Then and Now S-Z

Marjorie Samuels Macuda, Jan '65

When I left Bowen I attended college for a while, and then did some traveling. I got married and divorced and remarried. I have been married to my second husband for 28 years. We have one daughter who is 27. I continued my education and dropped out again, and started back up several times. I kept changing my major so many times, I just basically said "the heck with it". I had some really great careers and got to try my hand at many things. I worked as a hairdresser for 4 years, at a law firm legal for 8 years (starting as a secretary and then a paralegal), sold real estate for 4 years, owned and operated a day care and preschool for 10 years, owned a vintage clothing store for 10 years (at a shop and on line), and worked with theater groups (both professional and community) as a costumer. I am presently a vintage clothing/antique dealer at a local antique mall. I love home decorating, cooking/baking, reading, crafts, travel, needle work and my newest passion, oil painting. I look back on my years at Bowen and wish I could have a "do-over". I would eat less of their grilled cheese sandwiches, not worry so much about swim class and messing up my hair,  5th floor study hall would be an opportunity for working out, and I would have tried to have a lot more fun and not be "so serious". Email marjoriemacuda@yahoo.com

Steve Schoenberger, June '65

Married to Adina Sloan Schoenberger since August, 1971  Daughters, Lindsay and Danielle (Sirinsky)  Granddaughters Mia (Age 5) and Lila (Age 2) Sirinsky, Washington DC  MBA, CPA (First job, Arthur Andersen)  President Vector Technologies Ltd, Milwaukee, Wisconsin since 1989  We manufacture large industrial vacuum systems  Living in same house in Northbrook, Illinois since 1975.  Hobbies: Rock climbing, hunt & fish, golf, opera, running, biking, scuba diving  Travel: 110 countries in total between business and pleasure.  Email   steves@vector-vacuums.com   See our new website at: www.vector-vacuums.com

Update: Sold our vacuum manufacturing business in Milwaukee. Building a retirement house in Asheville, NC.  At last count I have traveled for business and pleasure to 78 countries. Planning to retire at the end of the year to spend time rock climbing, canoeing, hiking, golfing and staying home. Lindsay, our youngest is just married and living in Manhattan. Our grandbabies are now 7 and ten and living in Northern Virginia. Hopefully they will become actuaries or accountants rather than actors (Danielle) or singers (Lindsay) like our daughters. We doubt it! Adina and I will be married 45 years next year. 

Michael Schwartz (1947-1994), Jan '65

Memories of Michael...

Michael Schwartz and I met during our freshman year at Bowen and we clicked.  We just clicked.  I was subjected to good natured teasing from my girlfriends (you know who you are, so you shall remain nameless. Oh, Hell.  It was the Cohens - Linda and Barbara yelling Schwartzeee!!! at me as I raced down the hall.)  They were teasing me because, in the parlance of 15 year olds, Michael "liked" me.   This 'liking' business shifted back and forth between Michael and me over the years.  First he liked me but I didn't like him in that way.  Then I liked him but he didn't like me in that way.    It went back and forth in the charming fashion it used to be with kids suddenly experiencing such feelings.   Although the liking thing changed and shifted between Michael and me, our underlying connection never did.  Michael was special.  He was sensitive in a way that I did not see in any of the other guys in school.  He was smart and funny and loyal.  He loved theater and movies and dancing.  And boy oh boy could that boy dance.  Years after high school, in New York City, his talent was rewarded with a career in dance as a performer and a videographer of dancers.   We laughed a lot, especially on certain Friday nights when I accompanied him, driving around the neighborhood delivering Bob And Jack's Pizza.  We toyed with a Ouija board in my spooky basement ( you too' Gary Miller and Mark Jenkins) and were certain we saw ghosts.  And the Beatles.  We were mad for them.  Michael and I listened to their music together for hours at a time.  We used to drive around the city singing along with the car radio and having deep discussions about the meaning of the Sgt Pepper album.  And there was the drive one summer from the East coast back to Chicago.  We had stopped at Palisades Park in New Jersey to ride the roller coaster.  Back on the road, Michael held my head and rubbed my back while I puked all over the Jersey turnpike.  Ahhhh, the memories.   After Michael's family moved to Arizona in the middle of our college years, he ultimately came out as a gay man.  In subsequent discussions, he told me that he knew, at a very young age, that there was something "different" about him that he could not identify.  I thought about how difficult it must have been for him to have such confusing feelings, especially in high school, at a time when gay people were invisible or worse.  Michael was obviously a lot stronger than I ever imagined.  I saw Michael a few times after he moved to New York City, but we had inexplicably grown apart.  The last time I saw him before he died of AIDS, it was clear that the disease had taken its toll on him.  But we talked about the old South Side days and laughed a lot.  On that day, I don't know if he liked me, but I was sure that I liked him.

