Welcome to the Wheatley School Alumni Association Newsletter # 186,

Class of 1965 60th-Year Reunion Plans

Louise Kampa Triano (1965) Writes - “BTW, anyone in the greater NY area (or anywhere, for that matter) who might like to comment on, or be involved in, our 60th-Year Reunion next year can contact me, Louise Kampa Triano, living on the North Shore of Long Island. You can text me at 917-561-7631.”

‘Hood History

Steven Amerikaner 1965) Writes - “Hi Art: I'm finishing up a personal history photo book, and I am hoping that someone in Wheatley-land has a picture of the Big D discount store that used to be on Hillside Avenue in Williston Park. I worked there during the summer of 1965 and have fond and not-so-fond memories of Morris Shapiro, the owner. If you have a photo, please send it to my email: samerikaner@gmail.com. Many thanks. Steve Amerikaner

The Wheatley School Alumni Public Directory Is Alive and Well

The. Wheatley Alumni Directory

Thoughts About Wheatley

Beth Davidson (1959) Writes - “I was in New York recently and had a wonderful dinner with Marilyn Bardo (1964) and Bob Halper (1965). We all talked about how incredibly fortunate we were to have attended Wheatley.”

Joseph Apicella (1989) Writes - “Call it white privilege. Mega rich private school. Not public……it can't be. ‘The’ Wheatley School. Not sure what religion has to due with being ranked first or where you’re from matters. Is it the students who make the school one of the best; or is it the teachers? I don't remember any teachers living in Roslyn Heights or Old Westbury. They drove regular cars to work and lived paycheck to paycheck like the masses. Like the great corporations that are thriving today 50 plus years later, you must have great leaders, staff and hindsight. Wheatley checks all the boxes . I personally could care less if the school was ranked 500th or 1st. School reminds me of Walmart, founded around the same time. Would you rather be them or Kmart. Go Wildcats.”

Administration

Former Principal Rick Simon (1995-2008) Writes - Hi. Over the past 10 years photography has become an important part of my life. I have taken well over 200,000 images and made over 300 books with my photos. I also produced and sold an annual Davis Park Fire Island calendar with my photos for the last 13 years. Now I am taking the next step, creating a website where I can share some of my favorite photos. Using Squarespace and with the help of one of my photograph teachers, I have ‘published’ my first official website; you can access it at ricksimonphotography.com . It is a work in progress so periodically I will be adding photos and sections. I would love to hear your thoughts once you have had a chance to see it. Thanks for supporting this passion of mine. Rick

Graduates

1958 - Barbara Newman - Joanne Festa (1960) Writes - “Wow! Ping pong is keeping you young, Barbara. Congrats 👏”

1960 and 1967 - Ken Martin, Michael Abrahams and Art Engoron

Art Engoron (1967) Writes: On December 23, 2024, a friend and I left New York in my 2021 Audi Q7 and headed down South. That first night we stayed with my irrepressible classmate Jack Wolf in North Carolina. Dinner at a nearby Bojangles fried chicken joint was scrumptious. The next five nights we stayed with Ken Martin (1960) and his wife, Cheryle, in Florida. In the daytime, my friend and I pretended to be tourists. Sunday night the 29th we stayed at Jack’s house again (and had more Bojangles chicken). Monday night the 30th we dined with Michael Abrahams (1967) and his wife at Clyde’s Tower Oaks in Rockville, Maryland. My friend and I spent New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day at the amazing United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. The third floor, covering the World War II years and the concentration camps, was graphic and unforgettable. Thursday we examined the contemporary art in the Hirshhorn Museum and drove back to New York.

Below is the demonstrative evidence.

1967 - Art Engoron and Jack Wolf - Long-Time Buddies

L-R - Jack + Art - Bojangles, Hillsborough, North Carolina, December 23, 2024

Ken Martin and Art Engoron - Down South - A Friend in Florida

L-R - Ken Martin, Art Engoron - The Grille at Riverview, New Smyrna Beach, Florida, December 27, 2024

On the Factory Floor

Ken, wife Cheryle, and Art

Michael Abrahams and Art Engoron in MD.

