GS Class of 1978
Steve Greenbaum ’78 ScM, ’82 PhD, CUNY Distinguished Professor of Physics at Hunter College, and his department have received a five-year, $5 million award from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for advanced research on storing energy for use in space. He and several physics department colleagues will be developing and characterizing materials for advanced batteries and supercapacitors for planetary exploration missions. The project involves close collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a significant portion of the funding will support student research internships there. Contact Steve at steve_greenbaum@hunter.cuny.edu.
Robert Zatorre ’78 ScM, ’81 PhD is a professor of neuroscience at McGill University in Montreal. He published From Perception to Pleasure: The Neuroscience of Music and Why We Love It with Oxford University Press. He writes: “It is a kind of hybrid academic/trade book, meant to be accessible to intelligent nonspecialist readers but focuses on empirical findings and theoretical interpretations about how the brain enables us to perceive and derive pleasure from music.” It a synthesis of many ideas and experimental findings.
Alan Mills writes: “Seeking to reconnect with old friends as we all sought to cope with the coronavirus, a group of friends from freshman year at Brown (West Quad, Class of 1978) decided to hold a Zoom reunion (now a biweekly get together). It has been great to remember why we became such close friends at Brown. Raymond Lane organized the Zoom and Abby Cohen, Jane and Chuck MacFarland, Amy and David Mantel, Villu Maricq, Elliot Steger, Eileen O’Hayer Towne, Karen Zaccor and I all participated.”
Ann Matteodo Dupre writes: “Having the good fortune to have three brothers precede me at Brown (Sam Matteodo ’51; Maurice Matteodo ’53; and Eugene Matteodo ’56, ’78 PhD)—their mantra was that it was appropriate for me to graduate in 1961 because it could be read upside down, proving I did not know if I was coming or going. It always raised my love and awareness to think of that distinction.”
H. Scott Hestevold ’78 PhD retired from the Univ. of Alabama on June 1 after 40 years on the philosophy faculty, including eight years as chair. He has published essays on philosophical problems involving objects, time, and identity and on problems in moral psychology involving mercy and pity. He is currently writing about the nature of space.
Obituaries
Thomas J. Connors ’71, ’78 AM, of Montreal, Canada; Sept. 9, after a brief illness. Tom spent his career as an archivist. He held positions at Yale and the University of Vermont prior to being named assistant archivist of the AFL-CIO Archives in Washington, D.C. In 1991, he received a grant to educate Pakistani archivists and records managers. In 1993, he was named archivist for the National Public Broadcasting Archives at the University of Maryland, where he managed the archives associated with public broadcasting in the U.S., including National Public Radio. In 2008, he was named George Washington University’s Labor Archivist for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He retired in 2018. He was a member of the Society of American Archivists and published numerous articles and presented papers on labor and government archives in the U.S. and worldwide. He is survived by his wife, Michelle Dolbec; three sisters; two brothers; and many nieces and nephews.
Elaine Mary Margaret Bell ’78 AM, of Coudersport, Pa.; Mar. 11. She was a technical writer independently and for several firms throughout the Northeast. She wrote plays, short stories, song lyrics, and poetry over a span of 60 years. She is survived by a daughter and son-in-law, a brother and sister-in-law, two nephews, and a cousin.
Steven A. Haaser ’78 AM, of Jonesborough, Tenn.; Nov. 15. He began his professional career at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a research scientist. He later worked as a biohydrologist for The Nature Conservancy. His final years of professional work were as a subcontractor to DOE supporting their environmental restoration program in Oak Ridge, Tenn. He enjoyed traveling, photography, gardening, growing orchids, music, and cooking. He is survived by his wife, Helen; two brothers-in-law; and a niece and nephews.
George T. Marshall ’78 AM, of Newport, R.I.; Nov. 1. He was the founder and producing director of Flickers, the Newport Film Society & Arts Collaborative, a nonprofit organization producing arts programming and providing creative outlets for filmmakers and visual/performing artists. Flickers produces the acclaimed Rhode Island International Film Festival, one of only 19 film festivals in the world that qualifies films for the Short Films Academy Award in both the narrative and documentary categories. He specialized in branding and identity building, strategic planning, development of synthetic business relationships, nonprofit management, team building, writing and concept creation, program development, and marketing and public relations. He founded G.T. Marshall Communications, an agency specializing in creative advertising, video/film production, and collateral projects. From 1986 to 2000 he created, produced, and hosted the television program Between Takes, which earned national recognition. As a producer, director, and writer, he won five New England Emmy Awards, four national Telly awards, and three national Communicator Awards for Excellence. He taught mass media communications, film studies, television, field production, digital newsgathering, public speaking, and acting for camera courses at various colleges and universities throughout the area. He also served as a media/marketing consultant to businesses and nonprofit organizations and frequently contributed to industry panels and seminars exploring the evolution, culture, growth, and future of independent film and media literacy. In addition, he was a film professor at Roger Williams University (RWU) and taught at the University of Rhode Island. At RWU, he was instrumental in starting the film studies program after he began teaching as an adjunct professor in 1999. He also taught communications and public speaking courses at RWU. He is survived by his husband, Lawrence Andrade; a brother and sister-in-law; and a nephew.
Nina Perlina ’78 PhD, of Bloomington, Ind.; May 23, from complications following heart surgery. She helped create the Dostoevsky Literary Memorial Museum in Leningrad, where she worked until 1974. After emigrating to the U.S. and earning a Brown degree, she taught Russian literature at Macalester College and Rutgers University before joining the department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Indiana University. She authored several articles and books, including Writing the Siege of Leningrad: Women’s Diaries, Memoirs, and Documentary Prose; Varieties of Poetic Utterance: Quotation in The Brothers Karamazov; and Olga Freidenberg’s Works and Days. She is survived by two cousins.
Vito Buonomano ’78 ScM, of Narragansett, R.I.; June 6. A retired dentist. He served in the U.S. Army Dental Corp and was a member of the board of directors for St. Mary’s Home for Children. He volunteered at various local organizations and enjoyed carpentry, gardening, and spending time with his family. He is survived by his wife, Louise; five children; 11 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
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