Rest in peace, dear Schwartzeee.

~Maddy Tarnofsky

Jill Schwimmer, Class Jan '65

From Bowen to SIU to drugs, sex, and rock n roll, to 9 years of Yogi Bhajan and Kundiini Yoga, to back to school for a 5th year teaching program, and then a Master’s degree, and then a Ph.D.  Okay, there was a marriage and a kid and a divorce in there somewhere as well. And now I am married with a stepdaughter and a dog and a husband and a business that “supports the creation of wonderful readers.”  Go to www.score 4 reading.com. Both daughters, Lily and Zoe, and husband Gene, and dog Lucy are the joys of my life.  We live and play in Eugene, Oregon.  Has someone mentioned that “it’s been a long strange trip?”  Email JSchwimmer@readingworld.net

Kay Segall Azar, Class June '65

It seems my future was assured at Bowen in many ways.  After Bowen, I ended up at the University of Missouri in Columbia for PT school which had been my dream.  After graduation, I was able to travel in Europe and live in Israel where I literally ran into Wayne Dosick on the street).  The whole experience really changed my world view.  I returned home to Chicago in 1971 where I met my husband, Deeb, married in 1972, and left Chicago for the last time in 1973 when we moved to South Bend, IN.  I was sure we would eventually get out of South Bend, but here we are 37 years later and fully ensconced here.  But back to the Bowen connection – everyone in the family but me went to Purdue, the Boilermakers.  We live in South Bend, home of Notre Dame, “Cheer, cheer for old Bowen High (sung to the tune of the ND fight song).  My kids went to a high school whose colors were purple and gold.  All memories come back to Bowen and the south side.  I have only met one other person in South Bend who attended Bowen (much later) and what fun we had talking about the place.  I always say that Bowen shaped my views of people.  Where else could one find so many different people from different cultures in one place?  If you could get along there, you could manage anywhere – and I have!!   Please let me hear from you, I feel pretty isolated here in Indiana (seems there are more of you in Arizona than Indiana). Email kayazar@comcast.net 