L-R - Michael, Art, Seasonal Tree - Clyde’s Tower Oaks, Rockville, MD, 12/30/2024

With Michael’s wife, Susan

1970 - Robert Abramowitz - At Sea

1970 - Jill Ostrower Trovillion - "Hi Art, We finally sold our NY house... it took four years to decide to finally do it, and less than a day to find a buyer. We are happy to be done with crazy NY property taxes and are enjoying beautiful Oregon and all the Pacific Northwest has to offer. I miss New York pizza, but I don't miss New York traffic!”

1971 - Miles Fidelman - Manifesto

Miles Writes - To my Family, Friends, Neighbors, Classmates, and Colleagues,

And particularly, to my Fellow Citizens, Engineers, Entrepreneurs, Mappers, Makers, Deadheads, and Outlaws who own Condominiums in Arlington, Lexington, Brookline, Acton, Concord, Cambridge, Lincoln, Newton, West Tisbury, and Aquinnah - communities participating in the Massachusetts Municipal Fossil Fuel Free Building Demonstration Program.

I write to wish everyone Happy Holidays, to reflect on 70 years of life, 50 years of networking the planet, 25 years of marriage, the launch of a new generation of community networks & civic forums, to Invite You to Join a Campaign to Rebuild our Communities, Reboot Democracy, and Redevelop our Aging Neighborhoods

On the eve of our 250th Birthday as a Nation, Let We the People again Assemble in Town Meeting, Seek New Visions, and Launch New Ventures, that we may Be All That We Can Be, Live Long & Prosper in Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination, Be Excellent to Each Other, and Party On for Another 250 Years of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

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I write today, from Nagog Woods in Acton Massachusetts - the oldest condominium complex in the Commonwealth, in the Town that sent the first Minutemen to fight the British in Concord & fire the Shot Heard Round the World - where we still govern ourselves through Town Meeting, and where I serve as a Board Member and Treasurer of our Condominium Association, and a Member of our Long-Range Capital Planning Committee - contemplating how we avoid being the next in a series of aging neighborhoods to suffer catastrophic infrastructure failures.

This year brought my 70th Birthday, my 25th Wedding Anniversary, the launch of This Old Neighborhood, a Town Hall Meeting asking How Do We Redevelop Our Aging Neighborhoods & How Do We PAY For It? ... followed three days later by the 250th Anniversary of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress that declared itself the government & launched America on the road to independence. A month later, We the People elected a new president, insuring a sea change in the political climate. A week after that, residents of Cambridge's Riverview Condominiums were forced to evacuate, after engineers discovered structural deficiencies that had lain dormant for 60 years - giving new urgency to our efforts to Redevelop Suburban Neighborhoods from the grassroots up.

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I've spent my career networking the planet - building military networks, enterprise networks, infrastructure networks, media networks, and networks of minds. I arrived at MIT just before Ray Tomlinson sent the first ARPANET email message, and Alan Kay proclaimed, the best way to predict the future is to invent it. Upon graduation, I launched a small time-sharing company to bring email to small businesses; later spending 7 years at BBN - builders of the ARPANET and much of the early Internet - Staying Up Late with Wizards, Networking the Planet.

In 1992, the Internet opened to the public, Dave Clark, then the Internet Architect, told the world how we did it: We reject: kings, presidents, and voting. We believe in: rough consensus and running code. The public called for Electronic Democracy & Electronic Town Meetings, and I launched The Center for Civic Networking to deliver it. We launched the Cambridge Civic Network & supported the Cambridge Civic Forum - an exercise in community-driven planning for the City's future. We went on to support e-democracy efforts in other communities, to bring high-speed Internet access to public libraries, and build the Public WebMarket as an economic development vehicle for rural microenterprises. In 1996, the Telecommunications Act created both dangers and opportunities for communities; we launched the Municipal Telecommunications Strategies Program to help cities & towns manage their rights-of-way, plan telecommunications infrastructure, and launch municipal broadband networks - launching an online publication & library as Civic.Net 2.0.

