1985

It's not often enough that I get a letter meaty enough, long enough, or interesting enough to print in its entirety, but I finally got one from Elise Miller. Without farther ado, I turn over the remainder of my floor time to my Distinguished Colleague from California.

"Dear Rick I decided to procrastinate at work and send you a quick e-mail, now that the '85s are 'on line.' Long time no talk or write or see. But here's some news from the San Francisco Bay Area, where I now reside, actually just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County. Life is good, good, good I feel like I'm in a remarkable grace period in my life, which is wondrous to report after all the challenges, wanderings, inner and outer explorations of my 20-something years.

In terms of work, I run a private foundation located at Commonweal (which was featured on the Bill Moyers' series, "Healing and the Mind," and sits on a gorgeous bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Bolinas, Calif. yes, I hear cows mooing outside my window and can eat lunch on the windswept bluff or beach—not bad), and we make grants in three areas: 1) sustainable development (international, national, and regional); 2) mind-body health (mainly research for people with cancer); and 3) disadvantaged children in the Bay Area (mainly focused on quality child care) in short form that's kids, cancer, and the environment.

"I work with Michael Lerner, MacAxthur Fellow and former professor of political science at Yale, who is both brilliant and incredibly warm-hearted, and continually sends me off to meetings, such as the President's Council on Sustainable Development, the UN 50th anniversary with former presidents Carter and Ford, and, later this year, to the UN Conference on Women to be held in Beijing, China. For the latter I'll be representing Commonweal's Sustainable Futures Project and the Citizens Network for Sustainable Development and I can't wait. Plus I'll be traveling in Mongolia for a couple weeks afterwards with my boyfriend (sorry, he's a U.C. Berkeley grad) to shoot a video-on indigenous handicrafts.

"When I'm not traveling and running the foundation, I'm competing in various rowing regattas these days, regionally and nationally. In the last couple years I've been racing a lightweight single mostly, but now I'm rowing sweep again, and my eight just won the San Diego Crew Classic, upsetting a boat of women including former Olympic gold medalists and National Team rowers we were as stunned as they were!

"In terms of some other '85s I see/hear from: Mark Inkster has just left Hewlett-Packard to join Bane in San Francisco and continues to do a lot of ski racing I see him mostly at a group I started in the Bay Area of people from different professions in their 30s who are interested in sustaina bility and exploring what that means; Chris Hunt, who was in the Bay Area writing a novel on Vietnam after deciding Stanford Law School was not for him, until the Economist called one day to offer him a job in London, which he took; Ellen Jennings had her first child, Nicholas, last fall and is continuing her work, now parttime, at Bread for the World in Washington, D.C.

"Ann Schonfield is living in the Bay Area with her husband and working at the Pesticide Action Network, heading the African department; Alison Cooper Phillips had her first child, Jessie, and is continuing her psychiatric practice in New York City. Actually there are lots more, but the stack of papers on my desk is crying for some attention. THANKS for all your work putting together the '85 alumni column—hope some of this info helps. Cheers—Elise Miller."

Thanks a bunch Elise. Any other guest columnists out there? Please write or e-mail.

Don't forget—Reunion's coming up, June 14-16, 1996. Start calling friends to make sure they are going!

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