Class Notes

Jim Holliman, MD79, in May was elected president of the Penn State College of Medicine Emeritus Faculty Organization.

Tamar Abrams, LA78, is leaving Washington, D.C., after 43 years and moving to Rhode Island so she can awaken to the sounds and smells of the ocean rather than the cacophony of the nation’s capital. Though semiretired, she still writes magazine articles and works a few days each week for a USAID project. Abrams’ daughter, Hannah, and son-in-law are moving to England by year-end, so her plans include trips to London.

Walter Zoller, LA77, retired as a general and cosmetic dentist and is now a forensic dentist in east central Florida.

Stephanie Barbé Hammer, GR77, shares proudly that her second novel, Pretend Plumber (Inlandia, May 2022), received rave reviews from Publishers Weekly Book Life, BlueInk and Jewish Book Council. The comic adventure features a queer-curious, precocious Los Angelina who grows so fed up with her wealthy Jewish parents that she decides to run away and become a plumber. A retired University of California professor, Hammer teaches creative writing at Hugo House Seattle and Inlandia Institute in Riverside, Calif.

Mark Kramer, GA75, and his wife, Margi, wrote and illustrated a children’s book, Molli & Me and the Family Tree. The book is about a whimsical girl, a nostalgic mom and a wise old family tree that take a journey back in time, revealing beloved ancestors who mysteriously appear as root vegetables and imaginative characters. Kramer is an architect in private practice in Bethesda, Md., and is also a sculptor, creating large welded steel and bronze pieces.

Barry A. Perlmutter, SI76, edited Integration and Optimization of Unit Operations (Elsevier, June 2022), which offers engineers advice on increasing their skill levels in various disciplines so they can develop, commercialize and optimize processes. Perlmutter is president of Perlmutter & Idea Development LLC, in Matthews, N.C.

Tom A. Lassar, LA73, HS80, retired with his wife, Jane Laubheim Lassar, LA73, in Tucson, Ariz., after 41 years of clinical practice. He also had held positions as a professor of medicine/interventional cardiology at University of Arizona College of Medicine and as an associate director of cardiac cath and intervention at Banner/University Hospitals. Other prior faculty appointments included assistant professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine Milwaukee Clinical Campus from 1981–88 and as associate professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine from 1988–2013. He is currently a speaker/consultant for Chiesi Pharmaceuticals and a research associate for TRISH (Translational Research Institute for Space Health).

Maiyim Baron, LA73, a Japanese technical interpreter, was invited to interpret for the Japanese elite runners at the 126th Boston Marathon in April. The Japanese group had a bad race day, Baron writes, and she wasn’t featured with them on the world news feed; still, she greatly enjoyed the work and expects to do it again in 2023.

Joe Madison, LA71, LW19, signed a new, multiyear deal to continue hosting “Joe Madison, The Black Eagle” exclusively on SiriusXM. The program airs weekdays, 6-10 a.m. ET, on Urban View channel 126. A member of the National Radio Hall of Fame and a civil rights activist, Madison is the former national political director of the NAACP.

Karen Fairbank, LA71, LW75, GR84, retired in May 2022 from Thomas Jefferson School, a coed day and boarding college prep school in St. Louis, after 38 years as director of college counseling, an advanced placement U.S. history and English teacher, and director of student activities. Nearly 200 alumni, parents, current students, staff and friends attended her retirement party. Fairbank plans to help with costumes for theater productions at the school, where she started the drama program. She is also volunteering as a St. Louis Zoo ambassador, serves on the volunteer board at The Rep, and is a substitute teacher in the Clayton school district and John Burroughs School, where she was a student teacher in 1984.