedy Center) and ultimately founding and (still) running the Motion Picture Information Service, which provides about 400 customized copyright research reports annually. He and his wife, Andrea, are still waiting for grandkids as his son, Daniel, and daughter, Shira, have other ideas. Back in 1995 Elias co-wrote Dark Carnival , a biography of film director Tod Browning ( Dracula , Freaks ) that was recently revised into a larger, limited-edition volume (with a paperback due later this year). He writes film reviews and also writes about craft beer.

Keep the news coming. We’re all interested! ❖ Susan Farber Straus ( email Susan ) | Frank Dawson ( email Frank ) | Alex Barna ( email Alex ) | Wes Schulz , ME ’73 ( email Wes ) | Alumni Directory .

By the time you read this, the election will have ended, but I’m hoping our long-serving class president, Paul Cashman , has been elected to the Board of Trustees. He is dedicated to Cornell and would serve everyone well. Go Paul!

Rich Saltz , MBA ’74, our current class co-president, and his spouse, Lynn (Rosenbluth) ’75 , attended the wedding of their daughter Marcy ’06 on Rich’s birthday in a restaurant in Greenwich Village. Marcy married Andrew Ogulnik. Adding to Rich and Lynn’s joy, their son Ted ’12 became engaged to Alyson Stein ’13 .

Vicki Simons writes that COVID helped her feel more attached to Cornell, following the wonderful online offerings. She especially enjoyed Corey Earle ’07 ’s class on “all things Cornell.” Attending the 50th Reunion was the icing on the cake. As an architect, she marveled at the new and exciting buildings on campus, “a literal Who’s Who in architecture.” Vicki has also been traveling since retirement. Her favorite trip was to South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe for a safari. She’s also enjoyed a Cornell trip with alumni to Northern Italy.

Steven Fruchtman , too, has recently returned from a trip to Tanzania, Kenya, and Rwanda. “Wonderful people and fabulous sights.” His three children still bring the most satisfaction these days, as he still works running a biotech company focused on drug discovery. His best memory of Cornell remains meeting his buddy Chuck Keibler .

Mary Gilliland , MAT ’80, has just published a new book of poetry, Ember Days . She is a senior lecturer emeritus at the Knight Institute for Writing. An award-winning poet, she has previously published The Devil’s Fools and The Ruined Walled Castle Garden . She has also received a Council of the Arts Faculty Grant from Cornell, where she created and taught seminars, such as “Ecosystems & Ego Systems” and “America Dreaming.”

It was great to hear Jody Gandolfi ’73 and Bill Cowdery ’73 play piano again after 50 years!

Bill Chamberlain echoed the fun had at the 50th Reunion. He was delighted to connect with friends from his time at Cornell. He heard the cool story of how Greg Kishel and his wife, Karin, met in the Peace Corps. He also caught up with Nancy Roistacher ’72 and Wayne Merkelson , JD ’75, Dave and Patty Miller Ross ’72 , Ed Cobb , Pam Meyers , Bill Welker , MBA ’75, Bill Cowdery , PhD ’89, and Bill Cagney . A special thanks to Nancy and Wayne for putting together a wonderful Risley reunion. It was great to hear Jody Gandolfi and Bill Cowdery play piano again after 50 years! Bill is currently acting in Tracy Letts’s The Minutes . Otherwise, he’s mostly retired and working remotely very part time as a pre-law advisor at Reed College in Oregon.

Laura Davis had the pleasure of screening her latest documentary, Virulent: The Vaccine War , at a recent Cornell Intercampus Vaccine Symposium. It was co-presented by Weill Cornell and the Veterinary College’s Department of Immunology. Virulent examines the consequences of vaccine hesitancy and denial. After it was first screened, the COVID pandemic hit and it “became a very different film, one about the national conversation about vaccine safety and mandates.” We hope to be able to see it soon.

Denise Meridith has been reappointed to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Advisory Council. She’s also continuing her participation with the Cornell Technology Business Network and her long tenure with CAAAN in Arizona. Since retiring from the Bureau of Land Management, she has started two consulting companies.

Ann Prezyna and her spouse, Gordon Lewis, have been adapting their ranch in southeast Arizona as the climate becomes hotter and drier. They purchased a heat pump to replace their propane heat and AC unit and now have an electric bill below $25 a month. They power their EVs with solar panels. Their other home is a houseboat in Seattle. Ann is actively engaged in preserving our natural world. Her law firm, Animal and Earth Advocates, continues to pursue lawsuits to protect the land she loves. She misses the Vietnam War protests, when the community was actively engaged. Ann sees such activism as much needed now.

So be sure to keep us up to date on your life. ❖ Phyllis Haight Grummon ( email Phyllis ) | Dave Ross ( email Dave ) | Pam Meyers ( email Pam ) | Alumni Directory .

In case you’ve missed the emails, our 50th Reunion is this June. (What!) If you haven’t signed up yet and want to go, please do so now. I still remember when my mother, Ethel Potteiger Myers ’35 (who, BTW, knew Martha Van Rensselaer and was there when that hall opened), attended her own 50th in 1985. She was still talking about that when I accompanied her to her 75th in 2010, just a couple of months before our eldest daughter, Annalise ’14 , began her freshman year. So it’s a big deal, and if you haven’t attended Reunion in a while, or ever, please consider joining us. Hey, you don’t want to miss Larry Kleinman and me reliving our DJ days at WVBR when we go back on the air live from our class headquarters at RBG Hall Friday night! Make sure “your” song is included in the 50th Reunion playlist—send your favorite to John Foote ( email John here ).

If you are going, don’t forget to check out what your “Affinity Groups” (sports teams, Greek houses, residential halls, choral/instrumental groups, clubs, etc.) will be doing there. Go to this website and scroll down to “50th Reunion Affinity Outreach” for the complete list. (There are email links in the heading to Mary “Mi” O’Connell and Diane “Kope” Kopelman VerSchure .)

And, whether or not you can attend, don’t forget that this is a wonderful time to consider giving back. Our 50th Reunion campaign co-chairs, Jim Irish and Andrea Glanz , and participation chair David Miller are leading the effort to once again make our class truly notable.

Speaking of getting back together, a number of us “represented” at the Cornell Alumni Leadership Conference (CALC) at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront the last weekend in February, including Beth Allen , former class president Dale Lazar , JD ’77, Ellen Perlmutter , Bill Quain , and me. Dale said afterward, “I enjoyed visiting with our classmates and all of my Cornell friends. It was a great turnout.” Steve Piekarec came up from Northern Virginia Friday night to host the Cornell classes of the ’70s reception at the Pratt Street Ale House (as he did previously), so ’74s were prominent there as well. Although I had attended parts of CALC in the past, when it was in D.C. or Baltimore, this was the first time that I had signed up for the full event (including staying at the Marriott Friday night). As an officer of the Cornell Club of Washington (DC) as well as our class itself, I found it very valuable. The schedule was pretty tight (15 minutes between sessions—like classes!) beginning Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. and all day Saturday, ending with a gathering with Alumni Affairs regional representatives at the hotel bar after CALC officially ended at 5:30 p.m. I recommend it and would go again.

You don’t want to miss Larry Kleinman ’74 and me reliving our DJ days at WVBR when we go back on the air live Friday night [of Reunion]! Jim Schoonmaker ’74

From the mailbox: David Hirschland writes, “I laughed when I saw that Nancy Dworkin Miller ’73 ’s favorite Cornell memory was hearing James Taylor. One of my favorites was Nancy, a percussionist, leading the way to the Big Red Pep Band in ‘Sweet Georgia Brown.’”

Esteban Rosas writes from Mexico, “I remember and miss the infamous ‘Baja Chemical Company’— Blaine Rhodes (‘Cisco’), Robert Hoff (‘the Fat One’), and me (‘Speedy’). We wrote a project for a course in chemical engineering 50 years ago, along with slides and cassettes (no iPhone then). We got a D, but we had so much fun—even the profs wanted a copy to show the new students. Hope we can meet again this coming summer.” Esteban adds, “Cornell has been part of my life, and when I have visited (last in 2017) it feels like taking a refreshing boost for the times to follow. I still work, and I think I will do it till the end. I had some years in recess but got bored and started again. I have a little consulting regional office, and I also participate as an advisor to the company in Washington, DC, of my former roommate from North Campus, Don Gross .”

As for his family, Esteban has one son, two daughters, and three fantastic grandsons; “my pride and joy—they play with me in a jazz band, the Stray Cats. My wife, Rosa, and I will complete 49 years of happy marriage just before our class’s 50th Reunion. Rosa and I are excited to attend Reunion. I will play my sax and acoustic guitar as part of a band on Saturday, June 8, in Klarman Hall. We will play ’70s music for your entertainment. All the class is invited.”

Perry Jacobs has forwarded several links he thought we might like to know about. “To receive the ‘Big Red Thread,’ the recently created newsletter from the Athletics Department covering all of Cornell’s teams, email scl-add@cornell.edu . The intro by Nicki Moore, the new Director of Athletics (and Cornell’s first female AD), is always a fun read.” (Editor’s note: She did a terrific job hosting a panel of Cornell alumni athletes at CALC.) Perry also recommends “Cornell Hockey 401: The History, Art, and Science of Ice Hockey at Cornell” (which you can livestream here ) and the recent Cornellians story about Mike Schafer ’86 , the longest tenured coach in Cornell men’s hockey history.

We thank all for their contributions and invite you to continue to send in your news. ❖ Jim Schoonmaker ( email Jim ) | Molly Miller Ettenger ( email Molly ) | Alumni Directory .

It is mid-February as I write, and I can’t wait until the clocks change so it will be light in the morning and early evening! I am also looking forward to June to go up to Ithaca for Reunion to scout out places and activities that we can use/copy for our 50th Reunion, June 5–8, 2025! Put the dates on your calendar, and get ready to see old friends and definitely new buildings on campus. If you want to get involved with the planning, have an idea for an event, or would like to volunteer for the next five years, please contact me ( Deb Gellman , email me here ) or our Reunion chair, Susan Fulton ( email Susan ).

Last fall, I went to a conference honoring former Cornell history professor Walter LaFeber at Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island. A group of former students discussed many of his works and gave personal anecdotes about his impact on their lives, personally and professionally. One of the presenters was Andrew Rotter . Andy retired from the Colgate University Department of History, where, he says, for nearly 35 years he taught courses in U.S. foreign relations, in the spirit (but without the skill) of his Cornell mentor. He and his wife, Padma Kaimal (Swarthmore ’79), live in Hamilton, NY, where he spends his time writing, jogging, cross-country skiing, sitting on the village planning committee, and teaching in a medium-security prison. He has two adult daughters, a son-in-law and one daughter’s significant other, and two grandsons, ages 6 and 2, all living two hours away in Albany.

In the fall, I also traveled to Washington, DC, for a girls’ weekend with Steffi Feit Gould , Karen Lauterbach , and Ting Magill Kamon . Steffi and husband Perry ’74 had a busy 2023. Son Keith and his wife, Sophie, added daughter Violet to join big brother Miles in April; son Jason married Maddie in May; and they all (including son Andrew ’05 and wife SiChang) went to Portugal in September to help celebrate Steffi’s 70th! Karen and Mark Powers spent his 70th tucked away on a Nat Geo ship off the coast of Iceland. They saw a live volcano spewing lava, breaching whales, and puffins. Mark just published a short story, “Rabbits,” in the literary journal Does It Have Pockets . Ting and Mark Kamon spend lots of time visiting their sons Jake (and spouse Megan) and Mike (and spouse Lindsay), daughter Emily (and spouse Jason), all of their grandchildren, and Kappa and DU friends. Ting is an active member of the Chester River Chorale, which has numerous concerts during the year.

Mark Powers ’75 spent his 70th tucked away on a Nat Geo ship off the coast of Iceland.

I spent Christmas and New Year’s with Lynn Arrison Harrison , which coincided with her birthday. Her son Willie, daughter Katie, and grandson Dean came from Burlington, VT, and Naples, FL, respectively to help us celebrate her 71st! Her son Ridgley was at Disney World with his family but was with Lynn for her 70th. Lynn spends time gardening, kayaking, hiking, and doing various other outdoor activities in Saranac Lake, NY. Pam Hanna writes from Ithaca, NY: “I turned 70 last July. Surprisingly, it was a bit of an existential moment for me. Knowing that (for real!) most of my life is now in the past gave me great pause, more than I ever expected! Certainly more than turning all the other ‘milestones’—i.e., 21, 30, 40, 50, 60. BUT, I got celebrated in style, with a large family gathering including two of our three sons, their partners, and two of our grandkids. We enjoyed Stewart Park, Myers Park in Lansing, a lake cruise, dinner at the Boatyard, and so much more, with a whole crew. I loved every minute! Ithaca cooperated with fine summer weather. Here’s to more birthdays!” Elyse Byron had a party at her favorite bar in Illinois with a great dance band and about 50 friends and family for her 70th. In addition, she spoiled herself with a trip to Antarctica!

Bob Brennan , ME ’76, and wife Claire took the whole family on a vacation to Costa Rica. They took their four kids, the kids’ spouses, and their three grandchildren. They rented a villa for everyone in Tamarindo, on the west coast. They then all went to a resort in Monteverde in the Central Valley area. Sun and sand, then mountains and nature.

Rich Marin , MBA ’76, lives in San Diego, CA, with wife Kim. Even though the kids are in the East, and Kim and he get back east regularly and see lots of Cornell pals, they consider themselves Californians now. Rich spends his time doing lots of investment expert witness work, especially since ending his teaching career (Cornell for 10 years and University of San Diego for three years). “I’ve written several books and write a 1,500-word story for my blog every day.” He does heavy-duty hillside gardening, something he learned working at the Cornell Plantations, when it was called that. His other pastime is riding the hills and deserts on one of his BMW motorcycles. Kim is still singing cabaret both in California and in New York. Last year they traveled to Egypt and Jordan.

I know that many of you celebrated your 70th in grand style and we all would love to live vicariously through those adventures (I know I love to hear the stories). Please share them with your classmates and plan on joining us in Ithaca next year! If your email contact information is “dated,” please send me a note and I will have you updated in the University records, or send updates here . Most of our Reunion updates will be via email so we would love for your contact info to be up to date! ❖ Deb Gellman , MBA ’82 ( email Deb ) | Karen DeMarco Boroff ( email Karen ) | Mitch Frank ( email Mitch ) | Joan Pease ( email Joan ) | Alumni Directory .

Rich Gallagher was one of my first friends on campus, thanks to a pre-freshman-year Wilderness Reflections bike trip on Cape Cod, so it was a treat to hear from him recently. Rich wrote, “It’s been a good while since I sent any class news, so here’s what’s new with me. I discovered that retirement was overrated and am now back in practice part time as a psychotherapist, serving all of New York State via telehealth. Since going back into practice I’ve published a new self-help book ( The Anxiety Journal , Rockridge Press) and presented a new treatment protocol for obsessive-compulsive disorder at a major clinical conference.”

Rich has written many great books of practical psychology, on topics from customer service to improving your small talk to dealing with fears and phobias. You can learn more about him on his website !

Bruce Behounek and his spouse, Diane, live in Yardley, PA. Bruce continues to keep up with medicine, but his greatest satisfaction comes from family time, including with two grandchildren, Mason and Harper. His best memories of Cornell include football, hockey, and lacrosse games. In more news from Pennsylvania, Nancy Arnosti writes that she enjoys “spending time outdoors with people whom I love. I am preparing to retire from my executive compensation consulting practice serving life sciences companies in mid-2024. My children are thriving—both in the Bay Area. I only have to take one trip to visit both. My partner and I are enjoying our 12th year together while living 135 miles apart.” Nancy’s favorite Cornell memories are “ Uri Bronfenbrenner ’38 , Walter LaFeber, David Levitsky, and other inspiring professors—and having friends from all over the U.S.” Happy retirement to you, Nancy!

Martha Frucht Rives and husband Darden are enjoying small-town living in Exeter, NH. Martha writes, “I am making art in my studio, serving on the New Hampshire Art Educators’ Association board, and serving on the Scholastic Art Awards of New Hampshire board. I recently had a show of my artwork at the Levy Gallery in Portsmouth, NH. I am working on promoting my art and having more exhibitions.” (Editor’s note: You can view some of Martha’s stunning artwork here .) Other things that bring Martha satisfaction include her son, Greg, who “is happily living and working in New York City, and bowling, ice skating (yes, I still ice skate at almost 70—great exercise!), playing bridge, and traveling.” Her fond memories of Cornell include “working on the yearbook, taking photos of campus life, being outside on a beautiful day, and having breakfast with friends at the Green Dragon (glazed chocolate donuts—yummy!).” Can confirm—those donuts were great.

