Alumni Class Notes
Class of 1976
LEE HARDGROVE has retired from United Methodist ministry and U.S. Army chaplaincy after three years of active duty including a tour in Afghanistan. He and his wife have moved to Rhode Island to be near family. They enjoy touring the Newport...
RICH ISRAEL has spent most of the last 35 years in Cleveland, OH, in ministries relating to social justice including working for school desegregation and public education, advocating for the elderly in long-term care, and running an agency that...
EARL E. JOHNSON served as the national spiritual care coordinator for the American Red Cross from January 2002 until summer 2011. He deployed 53 chaplains via the American Red Cross Disaster Response to the tornado-stricken Midwest and South....
TOM NEILSON is currently senior pastor of First Congregational UCC, Council Bluffs, IA, after two years of semi-retirement in Texas. He has worked in human rights and outreach in Latin America for 28 years with International Christian...
BEVERLEY A. NITSCHKE, who earned a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame in liturgical studies and historical theology, has served for years as a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in both campus and congregational...
PAIGE LINDSEY SMITH enjoyed time spent with Janet Edwards in September when she attended son Fitz’s Pittsburgh wedding, a Buddhist-Mexican-Native-American-and-even-sorta-Jewish ceremony in the back yard of the kids’ rehabbed house in North...
Class of 1974
C. ARTHUR BRADLEY served for 20 years in pastoral ministry in Connecticut. At YDS Arthur’s studies in American civil religion and black and women’s theology proved helpful in the second half of his career as he moved from pastoral ministry to...
MICHAEL HEATH has launched a new website, www.revmichaelheath.com, as part of his counseling center, Pine Ridge Pastoral Counseling Services, that allows visitors to more easily access his mental health segments on...
JACK A. SAARELA began a term in August as interim pastor at the Lutheran campus center at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania after completing a two-year stint as the interim Lutheran pastor at Luther House at Yale. This marks his 26th year...
Class of 1973
Paul R. Baxter continues to pastor First Baptist Church on the Square in LaGrange, Ga. where he has been since 1983. In an effort to be a “peacemaker” in the “worship wars” the church is now providing “Three For All” Services: A traditional (8:45), blended (11:00) and...
Class of 1972
WILLIAM S. BEERY is “tapering down” into retirement by building a house with a dock on the coast of North Carolina, close to the Intra Coastal Waterway (the gateway to the Atlantic). He does part-time consulting in executive and organizational...
BRUCE SCHUNDLER and wife Sara are still working as seasonal park rangers for the National Park Service. They retired from the “real world” in 2005 when The Schundler Company was sold. Bruce had been President/CEO of the company for 27 years. “...
BILL SOMPLATSKY-JARMAN was recently awarded the William Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award for Leadership in Environmental Justice by Presbyterians for Earth Care. His work in caring for God’s creation dates back to 1988 when he was asked to...
JIM TURNER retired as chief counsel of the Committee on Technology in January 2009 and immediately joined the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities as senior counsel and director of energy programs. See www.linkedin.com/...
Class of 1971
BENJAMIN AUNE is president and CEO of Operation Access, a San Francisco nonprofit that arranges donated surgical care for low-income, uninsured patients living in the Bay Area. Since OA’s founding in 1993, over 8,000 patients have received free...
DEAN DENNISTON, JR. is retired from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services, where he was director of civil rights.
DAN AND SUSAN ‘69 GARRETT are now both retired from serving as United Methodist clergy.
WESLEY H. POLING finished a 10-year stint as president of Kentucky Wesleyan College in Owensboro, KY, in the summer of 2004. Since then, he has been serving as director of capital giving for the graduate school as a member of the Yale...
RICH REIFSNYDER is a Presbyterian pastor in Pennsylvania.
DAVID L. WHEELER is senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Portland, OR. He has taught systematic theology in the U.S. and Latin America. Wife Carol has worked in mental health administration. Children Clare and Micah are musicians in New...
WILL WILLIMON is looking forward to retirement in a couple of years after long service as a university chaplain and now a United Methodist bishop.
Class of 1970
JOE CASE has been dean of financial aid at Amherst College for the past 30 years. He recently ended 15 years on the editorial board of the Journal of Student Financial Aid, the last four as executive editor.
DON CHANDLER owns a piano service business, serves as organist-choirmaster at an Episcopal church in Maryland, and has recently decided to resume his doctoral work in Japanese studies.
CATHIE KOUTSOGIANE CIPOLLA retired from high school teaching but is now teaching English to a combined class of 7th and 8th graders.
SANDRA FORRESTER DUFRESNE leads a quiet life in retirement. She continues to respond well to chemotherapy plus prayer, in equal doses, to combat her metastatic cancer. She stays as often as possible at her place in Rehoboth Beach, DE, including...
