The Wheatley School Alumni Association Newsletter # 220
Welcome to The Wheatley School
Alumni Association Newsletter # 220, The Wheatley School Alumni Association 2025
New York City Luncheon - Friday, 10/3/2025 - 12:30-3:30 PM - Rosie O’Grady’s
- 148 West 51st Street (between 6th & 7th Aves.) - $125 pp
Art Engoron (1967) Writes - After initially considering approximately 15 places,
and after checking out five places in person (all in one day and all on foot,
whew!), Rosie O’Grady’s is the clear winner. It is located a short walk from
stops of the following subway trains 1, B, C, D, E, F, M, N, R, and W. It is
a stone’s throw from Times Square and Rockefeller Center, etc. The Broadway Room is
picture perfect: totally private; just the right size (and shape) for the
25-30 people I’m anticipating; and has its own little bar. The establishment
and the room are wheelchair accessible; and there is a dedicated accessible
bathroom. The food is, ironically,
mostly Italian, and (IMHO) the most appealing of all the food at all the
places that I considered. Some of the items that sound particularly delicious
are fettucini Alfredo, pesto pasta, chicken marsala, and eggplant rollatini
with ricotta cheese. There are several vegan/vegetarian options, including
couscous with saffron primavera. We get to choose four (more on that later).
Beer, wine, and soft drinks are included (hard liquor is available if you are
so inclined, but is not), as are taxes and a 20% gratuity There is no
administrative fee (which many places tack on), and I’ll pay by check to
avoid the ubiquitous 3% credit card fee. The price is decidedly on
the high side, but this place is the gold standard. The event will be classy
without being formal (think “business casual”). As in the past, if $125 would
bust your budget, you can pay me what won’t. I’ll play banker, so start mailing
your checks made out to me at 117 Plandome Road, Manhasset, New York 11030.
(BTW, RO’G is charging me $145 a person; I’ll subsidize the difference; the
“Wildcat Angel” price is $150.) Graduates
1958 - Bruce George Clark -
Celebrating His Life
Art Engoron (1967) Writes
- On Tuesday, July 29, 2025, at
the Sands Point Preserve Conservancy, in and around Hempstead House (the
former Guggenheim Castle), the family and friends of Bruce
George Clark (1958) celebrated his life.
From 6:00 to
7:30 PM, there was plenty of pasta, fruit, and libations. The crowd then
migrated outside for speeches equally funny and loving. Three Wheatley
graduates attended: Richard Benfield (1958); Art Engoron (1967); and
Gyll Gates Sbrocchi (1981).
L-R - Richard Benfield
(1958), Gyll Gates Sbrocchi (1981), Art Engoron (1967)
Rich Benfield
and Art Engoron in front of Hempstead Harbor/Long Island Sound
Inside the
castle, with Judith Hutchinson Clark, who was married to Bruce Clark for 59
years. More about Bruce Clark can be found at: Wheatley Alumni Newsletter # 218 Wheatley Alumni Newsletter # 217 1958 - Steve Nelson - “My new book is out -- Fire in a Wire: Electricity
Empowers Human Evolution Beyond Homo Sapiens.
It’s been a long
time coming, 64 years to be exact. I spent the summer of 1961 doing
anthropology field work among descendants of the Incas in the Peruvian Andes,
living without electricity. It made a deep impression on a middle-class kid
from Long Island. I didn’t fully understand
what I’d experienced until a flash of insight a few years ago. Just as fire
was key to the evolution of prehistoric humans, electricity is key to the
ongoing evolution of modern humans. Electricity is the new fire. Fire in a
wire. The best-selling
nonfiction book of the 21st century is Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,
by Yuval Noah Harari. Perhaps you’ve read it, or were planning to. Then
you’ll want to read Fire in a Wire. It tells the story
that Sapiens missed, about the most momentous development in
recent history: harnessing electricity. Our natural habitat has
become a world powered by electricity. We use it for everything from
providing food to medical care to artificial intelligence to sex. We can’t
live without it. A new species of human is emerging, not in some imagined
future but living among us today. Fire in a Wire is available at www.amazon.com/dp/0578890097 and at
bookstores (ask them to stock it from Ingram, the book distributor). It will inform and
entertain you, while challenging you to rethink who you are and who we are
all becoming in the Electric Age. We are taking control of our own evolution.
We can, and we must, if we are to survive.” 1962 - Andrew Cerillo on his 81st
(not 18th) Birthday
L-R - Scott Cerillo (son),
Andy Cerillo (1962), and Mary Lee Holley Cerillo (1963). 1966 - Ned Lagin’s Stint With the
Grateful Dead (1970-1974) - Gerry Gersh (1969) Writes - “Ned Lagin played with the Grateful
Dead? Very cool. Wheatley strikes again.” 1969 - Robin Brinn - “I’ve been a Deadhead since 1969, the year I graduated
from Wheatley. I remember Ned Lagin (1966) well from the
days of the Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound……but I had no clue
that he attended Wheatley! When I was a student at
Cornell, I missed many classes because I was following the Dead tours, plus I
spent too much time in Berkeley. Nonetheless, I graduated in 3 1/2 years
Magna Cum Laude with 5 majors (psychology, sociology, anthropology, Russian
and theater……but my real major was going to Dead shows 😎). Life is funny. 😂” 1978 - Wildcats in Tuscany Daniel Paisner (1978) Writes - Art - some fodder for the next edition... I’m back from an idyllic
bacchanal in Tuscany, where a group of lifelong Wheatley pals toasted our 65th
birthdays and our very many years of friendship... We've been at it a good
long while... four of us go back to Roslyn Co-op Nursery School... six of us
to Mrs. Deaner's Kindergarten Class at Willets Road (the last Willets Road
Kindergarten class before the great North Side-Willets Mash-Up of '66!), and
the rest of us joined the ranks on our way to Wheatley... The gathering wasn't a
reunion so much as a continuation... we get together regularly, at our homes
in West Palm Beach (FL), Park City (UT), Sarasota (FL), New York and
elsewhere... we celebrate each other's milestones, and mourn our losses, and
we mis-remember our shared misadventures... By now, our significant others
have become lifelong friends as well.... happily, they were with us on this
birthday trip and helped to keep us in check... Here we are gathered for
the carving of our host and sommelier, Robert Brinkman, who arranged this
fabulous getaway at the Petrolo Villa in the village of Bucine, Italy...
joining Robert in the photo, from left to right in the back row: Neil
Eisenstadt, Robert Glantz, Steven Rosen, Jeff Needle... from left to right in
the middle row: Eric Kahan, William Haft, Michael Kass, Daniel Paisner, Peter
Mester... all Class of 1978... all doing what we can to age gracefully and to
hold on to a time in our lives when pretty much anything seemed possible... Salute a
tutti!...
Fan Mail
1965 (Malcolm McNeill) - “Good job, Art!” 1973 (Jerry Nassau) - “Thanks for your continued efforts with the
Newsletter, always a treat to receive.” 1978 (Daniel Paisner) - “I appreciate your efforts - the Newsletter is a
treasure...” The Official Notices
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(and much other Wheatley data and arcana) at The Wheatley School Alumni Association Website Also thanks to Keith is
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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 # 220. Please send me your autobiography before
someone else sends me your obituary. Art
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Arthur Fredericks Engoron, Class of 1967