Jim Sollecito ’76 procured and donated 280 unique varieties of hydrangea to Cornell, totaling more than 810 plants on the campus.

Amy Lubow reports, “I’m a landlady in Brooklyn, NY. One of my sons also attended Cornell and is now an endocrinologist married to an emergency room doctor.” From Northport, MI, Philip Loud writes that he’s enjoying “projects and building things, from furniture to fences to outbuildings to Adirondack chairs. In retirement, I’m volunteering with our local schooner school-ship organization.” (Must break in again: see schoolship.org for more on this amazing Great Lakes program.) Philip adds, “I had a new titanium knee installed last February and probably will do the second next winter.” His favorite Cornell memories are “my time as a member of Phi Gamma Delta, walking around our beautiful campus … oh, and some classes. Ha.”

Barbara Saunders-Adams is taking satisfaction from writing, reading, tennis, hiking, and friends. She reports that she’s “writing a monthly magazine for the Pelham (NY) Jewish Center and editing, plus leading a monthly Jewish book discussion for the PJC. My son Aaron recently signed a recording contract and is going on tour around the country. My daughter Shira opened a gardening business in the Hudson Valley called Honeybee Horticulture. My husband, Sam, hikes daily on the New Paltz trails with our puppy, Finley.” Barbara’s best memory of Cornell is “hanging out with friends in the Straight, discussing everything.”

Congratulations to John Banner , who writes, “In March 2023, I ran the Tokyo Marathon, thus completing the ‘World Marathon Majors,’ starting with Boston, New York, Chicago, Berlin, London, and, lastly, Tokyo.” John is “project-developing a state-of-the-art energy plaza in Palm Springs, CA, offering green hydrogen for FCEVs (fuel cell electric vehicles) and H2ICEs (hydrogen internal combustion engines), DC fast charging for BEVs (battery electric vehicles), CNG (compressed natural gas), and conventional fuels, for commissioning in late 2025.” And, John adds, “Two movies written by my screenwriter daughter, Rebecca Banner, released in 2023: True Spirit (Netflix) and Space Oddity (Hulu).” Congrats to her, too!

And thank you to Jim Sollecito , who was an ornamental horticulture major at Cornell. He procured and donated 280 unique varieties of hydrangea to Cornell, totaling more than 810 plants on the campus. This is the largest singular planting of a species in the history of Cornell. Professor emerita Nina Bassuk ’74 and members of the Cornell wrestling team also helped to plant the campus hydrangea collection over the last eight years. (If you’d like to view the hydrangeas on campus, you can find maps and walks here .)

Learning a lot of science and living vicariously through your news this time, friends! Please let us know what you have been up to. ❖ Pat Relf Hanavan ( email Pat ) | Lisa Diamant ( email Lisa ) | Alumni Directory .

A few more of our classmates have joined the ranks of retirees and, as expected, continue to engage in a wide range of fun, purpose-filled, and exciting activities. Here’s what’s happening in their lives.

Bill Grant lives in Ponte Vedra, FL, with Cindy, his wife of 37 years. After a successful and varied professional career, Bill retired and in 2022 founded a company called Homes for Hometown Heroes , a real estate firm that “gives back to those who serve.” Bill and Cindy also created Grant Realty, a real estate investment and management company, to manage the goal of passing on their legacy to their four children and 11 grandchildren.

In addition to his real estate work, Bill is very active in Cornell and community volunteer activities. He enjoys meeting prospective Hotelies through his work with CAAAN and he serves on the board of the Cornell Club of Northern Florida. He also spends a lot of time coaching his granddaughters’ YMCA basketball team and enjoys mentoring teenagers to achieve their goals.

With all of that, Bill and Cindy somehow found time last year to take an “epic” 51-day cruise to the South Pacific and French Polynesia. Next up for them is a tour to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

Bill’s favorite memories of Cornell include his graduation day, running into Statler Hall with his fellow graduates and trading his graduation cap for a chef’s hat. Thirty-three years later he proudly watched his son Daniel ’10 graduate from Cornell and receive his commission as the lone Marine Corps Second Lieutenant. Bill is most grateful for his Cornell education and all the amazing Hotelies and Cornellians he’s met along his journey.

Amy Birnbaum writes, “I retired from a long career at CBS News in February 2022. I am reconnecting with old friends and volunteering for political and academic projects. Life is sweet! My husband, Bernard Furnival, and I are traveling more. My daughter is on the West Coast and my son and his fiancée are on Manhattan’s West Side.”

After retiring from a career in biotechnology as a molecular biologist turned medical writer, Linda Gritz started writing Yiddish songs. (You can listen to her songs on YouTube !) This was doubly surprising since she is not fluent in Yiddish and has just a basic knowledge of music. So Linda was extra surprised when she won the People’s Choice Award for Best New Jewish Song at the international Bubbe Awards! This annual award is based on the Grammy awards, and “Grammy” was playfully translated into Yiddish as “Bubbe” (grandma). Linda also came in third in the juried award for Best New Jewish Song. Congratulations, Linda!

Linda Gritz ’77 won the People’s Choice Award for Best New Jewish Song at the international Bubbe Awards!

John Molinda has a lot going on in retirement. He primarily does volunteer work for the energy policy committees for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and American Nuclear Society. Otherwise, John stays involved in activities for Cornell and Carnegie Mellon. He is also active in sports including tennis, golf, skiing, mountain and road biking, and windsurfing and still likes to check out local rock bands.

Catching up with old friends and classmates brings John the most satisfaction these days, and he’s enjoyed a lot of it lately. He writes, “This year has been a 50th high school reunion year for most of us in the Cornell Class of ’77. Four of us from Mount Lebanon High School (Pittsburgh area) Class of ’73 went on to Cornell and three of us made it back for the 50th reunion—including Patty Cox Yeates , MBA ’78, who I had not seen since Cornell days, and Mark Halper , who traveled from his home in England, where he is a freelance journalist and a part-time leader of a band called Ghostweed.”

John also attended the 50th reunion for South Hills Catholic High School Class of ’73, where he spent two years, and caught up with Cornell ’77 classmate Don Lee , BS ’83. John adds, “I consider this 50th high school reunion year a kickoff for the countdown to our own 50th Reunion at Cornell.” I agree, John, and encourage all our classmates to start planning to come back to Ithaca, June 10–13, 2027, for our 50th Reunion!

Jone Sampson writes that she and her husband, Sam Weirich, finally retired in 2021 and built a small home in Bedford, WY. They are enjoying hiking and fishing in the summer and skiing and snowshoeing in the winter. Jone and Sam also love visiting their three daughters, who are scattered across the country in San Francisco, CA, Boulder, CO, and Portland, OR.

In February, Cara Lebowitz Kagan , Karen Wellin , and I attended this year’s Cornell Alumni Leadership Conference, held in Baltimore, MD. It’s always great to connect with some of my fellow class officers, meet fellow alums, learn about what’s happening on campus, and explore a variety of leadership topics. Add to all that a large dose of Big Red spirit and it was a fun, educational, and inspirational weekend.

We enjoy hearing from you and having the opportunity to share your stories with our fellow classmates. Please keep all of your news and views coming in! ❖ Mary Flynn ( email Mary ) | Howie Eisen ( email Howie ) | Alumni Directory .

Greetings, classmates! Thanks to my partner-in-posting, Ilene Shub Lefland , for handling the last two columns. The ’78 inbox wasn’t very full for this column. I tried turning over the laptop and shaking vigorously—no luck. I don’t recommend trying this strategy to find specific emails.

Mike Bernard (Albuquerque, NM) writes: “I took a U.S. Tennis Association seniors class over the summer and started playing tennis for the first time since college. I now walk two rounds of golf a week and play tennis for two hours twice a week and am still gaining weight!” Bruce Clements is also a tennis and golf buff. He’s lived in Saratoga Springs all but nine years of his life. He is inching closer to selling his independent insurance agency. His daughter and son both attended graduate school after Cornell. He has served in the Lions Club for over 40 years, and he continues to compete in golf and tennis.

On the legal front, Mark Green is the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court, the statewide intermediate appellate court in Massachusetts. Mark writes: “On December 5, 2023 (and again on December 12), I was joined on panel by two of my colleagues who are also Cornell alumni: Justice Eric Neyman ’90 and Justice John Englander ’80 . Though the three of us have served together on the Court since Justice Englander’s appointment in December 2017, this was the first occasion on which the three of us sat together on panel, for an ‘all Big Red’ sitting.”

I took a U.S. Tennis Association seniors class over the summer and started playing tennis for the first time since college. Mike Bernard ’78

On the travel front, Scott ’77 and Elaine Zajac Jackson started off 2024 with a Cornell Alumni Travel trip to Antarctica. They started in Buenos Aires and then embarked on the Antarctica cruise with two Cornell professors. They hoped for smooth sailing and lots of penguins and adventures. This is their second Cornell Alumni Travel trip. Their first was “Untamed Alaska” about five years ago. In August 2023, Julian Vrieslander , PhD ’81, and I went to the Netherlands for a reunion with some of his cousins, then went to Italy—and promptly caught COVID. This put a damper on the last leg of the trip in Venice. Fortunately, both of us recovered without any long-term issues.

On March 12, the classes of ’77 and ’78 cosponsored a webinar titled “Seasons of Perfection: Big Red Championship Lacrosse and Richie Moran.” The panel was moderated by our own David Bilmes , who was sports editor of the Cornell Daily Sun . Panelists were Dan Mackesey ’77 and fellow ’78ers Chris Kane and Tom Marino . The fourth panelist was Christian Swezey, author of We Showed Baltimore: The Lacrosse Revolution of the 1970s and Richie Moran’s Big Red (Cornell University Press). Many thanks to Kent Sheng , BA ’82, for helping pull this together.

Not only is Joe Holland , MA ’79, a best-selling author (his latest book is Make Your Own History ) and attorney, but he co-founded Beth-Hark Christian Counseling Center . It is still going strong after nearly 40 years and provides free mental health services, a soup kitchen, and a food pantry. February 23 marked the premiere of Harlem Grace , a short docudrama of his early years serving the neighborhood.

All for now. Stay well and see you in June! ❖ Cindy Fuller , PhD ’92 ( email Cindy ) | Ilene Shub Lefland ( email Ilene ) | Alumni Directory .

Brad Spencer writes, “I am living in D.C. Although I retired from law firm practice a few years back, I have recently become chairman of the board of Melwood Inc.—one of the nation’s largest AbilityOne Contractors with the federal government. Melwood secures employment of disabled individuals through federal contracts, as well as through employment in the private sector. In addition, I have been pleased to work with many dedicated individuals who seek to make affordable housing/independent living for disabled individuals a reality in the nation’s capital and beyond. In all, it is the culmination of this ILRie’s dream of working to create a more fully integrated and inclusive workforce.”

Brad adds, “As my primary hobby, I have been singing with other Washington Cornellians and former CU Glee Club director Scott Tucker in the Washington Men’s Camerata. My new grandson, Easton Yip, was born in Honolulu.” Of his time on the Hill, Brad fondly recalls singing with Jon Wardner , Steve Whitney , Steve Bronfenbrenner , MBA ’81, and Barry Jacobson ’70 , BA ’74, in the Glee Club!

Sharon Flank shares, “Though it’s not where I thought linguistics would take me, I am happily leading research efforts for two projects in personalized medicine using 3D printing—and just notched my 11th patent, this one joint with my younger daughter, Becky Maksimovic ’19 , ME ’20.”

Bill Gallagher writes, “I’m in my fifth year teaching, now at CEVRO Institute in Prague. The weather is very much like Ithaca. I have students from five different countries, so the school has a real international flavor. My American metaphors don’t have quite the same impact as they did back in the U.S., so we’re ‘growing into appreciating each other’ as the semester progresses. Very much a ‘beef and beer’ kind of town—like a big medieval village with a Chapter House every few blocks. I got to visit my first Prague Christmas markets. After the school year, I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at Reunion!”

D. Dina “Debbie” Friedman , BA ’78’s new short-story collection, Immigrants , was published by Creators Press in November 2023. She also has a new poetry collection, Here in Sanctuary—Whirling , out in February 2024. (More info can be found at her website ). Happily retired after many years of teaching business communication at UMass, Amherst, Dina divides her time between writing, social activism, gardening, and caring for her toddler grandchild, Manu. Dina recently completed a memoir, Imperfect Pitch , about her complicated relationship with her musical family legacy, though her years as a Cornell chimesmaster remain a highlight of her time at the Big Red and in her musical life. (See her recent “Chime In” essay !). She also continues to explore how to live a creative life in a creatively challenged universe in her blog, “ Music and Musings .”

As always, everywhere I go I run into Cornell alums! This summer, I met a few on my travels! Leslie Lewit ’79

Leslie Lewit writes, “As always, everywhere I go I run into Cornell alums! This summer (a very busy one), I met a few on my travels! In October, my older sister and I took the Uniworld ‘Enchanted Danube’ River Cruise and the first new friends we met were Roland ’76 and Dona Young . We enjoyed their company and Roland had a lot of fun Cornell stories to share. My husband and I were away for two weeks in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Helsinki, and of course the small group we traveled with from our Temple Sinai of Roslyn (NY) had connections to Cornell too.

“During the year, I enjoy connecting with all the opportunities afforded to us alums via Zoom and in person, including lectures in politics, art, and travel. However, I especially enjoy Big Red Reads —the books and discussions online offer a lot of amazing info and stimulation. I also manage the Temple Sinai Reads program, and I’m a member of a Roslyn/Lloyd’s Neck Harbor women’s book group. I really enjoy walking miles for exercise while listening to books!

“This year, in a period of six months, we had three weddings! My stepdaughter Lindsay Milner (University of Michigan ’14), married Jesse Katz of Tenafly, NJ, on April 8 in Cancun. On July 22, my son, Jacob Lewit (University of Pittsburgh ’15), married Jenna Strauss of Westfield, NJ, at the Park Loft in Oceanport, NJ. Jenna and Jesse went to University of Maryland together and graduated in 2014! And on October 14, my middle stepdaughter, Mariel Milner (Wisconsin ’13), married Joe Spina of Levittown, PA (Penn State ’12) in Livingston Manor, NY. Guess what good and welfare news I may be sharing next year?!

“I am still dabbling in my interior design and space planning business, currently working with a client who’s building in the Hamptons, as well as a few clients in NYC and Roslyn. I have a consulting business reviewing architectural plans for clients who are in the process of renovating or building. My DEA and space planning experience ensure that the new spaces will have adequate traffic flow and space for the clients’ needs and furniture placement, as well as better aesthetics. I am also a LMSW (Adelphi ’02) and have renamed my business Absolute Heads & Homes—because if your head isn’t in the right place, how can you enjoy your home? If you ever want to connect or say hi, I’d love to hear from you. See you all soon!” ❖ Cynthia Ahlgren Shea ( email Cynthia ) | Danna Levy ( email Danna ) | Linda Moses ( email Linda ) | Alumni Directory .

Hail to thee, classmates. Paul Bechly ’s fondest memory of his years at Cornell is “graduating with a BS in chemical engineering. It was a lot of hard work that led to a lot of good outcomes.” One of those outcomes is that he was just elected as a fellow of the American Institute of Chemists. Congratulations!

Paul just completed 30 years working at Morgan Stanley and has no plans on retiring. When his nose is not on the grindstone, he and his wife, Beth Wells, “have been making an effort to travel the world. We have experienced 130 countries and visited all seven continents.” Unlike your indolent correspondent, he “wakes up every morning with a goal to make the day count for something good.”

Beth Rubin reports that it has been a big year for her family: “In May, our younger daughter married her beloved in the redwoods of California. Then I retired from my position as dean of adult and online education at Campbell University, after developing an associate’s and bachelor’s degree program for incarcerated men and women at two prisons in North Carolina. Our success rate was amazing (approximately 60% of those who started completed an associate’s degree, and 80% of those completed a bachelor’s degree); we had graduation for 17 people in the fall. And the State of North Carolina voted to provide $1,000,000 every year to help the program grow in new prisons, ensuring long-term viability and necessary student support.

“My hoped-for relaxing retirement was interrupted by family needs—a sister needing care after major surgery, a father-in-law who passed away suddenly from a heart attack, and a mother who was diagnosed with stage four cancer and died two months later, on Christmas Eve. So, a long year of joy and sadness ended for us. My mother’s funeral gave me the opportunity to reconnect with cousins who we’d long been out of touch with. My husband, Dane McGregor, is, thank heavens, healthy, and our two kids are working their way through graduate programs. I went on Medicare (like so many others) and hope to travel the world for the next 10 years!”

Paul Bechly ’80 was just elected as a fellow of the American Institute of Chemists.

