Alumni Happenings

(far left) Nowacki presents Aswad with a plaque in recognition of her partnership with Sodexho. (left) Aswad serves samples of her cookies at the coffee kiosk in the Library Tower.

Scott Francis '81 (left), president of BMG Songs at BMG Music Publishing in Los Angeles, and Michael Fiur '81, president and executive producer of Michael T. Fiur Productions in New York City, at their reunion in Beverly Hills

Six degrees of separation?

According to a popular theory, there are only six degrees of separation between every person on earth -- you know, Sally knows Richard who lives with Jim who met Ricardo who works with Kamal . . . you get the picture. Michael Fiur '81 found out that, sometimes, the connections are much tighter than that.

Last summer, Michael's half-brother, Seth Fiur, was working as a counselor at Camp Greylock in Becket, Mass. During one of the brothers' 'semi-regular catch-up phone calls,' Seth mentioned that a kid in his bunkhouse had a father in the music business -- something he thought would interest Michael, who is in the entertainment business.
Michael was interested. Next, Seth told him the boy's last name was Francis. 'Hmmmm,' thought Michael. 'My freshman roommate's last name is Francis, and last I knew he was in the music business -- at Sony in New York.' Michael asked a few more questions and the coincidences were stacking up. So he went online, checked pollstaronline.com (a trade website) and searched for Scott Francis. 'There he was at BMG Music Publishing in Los Angeles,' said Michael. 'I called. He answered the phone.

'' Is this Scott Francis who went to Binghamton?' I asked without identifying myself. 'Do you have a son? Is he a camper in the Berkshires at Camp Greylock?' The other end of the phone was quiet. 'Where is this going?' he must have been thinking,' said Michael. 'Is his counselor Seth Fiur?' Michael asked.  'This is his older brother Michael Fiur.'

' Oh my God!' came from the other end of the phone and the other end of the country, Michael reported.

The phone call led to an exchange of e-mails and a lunch reunion in Beverly Hills. Michael and Scott had not seen each other since their graduation 22 years ago. 'We really picked up as if no time had passed,' said Michael. 'We laughed, looking back on our freshman year in Dickinson when we were 'tripled' our first semester.'

Fiur is a former member of the Alumni Association board of directors who lives in New York City. Francis and his wife, Ellen Loewy Francis '81, have two children.

Alumni Authors

Shalom (Seymour) Freedman '64 has published Small Acts of Kindness: Striving for Derech eretz in Everyday Life (Urim Publications, 2004).

William Luis '71 has published Lunes de Revolución: Literatura y cultura en los primeros años de la Revolución Cubana (Lunes de Revolución: Literature and Culture in the First Years of the Cuban Revolution) (Madrid: Verbum, 2003).

Roger Hall '72 has published an updated edition of Celebrate, Rejoice and Sing! ' Christmas Music in America (Pine Tree Press, 2003).

Robert Metzger '74 has published Debugging by Thinking: A Multidisciplinary Approach (Elsevier Digital Press, 2004).

Laurie Graff '76 has published You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs (Red Dress Ink, 2004), a novel.

John Brick MA '79, PhD '81 has published Handbook of the Medical Consequences of Alcohol and Drug Abuse (Haworth Press, Inc. 2004), a book he edited.

Mark Cohen '80 has published Last Century of a Sephardic Community: The Jews of Monastir, 1839-1943 (Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture, 2003).

G. Steve Jordan '80, photographer, published a collection of his photos, Strength Beauty Spirit: Images of the Mohonk Preserve and Shawangunk Ridge (Clove Editions, 2003).

Bob Merberg '81 has published The Health Seeker's Handbook: Revolutionary Advice on How to Shape Up, Trim Down, and Chill Out . . . . from America's #1 Health Coach (Well Lit Books, 2003).

Keith B. Miller '83 has published a book he edited, Perspectives on Evolving Creation (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2003).

Debra Weinstein '83 has published Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z (Random House, 2004), a novel.

David Kocieniewski '84 has published Brass Wall: The Betrayal of Undercover Detective #4126 (Henry Holt & Company, Inc., 2003), a book about police corruption in New York City.

Devra Newberger Speregen '86 has published Ilan Ramon: Jewish Star (Jewish Publication Society, 2004), a biography of Israel's first astronaut.

Pierre Joris, PhD '90 has published A Nomad Poetics: Essays (Wesleyan University Press, 2003).