In 2024, after moving to Nagog Woods, and confronting the challenges of our aging buildings, grounds, and facilities, I launched This Old Neighborhood to build a crowdsourcing program for comprehensive neighborhood redevelopment- launching the next phase of Civic.Net.

Next year brings the Inauguration of the incoming President, on Martin Luther King's Birthday; my 50th MIT Class Reunion; and the 250th Anniversary of the Shot Heard Round the World, when Acton's Minutemen were the first to cross the Old North Bridge & confront British Redcoats.

It is a fitting time to launch Civic.Net 3.0, with a Campaign to Rebuild Community, Reboot Democracy, and Redevelop our Neighborhoods for a New Millenium.

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Collaboration is our superpower as a species - when we think & work together, we wield godlike powers to shape reality and the course of events around us. We have leveled continents & built civilization. We have been to the Moon. We have wired the world and networked our minds - six of our eight billions carry, in our pockets, the power to be anywhere & everywhere, all at once, and make our presence felt. We have become the Borg. We're living in the Matrix. We’re building Westworld with 3D Printers. Disney has progressed from building theme parks to building virtual worlds and subdivisions.

And now it's time to use our powers to do more than share cat pictures, watch porn, and hurl political polemics. It's time again to Gather in Town Meetings, to Imagine What We Can Be in this New Millenium, to Plan New Ventures, to Dare Mighty Deeds, to Be All That We Can Be. To Be Excellent to Each Other and Party On!

In 2025, we will launch A New Generation of Community Networks & Civic Forums - building on the legacy of Berkeley Community Memory & Early Bulletin Boards, the WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link), FreeNets, and the email lists that still tie together the Internet Engineering Task Force as it keeps the global Internet alive, well, and growing to meet our changing needs. We build on 50 years of experience in planning, developing, and managing global military campaigns, global enterprises & supply chains, continent-spanning infrastructure grids, and mobilizing voluntary response to natural disasters.

In Massachusetts, where 10 communities have embarked on a Municipal Fossil Fuel Free Building Demonstration Program - under which new developments, and major renovation projects are going fossil-fuel free - we have launched a study to document early efforts. In 2025, we will apply lessons we learn by launching a crowdsourcing program to help aging neighborhoods reimagine & redevelop their buildings, grounds, infrastructure, and facilities; and we will pursue legislative, regulatory, and other policy reforms to better support neighborhood-driven efforts. Starting in the Spring, we plan a series of workshops, leading up to a design competition, and a conference to bring communities, vendors, and resources together that they may turn designs into neighborhood redevelopment projects.

We invite you to Follow, Join, and Support our efforts:

We seek community organizers to host local workshops & town meetings: Subscribe to Civic.Net to follow The Making of a Political Evolution & Economic Revolution. We invite your review & comment, and request your financial support - Founding Subscribers includes pre-registration for Civic.Net 2025 & pre-conference workshops. We request your review & comments, and seek panel chairs, presenters and exhibitors. We particularly seek partnerships with local organizations that publish newsletters & organize community gatherings - please contact me personally to discuss cross syndication of our blogs, podcasts, newsletters, etc. mfidelman@meetinghouse.net.

We seek direct participation in our study of redevelopment efforts under the Municipal Fossil Fuel Free Building Demonstration Program - we seek Organizers & Participants for Study Teams in the communities of Arlington, Lexington, Brookline, Acton, Concord, Cambridge, Lincoln, Newton, West Tisbury, and Aquinnah. Please subscribe to ThisOldNeighborhood.Net to follow along, Founding Subscribers will receive copies of all reports produced by the effort, and pre-registration for Civic.Net 2025 & pre-conference workshops.

We seek participation by Entrepreneurs & Makers to lead design teams to crowdsource redevelopment projects in their communities. We seek participation and sponsorship by architectural, engineering, construction, and technology vendors with capabilities that might apply to neighborhood-scale redevelopment programs - contact me to discuss opportunities to show off what you can offer, and support our efforts to create a market & ecosystem for comprehensive neighborhood-scale redevelopment.