Beth’s favorite memory from her time at Cornell was “being on the women’s ice hockey and rugby teams. Walking home after games, with my hair freezing (in winter); it was so still and beautiful.” Nowadays, she enjoys her body combat lessons at the local Y.

Steve Benjamin , ME ’81, MBA ’82, reports, “In May 2023, our daughter Megan ’10 had her fourth child. Sheri and I love being grandparents to all four of our grandkids. I’ve got the three older ones skiing. And every February for the past seven years, quite a few Fijis from my era meet up at Alta, UT, for some excellent skiing and camaraderie. The group typically includes Dave Ayers , Tom Croskey , Doug Henderson , MBA ’88, and Dave Phelps ’81 . Others have joined us over the years, and we plan to continue this annual tradition until we can’t. We hope the group will continue to grow.”

Brian Fristensky relates, “Love can be found any time in life. In December 2022, I was so happy to marry Teresa Mayer, also a U.S. expat living in Winnipeg. In attendance were both her and my grown children, and her mother in person, and friends and relatives from all over North America by teleconference. 2023 has been a year-long honeymoon of sorts, in France, Monaco, Hawaii, and elsewhere in the continental U.S.” Brian is a professor of genetics at the University of Manitoba, specializing in bioinformatics. His favorite memory from Cornell was “singing with the Glee Club in Sage Chapel … and at Johnny’s Big Red!” These days, he is making memories singing tenor with the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir.

Please write to any of us with any news you’d like to share with the Class of ’80. ❖ David Durfee ( email David ) | Leona Barsky, MS ’81 ( email Leona ) | Dik Saalfeld ( email Dik ) | Chas Horvath, ME ’81 ( email Chas ) | Alumni Directory .

I just had my six-year work anniversary with Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. I’m very proud of the work that I do! Construction of the new Gandel Rehabilitation Center at Hadassah Hospital was rapidly accelerated in the wake of October 7. Originally it was going to be finished in the second or third quarter of 2024, but when the war broke out, it had to be finished yesterday. The first patients began receiving care in January, with plans to double capacity in the coming weeks. Since October 7, Hadassah has raised more than $16 million, with $5.5 million going specifically to expedite the work on the Gandel Center.

Near me in Fort Lauderdale is Steve Greenapple , JD ’84, an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) attorney at SES ESOP Strategies, Stevens & Lee. Steve loved the Chimes concerts on the Hill, the waterfalls (all of them, but most especially Taughannock), and mud-sliding down Libe Slope. He has four great kids, a beautiful marriage, and a career more satisfying than he ever imagined possible. He’s been traveling again—both personal and for business. If you find yourself here in paradise, he hopes you will give him a ring!

This year’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Lecture on campus focused on the importance of understanding and addressing systems of oppression and their impact on multiple identities, including race and gender. Kimberlé Crenshaw , professor of law at the UCLA School of Law and at Columbia Law School, spoke at the event, “The Urgency of Intersectional Justice,” on February 19 in Sage Chapel. Kimberlé is a pioneering scholar and writer on civil rights, critical race theory, Black feminist legal theory, race, racism, and the law. Her work has been foundational in critical race theory and in intersectionality, both terms she coined. She is also known for raising awareness about police violence against Black women through her work with the #SayHerName campaign.

Theresa Kronik Wrobel started an e-bike store with all proceeds going to support the Boys & Girls Clubs of Mercer and Warren counties in New Jersey. She found her passion for biking among the steep hills of her hometown, Ithaca, NY, during her teenage years. She continues now with rides in hilly northwest Mercer and western Hunterdon counties with the Princeton FreeWheelers, and she does mountain bike riding in Utah. In recent years she combined her love of biking with community involvement by volunteering with the Bike Exchange and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Mercer County. She is excited to continue these efforts at Princeton eBikes.

Bob Zeidman (Las Vegas, NV) recently published his firsthand account of the story of his debunking the 2020 election fraud “proof” presented by Mike Lindell and the subsequent arbitration that awarded Bob $5 million. The book is titled Election Hacks . Bob writes, “Lindell, the founder and CEO of MyPillow, publicly declared he had proof of voting machine tampering that threw the 2020 election. Having invented the field of software forensics, I was invited by Lindell in 2021 to examine and verify the alleged proof. What I found was bogus data, manipulated results, and dangerous conspiracy theories.”

Terry Steinberg recently earned her purple sash in kung fu and her green sash in kung fu sword. Kung fu is a great exercise, she says. Terry started out as a beginner, and the practice has improved her strength, flexibility, and balance. She lives in Silver Spring, MD.

Theresa Kronik Wrobel ’81 found her passion for biking among the steep hills of her hometown, Ithaca, NY, during her teenage years.

Peter Zenneck is happy in retirement, spending time in London and on the island of Mustique. Elise Kuebelbeck Johnson and her husband, Roderick, also live in London. Elise’s areas of expertise are healthcare, acupuncture, and shiatsu. To their delight, their five children are also in London.

Lisa Dietrich Zimmerman , DVM ’85, is still working as a part-time veterinarian in Nassau, NY, where she grew up. She does mostly ultrasound and surgery. She and her husband, Bill , DVM ’85 , ski all over the U.S. and participate in masters ski racing for fun. They live on a 300-acre farm and walk on it every day. President Rhodes was an inspiration to her, and she loved his speeches. Her favorite memories are of polo houses and roommates Celeste Starr Frohm ’80 , Julie Hansen ’80 , PhD ’89, Hal Schott ’80 , and Sue Seaman Knight . She also has many fond memories of OTS parties, dancing, partying, and surviving the rigors of vet school.

In New England, Sarah Garlan Johansen is an emergency physician at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH, and faculty at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Living in Etna, NH, she shares that she’s blessed to have had three healthy children, an amazing husband, and a fulfilling emergency medicine career. She adds that she’s grateful for many things, including that she was able to perform for nine years in professional theater, live in a beautiful vacationland, spend a year in NYC with her son while on Broadway, have wonderful adventures like climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, cook many yummy things, and care for many medical students and residents.

Arjun Yodh (Merion Station, PA) tells us that after Cornell, he did his PhD at Harvard and a post-doc at AT&T Bell Labs. Then he joined the physics faculty at University of Pennsylvania, where he has been since 1988. He married Lai Yee Hom in 1986. They are still married and have three kids (grown-up now), Elliott, Jeremy, and Zach. Collectively, they like sports (especially baseball), music (piano), and traveling.

Clay Pittman (Bellbrook, OH) tells us he had two great roommates, Glenn Russo and Carlos Guevara , and really enjoyed their company. His ROTC classmates were great as well, and he really appreciated their friendship and support. After graduation he had a long career in the Air Force as an engineer and pilot. He met his wife at a squadron Christmas party, and he says they have been blessed with six children and a wonderful life together. He retired in 2015 and started a second career in academia. He is still working hard and enjoying the college faculty experience.

Lana Carlsson-Irwin (Wayland, MA) is the co-business owner at Irwin Engineers Inc. Of her time at Cornell, she says she loved summertime going to the reservoir; endless games of mau-mau in those Collegetown digs; the party she threw herself at 106 South Quarry— Mike Pliss ’80 brought his friend, Andy Irwin , ME ’82, who became her husband; playing frisbee on campus with Ellen Wolaner , Mark Amos , and others; and going to the waterfalls with the same gang. Andy and Lana got married graduation weekend. They moved to the Boston area, had three kids, and started their own business, which is now 25 years old. They recently had their first grandchild. They love to travel and continue to explore new places. Lana went to law school too, but she didn’t really like the practice at the major Boston firm and quit to have those kids.

Let us know what’s doing with you—we want to know what’s going on with you, your life, and your daily thoughts! ❖ Betsy Silverfine ( email Betsy ) | Alumni Directory .

Our online memory book has now closed to new entries. If you haven’t yet, or want to again, give it a look to read about old friends and learn more about the fascinating and diverse lives and memories of your classmates.

Manuel Choy of Saratoga Springs, NY, checks in to tell us that he owns a financial planning and investment firm and that his two adult children are now married and engaged, respectively. He enjoys his family, traveling, helping his clients, gardening, and playing basketball. As to his favorite memory from Cornell, his only comment was a big smiley face drawing. That tells it all for a lot of us!

From Corte Madera, CA, Nir Margalit writes to tell us that he is the chief legal officer of a family office investment business. He is one of our classmates who is in the “I still have young children” club, and his biggest satisfaction is his family of wife Jennifer and daughters aged 5 and 8. He enjoyed a “wonderful month in summer 2023 in Israel before the horrible attack.” His favorite memory of Cornell times is “my friendships”; again, heck yeah!

Jennifer Gardiner reports, “On a Christmas trip to visit my three grandchildren (ages 2, 1, and newborn), two of whom live in Virginia, I met up with Steve and Lisa Mummery Crump . They were visiting their daughter and grandson in D.C. We caught up on my life in Charlotte, NC, where I am in my 13th year as the full-time director of the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic at Legal Aid of Arkansas, and the Crumps’ exciting life in Switzerland. I also still play tennis or platform tennis daily, and Lisa still rides horses regularly. I would love to connect with Cornellians closer to home, like in Charlotte!”

The Memphis-based Blues Foundation has named Mark Stenzler ’82 as a recipient of the 2024 Keeping the Blues Alive Award.

Continuing the thread of classmates as authors from Doug Skalka ’s last column, we heard from Mary Ellen Plubell Miller , who lives in Johnson City, TN, with spouse Dan: “I wrote, published, and launched a book in 2023. Fill the Dam Thing Up! Building Connections: Communicating Throughout the Lifecycle of Infrastructure Projects is the story of my seven-year journey as lead communicator on a major ($400 million) infrastructure (dam) project in northeast Tennessee. It’s a communications playbook for project managers and communicators. Cornell gets several mentions! It is available on Amazon in paperback, e-book, and Audible formats.”

The Crumps are not the only classmates living in Switzerland. Mark Stenzler has been recognized for the 35+ years that he has dedicated to putting the blues out there on the airwaves from his base in Bern, Switzerland. The Memphis-based Blues Foundation has named him as a recipient of the 2024 Keeping the Blues Alive Award. This lifetime achievement award was presented to him in January during the 2024 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN.

I can’t improve on the foundation’s announcement: “Mark Stenzler, a native New Yorker and former radio pirate with Radio Free Ithaca, has been a passionate radio broadcaster on both sides of the Atlantic since 1978. In the 1980s, he relocated to Switzerland, where he continued his career in radio. A true blues enthusiast and a staunch supporter of public radio, Stenzler is widely recognized as the host of ‘Blues Zeppelin,’ a program he initiated in 1989. Guided by the motto ‘Working hard to make reality a lot less painful,’ he has dedicated his time and talent to create a blues program that offers a blend of the finest blues music, news, and engaging interviews. The show can be heard on several radio stations, including Radio Bern (RaBe) in Berne, Switzerland; Radio LoRa in Zurich, Switzerland; Diis Radio in Canton Valais, Switzerland; WRFI Community Radio in Ithaca; and CJRO Community Radio in Carlsbad Springs, Ottawa, ON, Canada. Stenzler’s contributions extend beyond the airwaves, as he actively collaborates with numerous festival organizers, music promoters, venues, and blues artists at various stages of their careers. From providing first-time airplay to working with award recipients, including Blues Foundation BMA and KBA winners, Stenzler has played a pivotal role in supporting and nurturing the growth of blues musicians and bringing them to the attention of the global blues community.” ❖ Mark Fernau ( email Mark ) | Nina Kondo ( email Nina ) | Doug Skalka ( email Doug ) | Alumni Directory .

Sylvia Han , CFA, CFP, and CSRIC, our classmate and class council member, led a timely Zoom discussion for our class, “Top 10 Retirement Considerations,” on March 19. Sylvia, who works as a wealth management advisor at Merrill Lynch, notes that “a shift has occurred in retirement planning compared to previous generations.” She discussed important issues like defining a vision, financial planning, investment risks, income source planning, sustainable spending rates, Social Security maximization, healthcare costs, and more. For more information feel free to email your class correspondents below.

Anna Esaki-Smith writes, “I’m a very proud Class of ’83 graduate of the College of Arts & Sciences. I went to the 40th Reunion this past summer and had a great time, reconnecting with both the campus and old friends.” Kudos to Anna, who has written a terrific young adult nonfiction book, Make College Your Superpower: It’s Not Where You Go, It’s What You Know, that was published by Rowman & Littlefield in April 2024. Anna adds, “Most books for teenagers about college are full of tips on writing killer college essays or nailing those SATs. Mine gives students a bird’s-eye view on how a university education connects to a tech-disrupted workplace that values skills and creativity.” A wonderful addition to students’ college prep toolkits! Anna also recently penned a “Chime In” essay for Cornellians , which you can read here .

Congratulations to Helen Schulman ’83 , whose latest book, Lucky Dogs , was selected as one of Oprah’s ten Best Novels of 2023!

Congratulations to Helen Schulman , whose latest book, Lucky Dogs , was selected as one of Oprah’s ten Best Novels of 2023 ! Helen is presently the fiction chair of the Creative Writing Program at the New School in New York City, where she is a tenured professor. Helen is a New York Times best-selling author of seven novels, including Come with Me and This Beautiful Life . She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, Sundance, Aspen Words, and Columbia University.

Neal Moran writes from New Brunswick, NJ. “I retired earlier this year after 36+ years in banking regulation. I’m keeping busy, including starting a blog called ‘ Upon Further Analysis .’ The blog focuses largely on banking, financial markets, and regulation, but also covers sports, culture, and current events.”

Dan Carlucci and wife Ellen write that they are keeping quite busy in medicine and more. Dan is chair of medical specialties at Reliant Medical Group, a division of OptumCare, and a clinical cardiologist. Reliant serves over 300,000 patients in eastern and central Massachusetts; Dan leads more than 100 specialty clinicians. Ellen is vice president, development, marketing, and communications at UMass Memorial Health–Marlborough Hospital. Dan and Ellen love their time in Northborough and Marion, where they can’t wait to re-start summer sailing adventures with their three adult children on the aptly named boat, No Agenda . Speaking of which, Dan is planning a September 2024 sequel to the original No Agenda weekend—look out for invites! ❖ Stewart Glickman ( email Stewart ) | Nancy Korn Freeman ( email Nancy ) | Alyssa Bickler ( email Alyssa ) | Jon Felice ( email Jon ) | Alumni Directory .

We have some great news to share! Deborah Dawson was recently surprised by Nancy Pistole , who flew from California to New York to join her along with Maurya Kilroy and Karen Kwik Kernan for a reunion. They all met freshman year in High Rise 5 and have been dear friends ever since.

Brad Will sends greetings from New York’s beautiful Mid-Hudson Valley! Over the past four years, his spouse, Sari, and he have been “transitioning” to the Finger Lakes region, his “home away from home” for five years in the early 1980s. They love spending time there, so much so that they have purchased land on which to one day build a “deep green” house and a small commercial property in the Village of Dryden, right up the street from Cornell. More recently, they bought a property that will eventually have several homes constructed. “My transition from architect to developer has begun!” he writes. It’s been an exciting phase, says Brad, and they have a two-bedroom apartment available for travelers to their old school at their “Little House on the Lot” in Dryden. At the time of this writing, Brad was looking forward to their annual BArch dinner in NYC and their trek to RPI to watch the amazing Cornell men’s hockey team take on the Engineers in early February 2024. Big Red almost always prevails! This year has been active and interesting, with projects advancing in both regions—houses, hotels, restaurants, and subdivisions. Seeing good friends is always a great treat, as they did in New Hampshire last summer and in Texas last fall. They look forward to an even more exciting year ahead, with many milestones pending. Is Brad retiring? “No, not yet—much to do!”

Timothy Brown ’84 , MBA ’92, set his first-ever novel at Cornell.

Timothy Brown , MBA ’92, has a very Big Red family! He is a dual-degree Cornellian himself (Arts ’84, MBA ’92), married to another, Nancy (Grambow) ’85 , PhD ’94. In fact, between his wife’s parents and sisters, his brothers, and their daughter, his family has a combined total of 13 degrees from Cornell! Further, his father-in-law, Richard Grambow ’55 , DVM ’57, received the Frank H.T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award and the Salmon Award for Distinguished Alumni Service. Thus, it was only fitting that Timothy set his first-ever novel at Cornell. He initially self-published it as A Bolt from the Blue , but recently had it professionally edited and republished under a more distinct title, Cloning the King . It is a scientific/history thriller that explores the nexus of breakthrough cloning technology and medieval history.

Hope to see you at Reunion 2024 next month, June 6–9! And, don’t hesitate to write to your class correspondent: ❖ José Nieves ( email José ) | Alumni Directory .

Hello, fellow 1985ers! Hope all are doing well. I do have a bunch of news from fellow alums, so here you go!

