The Wheatley School Alumni Association Newsletter #182

Art Engoron

November 1, 2024

Welcome to the Wheatley School Alumni Association Newsletter # 182,

Errata From Newsletter # 180 - My Bad!

Martin Rennert resides in New Mexico, not Mexico.

Linda Caterino graduated in 1967, not 1965

Class of 1965 60th-Year Reunion Plans

Class of 1974 50th-Year Reunion

Laura Herbst Writes - “Hello Arthur! I'm so glad that I made the trip to Long Island for the Class of 1974 reunion. It was a wonderful time, and I'm still smiling about it all. The terrific slide show presentation showed each one of our Yearbook photographs next to a current photo.”

Class of 1975 50th-Year Reunion Plans

The Class of 1975 is planning a 50th-year reunion for the late summer or fall of 2025. Contact Robert Vincze at vinczelaw@att.net, cell phone: 303-204-8207, if you are interested in serving on the reunion committee or have a great idea to share.”

Class of 2004 20th-Year Reunion

Top row (L-R): Matthew Haig (faculty), Ryan Paulsen, Erin Johnson Abrahamsen, Kristy Viola McDonough, Natasha Shadadpuri, Michael Bosnack, Kavneet Sethi, Andrew Rosenthal, Brandon Heller, Sean Johnson, Anthony Loguercio, Christine McDonald Chaputian

Middle row (L-R): Michael Haig (faculty), Erik Tarnok, Carol Vogt (faculty), Bryan Gursky, Robin Warren, Oren Yerushalmi, Paul Paino (faculty), Brian Harra, Rob Gadamowitz (faculty), Andrew Cantos, Maanasa Indaram, Jessica (Lee) Hansen, Alexandra Economou Kapuscinski, Jackie Carlos Caracciolo, Christina Calame, Vivek Kuncham, Dane Barkin, Ben Parizat

Front row (L-R): Ashley Gur Balducci, Kirk Balducci, Rachel Kimelman, Pouria Farhoomandi, Joanna Lemle-Jacobs, Karen Klapper (faculty), Rick Wilson (faculty)

Kneeling (L-R): Michael Thiel, Kerry Nienstedt Wystrach, Jacob “Jay” A. Dixon

The Wheatley Class of 2004 celebrated its 20th-year reunion at The Penthouse in NYC, overlooking the sunset and the Intrepid Museum on the Hudson River. Love and joy was the energy felt all night, as we shared stories, celebrated one another, and reconnected as a community. We were grateful that some of our teachers and class advisors joined us on this beautiful occasion. A highlight was raising $1500 from net proceeds and additional donations (including from alumni who regrettably were unable to attend) to establish a one-time scholarship for a Wheatley senior.

Wildcat Concert

Takemi Ueno (Class of 1983) will perform with the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra on Friday, November 1, at 8 pm, at Symphony Space (Broadway and West 95th Street in Manhattan). We will play Coleridge-Taylor’s Four Characteristic Waltzes, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and Brahms’ Second Symphony. You can get tickets for $27 instead of the usual $32 at the orchestra’s website (nasorch.org) until 3 pm the day of the concert. However, if you are a student or senior, at the box office you can get tickets for $25.

Appreciating Wheatley…..and the entire East Williston Union Free School District

[Editors Note - As indicated below, several readers questioned The East Williston Union Free School District, containing Wheatley, being ranked # 1 in New York State, or at least wanted to know who was doing so. I should have indicated the source, which was the following: https://greaterlongisland.com/11-long-island-school-districts-among-the-top-100-in-the-u-s-for-2025/ The link to the website was forwarded to me by a 1970s Wheatley graduate. I should also have acknowledged that other organizations do not rate the EWUFSD nearly as high]

Jack Wolf (1967) Writes - “On Being Number 1 - I think that I had a good public education, and I am grateful for that. I still remember Mr. Pagliaro and the Missouri Compromise, along with the art teacher with no bra (or was that North Side?). Adolescents definitely have interests other than academics. I still hold the record for balancing on two legs of my chair in a class, having spent a whole French class in the air in eighth grade. My education allowed me to be a better informed 'good for nothing' in the hippy years, before coming to my senses and getting a job, other than selling poems or hallucinogens on the streets of Denver.

But in response to the recent revelling in Wheatley's pre-eminence as the ‘best school,' as portrayed by people who fetishize being the top dog, the creme de la creme, my spiritual leanings always argue for humility instead of the guy with the big Number 1 finger at the ballgame.

I am likely in the minority, who feel that all of the self-congratulation at Wheatley avoids the obvious. Wheatley was a rich school. Wheatley was an all-white school. There were negligible poor people at Wheatley, There were no blacks or Puerto Ricans in my class of 1967, one Asian person. Some of that was housing discrimination, even as the liberal district was marching for freedom for those in the Jim Crow South.

I am no progressive politically, and I don’t buy most of the equity arguments from the anti-racist crowd. But I am a religious person, and so I value humility over winning the contest for being the bestest. The thing about being at the top is that it necessitates a lot of people being lower than you. So being in a top school in a wealthy district means that a lot of other people were in 'piss poor' schools in poor districts.

My ascetic instincts dislike elitism. I would rather see people facing hardship prosper than the top dogs securing the top dog advantages. There are finite resources, and education has been the key to keeping the elites at the top, or as a wonderful book worth reading calls them, the "Dream Hoarders" ( Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It: Reeves, Richard, author of President Kennedy: 9780815729129: Amazon.com: Books) That books breaks with the progressive narrative about some small group of super billionaires making everybody else miserable (not that I harbor great sympathy for Musk, et al.) but points out the way that the upper educated professional class of lawyers, doctors, financial consultants maintains their ever increasing share of the pie through Kaplan courses and academic requirements, Ivy league cachet, and through the Wheatleys of the world.