 Judy Shapiro Gilbert, Class June '65

When thinking about my life after Bowen, I must say it has really been full and satisfying. There were four years of college at U. of I. in Champaign where I remained in touch with many  other Bowenites who had migrated to the Champaign campus from the south side of Chicago. I also hung around with a guy named Howard Gilbert who I ended up marrying after college. From there, we embarked on a  honeymoon summer in Europe and Israel,... on five-dollars-a day. Then it was time to go to work.  Howard earned a law degree and I proudly presented my new degree in journalism to Montgomery Ward's  newspaper advertising department. For the next five years, I put my hard-earned education to work advertising refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, etc. My job was to tell everything about these items in a 3 3/4" space!  All of that seemed so long ago. (It was!)   Howard and I have been married 41 years this June and have lived in Highland Park, IL  for the last 34 years. We have a wonderful, sweet son, Scott (31) who is married to the lovely Amy. Our daughter Carrie (36) is our very special child.  With her loving hugs, lack of pretense and guile, she keeps us focused on what is really important in the whole scheme of things.  As for hobbies (passions, really) I have always loved to sing and even imagined myself famous one day.   But I am perfectly thrilled to sing with a city-wide Jewish choral  group.  We are actually pretty good and have sung not only in the Chicago area, but New York, Detroit,and Milwaukee. I  also love to paint (water color, mostly) and have exhibited and sold some of my work.   Somewhere during the course of our life, we developed a love affair with boats and  had the time of  our lives exploring the Great Lakes, Florida, and the Florida Keys. Howard became a captain of them  "high seas" and I learned how to throw lines and scrub the decks with the best of them!   But the boats have been gone for several years now and we find ourselves spending time on the west coast of Florida and loving it a lot. I'm sorry that we will not be able to attend the reunion but give our best wishes to all of you.   It has been a real trip down memory lane, reading all of the biographies. I have wonderful memories of playing ball with Leslie Simon back in grammar school...and making the poor thing gallop to school with me on imaginary horses!  Singing and laughing with Cheryl Shugan  Berger (I'm so happy you are moving back to Chicago!)   Being best friends with Barbara Dinitz Levy and Warren Smith.  And Wayne Dosick...your story and your writing blows me away!!  Email  Artist219@aol.com

Randy Sherow, Class June '65

After spending three years at Northern in DeKalb, I spent the next four in Chicago at The U of I College of Dentistry at The Medical Center. In 1975, my wife, Debby, and I spent our honeymoon traveling in a motor home. Our three month journey started a life-long love of road trips and the RV lifestyle. While we've journeyed outside the US a number of times, our first love is riding the highways and byways of this country in our motor home, while learning about and exploring our diverse and amazingly impressive country. Since I don't share the love of winter or snow with some others, Debby and I moved to Tucson in 1980 where we have a home and still spend winters. We also raised our two children in Tucson, a 33 year old married daughter, Brooke, and a son, Ehren, who would now be 30. Ehren died 3 years ago from burns received in a car crash. Grief is now part of my every day existence. After having practiced dentistry for over 30 years, I retired several years ago and now spend much of the year traveling with Debby and our two dogs, Lucky and Lucy. The RV has given us the opportunity to make new friendships around the country and to reestablish old ones. Besides traveling and exploring, I enjoy reading, music, dining out and the home theater experience. I'm truly looking forward to seeing many old friends at the reunion and making some new ones.  Email: rsherow6254@msn.com

Cheryl Shugan Berger, June '65 

Hello fellow Bowenites!  I have been living in New Jersey with my husband Ken for the past 31 years.  I guess my membership in FTA was somehow prophetic, as I have been a high school French, Hebrew and Judaic Studies teacher in both public and private day school settings.  Kenny and I have been married for 41 years and have three kids and four beautiful granddaughters. We have done lots of traveling in the US and in Europe.  Last summer, we took the whole family on a fortieth anniversary cruise to Alaska.  Though living in exile on the east coast, I have remained faithful to my Chicago roots and remained a Bulls, Bears, Blackhawks and Sox fan (and maybe even a little bit of a Cub fan since I married a northsider).  My husband has just retired from the rabbinate and we are moving back to Chicago this summer! Email Cherylnb@aol.com

Update:

Hello class of '65!  My husband Ken and I have been living in Deerfield, Illinois, since our 45th reunion and we love being back in Chicago.  Our grandchildren now number seven, including four girls and three boys.  Ken retired as rabbi of his New Jersey synagogue when we moved, but I taught for a few more years at the Solomon Schechter Day School in both Skokie and Northbrook. After a 34 year teaching career, I am now happily retired and we are able to travel around to see our kids and grandchildren whenever we like.  We have also done some great foreign travel and have just returned from a trip to Paris and up the Seine on a river cruise to Normandy (where my Dad landed in 1944), Monet's gardens at Giverny and lots of beautiful scenery. We love being able to go to the Chicago Botanic Gardens, the symphony, the Art Institute and just walk along the lakefront.  I still have such great memories of the South Side:  Bowen, Mitchell's (the original), and singing Work, You Bowenites, Work! at our senior class assembly.  Looking forward to seeing everyone at the reunion!