Amy Smith Linton wrote in that she has been busy promoting her first book , She Taught Me Everything . The most enjoyable part for her has been showing up as a guest at book clubs, either via phone or in person, to talk about her novel.

Richard Tuchman reports that he and his wife, Cynthia, retired last year in celebration of their 30th wedding anniversary. They are currently raising puppies in Connecticut. Rick retired from a career in philanthropy, which he describes as “doing well while doing good.”

Susan Stevens Gebo has recently married. She has written, under the pen name S.M. Stevens, a novelette called The Wallace House of Pain , which received a 2023 American Fiction Award. The same story was adapted into a stage script, published by Choeofpleirn Press in their autumn 2023 issue. The characters in the novelette are also featured in her forthcoming novel, Beautiful and Terrible Things (Black Rose Writing, July 2024).

Maria Gallo Ashbrook writes, “The Class of 2023 Commencement weekend was sublime … a string of rare sunny days when Cornell truly is the most beautiful campus on earth. My son, John ’23 , graduated as a government and China and Asia-Pacific studies major (yes, that Mandarin in seventh grade paid off!) and joins big brother Keenan ’20 in D.C. to begin his career. This, of course, warms my little Cornell-in-Washington (’84) heart. I’ve attended nine Cornell Commencements of family and friends, beginning in 1974. This graduation weekend was extra special because we returned to my hometown of Auburn, with festivities across Cayuga, Owasco, and Skaneateles lakes. I guess you can take the girl out of the Finger Lakes, but you can’t take the Finger Lakes out of the girl!”

Virginia Scarola , Maryellen Magee , and Joyce Zelkowitz Cornett had an impromptu reunion in Atlanta when the Cornell Big Red baseball team took on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Apparently, back in 1991, Cornell defeated second-ranked Georgia Tech, shocking the collegiate baseball world at the time. It took Tech 33 years to overcome the pain and invite the Big Red to Atlanta. Unfortunately, the Big Red lost the first game, though they had been dominating Tech for most of the game. They lost the second game, which we saw after a great pre-game tailgate catered by SmoQ’n Hot Grill owned by Hotelie David Smith ’81 . Nick Salpekar ’96 of Highland Fine Wine and Alan LeBlanc ’84 , who owns Bold Monk Brewing Company, provided wine and beer. Robert Mandelbam ’81 and Mike Fleury ’78 were great hosts for the event! Cornell did take the third game!

The Class of 2023 Commencement weekend was sublime … a string of rare sunny days when Cornell truly is the most beautiful campus on earth. Maria Gallo Ashbrook ’85

Erin O’Connor writes, “ Gail Fink is the CEMS Program Director at Cornell’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, and she travels every December to participate in the graduation ceremonies of her students. CEMS is a global alliance of leading business schools, multinational companies, and NGOs that together offer the CEMS Master’s in International Management. Gail’s friends look forward to attaching their adventures to her travels. This year graduation was in London, so several of us made a trip to enjoy the Cotswolds together. Linda Kao , Susan Herlands Holland and husband Ron Preville, Jim , DVM ’90, and Cheryl Senecal Smith , and me and my partner, Brian Garrett , rented a fabulous Airbnb called the Scotland End Barn in the town of Banbury-Hook Norton for a few days of fun, togetherness, and exploration. Driving was a challenge: thanks to Jim and Ron especially for avoiding oncoming traffic in the wrong lane and near misses with wildlife.

“We visited several towns (and yes, tried to find where the Beckhams lived) with lovely names like Cheltenham, Bourton-on-the-Water, Moreton-in-Marsh, and Chipping Norton. When in England, one must have Sunday roast, and we booked at the Horse and Groom in Bourton-on-the-Hill. Even though we first landed at two different places in the Cotswolds with the same name, we eventually all made it to the same pub and delighted in a very tasty, traditional meal.

“We took full advantage of leaving the car at the BnB and walking to the local venues in our base hometown, but the best had to be our trivia night at the Pear Tree Inn. Naming our team ‘The Yanks,’ we competed with four local teams. When we arrived, the very young bartender texted his mom to hurry and get there because ‘a lot of Americans just showed up.’ A wild time was spent trying to outguess our competitors and the game was tight. We were victorious and became the ‘Damn Yankees’!

“It was such a fabulous time—so wonderful to continue to connect with friends we made when we were so young and have continued to connect with over the years. We mean something to each other, all beginning with our landing in each other’s spheres at our beloved university. Turning 60 in 2023 turned out to be a fantastic celebration that lasted the whole year as we crossed this milestone together.”

Please be sure to send me your news and make a plan to come to Reunion next year! ❖ Joyce Zelkowitz Cornett ( email Joyce ) | Alumni Directory .

My mailbox brings but a few notes from classmates, but lucky for you I have had many Cornell interactions since the start of the New Year.

Our two classmates who wrote in likely had time because they both joined the ranks of the retirees! Elsa Waymer Dempsey retired from technology sales last year and continues to enjoy the good life in Florida. She has been in her husband’s hometown of Venice, FL, for the last 30 years. She and her husband enjoy tennis, gardening, and traveling with their twin daughters, Laura and Erica. Elsa has fond memories of her many friends from field hockey, lacrosse, Pi Phi, and even engineering classes.

Chris Arbogast wanted us to know that, since retiring from software engineering last summer, he has been spending his time sprucing up his home in Nevada.

For many of us, 2024 will bring the opportunity to celebrate an important birthday (if we have not celebrated it already). I wrote this column on February 29, having turned the big SIX-O yesterday. The celebration of Toby-Fest began last month when my husband, Robert Mandelbaum ’81 , and I celebrated our quasiquicentennial (125th) birthday together by hosting a dinner for our friends. We were joined by Steve Kirson from our class, as well as Lynn Mandelbaum ’77 , David Smith ’81 , Jack Chen ’84 , MD ’88, Kathryn Whitbourne ’85 , Frank Goldman ’87 , JD ’94, and Tim , MPS ’88 , and Karen Burkhart Dick , MBA ’13 . Two weeks later, we joined Lori Goldwasser Leiman and her husband, Jose, and Barry Greenblatt ’85 and his bride, Karen, on a brief but celebratory voyage to the Bahamas. Lori, Karen, and I have known each other for over 50 years and have birthdays within six weeks of one another. The winner of the year’s best Facebook birthday greeting was Mark Katz , who likes to remind me of the great fire in Low Rise 9 in December 1982. Mark wrote: “Happy milestone birthday, Toby! Whatever you do, don’t put the appropriate number of candles on a cake and leave the room unattended.” Don’t worry, Mark—there was but one candle on my ice cream scoop last night.

I was thrilled to meet former Big Red pitcher Rob Nelson ’71 , the creator of Big League Chew. Toby Goldsmith ’86

This past weekend, the Cornell Alumni Association of Atlanta hosted the Cornell baseball team when they played a three-game series against Georgia Tech. Families and alumni were treated to tasty tailgating events hosted by David Smith ’81 and Nick Salpekar ’96 . Our team ended on a high note, likely buoyed by the wonderful dinner hosted by Alan LeBlanc ’84 on Saturday night at his restaurant, Bold Monk Brewing Company. The dinner was attended by several members of the 1991 ball team who were the last to play against Georgia Tech. I was thrilled to meet former Big Red pitcher Rob Nelson ’71 , the creator of Big League Chew.

I am very lucky to live in a community with a very active Cornell Club with a variety of events being held throughout the year that offer the opportunity to build friendships with Cornellians from a variety of classes. I hope this column inspires you to write your class correspondents with tales of your 60th birthday bashes and Cornell events. ❖ Toby Goldsmith ( email Toby ) | Lori Spydell Wagner ( email Lori ) | Michael Wagner ( email Michael ) | Alumni Directory .

Welcome to another edition of “What are my classmates up to and why haven’t I sent an update to Whitney and Liz?” Just a reminder that our classmates want to know what you are doing—and a reminder that it doesn’t need to be a major life event! Here’s the latest from my inbox.

Jill Feasley wrote that she and Diane Hirschhorn recently completed RAGBRAI, a 500-plus-mile bike ride across the entire State of Iowa. “After graduation, we promised to visit each other in person at least once a year. For a long time, she would visit me in D.C., or I would visit her on the West Coast. When we turned 40, she suggested we could ‘go somewhere else.’ So, I came up with a 50-year plan to visit all 50 states alphabetically and this year we are up to Iowa. We hope to visit Wyoming when we are 90!”

Jeff Cohen just returned from his annual skip trip out west (Park City this year) with a whole bunch of Kappa Sigs. Those joining Jeff this year included Barry Silverman , Brian Kraff , Dave Alexander , Dave Price , David Andrade , Gabe Boyar , Greg Kennedy , Gregg Rockower , Joe Gottlieb , Randy Wolpert ’86 , Jay Goldstein ’86 , and Rick Bullotta ’84 , BS ’85. In Jeff’s own words, “It’s good to know that even while all of us have grown up, and life has steered us in different directions, we can all interact with each other as if we were all sophomores living in the house together. We just go to bed much earlier.”

Lisa Rathmann Stewart and husband Mike enjoyed catching up in person with several Tri Delta classmates during their 52-day national parks road trip in June/July 2023 from San Diego, CA, to Minneapolis, MN, in their Toyota Sienna “converted” minivan. Unbeknownst to them, Taylor Swift was in concert in Minneapolis the same weekend as Lisa’s Kiwanis Convention, which made walking the streets of Minneapolis a bit more colorful seeing the “Swifties” in costume. While in Minneapolis they enjoyed visiting with Kate St. Vincent Vogl and Debbie Brown ’88 and their spouses. Heading west, they stopped in Moscow, ID, for a visit with Lisa’s parents, Dan ’56 , BChemE ’57, and Pat Lasky Rathmann ’59 . Lisa and Mike ended their road trip with a visit with Tri Delta classmates Chris Neimeth Heijenga and Heidi Heasley Ford and their spouses in Mt. Hood, OR. In July 2024, the Stewarts are looking forward to their next road trip destination in Denver, CO, where they plan to connect with Karen McBride Cleary and Dianne DeMallie in Colorado Springs while exploring the national parks in Colorado. Lisa says, “It’s been so much fun to connect with Tri Deltas while on the road. I highly recommend this as a retirement activity!”

Jill Feasley ’87 and Diane Hirschhorn ’87 recently completed a 500-plus-mile bike ride across the entire State of Iowa.

Alexa Coin Florence shared that she continues to enjoy her staging and design work, including overseeing the design of their new brewery (Great River Brewery) in downtown Davenport, IA. This is a reboot after flooding forced them to close in 2019. “I did manage to perform in one show last February, Barefoot in the Park ; it was a blast and I hope to find (and get cast in) some other production this year. We spend a lot of time with and caring for our elderly parents. While difficult, we cherish this remaining time we have with them. We took two great family trips last year: spring break in New Orleans and in August, Munich, Salzburg, and Vienna. Scott ’88 and I also have tried to go on quarterly long-weekend getaways that have really helped us take a break from our daily responsibilities/concerns.” Their oldest child, Ben, lives in NYC and works for Broadbeam Media. He’s also founded a startup and his own marketing group. Alexa’s youngest, Gabe, is a sophomore at Iowa State University, studying culinary food science. Scott continues to work on growing their business—pizza and specialty baking lines—while they work on reopening their brewery.

Joanne Cappucci Penne , MBA ’93, has been enjoying her work as an independent strategy and innovation consultant for the last 10 years for the Innovation Umbrella . Her oldest, Matt, is a sophomore (engineer) at Vanderbilt, and her youngest, Grace, is a sophomore in high school (with a driver’s license, so out the door every day …). Their 2023 highlight is that they are now a TWO-dog family. Luna is a beautiful 3-year-old Lab, and Toaster is a scrappy, cute rescue. They are inseparable and adorable and provide ongoing entertainment!

Our class council continues to sponsor online webinars to keep us informed, connected, and involved. I hope you will join one in the future and spread the word to your classmates. Keep in touch and continue to share your news by emailing either of us: ❖ Whitney Weinstein Goodman ( email Whitney ) | Liz Brown, JD ’90 ( email Liz ) | Alumni Directory .

Greetings, Class of ’88! I want to start out this column by inviting you to join our Class of ’88 Facebook group . It is a great way to stay in touch with our class, reconnect with old friends, and be the first to hear about upcoming events.

Now, onto the latest news from both near and far. Cindy Bishop Christian and her husband, Joe, moved to Tucson, AZ, in November 2020 from Minneapolis, MN. They recently finished a kitchen renovation and are working on landscaping their surroundings, filled with beautiful cactus plants. They love biking, the Sonoran Desert, and beautiful sunsets. Cindy still works at her family business, Brick Meets Click. Her son, Sean, is an avid competitive cyclist, and he attends Arizona State University online so he can race in Europe with Aevolo and USA Cycling U23 teams. Her daughter, Anna, attends Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta, GA, and also races on her university cycling team. Cindy joined the Cornell Club of Southern Arizona and invites any classmates living in the area to join.

Back on Cornell’s Ithaca campus, Beth Milles , associate professor of Performing and Media Arts, directed the production of Desdemona in the fall to celebrate the 30th anniversary of famed Cornellian Toni Morrison , MA ’55 ’s Nobel Prize. Beth is the founder of Banter Company, which adapts classical theater shows for the modern audience. She joined the Cornell faculty in 2001. During the span of her theatrical career, Beth has guest lectured at Harvard University, Brown University, the University of Texas, Austin, Southern Connecticut State University, and Loyola Marymount University. We look forward to hearing about more upcoming theatrical productions.

Harlan Protass writes in from New York City, where he is a criminal defense lawyer and runs his own firm. He is also an adjunct professor at Cardozo School of Law, where he teaches a seminar on federal sentencing guidelines. He has two kids, a daughter, 8, and a son, 10, with his wife who is a literature professor at the CUNY Graduate Center. Every January for the past dozen years, Harlan returns to Ithaca to attend a hockey game with his Alpha Sigma Phi (Rockledge) brothers. “We spend the weekend laughing.” Harlan also noted that “the level of development in Collegetown is a bit shocking. It’s virtually unrecognizable from the 1980s. And, sadly, none of our watering holes still exist.”

Andrew Turner ’88 , MPS ’93, has been appointed the director of Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Speaking of Cornell’s hockey team: Save the date for the next Frozen Apple hockey game on November 30, 2024 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It’s a wonderful event to get together with fellow Cornellians and cheer on our men’s hockey team. This year’s game was well attended by ’88s and Cornellians from other graduating years.

News flash from Ithaca: Andrew Turner , MPS ’93, has been appointed the director of Cornell Cooperative Extension and associate dean for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Human Ecology. He began his five-year term on December 1, 2023. In his new role, Andrew will oversee the development and setup of several programs including food systems, nutrition, and sustainable energy for Cornell Cooperative Extension, which has a presence in every county in the State of New York. For the past few years, he has worked with and led the New York State 4-H youth development programs. Good luck, Andrew, in your new position on Cornell’s Ithaca campus.

Traci Nagle earned her PhD in linguistics at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. After teaching for a couple of years, she realized “teaching was not my passion,” so she shifted to administration and now works in the research development office at Indiana University, where she works with faculty to get funding for their research. Recently, Traci was at a conference in Denver and she hung out with Larry Goldman at the beautiful botanical gardens. During Reunion weekend, she was thrilled to reconnect with her freshman roommate Sue Henry Muldoon . They laughed and danced the night away with Jake White and his wife, Sharon Rose. Last fall, Traci spent a weekend in New York City with Lori May and Gail Frieden Le Coz . Lori lives in Columbus, OH, and works as a business analyst for a corporate credit union. Meanwhile, Gail was visiting from her home in London. Together they enjoyed two Broadway shows and dined on New York style-bagels.

That’s all for now from Toronto, Canada, where the spring flowers are blooming. Please keep sending your news to me. I love hearing from our classmates both near and far. ❖ Pamela Darer Anderson ( email Pam ) | Alumni Directory .

As this issue of Cornellians is released, we are about one month away from Reunion 2024! Our indefatigable Reunion chairs— Shannon Gallivan Bol , Carol Borack Copenhaver , Debbie Schaffel , and Dave Scher —have been working for months already. Menus are planned, entertainment is scheduled, housing is being finalized. And the dust is about to be blown gently off the ancient tome containing the magic sunshine spell that is always cast immediately before the planes land and the cars pull into Ithaca. So check your calendar now. There’s just enough time. Come back and visit the Straight—the true home of facetime. “Test” the Suspension Bridge. Listen to the Chimes. (“Groovy Kind of Love” anyone? Maybe not …) Join the rest of us for what is sure to be an all-too-brief weekend of fun, relaxation, great memories, and old friends (plus plenty of new ones too because everyone has at least one very Big Red thing in common).