In closing, let me wish everyone a Happy ChristmaHannuFestiKwanzaNalia & Best Wishes for a Merry New Year.

Miles — mfidelman@meetinghouse.net

[[[Note - “(Originally posted to the net, as:

Civic.Net: A Year End Report & Preview of Coming Attractions

Miles Fidelman, Chief Engineer, Civic.Net - Acton Massachusetts, December 2024)]]]

1973 - Todd Glickman - “I’ve had an email address that contains “88” since the 90s! In addition to WCBS, it also represents the MIT student radio station WMBR 88.1 FM, where I’m an officer of the board of directors. I did my first weathercast on WMBR (nee WTBS) 51 years ago. My love of earth science in general and meteorology in particular was instilled by Mr. Les Runestad, our beloved 8^th grade earth science teacher at Wheatley. My first ‘radio’ work was doing daily announcements over the school PA system.”

1973 - Eight Sets of Twins in a Class of Approximately 185 Students

L-R - Front Row - David Gilmore, Scott Gilmore

Middle Row - Judy Cooper, Barbara Cooper, Fran Moskowitz, Kenneth Moskowitz, Merri Korn, Randi Korn

Back Row - Peter Simel, Gary Simel, Jody Blumberg, Laurie Blumberg, Gerry Engoron, Danny Engoron, Leslie Rosenblatt, Jeffrey Rosenblatt

Newsday wrote an article, and Aurora ran the photo and the names. The subjects were asked not to smile (oh, well, 15 out of 16 ain’t bad). Can you guess which two sets are identical?

Fan Mail

1959 (Beth Davidson) - “Hi Art, thank you so much for continuing to keep us up-to-date on all things related to Wheatley. Thanks for all your hard work.”

1962 (Richard “Dickie” Swaback) - “Hi Art, Thank you so much for all that you do to keep the memories alive.”

1965 (Jeffrey Orling) - “Thanks Art! The Newsletters always bring back memories and are fun to read. Those were the days. You don't know what you had ‘til it's gone.”

1966 (Susan Berger Jones) - “I enjoy and appreciate the effort you put into the Newsletter. Thank you.”

1966 (Richard Jalonack) - “Keep up the fantastic work.”

1967 (Deborah Friedman Lieberman) - “I always enjoy the Newsletters.”

1967 (Ken Lang) - “The Wheatley School Alumni Newsletter is a way to bring back fond memories.”

1967 (Martha Moretti Shane) - “I enjoy reading the Newsletter (thanks, Arthur!!!).”

1967 (Jill Simon Forte) - “As usual, the most recent Newsletter gave me a smile. In these uncertain times, I need all the support of my happiness that I can get. I see and read about many of the Wheatley-ites that I had forgotten.”

1968 (Dr. Laurence (“Laurie”) Schiller) - “Thanks, Art, for another wonderful newsletter. It has reconnected me to my past in a way I hadn’t expected. Fantastic to see names and pictures of folks I went to school with. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, for whatever you celebrate or not.”

1971 (Jonathan Sporn) - “Thanks for all you do to keep Wheatley fellowship alive.”

1971 (Alan Wallenstein) - “Thanks…I appreciate all your effort.”

1973 (Randi Korn) - ‘Thank you for all you do to keep us informed!’

1976 (Catherine Golia) - “Happy Holidays!”

1978 (Liat Jarkon) - “Thank you for continuing to maintain this Newsletter!”

1978 (Elaine Schattner) - “Art, Thanks for all you do! Best wishes for the holidays and new year!”

Various years (17 others) - ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

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 # 185 was viewed 2.967 times, was liked 14 times, and received one comment. In all, 4,722 email addresses received Newsletter # 185.

The Usual Words of Wisdom

Thanks to our fabulous Webmaster, Keith Aufhauser (Class of 1963), you can regale yourself with the first 185 Wheatley School Alumni Association Newsletters (and much other Wheatley data and arcana) at

The Wheatley School Alumni Association Website

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 # 186. Please send me your autobiography before someone else sends me your obituary.