Philip Brady, PhD '90 has published To Prove My Blood: A Tale of Emigrations and the Afterlife (Ashland Poetry Press, 2003).

Dean Rader, MA '91, PhD '94 has published Speak to Me Words: Essays on Contemporary Indian Poetry (University of Arizona Press, 2003), a book he co-edited with Janice Gould.

Michelle McGoff-McCann '94 has published Melancholy Madness: A Coroner's Casebook (Mercier Press, 2003), a collection of tales based on the recently discovered 19th-century casebook of Irish coroner William Charles Waddell.

Carol Faulkner, MA '95, PhD '98 has published Women's Radical Reconstruction: The Freedmen's Aid Movement (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003).

Keith Strassberg '96, CPA, CISSP, has published Network Security: The Complete Reference (McGraw-Hill, 2003), a book he wrote with Roberta Bragg and Mark Rhodes-Ousley.

Ruchir Gupta '01 has published The Ramayan: A Poetic Translation (2003, Global Scholarly Publications) the only English translation of the sacred Hindu text written in the same poetic form as the original story.

For more information about these and other books by alumni authors, visit the Alumni Authors website at alumni.binghamton.edu/authors/.

'Mystery' ski race identified

Marcus Harazin '77 wrote the following in response to the request for information about the photo at left, printed in the winter 2004 issue of the Binghamton Alumni Journal. Harazin still has the Sun-Bulletin's printed results of the race, which identify the skier in this photo as Michael Coon of Binghamton.

Here is a little more information than you probably want to know about the origins of the 10 Kilometer Sun Snow
Run Race.

At one time there was a Harpur College Ski Team that competed in cross-country skiing, downhill events and ski jumping. We were a co-ed team and skied against male teams that included the likes of Cornell, Army, Colgate and Syracuse. While we had some individual members who occasionally finished in the money, we were usually creamed as a team. However, none of the other teams ever had as much spirit or fun as we did.

Marcus Harazin '77 (left) ' 'Twas a cold day not fit for man nor beast ' or skiers with beards, for that matter! Geoffrey B. Wilson, MS '75, who also remembers Sun Snow Run fondly, sent us a photo of his hat from that day. 'I wear it every time it snows here in southern Florida!' he wrote. He concurs with Harazin about the day's weather: 'As I recall it was right around 0º F on the athletic field and somewhere around -10º F at the top of the hill. Quite a number of spectators and officials were treated for frostbite.'

I was a member from 1975 to 1977 and helped coach the 1978 team along with Karl Reuter '77, who was also a member from 1975 to 1977. (Karl and I and our families still ski together each year.) We founded a cross-country ski race on campus in 1978 to raise funds for the team and attract more people to the sport. The first race was sponsored by Nippenose, a local backpacking store that is no longer around.

The Sun-Bulletin sponsored the race in 1979. It was very successful. More than 130 people finished the race. It was a sunny, but bitter, day. The icicles hanging from my beard in the photo attest to the conditions. I drove to see some friends, ski the race, go to Pat Mitchell's and visit the Other Place Pub and similar establishments. As luck would have it, I finished in third place overall. Chip Deveraux, MA '78, a grad student who had helped coach our team along with fellow grad student Rob Lacey '73, BS '75, MS '76, also raced and finished in fifth place.

The Sun-Bulletin did a great job. They gave out collector's-item 'Sun Snow Run' hats, which were made up in SUNY Binghamton's colors of green and white. I don't know if the race was ever run again, but I still wear my hat proudly each time I go cross-country skiing.

Thanks for conjuring up some nice old memories!

Additional readers' responses to the Sun Snow Run photo:

One Beautiful Sunny Saturday Morning, the snow had been set on the hills of Harpur College. Everyone was sleeping and I was awake. I would always walk my snow sled up into the woods in back of Hinman and follow the snowbound trail.

I would time my sleigh ride. I would take a minute -- a beautiful minute -- snow white Harpur minute. It began in the woods, down the hills, over the Tennis Courts, down some more hills and stopping safely before the road. What a beautiful and safe experience. It was fun except for the walking back to do the ride again. I would do it two or three more times. It was always snowing that year and the ground was covered with a warm white blanket even up into the hills, even up into the mountain. I noticed a white snow path down the side of the mountain. And, decided that this Saturday's ride would be a different ride. I had already made my decision to attempt a ride down Binghamton Mountain Fire trail.

