Class Notes

Kenneth Haugk, GR73, the founder and executive director of Stephen Ministries, co-authored the organization’s newest book, The Gift of Empathy: Helping Others Feel Valued, Cared for, and Understood (Stephen Ministries, 2023), with longtime colleague Joel Bretscher. The book equips readers with practical knowledge and skills for making empathy a bigger part of their lives, including chapters on empathizing with spouses, siblings, parents, co-workers, friends and others.

Lawrence J. Altman, EN73, is an adjunct professor at Avila University in Kansas City, Missouri, and teaches an undergraduate class for the business school that focuses on diversity, civil rights laws and equity. Altman recently had an American Indian from the Choctaw Nation as a guest speaker to help explain some of the problems diverse people face when growing up, while at school and in the workplace. At the end of his presentation, the guest speaker gave Altman and his class a Choctaw Tribal Flag for the honor to speak to the class. Altman considers the flag one of his greatest honors.

Jean Volgo, GR72, works part time at Tempe Preparatory Academy, where he teaches methods for solving problems in applied math to students preparing for standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT. Volgo’s academic background is in modern analytic philosophy.

Harry S. Jonas III, LA72, SW74, GR74, is looking forward to going to Bordeaux and Dordogne, France, as part of an upcoming alumni trip.

Joan Baron, FA71, had her work titled “Illuminations, 2022-2023” on display as part of the Some Kind of Nature art exhibit at FOMA Gallery, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in September 2023. Baron’s work was a floor/wall installation including mesquite wood, soda and wood-fired ceramics. The exhibition focused on the changing climate and the role artists can play in having conversations about how humans are affecting planetary species survival for generations to come.

Larry Katzenstein, LA69, was the 2023 recipient of the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils (NAEPC) Hartman Axley Lifetime Service Award, honoring those who have been highly active in the estate planning community and crucial to the development of NAEPC. Katzenstein, a partner with Thompson Coburn, serves clients in the firm’s private client services practice and is a nationally recognized authority on estate planning. He is active as a board member and as general counsel to several St. Louis charities.

Carolyn Grew-Sheridan, LA69, had her 1995 work “Pierced Hope” posthumously juried into Telling Tales, a catalogued and juried exhibition at the Wharton Esherick Museum in Paoli, Pennsylvania, last summer. “Pierced Hope” is a mitered box made of Sierra Pine, a twig, shavings and recycled paper referencing mortality and deforestation. Grew-Sheridan died in 1996.

John Liebson, GR68, helped fund and build the Crested Butte (Colorado) Fire Protection District (CBFPD) in 1971 and was appointed its first volunteer fire chief and its first career chief. The district recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. Liebson sent a framed letter to the current chief documenting how the district came about after he “responded to his first fire there and saw two hand-drawn hose carts and a hand-drawn ladder cart, but no fire engine.” Liebson reports the chief will hang the letter in the fire house and will make sure it gets relocated to CBFPD’s new headquarters.

Deborah Kasdan, LA68, GR70, published Roll Back the World: A Sister’s Memoir (She Writes Press, October 2023), which was named to Kirkus Review’s Best Indie Books of 2023. The book’s plot centers on Rachel Goodman, who seems to be in glowing health when she returns from a gap year working on a kibbutz in 1963. But three years later, she is committed to a state hospital in St. Louis with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Kirkus Review stated, “The author delves deeply into memory and family dynamics to understand her sister’s diagnosis and, in doing so, finds self-forgiveness for being unable to save her. Intricate and affecting, Kasdan’s debut finds hope in the saddest of stories.”

Charles M. “Mel” Gray, GR68, GR78, co-author of The Economics of Art and Culture, had its third edition published by Cambridge University Press (September 2023). It features a new co-author, Karol Borowiecki of the University of Southern Denmark, adding a European perspective that extends the book’s global reach. Gray is professor emeritus of business economics in the finance department at Opus College of Business and a senior fellow at the Center for the Common Good, both at the University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis.