Class Notes

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.

Dennis Bolazina, AR68, GA70, continues to be involved in the practice of architecture in St. Louis. Coupled with a law degree from Saint Louis University, he has managed a varied consulting practice with clients that include architects, contractors and Fortune 500 companies — the largest a $4.5 billion casino in Las Vegas. For 2024, he will be the president of the St. Louis Chapter of the American Arbitration Association. He also serves on the national committee of the AIA-AGC. At WashU, he was part of the School of Architecture class that first installed the ribbon and bow on the McDonnell Planetarium.

Susan Wilson Krechel, LA67, HS75, has written two additional books on dementia: Two Childhoods? Ollie Explains! and The Dementia Caregiver’s Survival Guide, both published by Palmetto Publishing, May 2023.

Carol Diaz-Granados, FA64, UC66, GR80, GR93, wrote her sixth book, Explanations in Iconography: Ancient American Indian Art, Symbol, and Meaning (Oxbow Press London, October 2023). The book is an edited volume that covers interpretation of various American Indian arts and artifacts. Her previous book, Transforming the Landscape: Rock Art and the Mississippian Cosmos, was published by Oxbow in 2018, and she has two books published by University of Texas Press and two by University of Alabama Press.

Alexine Marie Hanson, LA23, is continuing her WashU education on the Medical Campus, working to earn a doctorate in occupational therapy in 2025.