Now for a wee bit of news from our classmates. (At Reunion you get and share lots and lots of news, by the way.)

One of our illustrious Reunion chairs, Shannon Gallivan Bol (a woman with the heart of an explorer), writes, “I love when road trips take you to places where you have friends! I saw Carol Borack Copenhaver last fall and I also got to visit with Denise Host , who lives in Suwannee, GA. I recently relocated to New Jersey as the result of a new job. I’m excited to be living near many Cornell friends, including Karen Leshowitz Colonna and Michele Dowling Johnson . I started working for Prime Healthcare as regional vice president, managed care. I’m responsible for region two, which is basically the Northeast with hospitals in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.”

Another faithful attendee of Reunions past, Doug Merrill , ME ’90, MBA ’91, recently joined the University of Vermont as its regional innovation officer. In this role, Doug leads the GaN Semiconductor Tech Hub that was designated by the U.S. Department of Commerce in October 2023. Doug is looking forward to helping UVM integrate more fully with the technology and manufacturing firms in the region. Doug and Lisa (Peskin) ’90 have lived in Shelburne, VT, for 18 years. Older son Alex ’21 , ME ’21, just moved to Seattle to start a new job with SpaceX. Younger son Jack ’24 is in his senior year at Cornell, studying computer science. Doug and Lisa are fortunate to have Chris Ford and Emily and Bill Kallock ’90 living nearby and see them often in the Green Mountains or on Lake Champlain.

Lisa Spellman Porter ’89 has received numerous awards, including the National Science Foundation Career Award.

Lisa Spellman Porter has also shared that she has a new professional position—associate dean for faculty and graduate affairs for the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon, where she has been on faculty since 1997. In this new role, Lisa provides strategic direction and manages matters related to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty in the college. Upon hearing this news, I let my fingers wander around the old Internet a bit and learned some things that the ever-modest and unassuming Lisa did not go out of her way to share. For instance, she has received numerous awards during her career, including the National Science Foundation Career Award, Visiting Professor for Women in the Engineering Sciences awarded by the Swedish Research Council, and the Carnegie Mellon Order of the May. According to Dean Bill Sanders, “Lisa is an exceptionally thoughtful and effective leader who has built strong working relationships across campus and has demonstrated exceptional commitment to Carnegie Mellon and the broader academic community.”

And lastly, Melinda Fellner took advantage of the online news form to share the following: “I am thrilled to announce my youngest son Simon’s acceptance to the College of Arts and Sciences for the Class of 2028! Simon follows his brother Miles ’25 and his brother Harry ’22 ! I am the chair of the tax department at Carter Ledyard and Milburn in New York City. Best to all in 2024!”

Thanks for the good wishes and for using the online news form , Melinda! We hope you all will spend a minute or two filling out the form to let us know what you’ve been up to (work, hobbies, day-to-day life, etc.), what’s giving you the most satisfaction lately, what some of your favorite Cornell memories are, and any other bits and pieces that fill us in on you. We’re eager to hear! ❖ Kris Borovicka Gerig ( email Kris ) | Anne Czaplinski Treadwell ( email Anne ) | Lauren Kidder McGarry ( email Lauren ) | Stephanie Bloom Avidon ( email Stephanie ) | Alumni Directory .

We start this column with a message from class president Caroline Misciagna Sussman : “Calling all classmates! Dust off your devices—it is time to start planning for our 35th Reunion—and we need you! Reunion 2025 will be a doubly significant one since we were unable to hold an in-person gathering in 2020. We are anticipating a huge turnout, and we want the event to be like no other!

“It will be 10 years since we have had the opportunity to come together as a class. With all that has changed in the world since 2015, we feel a heightened sense of urgency to make this Reunion truly exceptional from every angle, and we would greatly appreciate your help in doing so. The spectacular plan we had in place for 2020 will serve as a launching point for Reunion 2025. Mark your calendars, save the date: June 5–8, 2025, and help us create an unforgettable weekend of memory making!”

Our class council and Reunion chairs are gearing up for the Reunion planning kickoff meeting on October 5. We’ve got a lot to do before then, namely fundraising and building social media connections. If you would like to help with Reunion planning, please contact one of our Reunion chairs, Dave Coyne or Elinor Langfelder Schwind . If you have stayed well-connected and can help build our affinity group and class connections on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms, contact class correspondent Rose Tanasugarn or web community manager Kristyn Benzinger Whitney . If you can serve on the fundraising committee and contact classmates to encourage contributions to our class, please contact Cornell Annual Fund co-chair Karen Mitchell . They can all be reached at cornellclass90@gmail.com .

Last fall, Karen became chief human resources officer at Newmark, a NYC commercial real estate advisory firm. She and husband Rob Chodock ’89 plan to celebrate both their 25th anniversary and son Hudson’s bar mitzvah in southern Spain, where Rob spent a semester abroad. Karen regularly catches up with our Chi Omega sisters Maria Scaltro , MBA ’02, Kristen Alloway Sokol , Alisa “Gil” Gilhooley Brown , Marla Spindel , Jennifer Radner Elgin , and Tracy Dillmann Kulikowski at her house in Rhode Island or during their annual trip to Mexico.

In February, I caught up with Cornell Asian Alumni Association secretary Ivan Sim ’95 and vice president of community engagement Charles Wu ’91 at a rain-postponed Cornell Cares beach clean-up. About 20 Cornellians, family, and friends from the Cornell Club of Los Angeles gathered at Cabrillo Beach to help Heal the Bay, an environmental nonprofit organization that has been dedicated to making the coastal waters and watersheds in Greater Los Angeles safe, healthy, and clean since 1985.

Representing the U.S. at the 2013 and 2017 World Maccabiah Games in Israel, Monte Frank ’90 , JD ’93, won four silver medals and two bronze medals.

Angel Orengo and I belatedly celebrated our February birthdays over breakfast at Plateia on the UCLA campus. I met Angel’s lovely wife, Rocio Aquino, and although it was the first time I had met them, I felt an instant connection. It turns out that Angel and his family lived in Hong Kong for six years during his time with Sony Pictures. They occasionally visited Osaka and Kyoto, as Angel supervised a distribution sales team in Japan. They are the proud parents of incoming freshman Mia Orengo. Angel and Rocio co-authored a book called The Orchid: The Secret Code of Modern Goddesses , a unique work about emotional resilience, female solidarity, and the power of self-reflection, in that it also allows readers to become active participants in their own personal journeys in growth, home, and self-love. They look forward to meeting Cornellians across the country as they start their book tour to spread their message of positivity—“this or something better, for the highest good of all concerned,” she says, which closely echoes Ezra’s words and the theme of Cornell’s current fundraising campaign, “to do the greatest good.”

Jane Hyun has been on TV, on podcasts, and in print media, addressing the impact of anti-Asian violence and hate crimes affecting Asian Americans in the workplace and in their communities. In April, she launched Leadership Toolkit for Asians , a follow-up to her book Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling . In-person events will be taking place at the Cornell Club of New York and other Cornell clubs, so keep your eyes and ears open. Jane looks forward to helping Asian leaders build their capability to lead and influence by embracing their cultural strengths and mapping achievable career paths. Last year, she launched the “Culturally Fluent Leader Academy,” a virtual and in-person learning experience. Jane has also been an advisor to the diversity council for the American Heart Association.

Monte Frank , JD ’93, received the John Eldred Shields Professional Service Award from the Connecticut Bar Association in recognition of his many years of outstanding service for the benefit of the legal community and the community at large. Monte serves on the American Bar Association’s Advisory Commission to the Task Force for American Democracy and serves as a special advisor to the ABA’s committee on gun violence. An avid cyclist, Monte competes on the road and in mountain bike and cyclocross races throughout the Northeast and Canada. Representing the U.S. at the 2013 and 2017 World Maccabiah Games in Israel, he won four silver medals and two bronze medals. He founded and led Team 26 on the Sandy Hook Ride on Washington (2013–19).

In closing this column, a heartfelt congratulations to David Cohen for his successful re-election to District 4 of the San Jose City Council! You can learn about all the great things David is doing for his community here .

Please let us know how you’re doing the greatest good in your neighborhood! ❖ Rose Tanasugarn ( email Rose ) | Nancy Solomon Weiss ( email Nancy ) | Allan Rousselle ( email Allan ) | Class Facebook page | Alumni Directory .

Family and friends, turkey and football, and … Cornell Big Red hockey at NYC’s Madison Square Garden have become an annual tradition for many during Thanksgiving break. About 100 classmates, friends, and family members joined our class block of seats to re-live the Lynah Faithful traditions and see Cornell play the latest “Safe-ty school! Safe-ty school!”: Boston University.

I ( Joe Marraccino ) found myself there among the spirited sea of red, including friends Michael Clifford ’90 , BS ’91, Chris and Joyce Martir Dugan ’90 , Thomas Greenberg , Sanjeev Dhawan , Jeff Weintraub , MD ’95, Alix Mellis-Brown , John Martin , Andrew Stein ’90 , and Glenn Haber ’92 . I caught up with some of our other hockey enthusiast classmates too.

Eapen Chandy , MBA ’97, graduated with an electrical engineering degree followed by an MBA in ’97, and lives in South Glastonbury, CT, with his wife and four children, ages 20, 18, and 15-year-old twins. Eapen shared a picture taken more than 10 years ago of his uniformly smiling family in the stands. “I am passionate about sports, including Cornell hockey, and it has been an annual family tradition to see a game either in New Haven, CT, or at MSG!” Eapen also loves his music, mostly classic rock, and his career “has been spent largely in financial services. Currently I serve as the treasurer of Coalition Inc., a cyber insurance startup, which is exciting at this stage of my life.” Glad to see Eapen doing well; his life is anything but “Bor-ing! Bor-ing!”

Kulravee Puttharuksa Keegan is a self-proclaimed “suburban hockey mom.” She graduated from the College of Human Ecology with a major in human development and family studies, and currently lives in Eastchester, NY, where she is a practicing physician. Kulravee has been to a number of games throughout the years. “My son and his friends play youth hockey, so they enjoy going, and get a kick out of the cheers, taunts, and Big Red traditions!” The family’s favorite taunt? “It’s all your fault! It’s all your fault!” Of course it is.

I am passionate about sports, including Cornell hockey, and it has been an annual family tradition to see a game either in New Haven, CT, or at MSG! Eapen Chandy ’91 , MBA ’97

Loretta Dougherty Gallo just attended her first Cornell hockey game at MSG, perhaps the start of an annual tradition! Loretta, an animal science major back on the Hill, shared, “I am originally from the Bronx and now live in Pelham, NY, with my husband, Fred ’90 , and our 10-year-old twins, Josh and Hannah. I am a veterinarian and in my (ha ha) free time I enjoy reading and attending my son’s hockey games and my daughter’s horseback riding lessons.” Loretta and family followed the game intently. “It was especially great to be able to share it with our kids, since our son is a goalie playing for Pelham Youth Hockey and Ian Shane ’25 played an amazing game in goal for the Big Red!”

I agree, Ian is no “Sieve! Sieve!” We may see him more regularly at MSG and other professional hockey arenas soon. Loretta and Fred are hoping to continue other Cornell traditions. “The joke in our house is that we won’t force Josh and Hannah to choose Cornell, but with seven undergraduate schools to choose from, why wouldn’t they!?”

The good news is that we all went home happy. “Warm up the bus! Warm up the bus!” Cornell won a thriller against BU. Whether you have attended this annual game in the past or are looking to start a new Thanksgiving tradition, hope to see you with the “Rocket’s ‘RED!’ Glare” next time around!

Got news to share? Use the online news form or feel free to contact one of us directly: ❖ Joe Marraccino ( email Joe ) | Evelyn Achuck Yue ( email Evelyn ) | Susie Curtis Schneider ( email Susie ) | Ruby Wang Pizzini ( email Ruby ) | Wendy Milks Coburn ( email Wendy ) | Alumni Directory .

Paul Sung Bang Yang , ME ’95, enjoys spending time with his family and close friends, as well as visiting and reconnecting with places where he has spent time over his lifetime. He is working in virtual reality, augmented reality, metaverse, and education. He started a global leadership program and is working with real estate developers and making films. His favorite memories of Cornell are spending time with friends, enjoying a good meal, collaborating on projects, watching movies, enjoying the campus, and getting to know some of the professors.

Melissa Ditmore ’90 , BA ’92, writes that the paperback edition of her book, Unbroken Chains: The Hidden Role of Human Trafficking in the American Economy , was released April 30.

Matt Hutcheson , MS ’95, invites you to join him, Jason Markel ’93 , and Doug McGhee online to play the multiplayer game Galactic Trader for free. Enjoy early ’90s Cornell nostalgia flying around the galactic universe, trading luxuries, and battling Thargoids!

John and Janine Blanchard Huber have relocated to Indianapolis, IN. John serves as head of school at Sycamore School, a PS-8 independent coed day school, serving the needs of academically gifted students. The family is planning a visit to Ithaca as the youngest considers college choices!

Brad Minnich has enjoyed a successful career in Hollywood. He specializes in visual effects (CGI), which has allowed him to work on recent films like Batman , Aquaman , Justice League , and many others. His career has taken him around the world to shoot many movies through Europe, Africa, and India. He and his wife, Kiesha, have celebrated 24 years together. They have two inspirational daughters, Laila, 17, and MiaSol, 15, who are leaders in their school and captains of the high school volleyball teams. He enjoys staying in contact with many Cornell alumni and remembers his days on the Hill often—especially being introduced to filmmaking, which help shaped his entire life!

Finally, Amy Frome Saperstein shares that the Cornell Class of ’92 officers organized a cocktail hour in NYC at Effy’s Café on the Upper East Side. About 30 alums gathered and reminisced about their days at Cornell. Most of the group lives in Manhattan but some came from Westchester, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Everyone agreed that more cocktail hours should be planned in the future! ❖ Sarah Ballow Clauss ( email Sarah ) | Wilma Ann Thomas Anderson ( email Wilma Ann ) | Jean Kintisch ( email Jean ) | Alumni Directory .

Classmates, how are you? No, really. I am writing this in February, hoping with every ounce of my being that when you are reading this in May, there is genuine peace in the world and on our campus, with open, constructive communication and support for outlets and oases of healthy socialization.

Our ’93 magician extraordinaire Steve Cohen is still bringing it in NYC at the Lotte New York Palace: you never know who you might sit next to at his show, “Chamber Magic”! Recent guests include actors Cate Blanchett and New York Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo. Steve’s new book, Confronting Magic , is now available. It has a sensational foreword by Academy Award-winning film director Guillermo del Toro, and according to the website, “If you’ve been to the show there’s a good chance your photo is included!” Explore his website for info on the book, tickets, and more.

Our class president, Mike McMahon , just returned from an epic trip to New Zealand: “Great trip, highly recommended!” He and our former ’93 president Earl Pinto organized social events for our class officers who reunited in Baltimore, MD, in February for the annual Cornell Alumni Leadership Conference. Please consider joining our class council; we would love to welcome more of you to the party and the planning!

Thank you to our council member Pamela Fabrizio Barry , who shared that she recently reunited with Yvette Politis to celebrate the anniversary of fellow Cornellian Amy Zura Neary ’95 . Tamar Dolgen connects with classmates Jackie Finkel Kauff and Tracy Newman Porosoff as they serve together on Cornell Hillel’s board.

Grateful to Tamar for sharing her recent life update: “After decades of working with startups, global brands, and nonprofits, I transitioned my marketing and communication expertise into college and career advising. I run my own firm, Go Future Advising, and work with the nonprofit Step Ahead Idaho.” Congratulations, Tamar!

Classmates, please connect to share your updates, reunions, or milestones, or for any reason at all (Big Red or not). Take care, and please share. ❖ Melissa Hart Moss, JD ’97 ( email Melissa ) | Mia Blackler ( email Mia ) | Theresa Flores ( email Theresa ) | Alumni Directory .

Happy spring/summer, everyone! I hope all of you plan on going to our Reunion, June 6–9! Thirty years is no joke!

One of our fellow classmates was planning on working in one of the tents on the Arts Quad for Reunion. Derek Edinger , ME ’95, writes, “My wife, Stacey (Girard) ’95 , and I quit our regular day jobs (aerospace and hotel, respectively) back in 2020 and opened Brewery Ardennes in Geneva, NY, in 2021. It’s never too late to make a crazy career change and pursue your passion.”

Paul Bamundo also has a new job update; he recently became CEO of the National Pickleball League (NPL). In this role, Paul will lead this premier league of Champions Division (age 50+) professional pickleball players in its second year in 2024. Paul notes: “It is nice to be the young person in the organization now that I am 50 years old myself! I look forward to seeing many of you as the NPL tours the country this year.” I am sure that many 1994 alums have tried pickleball already at some point!

