Class Notes

Thomas Berthoff, AB ’82, retired in January 2021 after a 25-year career in information technology and has been devoting himself to his Buddhist path.

Peter Tao, AB ’79, was featured in 2023 by St. Louis CITY soccer club and Enterprise in their Exceptional Neighbor recognition program for his work and commitment in the St. Louis community. Tao is working with the Missouri Historical Society on its Chinese American Collecting Initiative, where he is chair of the advisory committee. He is board president of OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, a civil rights and advocacy organization for the Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander community. Peter’s father, William Tao, MS ’50, DSc ’97, a former emeritus trustee of Washington University, helped found the OCA St. Louis Chapter and the national movement back in 1973.

Bonnie-Belle K.C. Chun, AB ’78, retired in July 2018 after 37 years of public service with the County of Los Angeles. She then relocated to hometown Honolulu, Hawaii.

Khan Zahid, MA ’75, retired and moved to the Charlotte, North Carolina, area. He has had many adventures. After WashU, he earned a doctorate in economics at Columbia University where two of his advisers won the Nobel Prize in Economics. Zahid started his career teaching, moved to life insurance research, and then took a position with the U.S. Treasury Department as an economic adviser with the U.S.-Saudi Joint Economic Commission in Saudi Arabia. After living there for 17 years, he returned to the United States before moving to China to teach college courses. Afterward, he returned again to the U.S. and got a job as visiting assistant professor at High Point University in North Carolina.

Bob Wickizer, MA ’75, runs a commercial winery that he started in Muskogee, Oklahoma. He grows his own grapes, winning awards in San Francisco and in other competitions. Wickizer plans to publish a book this year titled Lies We Tell Our Children. It is science fiction wrapped around a fictionalized memoir. He remembers WashU literally leaving its mark on him when he played touch football in front of the Compton physics lab. He went out for a pass and slipped on the ice and hit his head on the building, spending the winter day at the emergency room.

Barbara Langsam Shuman, AB ’74, had her second documentary, Mr. Z: What Happens Early in Life Lasts a Lifetime, premiere at the St. Louis International Film Festival in November 2023. The documentary has been awarded a Social Impact Award from another film festival and is entered in several other film festivals.

John Weston Parry, JD ’74, wrote The Burden of Sports: How and Why Athletes Struggle With Mental Health (Rowman & Littlefield, February 2024). He has been the host and primary content provider for the website and blog Sportpathogies.com since 2016. He also is the author of The Athlete’s Dilemma: Sacrificing Health for Wealth and Fame (2017) and Mental Disability, Violence, Future Dangerousness: Myths Behind the Presumption of Guilt (2013).

Sam Graefe, BS ’74, is a proud father of four, grandpa of nine, and the 10th WashU grad in his family, dating from 1935 to 2008. He is retired from careers in engineering, management, consulting and health care in industries of oil refining, gas pipeline, pharmaceuticals, internet and telecom technical, respiratory therapy, and real estate, and from teaching STEM in grades 5-12 and other classes at community college

Linda Showalter, MSW ’71, though officially retired, continues her social work interests via volunteering. She’s served on several community nonprofit boards, including currently as board president for Interfaith Assistance Ministry, which provides food, clothing and financial assistance for needy neighbors in Hendersonville, North Carolina. She’s also volunteered with the Girls Empowered program, a collaboration with Women United/United Way and Henderson County Public Schools to boost self-confidence and skills for young girls. These endeavors and world travel are her passions.

John Sheridan, AB ’70, had his piece “Broken on the Rocks of War” selected for the nationally juried exhibit Our True Heroes at the Gilroy California Center for the Arts last November. Sheridan’s sculpture consists of 12 small stools painted red, white, blue and black and placed in arcs around a block of Sierra granite strewn with broken bits of stone and a hammer. The installation invites visitors to use the setting for meditation, contemplation and discussion about what should be done to assist military veterans.