BOB EMMAUS is completing 30 years of servant leadership in the nursing home industry, reading David Kelsey’s Eccentric Existence and participating in an emerging Yale Divinity ministry at St. Andrew’s Episcopal in Greensboro, North...
RON EVANS and wife Janet retired in 2007 to “Pilgrim Place,” Claremont, CA, an international community of clergy and academics. They enjoy music, lectures, college courses and engaging conversations. They travel east for YDS Advisory Board...
SAM GLADDING continues to chair the Department of Counseling at Wake Forest University and to be active in his local United Methodist church where he occasionally preaches. His youngest son, Timothy, is a junior at Yale, so they make regular...
PAUL HARRIS spent nine months as the teaching/missions pastor at Easter Lutheran (ELCA) in Eagan, MN, and three months teaching church history at Tumaini University in Iringa, Tanzania. Paul also serves as project advisor for Radio Furaha and...
JOHN HOLBROOK completed an M.A. in administrative sciences at Yale after his studies at YDS, then an M.D. at Harvard. He practiced two years in public health at the New Mexico State Penitentiary; practiced emergency medicine for 20 years in...
JERRY KIRKPATRICK is retired but engaged in interim ministry.
SAM LAMBACK continues to work part-time in retirement for the South Georgia United Methodist bishop with opportunities for banjo picking, Bible teaching, and projects around the house. Two grandchildren are in Atlanta and two in Germany. Gini...
GARY AND LYNN MILLER are both retired. Gary has retired from a career in college teaching and chaplaincy and, Lynn, from college teaching and school administration.
JUDY PUGH STONE is retired from her social work career in New Haven.
KERMIT WESTERBERG is semi-retired and doing some consulting.
SANDY WYLIE retired to 3 Wembly Circle in Bella Vista, AR, on June 1 after a 44-year career in the United Methodist Church. Wife Susan continues to work three days a week in Tulsa. Life is good.
Class of 1969
WALTER GAFFNEY retired in February 2011 from the Connecticut Department of Social Services as its chief of staff. He is currently working with a federal grant at the Agency on Aging of South Central Connecticut as the program’s project...
BONNIE SCOTT JELINEK received a D.Min. from Andover Newton and postgraduate certification in psychodynamic psychotherapy after graduating from YDS. She has served several churches in Connecticut and Massachusetts and is presently one of the...
HENRY M. SMITH journeyed to Montgomery, AL, on a beautiful weekend at the end of April to participate in a wonderful celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Southern Poverty Law Center (with about 2,000 other souls) and its impressive...
Class of 1967
DICK NOLAN and partner/spouse Bob Pingpank continue to live in retirement in the 64-acre John Knox Village, an inclusive, independent, continuing care retirement community in Pompano Beach, FL. They continue to expand www.philosophy...
Class of 1966
RUTH BENNETT has become an Episcopalian since graduating from YDS. Having spent so much time in the UK in the last 40 years, she gradually made her way from the Methodist church there to the Episcopal Church (USA), and is very happy. She is a...
BROOKS HOLIFIELD was elected in April as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He spoke recently at the University of Frankfurt and will speak in October at the University of Heidelberg. As of August 31, 2011, he migrated into...
DOT KWOK is still a substitute teacher for 12 schools in Florida with students of varying racial and ethnic backgrounds including some from Latin America. Dot writes, “We hope to enlighten our students to be responsible global citizens.”...
KEN SEBESTA has lived in Rhode Island since 1970. He met his wife, Helen, at Austin College, and they have now completed 45 years of marriage. Ken worked in a mental health center for over 16 years. He now works in Boston as comptroller of the...
ROBERT TILLER serves on the boards of directors of Churches for Middle East Peace and the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America. He is also a member of the Commission on Aging for Montgomery County, MD. He enjoys playing softball, growing...
NEIL TOPLIFFE continued to enjoy traveling in the past year with the highlight being two weeks in Italy. Time with family in the Rocky Mountains was also enjoyable. He is active in volunteer activities at church and mentoring recovering...
Class of 1964
J. BARRIE SHEPHERD is publishing his fourteenth book, Faces By the Wayside (Wipf and Stock, 2012). Following his Faces at the Manger and Faces at the Cross, this volume places the reader in the paths that...
IAN SIGGINS used Xlibris (October 2009) to self-publish his latest book, A Harvest of Medieval Preaching. The Sermon Books of Johann Herolt OP (Disciplulus).
Class of 1963
G. HOLGER (HOGIE) HANSEN and wife Anne celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary in August. They still live in Swarthmore, PA, and are active in the Swarthmore United Methodist Church, where they also sing in the choir. Volunteer activities...