Another Saturday sun was almost up and it was white and green and beautiful. My roommate Pete agreed to drive me and my American Flyer up the mountain, instead of walking all the way up. I had agreed with Pete that I would not attempt the sleigh ride down the mountain's Fire Trail until he was in view at the bottom of the mountain. I could hardly see anything, except for a few pieces of coal on the ground in the distance from the base of the mountain.

On top of the mountain, I was standing on a flat plane with my hands on my sled and ready to run to get a full speed start, before flopping my belly on my 44 inch sled and switching my hands to the control handles in the front.

There I was, on my way, running as fast as I could and right near the edge of the down slope, I smashed my body down and met my sled to become one. My hands were on the primitive controls. I started out about 15 miles an hour and quickly accelerated down the initial downward curve to about 30 or 40 miles an hour or more -- maybe 60 miles an hour on a sled.

It was pretty neat, for the moment. Then my speed was increasing drastically because I had polished the blades and waxed them. I approached this ledge and had no idea the problems when you are moving so fast. I flew off the ledge at about 70 miles an hour and about 1/4 way down... It was beautiful. It was all encompassing. The sled and I were traveling through the air for about 5 seconds. My body and sled were parallel to each other but there was a foot and 1/2 space between the parallel of my body and my sled. I didn't realize a mistake was about to happen.

When the sled impacted in the slope, the sled hit first and my body hit the sled and my face hit the crossbars and the smell of blood from my nose almost knocking me out. NO! NO! It was unstable, my sled and I were turning to the right and left after I hit the ground. I was flying through the air on my American Flyer. This is the time to really get it together. Now, my control was challenged by the crash onto the slope and the trees were going by like picket fences. These noble trees were very close to my sides. One thought -- don't hit the tree, stay straight, hang on, hold in there and see what happens when you hit the bottom. Don't faint, don't pass out.

I kept flying for a long distance, and I enjoyed every moment. At the bottom, there were a number of cars and many people to witness the first attempt to come down the mountain on a small American Flyer Sleigh.

I had a roommate that would not like to be overdone. Pete had to do it also. Then he had to do it again. After time passed and word spread, I would look out my window and see a hundred people going down the mountain on "1970 Saucers" and other gizmos: blankets, cardboard boxes and butt boards.

When I saw this picture of the Snow Run, Feb 11, 1979, it brought back memories. I hope everyone makes it as safe as possible. Dennis J. O'brien '70 email:ogigglin@aol.com

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Paul Enos, Emeritus Distinguished Professor, Geology at University of Kansas writes:

I'm not an alumnus in the usual sense. I taught at SUNY-B in 1970 - 1982 in Geology before returning to my alma mater, Kansas, to accept an Endowed Chair. I keep in touch with many friends in Binghamton, most of them retired, alas, I couldn't resist the Snow Run. Paul's daughter Mischa L. Enos graduated in 1985, and son Curt A. Enos, '90.

Al Hamme and the Harpur Jazz ensemble, 1978. Were you a member? Write us and share your memories.

Special anniversaries are planned for our milestone reunion classes:
Golden graduates: Class of 1954
25-year graduates: Class of 1979
10-year graduates: Class of 1994
5-year graduates: Class of 1999
If you'd like to join the alumni planning committee for Homecoming 2004 and/or would like to assist with one of the milestone reunions above, send an e-mail to Rose Frierman at frierman@binghamton.edu.

Revisit the people and places that made your years in Binghamton some of your most memorable!

'Thanks for the Memories' Roadshow
Calling all alumni to donate Harpur and University memorabilia!
As part of Homecoming 2004, the Alumni Association, in cooperation with the University Libraries and the Harpur College Dean's Office, will host our first 'Thanks For The Memories' Roadshow. The University Libraries plans to display 'memories' from the anniversary classes of 1954, 1979, 1994 and 1999, and our archivist will be on hand to accept your donations.

Now is the time to clean out those closets, look in those drawers and under the beds, and send us all the items that represent your time at Binghamton or Harpur College. Your donation will become a part of the permanent Binghamton University archives and may appear in future memorabilia exhibits.

Please include a description of the event or activity the item represents, including the year, along with your full name and class year. Attach a note to the back of photographs to help us identify the individuals.

Items should be sent to the Alumni Association, Couper Administration Building, Binghamton University, PO Box 6000, Binghamton, New York 13902-6000.