My best friend died recently. Frank Nieves didn't go to Wheatley but to school in Spanish Harlem, which afforded him a trip to Vietnam. As an adult, we shared a lot - our love of salsa dancing primarily and our reminiscences of New York. But what was obvious was that he was raised in a world that was totally different from my experience in the Elysian Fields of Old Westbury. My family's progressive politics emphasized sympathy for the poor, but I still existed in a world distinctly set aside for the privileged. I would have had a hard time hanging with my friend Frank, because I absorbed so much of the upper-class intellectual identity that my parents, who grew up in the slums, themselves, wanted me to have. I sympathize with my parents, who grew up in poverty and then war, and I understand that they wanted a suburban utopia free of those things they had to endure, but I left to join the real world..

I am not anti-intellectual. I still love Mr. Pagliaro for his passion for teaching the Missouri Compromise every year for thirty years. I loved the man. And I had a great education. Mr. Seiderman’s unintended assignment of the Bhagavad Gita in some 10th grade elective put me on the path of a spiritual pilgrim. But what my spirituality teaches me is to favor the benefit of others over oneself and not to seek advantage for oneself beyond the normal that all people should enjoy.

Jack Wolf, Farmer Labor Party of Wheatley (1967)

Graduates

1960 - Martin “Marty” Rennert - Marty, age 83, has lived in Las Cruces, New Mexico, for the past 15 years. He is active in national and local politics, and he raises goats, turkeys, and a mini-horse. Recently, he wrote a short story, a timely and intriguing page-turner entitled “Rogue."

1964 - Ted Rothstein - In His Motorboat, on the Hudson River in Rhinebeck, NY

1966 - Ned Lagin - Looking Good With David Crosby (of Crosby Stills Nash & Young, on the left) and Phil Lesh (of The Grateful Dead, on the right)

1989 - Joseph Apicella - “Hi Art. Hope all is well. My mother, Valerie Apicella, recently passed away. How blessed we were to go to school in the EWSD and given so much to better our lives. My mom had a heart of gold and was always there to help someone in need. I owe everything to my mom, my sisters Lisa (1982) and Kathy (1990). my brothers John (non-Wheatley) and Jerry (1983), my nieces Valerie, Amanda, Cecelia, Rachel, and Julia, and my nephew Thomas. My mom was our world and will be missed by so many. Luv u forever. Joseph.”

Jimmy Seaton (1967) Writes - Hi Art, Thank you for putting my appeal for stories/memories of Chris in the Alumni Notes. I received a number of responses from people in our class that led to fascinating and revealing conversations & stories -- and, along the way, I rekindled contacts with people with whom I'd utterly lost contact. But many in our class who I believe were especially friendly with Chris haven't gotten back in touch. I would like to include all memories in a memory book coming out of the event or, in the event they're eager and able to attend, that they could share in person on the 7th.

1973 - Leonard Weinstock - Lenny is doing a medical research project on a common, but rarely recognized syndrome - mast cell activation syndrome. He needs a group of generally healthy people from 18 to 84 years of age to fill out an anonymous, private health survey. The project is approved by a human study committee and takes 5 -10 minutes to complete. The link is https://www.PatientsCount.org/survey/NMC -- Thank you for your helping.

Fan Mail

1964 (Andrea Alpert Robbins) - Thanks, Class of 1964, for the memories!....And thanks, Art and Keith, for all your hard work!

1966 (Amy Gruskin Gerstein) - “I knew that you couldn't stay away for long. I’m sure that I speak for everyone when I say that I’m glad that your are back on track!!”

1967 (Jimmy Seaton) - “Thanks for all the well-nigh unbelievable work you've put in all these years to facilitate and promote Wheatley connections!”

1969 (Ronni Seltzer) - “Delighted you’re back to your normal routine. The Alumni Association Newsletter is wonderful. Thank you.”

1974 (Susan Chan Beaver) - “Hi Art. Thanks for creating the Wheatley Newsletters. They are always interesting and informative.”

1979 (Audrey Krafchick Crisa) - “Thanks for all you do for Wheateyites.”

1983 (Takemi Ueno) - “The Newsletter works as advertising— one of the people who came to my mother’s tag sale said he heard about it in the Wheatley Alumni Newsletter.”

2004 (Jacob “Jay” A. Dixon and Kerry Nienstedt Wystrach) - Thank you for your help with linking some of our classmates together for the reunion through the Alumni Network. It means more than you know!”

The Official Notices

All underlined text is a link-to-a-link or a link-to-an-email-address. Clicking anywhere on underlined text, and then clicking on the text that pops up, will get you to your on-line destination or will address an email.

In the first 24 or so hours after publication, Wheatley Alumni Newsletter # 180 was viewed 3,373 times, was liked eight times, and was commented on one time. In all, 4,722 email addresses received Newsletter # 180.

The Usual Words of Wisdom

Thanks to our fabulous Webmaster, Keith Aufhauser (Class of 1963), you can regale yourself with the first 180 Wheatley School Alumni Association Newsletters (and much other Wheatley data and arcana) at

Also thanks to Keith is our search engine, prominently displayed on our home page: type in a word or phrase and, wow!, you’ll find every place it exists in all previous Newsletters and other on-site material.

I edit all submissions, even material in quotes, for clarity and concision, without any indication thereof. I cannot and do not vouch for the accuracy of what people tell me, as TWSAA does not have a fact-checking department.

We welcome any and all text and photos relevant to The Wheatley School, 11 Bacon Road, Old Westbury, NY 11568, and the people who administered, taught, worked, and/or studied there. Art Engoron, Class of 1967

Closing

That’s it for The Wheatley School Alumni Association Newsletter # 182. Please send me your autobiography before someone else sends me your obituary.