Lastly, Jarrid Whitney shared some career news of his own. “This past fall, I started a new job at Dartmouth College as the inaugural assistant vice president of enrollment for access strategy. This is a ‘full-circle’ moment for me and my family as I started my admissions career there nearly 29 years ago being on the frontlines of diversity recruitment, met my future wife in that same office, and now have the privilege to be a thought-partner with the college’s leadership on issues of which I’m most passionate. But don’t worry, CU peeps—although I may now have more Green in my wardrobe, it’s all Red whenever CU competes against Dartmouth!”

Keep sending in those updates!  You can send news to me or the other correspondents via email, Facebook, or the online news form . Best wishes for a great summer! ❖ Jennifer Rabin Marchant ( email Jennifer ) | Dika Lam ( email Dika ) | Dineen Pashoukos Wasylik ( email Dineen ) | Alumni Directory .

More 50th birthday stories kick off this month’s column! Elizabeth Leff writes that in March 2023, she and Lauren Blick Rotko , Stephanie Cosner , Jennifer Damashek Strassler , Alyse Kramarow , Stacy Lalin Poritzky , MBA ’00, and Jennifer Stevens Dickson carried on their once-every-five-years girls’ weekend tradition, celebrating the big 50th birthdays in Palm Springs together, including amazing hikes in Joshua Tree National Park. She also had a big birthday bash in Brooklyn, NY, co-hosted by Holly White , with help from her sister, Bonnie Leff ’91 .

The year also saw some work-related changes for Elizabeth—including a new role in the U.N., where she has worked since 2005 (first at UNDP and then at the U.N. Secretariat), leading the team in the Under Secretary General’s office that helps improve how operational support is provided across the organization. In the fall, she also saw off her husband, whom she met at the U.N., on an assignment to Kyiv, Ukraine. Though his assignment in a country at war causes stress, at least it also provides opportunities to meet up in Europe during his R&R, which they already took advantage of—visiting 10 countries in Central and Eastern Europe in a whirlwind trip over the holidays, bringing the number of countries she has visited to 109.

Stephanie Cosner sent in some exciting news of her own as well—she was recently appointed provost at Simmons University, following her role as dean for six years and, prior to that, her work as a tenured professor at Boston College.

Anne Catlin Johnson reports some big-time 50th birthday celebrations, starting in July of last year (her actual birthday was in December!). Writes Anne, “In thinking about how I wanted to celebrate, I realized that the people were more important than the activities or venues, and then went big on plans with great friends! I planned and executed a European adventure with five of my friends from grade school, starting with a glorious cava-soaked spin through Barcelona before proceeding to Geneva and finally Paris. Everyone had a blast, and the trip went off with nary a hitch, so now I am thinking about becoming a boutique travel guide as my next act—message me if you’re looking for an excellent tour leader! In August, we moved daughter Natalie to Colby College (Maine) via a Springsteen concert in Boston—after 40 years of fandom, I finally got to see the Boss! Somehow, I had never seen Billy Joel either, so I went to his show in Baltimore with Matt , ME ’96, and Alison Torrillo French in October, right after taking my dad out to the ballpark for the first game of the ALDS (O’s lost; still a good game).

“Just before Thanksgiving, we headed south to Margaritaville at Sea with another grade-school friend and her family—a short but very fun cruise! The almost-finale week started on December 6 with the musical SIX in Denver, a cooking class on December 7, and Las Vegas on December 8–9 to see U2 at the Sphere with Edie Marshall ’96 . On Sunday, I hiked the 50 Year Trail in Oro Valley, AZ, with my best friend from seventh grade, who is one day older than I am, before we headed to Miraval on my actual birthday for some spa/healing time. A crazy day trip to NYC to see Some Like it Hot before it closed happened on the 20th before we headed to Steamboat for skiing. The last hurrah was a Disney World weekend in mid-January with two more friends from way back. I’m still teaching engineering at the Air Force Academy as a reservist but am planning my winter home in Tucson since retirement and the empty nest are right around the corner!”

In August, we moved daughter Natalie to Colby College (Maine) via a Springsteen concert in Boston—after 40 years of fandom, I finally got to see the Boss! Anne Catlin Johnson ’95

Also stretching out the big 5-0 was Mindy Goodman Sickle , whose celebration started 50 days before her birthday in June. Writes Mindy, “My husband and kids gave me a small gift every day leading up to my birthday. My friends and family, including Sara Ende Masri ’96 , pitched in on certain days. I then had a few small celebrations with family and friends. The celebrations culminated in a trip to Curaçao with my husband and no kids. It was exactly what I wanted.” Mindy and her husband currently live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and have three kids: Preston, 19, a first-year student at Syracuse; Jordyn, 18, a senior in high school heading to Tufts next year; and Spencer, 15, a sophomore. “Raising kids here is challenging and rewarding,” she says. “My kids went to three different high schools in three different boroughs; they’ve been traveling around the city via public transportation since they were in sixth grade, and my two oldest got their driver’s licenses at 17 so they can be our ‘Uber’ driver home after a night out!”

Now for some non-birthday related arts and culture news! Brett Schwartz shared that on November 11, he was awarded an Emmy at the 65th Annual Chicago/Midwest Emmy Awards presented by the Chicago/Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He won the award for his film, Raised Up West Side, in the category of Outstanding Achievement for Documentary–Cultural.

Best-selling children’s author Michelle Knudsen released her new picture book, Luigi, the Spider Who Wanted to Be a Kitten , on March 5, 2024. It’s illustrated by Kevin Hawkes, who illustrated her book Library Lion , and she is very excited to share it with readers.

And, of course, we cannot let a column go by without a shout-out to another Cornell legacy! Melissa Biren Singer shared that she and husband Scott ’94 ’s younger daughter, Jordana, was accepted to the Cornell Class of ’28 (human development major in CHE). She will be joining her older sister, Kayla ’25 , who has been loving her Cornell experience. Writes Melissa, “We are looking forward to the girls having a year together on campus and will be visiting as much as they will let us!”

Stay connected and safe, classmates. ❖ Alison Torrillo French ( email Alison ) | Class website | Class Facebook page | Class Instagram page | Alumni Directory .

Registered dietitian nutritionist Frances Largeman-Roth has recently published a cookbook called Everyday Snack Tray , which, in the words of the subtitle, offers Easy Ideas and Recipes for Boards That Nourish for Moments Big and Small . There are tips for snack trays to suit a wide variety of occasions—including playdates, tailgates, romantic get-togethers, and various holidays—as well as guidelines on how to make them more nutritionally sound.

Frances is a contributor to several publications, including Today.com , Parents, Parade , and Shape , and has appeared on the “Today” show, the “Dr. Oz Show,” the “Rachael Ray Show,” “Good Morning America,” “Access Hollywood Live,” QVC, CNN, and more. She is a member of the James Beard Foundation and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Frances, her husband, and their three kids live north of Manhattan, in Dobbs Ferry, NY. To learn more, visit her website or follow her on Instagram . ❖ Janine Abrams Rethy ( email Janine ) | Marjorie Polycarpe Jean-Paul ( email Marjorie ) | Catherine Oh Bonita ( email Catherine ) | Alumni Directory .

Couples’ therapist Alison Bulman recently offered sage advice to Big Red alums in a Cornellians story about mindful communication. “The key is getting to a place of compassion toward your partner. And you do that by getting curious about what it’s like to be them, putting yourself in their shoes—in other words, empathy,” she says. “The idea is to approach each other with acceptance and talk about what it’s like between us right now . In our society, we talk way too much about things—work, the weather, surface stuff. We talk very little about our feelings. If we talk about what’s happening between us right now, we’re going to feel much closer to the other person, much more intimate.” Based in the New York metro area, Alison holds a master’s in social work from NYU and practices online therapy. She also hosts couples’ workshops and offers an online course designed to promote intimacy, among other offerings.

I hope you all took the time to fill out and return the Share Your News form that was recently mailed to you. If you haven’t yet, it’s not too late! Please do send us your news—via the hard-copy form or the online news form —so our future class columns can be full of news from all of you. Whether your news is ordinary or extraordinary, we want to hear it! ❖ Sarah Deardorff Carter ( email Sarah ) | Erica Broennle Nelson ( email Erica ) | Alumni Directory .

Having celebrated our 25th Reunion on campus last June, many of us are celebrating our 30th high school reunion this year! Reunions, official or not, are always great opportunities to reconnect with friends, reflect on the lessons we have learned, and recommit to continued growth. The Class of 1998 has much to celebrate with family and friends, and this column is the place to share all the great and fun things we have accomplished.

U.S. Army Lt. Col. Brett Walker recently wrote an article featuring our classmate Jamie Critelli and his work as a U.S. Army Major of the 353rd Civil Affairs Command (CACOM). Here is a snippet: “Food supply chains and the associated effects on future military operations is one of the many nuanced civil-military fields in which the soldiers of the 353rd CACOM provide expertise to the U.S. military. Maj. Gustavo Ferreira and Maj. Jamie Critelli of the 353rd CACOM have published nine scholarly papers on the agriculture-related limits to proposed military actions across the globe. Critelli worked his way through the ranks, having joined the Army in 1998 through Cornell University’s ROTC program.”

Jamie learned of the Army’s 38G Civil Affairs program—which provides military leadership with subject-matter experts in 18 specific fields—from a civil affairs officer while they were deployed together in Iraq. “I was the first person in the unit to put together a 38G packet,” he said. “A few months later I came across Maj. Ferreira and helped him submit a packet. Since then, I’ve put together about 40 packets for 38G. I do about two per month.” Articles that these two co-authors have published include “Does China Have Enough Food to Go to War?” and “Taiwan’s Food Resiliency—or Not—in a Conflict with China.”

Starting a new adventure? Connected with an old friend? Share your latest news with us by filling out the online news form or you can always email me. ❖ Uthica Jinvit Utano ( email Uthica ) | Alumni Directory .

Adam Ross joined law firm Keane & Beane PC on January 1, in their Long Island office in Melville, NY. Adam represents public employers in a broad range of employment-related matters. For school districts and BOCES, he provides guidance on probationary periods, tenure, recall, and performance reviews. He previously served as general counsel to the United Federation of Teachers. Congrats, Adam!

Reunion 2024 in June will feature our very own Andrew Ross Sorkin as the esteemed Olin Lecturer! Andrew is an award-winning journalist and author, CNBC “Squawk Box” co-anchor, DealBook founder/editor, and co-creator of the Showtime series “Billions.”

What is something you’re doing now that you never thought you’d be doing? What is your fondest memory of your time at Cornell? What brings you the most satisfaction these days? No matter if your news is big or small, please take a moment to write to us and stay connected with our class. ❖ Class of 1999 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

Hello out there! I hope this little note finds you in good health and spirits. I am enjoying the warmth of the season in a new home, and, as you can imagine, it’s a busy time. It was nice to receive news from fellow alumna Katie Dealy .

In her own words: “Since June 2022, I have served as the director of engagement in the Office of U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. Despite lots of travel, it has been a profound honor to serve in this role, with these colleagues and during this time, particularly as we have raised awareness around the youth mental health crisis and the epidemic of loneliness. For the last 12 years, my husband, Alan Polansky, and I have lived in Evanston, IL, with our three boys (ages 15, 12, and 8). When I am not at work, and not on the sidelines of a youth sporting event or theatrical production, I’m chairing the Cornell Class of ’64 JFK Award alumni board, and playing phone tag with dear friends from Cornell days.”

That sounds incredible; thanks for sharing, Katie. What are you up to in this great, big, wide world? I’d like to read about it, and I’m sure I’m not alone. So share your story with us through the Share Your News link below, or drop me a note! ❖ Denise Williams ( email Denise ) | Alumni Directory .

As I write this update, the Cornell Daily Sun (hope you all still read this from time to time!) just published a story about the Faculty Senate voting to discontinue median grade visibility on transcripts, a practice started 15 years ago. We can add this to the list of “glad we didn’t have to deal with that back in our day” (see also: Snapchat, doxxing), which feels like a good way to appreciate entering our midlife phase.

Speaking of now-defunct initiatives that started after our time on the Hill: would you like Cornell to bring back the New Student Summer Reading Project ? (I am still meaning to read Guns, Germs, and Steel , which had kicked things off after our graduation in Summer 2001 … maybe this time?) If so, here’s a contender: Hidden Hate: The Resilience of Xenophobia by Mathew Creighton . Once merely one of our classmates, Mathew is now an associate professor in the School of Sociology at University College Dublin, a national coordinator of the European Social Survey in Ireland, and the principal investigator of a Horizon Europe project, EqualStrength , which assesses prejudice in work, childcare, and housing throughout Europe.

Fun fact: Our class has 3,593 living alumni, plus 65 “non-degreed” classmates. If you’re one of them and you’ve read this far, go to our class Facebook group or Instagram page (or find me on Linkedin: I’m the only Nicole Neroulias Gupte ) and send a message that says “tower pumpkin.”

Spotted in person: my husband, Salil Gupte , and I ran into Erin Colling Cleofe at Seattle’s University Village Apple Store over winter break, and we also met up with neighbors Chisaki Muraki and Schaun Valdovinos . Everyone’s doing a pretty good job keeping up with their outdoorsy kids, PNW style. I hope to see them again—and any other classmates around?—next month when we’re back in town again from Delhi. (P.S., for more on me and Salil, check out the Cornell Daily Sun ’s column in the new Group Notes below!)

My husband, Salil Gupte ’01 , and I ran into Erin Colling Cleofe ’01 at Seattle’s University Village Apple Store over winter break. Nicole Neroulias Gupte ’01

Spotted on social media: Eddie Perez-Cortes caught up with Michael and Susan Mueller Hanson while in D.C. over New Year’s. “The kids had a great time visiting the monuments,” he writes. Nageeb and Fatema Gunja Sumar took their kids to the Harvard-Cornell game at “Lynah East” soon afterwards. Mike Kalogiannis started a new position as “field medical, vaccines” at Pfizer. Ali Solomon Mainhart was part of an exhibit, “From Lines to Laughs: Women+ on Men” at the Society of Illustrators, in New York City—then got to celebrate her wedding anniversary with a mid-February snow day. (The best gift for a coupla teachers, amirite?)

Speaking of gifts for teachers, did you ever take a class with Prof. Juris Hartmanis? He passed away in 2022, but I’ve just come across the tribute to him penned by Ryan Williams , ME ’02, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. An excerpt: “I don’t know why Professor Hartmanis believed in me. During that period in my life, I felt like nobody else did, and it felt odd that the Turing Award winner was the one who believed the most.” I only took one engineering school class—CS 99, convinced by Jackie Sobota that we should try to get some entry-level knowledge while working the CIT Help Desk and supervising the Mann Library computer labs!—but I’m reminded of a few of my busy teachers in Ag and Arts who also found ways to encourage students at pivotal moments. We salute you, good teachers everywhere.

And lastly, Marisa Laks , one of our class officers and a Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) Equity Fellow, will be speaking at the group’s annual conference in Las Vegas in July. Check out the article she wrote for the CSTA Voice on “ Creating a Sense of Belonging in the CS Classroom .”

Don’t forget to get in touch with your local Cornell alumni group to see if they’re planning a student send-off this summer! Those are great opportunities to answer questions from anxious parents (if not the kids themselves) and network with fellow alums.

Want to share an update or a memory, or get back in touch with classmates? Interested in proposing an event or helping out with our 25th Reunion planning? Please let us know by posting to our Cornell Class of 2001 Classmates Facebook group or sending an email to your friendly class correspondents. And, as always, visit our class website for more information and volunteer opportunities. ❖ Nicole Neroulias Gupte ( email Nicole ) | James Gutow ( email James ) | Alumni Directory .

What is something you’re doing now that you never thought you’d be doing? What is your fondest memory of your time at Cornell? What brings you the most satisfaction these days? No matter if your news is big or small, please take a moment to write to us and stay connected with our class. ❖ Class of 2002 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

Adam Crouch recently became CEO of Redbubble, the largest marketplace for independent artists, whose designs get printed on graphic tees, stickers, and other items. Redbubble is based in San Francisco and Melbourne, and in the past year had 5 million customers buying 4.8 million different designs. Congratulations, Adam! ❖ Jon Schoenberg , ME ’03 , PhD ’11 ( email Jon ) | Candace Lee Chow , PhD ’14 ( email Candace ) | Alumni Directory .

There’s still time for you to make plans to join us on the Hill for our 20th Reunion, June 6–9! Reunion can be as short or as long as you want it to be—you can make it an all-inclusive weekend or a quick overnight trip, attend all the sponsored events or choose your own adventure. Come alone, bring a guest, or bring the whole family! There is something on the schedule for everyone, with dozens of events planned for the weekend, including performances, athletic events, Greek receptions, tent parties, lectures, tours, and meals.

Our class headquarters is Mary Donlon Hall on North Campus. Refreshments and activities will be available all weekend. Most of the meals are taken care of, but there is plenty of opportunity to hit your favorite spot. There will also be plenty of family-friendly activities available at HQ and throughout campus.

Class-specific events include: a wine tour, a tour of the Cornell Veterinary Biobank (where you can explore the world of scientific preservation), a cocktail hour and dinner at the Nevin Center welcome tent, and breakfast in the new Toni Morrison Hall on North Campus. And, of course, the Olin Lecture (featuring Andrew Ross Sorkin ’99 , award-winning journalist and author), a Chorus and Glee Club concert, the Reunion 5K through the Botanic Gardens, Redstock (where Cornell musicians and bands unite for an epic alumni concert), Cornelliana Night, tent parties, and more can be enjoyed throughout the weekend.

It’s hard to believe 20 years have come and gone. Don’t miss this chance to come back to the Hill for a fun-filled and memorable weekend! ❖ Jessi Petrosino ( email Jessi ) | Alumni Directory .

Believe it or not, our 20th Reunion is only one year away—June 5–8, 2025—so be sure to mark your calendars! We have extra celebrating to do this time around, after our 15th Reunion was made virtual, so let’s make this one a weekend to remember. And if you don’t yet pay dues, now’s a great time to start! Help us support our class and our next reunion by signing up here —and submit an online news form so our future class columns can be full of news from all of you! ❖ Hilary Johnson King ( email Hilary ) | Jessica Rosenthal Chod ( email Jessica ) | Alumni Directory .

We don’t have any news to share from these classes this round. We hope you took the time to fill out and return the Share Your News form that was recently mailed to you! If you haven’t yet, it’s not too late! Please do send us your news—via the hard-copy form or the online news form —so our future class columns can be full of news from all of you. Whether your news is ordinary or extraordinary, we want to hear it! ❖ Classes of 2006–2008 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

There’s still time for you to make plans to join us on the Hill for our 15th Reunion, June 6–9! Can you believe it’s been 15 years since we graduated from Cornell? So much has changed for us and for Cornell, but the sense of belonging to the Cornell family remains constant. Whether you’ve frequented campus since graduation or haven’t made the trip back yet, now is the perfect opportunity to explore all the changes, revisit your favorite spots, reconnect with old friends, and rediscover your love for Cornell. Start making plans to join your friends and classmates for an amazing weekend filled with class festivities and university events.

You can indulge in athletic activities, attend lectures, take tours, join Greek receptions, participate in college events, enjoy musical performances, attend tent parties, and more! Reunion can be as brief or as extended as you desire—an all-inclusive weekend vacation or a quick overnight trip. Our class has organized several special events for families and individual travelers alike. Attend an ice cream social on Saturday afternoon or choose to visit some beloved wineries along Cayuga Lake. Socialize with old friends at our class receptions and savor dinners by Cornell Catering. Family-friendly events, such as “Fun in the Sun,” are abundant, ensuring there’s something for everyone, whether you’re bringing the kids or attending solo.

Desiree Nattell writes, “I was named first on the 2023 Social Intelligence Insider 50 list. It’s an international who’s who in social media listening/insights/analytics and I was thrilled to be included!” Desiree is a senior analyst, strategy and insights, for Universal Parks & Resorts. “I studied sociocultural anthropology as an undergrad: how people and cultures grow and develop. Anyone in social intelligence can tell you that’s what we’re watching every day; social media just allows growth and development faster than we would have thought possible 20 years ago. My studies didn’t teach me what to think, but how .”

Matthew Gizzo shares, “I was just promoted to shareholder at Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC, a labor and employment law firm with more than 55 offices internationally and nearly 1,000 attorneys. I work out of the New York City and Dallas, TX, offices. In September 2023, my wife, Alycia, and I welcomed our first child, Brayden Paul.”

I was named first on the 2023 Social Intelligence Insider 50 list. Desiree Nattell ’09

Political consultant Iris Delgado writes, “I was just appointed to serve as a trustee to Middlesex College by the County Board of County Commissioners.” Iris fondly recalls the “Valentine’s Snowmageddon in 2007” on the Hill.

In 2024, Eva Kestner ’s original music was used by Cambridge International Curriculum in over 160 countries and 10,000 schools—and she was in the cover image of Harper Collins Publisher’s music textbook. From the blurb on her website : “Born in Tokyo, Japan, Eva was raised by a family of scholars and artists with mixed German and Japanese heritage. From a young age she learned how to play piano after her father introduced her to classical music, while she simultaneously learned Taiko (a broad range of Japanese percussion instruments) after her mother introduced her to the Japanese arts. After graduating from the International School of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo, Japan, she attended Cornell, where she earned a BA in philosophy. While there, she joined the Cornell Percussion Ensemble. The following year, she co-founded the Taiko drumming student organization called Yamatai Taiko and she was the lead drummer and musical director. After graduating, she returned to Japan and started performing professionally. She started her solo career a year later.

“Today, she brings Japanese Taiko drumming and song to a brand new context of pop music and also performs with many distinguished artists, musicians, dancers, and Taiko drummers across multiple genres. Eva does not only perform using Taiko—she also uses a number of other instruments that have a distinct flavor of the Japanese environment including koto (Japanese harp), voice, and piano. Eva also works in the field of education and teaches Taiko drumming workshops to both children and adults, and is also involved in humanitarian efforts such as raising awareness for the disabled.” ❖ Jason Georges ( email Jason ) | Alumni Directory .

Hi, Class of 2010! We have a couple of updates to share.

Ingrid Su has started a new multi-language greeting card business, YS Notes . She shares that the idea was first spawned 13 years ago when she sent herself an email to her Cornell inbox with website links on how to enter the greeting industry. Though it’s coming up on our 15th Reunion, it’s never too late to make a dream a reality!

James Hunsberger has been promoted to partner of Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider, effective the first of this year. He is based in Washington, DC, and focuses on antitrust matters. He has had extensive experience representing U.S. and foreign companies across various industries in high-stakes antitrust matters.

Congratulations to both of our classmates! Share your news at the link below. ❖ Michelle Sun ( email Michelle ) | Alumni Directory .

“I just won a Primetime Emmy for my work on FX/Hulu’s ‘Welcome to Wrexham,’” writes Miloš Balać ! “Having spent three years of my life working on the project in Wrexham, Wales, as the co-executive producer, it has been incredibly fun and satisfying to be recognized with the award for Best Unstructured Reality Program.”

“I first went to Wrexham in October 2020 as the supervising producer on season one, and officially wrapped on the project after three years in July 2023—I was promoted to co-executive producer for season two. As the main point of contact with the world of Wrexham, I cast and fostered relationships with the series’ primary subjects, including members of the Wrexham soccer team, the wider Wrexham community, and team owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. I developed season-long story arcs on the ground, produced and directed the majority of field shoots, wrote and conducted interviews, operated B cam, and set the series look in collaboration with the showrunner and director of photography. In post-production, I produced and oversaw story edits across multiple episodes and reviewed cuts for both seasons of the series.

“Living in Wrexham for the majority of the past three years was truly an incredible and fulfilling experience—Wrexham will be part of my life forever. However, after so long away from home, I decided to amicably step away from the project and return to New York in summer 2023. I’m currently working on a new project that has not yet been announced, so I unfortunately can’t say more!” ❖ Class of 2011 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

Colleen Brill and Jake Rosen welcomed their son, Leo Michael, on December 16 at 5:22 a.m. Congratulations to you both, and welcome, baby Leo! ❖ Peggy Ramin ( email Peggy ) | Alumni Directory .

Andrew Boryga has released his debut novel, Victim , which, according to the publisher, is “about a hustler from the Bronx who sees through the veneer of diversity initiatives and decides to cash in on the odd currency of identity. This propulsive satire asks what real diversity looks like—and how far one man is willing to go to make his story exceptional.”

Erica Barnell writes, “I hold an MD/PhD from Washington University, and during my medical training I founded a healthcare company called Geneoscopy. Our company has recently successfully concluded an extensive prospective clinical trial involving 8,920 patients to evaluate the effectiveness of our leading diagnostic tool, ColoSense, in detecting colorectal cancer and advanced adenomas in average-risk individuals over the age of 45. In January 2023, we submitted these crucial findings to the FDA as part of our pre-market approval process. I am delighted to share that we have since completed all our FDA audits, including our 100-day meeting with the FDA. Furthermore, we’re thrilled to announce that our research and the associated data have been accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Medical Association .”

JC Tretter was recently inducted into the Cornell Athletics Hall of Fame! Though his time as an athlete on the Hill was spent mostly as a backup tight end on the football team, JC went on to have a 9-year career as an NFL offensive lineman, playing for the Green Bay Packers and the Cleveland Browns. You can read more about him in this recent story . ❖ Rachael Schuman ( email Rachael ) | Alumni Directory .

Hello, Class of 2014! Two of our classmates, Dana Lerner and Katia Lin , were recently honored with the Robert S. Harrison ’76 Recent Alumni Volunteer Award. Dana has served as a Class of 2014 Annual Fund representative and Reunion campaign co-chair since graduation and has also volunteered as part of the Cornell Alumni Advisory Board and the Cornell University Council. Katia has volunteered as part of the Cornell Alumni Admissions Ambassador Network since graduation and served as the VP of social programming for the Cornell Club UK since 2019. Congratulations, Dana and Katia!

With our 10th Reunion coming up in a few short weeks, I would love to hear about your Reunion experiences or any exciting life updates from the last five years to include in a future column. Please send me your stories! ❖ Samantha Lapehn Young ( email Samantha ) | Alumni Directory .

We have a lot of people starting new jobs—even careers—in this issue of Class Notes! We are so proud of our classmates for all their accomplishments.

Kwabena Nimo started Intelligenia, which he describes as a company that “focuses on creating sustainable, synergistic management solutions aimed at leveraging state-of-the-art business methodologies that interface AI and machine learning with consumer-driven data. At Intelligenia, we provide robust industrial and manufacturing techniques to keep pace with the ever-changing economic landscape, while focusing on delivering clinically proven products and results derived from Six Sigma best practices.”

Alana Harris left the world of law to become a teacher. You can learn more about her experience in this 2020 profile posted by the College of Human Ecology.

Carolyn Creneti got a new job as the neuromuscular lab lead at Children’s Wisconsin, and Elisa Raffa has started at CNN as a weather anchor and as a correspondent on all domestic and international platforms. Congratulations, everyone!

Do you have a new job, too? Some other milestone hit? Any other news you’d like to share? Email your class correspondents. ❖ Caroline Flax ( email Caroline ) | Mateo Acebedo ( email Mateo ) | Alumni Directory .

Misha Inniss-Thompson and her mom, Michelle Brown-Grant ’88 , were recently featured in a Cornellians story about their shared vocation: helping kids succeed, with a focus on the needs of Black girls and their communities.

Both mother and daughter majored in human development and minored in Africana studies on the Hill, and both pursued careers that have delved into education, childhood and adolescent development, and the building and sustaining of Black community. “Our work feeds off each other,” Misha observed. “In so many ways, the educator that I am today is largely informed by the ways that my mom interacts with her students, the ways that she prominently displays positive representations of Black people and folks of color more broadly.”

Siddhant Gokhale recently co-wrote a book, Scaling Up Development Impact . “While solutions to tackle some big development challenges (e.g., access to electricity, health, and literacy) already exist, few attain a scale that matches the magnitude of the problem, even though this is critical in meeting the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. This book offers concepts, questions, and tools to accompany the scaling process. Weaving together real organizational experiences, the book offers a unique perspective on development—one that puts people experiencing the problem at the center of co-creating solutions, one that emphasizes adaption and frequent iterative experimentation, and one that looks at scaling from the purview of navigating complex systems.” ❖ Class of 2016 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

We don’t have any news to share from these classes this round. We hope you took the time to fill out and return the Share Your News form that was recently mailed to you! If you haven’t yet, it’s not too late! Please do send us your news—via the hard-copy form or the online news form —so our future class columns can be full of news from all of you. Whether your news is ordinary or extraordinary, we want to hear it! ❖ Classes of 2017 & 2018 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

There’s still time for you to make plans to join us on the Hill for our 5th Reunion, June 6–9! We can’t wait to celebrate with you! The entire university opens its doors and rolls out the Big Red carpet with dozens of activities, lectures, tours, and meals. If you sign up by May 15, you can lock in the early bird rate.

Registration includes continental breakfast every day, our class dinner on Saturday night, late-night and daytime food, unlimited alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, a souvenir, and numerous 2019-exclusive and university-wide events.

Clara Dickson Hall will be our home base for the weekend. Breakfasts, late-night gatherings, and other activities will take place in and around Dickson. Saturday’s class dinner will be held under a tent on the new Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hall plaza on North Campus. Housing is available to everyone who would like to stay on campus, as the dorms are transformed into hotels for the weekend. We’ll have rooms in Dickson (mostly singles) and Jameson Hall (mostly suite-style). You may request housing in quieter dorms, share a room with a friend or significant other, or reserve blocks of rooms near friends.

Class-specific events include: a Dairy Bar ice cream social, a wine tour, a lawn game tournament, and a tour of what’s new on campus. And, of course, the Olin Lecture (featuring Andrew Ross Sorkin ’99 , award-winning journalist and author), a Chorus and Glee Club concert, the Reunion 5K through the Botanic Gardens, Redstock (where Cornell musicians and bands unite for an epic alumni concert), Cornelliana Night, tent parties, and more can be enjoyed throughout the weekend.

To keep up to date with class-specific details, follow us on Instagram ( @cornell2019reunion ). We’re so excited to CU in June! ❖ Class of 2019 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

“I recently joined a cohort of hundreds of other artists whose artwork landed on the moon as part of the first official art collection there,” writes Sam Price . “This payload, aboard a nickel disk designed to last for a billion years, was part of the first landing from the U.S. in over half a century and the first landing ever by a private company. My artwork is part of a digital series raising money for wildlife conservation in Africa. You can read more here !”

Elisabeth Crotty was recently selected as a 2024 Design and Technology Fellow of Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE). “Now in its 14th year of operation, FASPE annually grants 80–90 fellowships to graduate students and early-career professionals in the fields of business, design and technology, journalism, law, medicine, and seminary. Fellows participate in a two-week program in Germany and Poland, which uses the conduct of professionals in Nazi-occupied Europe as an initial framework for approaching ethical responsibility in the professions today. The FASPE curriculum takes advantage of the power of place with daily seminars and dialogue at sites of historic importance, often specific to their profession. By educating students about the causes of the Holocaust and the power of their chosen professions, FASPE seeks to instill a sense of professional responsibility for the ethical and moral choices that the fellows will make in their careers and in their professional relationships.”

I recently joined a cohort of hundreds of other artists whose artwork landed on the moon. Sam Price ’20

Elisabeth is a security technical program manager at Microsoft, working to protect the world with rapid and thorough response to security vulnerabilities. She studied information science, systems, and technology at Cornell, where she developed a passion for building technology in a way that is not only responsible but creates positive social impact. She says, “I was drawn to the FASPE program because I would love to be surrounded by others in design and technology who share a passion for understanding how the products we’re creating, and the way in which we create them, may impact our users and non-users alike. I want to be a part of this program to have a dedicated space to focus on ethical issues and develop strategies to initiate and approach these conversations across disciplines. I think this program will better prepare me to be a leader in this industry that is constantly changing and doesn’t always create space to reflect.” ❖ Class of 2020 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

Brian Forness is a global banking and markets analyst at Goldman Sachs, where he recently teamed up with a group of fellow analysts, including Valentina Xu ’22 , to take part in the global Goldman Sachs Gives 2023 Analyst Impact Fund Award competition. Teams who enter must identify, study, and ultimately pitch the work of a chosen nonprofit organization to Goldman Sachs leadership; the grand prize is $250,000 donated to that organization.

Though more than 300 teams entered this year, Brian’s team made it to the final round and earned both second place and the “Fan Favorite” prize, which in total secured a grant of $125,000 for their chosen nonprofit, Trickle Up—which seeks to partner with women in extreme poverty and provide them with financial support, training, and mentoring to ensure they build sustainable livelihoods for themselves.

Brian’s volunteerism included co-founding and serving as president of Cayuga Capital, a Cornell student-run educational nonprofit focused on personal finance, taxes, and investing, and serving on the e-board for Cayuga’s Watchers, among many other activities related to his passion for finance and entrepreneurship.

Amanda Hernandez is the volunteer coach for the Cornell University Dance Team. The team placed eighth in the Universal Dance Association’s National College Dance Team National Championship in Orlando, FL—the most competitive collegiate dance competition in the U.S. Amanda writes, “We were one of 11 teams who advanced to the finals, and this was an astonishing achievement, given that our team has only attended the championship twice before and we were founded in 2017.” ❖ Class of 2021 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

Andrew Lorenzen is among the 51 new Marshall Scholars announced today by the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission. Andrew majored in government and performing and media arts and minored in English. A published author, he is currently completing a master’s degree in creative writing at NYU. With the scholarship, Andrew will pursue a master’s in politics and communication at the London School of Economics, followed by a master’s in narrative futures at the University of Edinburgh.

In December 2023, our very own Emma Cameron , BS ’21, fulfilled a lifelong dream by winning the title of Miss Rodeo America! She’ll be spending 2024 representing the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, logging some 50,000 miles as she travels to a variety of events and appearances around the country—including performing at nearly 100 rodeos. You can read more about her in this recent Cornellians story .

Emma Cameron ’22 , BS ’21, fulfilled a lifelong dream by winning the title of Miss Rodeo America!

As Emma explains in the story, rodeo pageants resemble conventional ones, like Miss America, in a number of ways. For example, contestants have to demonstrate poise and stage presence, excel in interviews, perform in group numbers, and model stylish outfits. (Hers included a striking copper-colored metallic dress—which she helped design—for the competition’s “Western trendy” fashion show.)

“The big difference for us is that instead of singing or dancing, our talent is horsemanship,” she says. “We have a whole day dedicated to evaluating how well we can ride a horse, and we have interviews and a written test on equine science, veterinary knowledge, and the overall industry, to make sure we can represent it well.”

At the Miss Rodeo America competition—which has been held since 1956—Emma beat out 30 other young women for the crown and won several awards, including the one for horsemanship. Her prizes include scholarships as well as a large wardrobe of Western-style clothing, jewelry, and accessories, which she sports at her many appearances. The highlight, of course, is the elegant Miss Rodeo America crown. No ordinary tiara, it’s specially designed to slip onto the variously colored cowboy hats that coordinate with her outfits. ❖ Class of 2022 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

Lorlei Boyd develops AI tools for Gray Decision Intelligence , a software company that provides platform evaluation software to colleges and universities. She first started at Gray DI as an analyst but quickly transitioned into a developer (she led the integration of generative AI into Gray’s interface). While grounded in critical thinking, she draws from her humanities background at Cornell to approach her work in shaping technology with a human element. ❖ Class of 2023 ( email c/o Alexandra Bond ’12 ) | Alumni Directory .

Agriculture and Life Sciences

Samson Hagos , MS ’04 , PhD ’07 , is an earth scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in southeast Washington State, where he models the lifecycles and variability of precipitation and extreme weather events across various regional and global scales. During his time on the Hill, Samson studied the causes of the decade of catastrophic droughts across the Sahel region in Africa. He co-authored a breakthrough paper about these causes and Sahel’s rebound to normal precipitation levels with his advisor and mentor at Cornell, climate scientist Kerry Cook. Samson grew up in drought-stricken East Africa in the 1980s. Despite this and the often-scarce availability of water throughout the world, Samson is optimistic: “We need to work together, wherever we happen to be geographically. We need to look out for the less fortunate. Collectively, we have the tools to solve our water problems. Humankind is a very resourceful and cooperative species.”

Architecture, Art, and Planning

Christine Song , MArch ’09 , is a senior associate at the architecture firm Elkus Manfredi in Boston. Christine currently has a leading role in major projects in Boston and Cambridge, including the redevelopment of the National Transportation Center facility in Kendall Square. In 2023 she was named to NEREJ ’s Rising Star List for her complex designs on high-rise buildings and her influence on the cityscapes of Boston and Cambridge.

Arts and Sciences

Photographer Julia Cumes , MFA ’98 , has been named the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod’s 2024 Artist of the Year. The award recognizes a Cape-based artist whose work shapes thought, inspires change, and creates a deeper sense of connection in the community. Her photography has taken her to India, Rwanda, Thailand, Lebanon, Tanzania, Cuba, Kenya, and more. She has photographed the aftermath of several of the world’s recent natural disasters, including Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean, and the floods in Eastern Kentucky in 2022. Last year she launched Photo Artfolio , an online organization that serves as a resource center and gallery to support emerging and established photographers. “As a young photographer, I experienced firsthand the profound impact of having mentors in my photographic journey,” Julia says. “Their guidance, support, and insights were instrumental in shaping my skills and artistic vision. It is with this understanding of the value of mentorship and a strong photography community that the idea of Photo Artfolio was born.”

Nick Roth , MA ’11 , PhD ’14 , has a new project—a movie titled Hanky Panky that is written, co-directed, and co-starred in by Nick himself. The movie is about a man and his talking napkin best friend who must save the world from a killer, evil top hat in a cabin deep in the Utah mountains—all while also learning to love. It came out on April 19 and is available on Amazon, Apple, Google, and more.

Amarildo Gjondrekaj , MBA ’19 , is founder and CEO of Adro, a financial technology company that provides financial services for people who are moving to the U.S. from another country for school or work. Adro is launching this summer. Several classmates have joined his team, including Sara Schmitt , MBA ’19 , as COO, and Lalo Gonzalez , MBA ’19 , as a user experience/user interface designer.

Engineering

Eric Betzig , MS ’85 , PhD ’88 , has been announced as a 2024 inductee into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his co-invention of a super-resolution imaging technology called photoactivated localization microscopy. This allows scientists to distinguish individual molecules and study biological structures and processes with unprecedented resolution. Eric will be inducted on May 9, 2024 in Washington, DC, at the annual ceremony. This honor is also being awarded posthumously to another Cornellian, Alice Stoll , MS ’48 , for her invention of fire-resistant fibers and fabrics.

Alexander Boys , MS ’16 , PhD ’19 , recently started a position as an assistant professor in the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. He is researching the development of bioelectronic implants for applications in regenerative medicine and rehabilitation engineering. Alexander previously worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge for five years.

Industrial and Labor Relations

Cindy Vogel Ryan , MILR ’99 , was recently appointed as MassMutual’s head of human resources, where she’ll oversee the company’s HR organization and advance its people strategy. At MassMutual, a life insurance and financial services company, she will manage a range of areas including talent acquisition, employee relations, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Cindy has over two decades of HR leadership experience, including 25 years at Cigna, where she most recently served as chief human resources officer.

Veterinary Medicine

Charles Hjerpe , DVM ’58 , lives in Davis, CA, with his wife, Sue Davis Hjerpe ’58 , and enjoys following the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of their three children and six grandchildren who live throughout the country. Their grandson Cooper Austin Hjerpe was drafted with the 22nd pick in the first round of the 2022 MLB Draft by the St. Louis Cardinals and is now with the Peoria Chiefs on injured reserve following elbow surgery. Charles fondly remembers his days at Lambda Chi Alpha and “all the camaraderie that went with fraternity living. Studying with my wife-to-be in the evenings at Tri Delt on Beebe Lake during 1957–58 was also memorable.”

Welcome to our newest offering: Group Notes! Like Class Notes, these columns are written by alumni, but they comprise news about members of Cornell groups—including campus activities, alumni organizations, and more—across generations. If you would like to see your group represented here, email us for more information!

Cornell Daily Sun

Hello fellow Sunnies, and welcome to Group Notes! I’m excited to introduce this new column, which will highlight the achievements and celebrate the lives of Sun alumni. As one of Cornell’s oldest, most storied student organizations, the Cornell Daily Sun boasts a vast and accomplished alumni network. Sunnies make a significant impact in journalism, philanthropy, business, medicine, and many other fields. We create thought and inspire change. I’m proud to introduce you all and share your stories, both personal and professional.

If we haven’t met, I’m Vee Cipperman ’23 . Like many of you, the Sun formed the backbone of my college experience. I served consecutively as news editor, editor-in-chief, and senior editor (the paper’s best position!). Since my graduation in December, I’ve worked as a graduate fellow in Sun operations and alumni outreach. I enjoy cooking, running, and exploring Ithaca’s many natural gems, and I hope to pursue a long career in journalism and communications.

But enough about me. I’ve gathered plenty of exciting news about you and your fellow alumni. In the past few months, you’ve launched exciting projects, embarked on new careers, and expanded your families. 2024 is shaping up to be a busy year for Sun alums!

Following five years at the Wall Street Journal , Haley Velasco ’15 ( Sun editor-in-chief) started working at McClatchy in 2022. As an editor, she leads growth strategies for 30 papers including the Kansas City Star , the Miami Herald , and the Sacramento Bee . Haley writes, “This is also my second semester teaching a ‘Social Media in Journalism and PR’ undergraduate class at Seton Hall University, where I teach audience strategy, social media platforms, and work through brand analysis.”

Sun alumni continue to make waves as professional reporters. Jessica DiNapoli ’08 , BA ’07, (senior editor) writes that she recently returned to work at Reuters, “covering consumer products companies.” Justin Peters ’03 (columnist) will cover the 2024 Summer Olympics for Slate . He also co-owns Tampa-based comedy club the Commodore, “thus bringing me closer to achieving my lifelong dream of becoming ‘Florida Man.’” Carl Leubsdorf ’59 (associate editor) celebrated 44 years as a reporter at the Dallas Morning News and Tribune Content Agency last March. He writes, “My wife, fellow journalist Susan Page, will be releasing a biography on Barbara Walters in the spring.”

Sun alums have also launched exciting projects outside the journalism world. Phil Mazo ’03 (cartoonist) released a short comedy film called “I’m Phil,” which won the 2022 Coney Island Film Festival for Best Comedy Short. Ed Zuckerman ’70 (editor-in-chief) published Wealth Management , a thriller novel, in 2022. He writes, “One character in the book is a Cornell graduate, but she didn’t work on the Sun . Her loss.” This book is yet another twinkle in Ed’s star-studded career as a journalist, nonfiction author, and writer-producer on TV shows including “Law & Order.”

Many Sun alums have found their calling outside the media industry. Zachary Silver ’19 (sports editor) covered Major League Baseball for four years before pivoting to communications. He writes, “I have learned that even if I’m out of the field, it’s easy to stay connected.” He keeps up with the friends that he made in the press box, and he reports that he’s still cheering from the sidelines.

Phil Mazo ’03 won the 2022 Coney Island Film Festival for Best Comedy Short.

Chloe Gatta ’12 (business manager) lives in Manhattan and works in strategic communications at Hiltzik Strategies. Maryam Zafar ’21 (editor-in-chief) pursues research in environmental health epidemiology and writes for the Harvard Public Health Magazine . She reports that she will begin medical school in fall ’24.

Andy Guess ’05 (editor-in-chief) lives in New York City and works as an assistant professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University. He writes, “Remember, New Jersey and you, perfect together.” Rochelle Li ’21 (HR manager) works in healthcare management for global consulting firm ZS. She writes, “I currently live in New York City and spend my free time engaging in various cozy hobbies, including baking, embroidery, and houseplant growing.”

Several Sun alums stick close to home, pursuing careers here in Ithaca. Amanda Soule Shaw ’00 , MBA ’05 (business manager) serves as the associate dean for administration and finance for the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy. She writes, “I live in Ithaca with my husband and two teenage sons, who regularly fight over wearing my Cornell Daily Sun sweatshirt to school and around town.” Kirkpatrick Sale ’58 (editor-in-chief) lives in the Ithaca area with his wife. He reads the Sun online each morning.

Other alumni, including Salil Gupte ’01 (managing editor) and Nicole Neroulias Gupte ’01 (features editor) make a big impact abroad. Salil serves as president of Boeing India, “opening a new 43-acre campus with India’s Prime Minister and launching a new training program for women pilots.” Nicole serves on the board of governors of Delhi’s American Embassy School. She is pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science from San Jose State University.

They write, “Our two kids, R.J. and Katia, are also busy with school, Scouting, taekwondo, music programs, and being dragged around the world.” Nicole and Salil invite any Sunnies visiting Delhi (during the school year) or Seattle (over summer breaks) to reach out on LinkedIn.

To close our first Group Notes column, I’ll share some exciting news about Sun families. In 2023, Carl Leubsdorf celebrated the wedding of his son, Will. Jessica DiNapoli and her husband, Sachin Shah, welcomed their son, Michael, in August 2023.

That same month, Haley Velasco got engaged—she reports that she’s currently planning her wedding. Chloe Gatta got engaged in November 2023; she and her fiancé, Aayush Srivastava, plan to get married in Philadelphia.

It’s been great to hear all your fun stories. To my contributors, thank you for your time! If you’re interested in submitting an update for a future Cornellians column or the Sun alumni blog, please reach out to me . It’s always exciting to see where Sunnies end up in the world, and how you’re all working to change it for the better. Shine bright! ❖ Vee Cipperman ’23 ( email Vee ) | Alumni Directory .

University Chorus & Glee Club

Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome! To the brand spankin’ new Cornell Chorus and Glee Club (a.k.a. “Glorus,” according to the current students) Group Notes column! I am excited to be your correspondent and to share all of your updates.

A little bit about myself: I, Alison Torrillo French ’95 , graduated from Cornell in 1995, sang Alto 2 (woot!) in the Chorus all four years, and was a part of After Eight. Outside of singing, I majored in communications in CALS, wrote for the arts and entertainment section of the Daily Sun , and was president of Women in Communications. I now am a solopreneur, running my own consulting company, aptly named Alto Solutions ! I live outside Washington, DC—where I recently got to see many of you when the Glorus came down for winter break tour—with my husband (and classmate, but he was a Big Red Band geek), Matt French ’95 , ME ’96, and our two kids, Ray, 13, and Ben, 11 (who both adore visiting Cornell—in particular, the Dairy Bar!). I have sung with several a cappella groups and bands in the area and can often be found belting it out at karaoke night with friends.

Now let’s dive right into your updates, shall we? Also in the Washington, DC, area, where the spirit of Cornell music-making lives on, is Brad Spencer ’79 , who sings in the Washington Men’s Camerata along with fellow Glee Clubbers Robert Harris ’80 , Kenyon Erickson , MPS ’81 , Jason Rylander ’93 , Eugene Stromecki ’82 , Michael Schrier ’90 , and Shea Murphy ’20 —all under the direction of former CUGC director Scott Tucker and the first woman to serve as the Camerata’s associate director, Chorus alum Julie Huang Tucker ’05 . Writes Brad, “We have sung more than a half dozen times with the National Symphony Orchestra and recently made NFL history by singing on a state-of-the-art recording of the Washington Commanders’ new fight song.”

Yet another D.C.-area Glee Clubber who is continuing to sing is Bill Welker ’73 , MBA ’75. He has been a member of the Choral Arts Society, whose season started with the singing of Rachmaninov’s “Symphony of the Bells” (prepared by Scott Tucker) and then William Walton’s “Belshazzar’s Feast,” conducted by Marin Alsop, both performances at the Kennedy Center. Bill is looking forward to singing Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana in the spring.

We recently made NFL history by singing on a state-of-the-art recording of the Washington Commanders’ new fight song. Brad Spencer ’79

Living in Cincinnati, OH, Jessica Graus Woo ’93 —my co-president of the After Eight Alumni Council—writes that she recently got to catch up with Steve Merz ’91 at a grad school event. Steve lives in Maine and is running a behavioral healthcare organization. “It had probably been 25 years since we’d seen each other, but it was like no time had passed,” says Jess. As I write this in February, I am excited myself to catch up with Jess and others at the Cornell Alumni Leadership Conference in Baltimore—I’m sure I’ll have some news to report afterward.

Jeanne Arnold ’78 is also keeping the music alive and is busy doing local theater on the East End of Long Island. She has done The Producers (ensemble), Cry-Baby (stage manager), Taming of The Shrew (Tranio), and Macbeth (Seyton and First Murderer). She is active in Corchaug Repertory Theatre, North Fork Community Theatre, and Northeast Stage. She also recently got together with friends to perform a Broadway tap dance number and has sung lead with some bands. Her favorite Chorus memories are Carnegie Hall with Michael Tilson Thomas in 1977 and our centennial Reunion in 2022.

Finally, TP Enders ’90 , ME ’96, shared an update from Robert Pierce ’61 , who, after having been widowed, reported re-finding joy through singing by joining the Encore East Side NYC Chorale. The group is run by Encore Creativity, a national choral organization for age 55+ adults. He invites NYC-area singing alumni to join him. The group does not hold auditions, rehearses weekly at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church (E. 73 rd Street), and is in particular need of male voices. There’s more information on Encore’s website and Facebook page .

That’s it for the inaugural column. All of your updates are certainly music to my ears. Please keep them coming. Until we meet again … ❖ Alison Torrillo French ’95 ( email Alison ) | Alumni Directory .

Top image: Photo by Ryan Young / Cornell University

Published May 1, 2024