Sherwin Shumsky (1947-2007),  June '65

My brother, Sherwin Shumsky, after graduating went right into the business world and opened up a mens shoe store.  In a couple of years he had grown into 3.   A few years later he wanted to fulfill his dream of becoming a professional poker player so he sold his stores and moved to California.  He started playing in the different tournaments. He won his share, and was then hired by a major poker club in Gardena where he stayed for the next 25 years.  He enjoyed his life to the fullest.  He had a beautiful wife and two children.  He died of stomach cancer in 2007.  ~Jerry Shumsky  Email JerryShumsky@aol.com

Bob Shuster, Class June '65

Teen years: How could I have survived without eating Duo's pizza, Carl's hot dogs & greasy French fries, Gossage Grill & for $1 go to McDonald's to get a hamburger, fries & a coke and get cash back!  After graduation I joined the army, January, 1966.  I served in Vietnam 1966-1967.  After Vietnam I was stationed at Ft. Detrick, Maryland.  I met my wife there who was teaching at the Maryland School for the Deaf.  We have now been married for 47 years.  We have one daughter, 46 years old, who will be married 25 years on September 1st, and they have one daughter, our beautiful granddaughter who is 22 years old.  We have lived in Illinois, Washington State, Maryland, Florida, & Georgia.  Now we are enjoying retirement in the Applachian Mountains of North Carolina. 

Nancy Sieracki Engle (1947-2015), Class June '65

Nancy wrote this bio for the 45th Reunion.  She passed away June 10, 2015

After graduating from Bowen, I attended the University of Illinois at Chicago for two years.  The commute was awful, having to take the Jeffrey Express and then the subway to get there.  Fortunately, I was able to transfer to the Urbana-Champaign campus for junior and senior years.  I graduated in June of 1969 with a major in English and French education.  I got married the summer after college, settled in Orland Park IL and started teaching at Oak Lawn Community High School the same year.  I taught for 4 ½ years and then took some time off to have a family.  I have two sons, Russ and Scott, who are now 37 and 34 years old.  I went back to work after getting a divorce in 1981, but since there were no teaching jobs available then, I had to make a career shift - fast.  I took some classes in computer science and accounting and undertook a career as a hospital patient accounting director.  This was a big change from the humanities route that I had taken originally, but I did enjoy the challenges and (amazingly!) the number crunching.  I lived in the great community of Arlington Heights IL from 1986 to 2006, where I made many dear friends.  Then I met my husband, Jack, in 1998 and we were married in 2002.   Four years later we moved to San Diego.   The move to California was one I had wanted to make ever since I could remember.  The beauty of northern California first struck me on a visit there in 1971, and then on many subsequent trips to visit my mother and my brother, Paul.  My adult sons had both relocated to Carlsbad CA, so I had lots of incentive to move.  Then, at long last, in 2006 my husband and I sold our home, quit our jobs, jumped in the car and drove west.  I got a great job working as a reimbursement manager for a medical device company in San Diego, but I was laid off last year.  Now I fill my time doing what I enjoy most - spending time with my husband, my mother and my family, babysitting the grandkids, going to the beach and enjoying the great weather.  My family lives close by, so I am able to enjoy lots of time with them.  My son, Russ, is a marketing director, married to Kris, a patent attorney.  They have a daughter, Sophie, who is 18 months old and they are expecting a baby boy at the end of May.  Scott is an engineering manager, married to Joyce, a physician.  They have a daughter, Allison, who is 3, and twins Taylor and Andrew, 4 months old.  I’ll bring plenty of pictures to the reunion (No fear-only if I can figure out how to download them from my digital camera!)  Email jnengle8@yahoo.com

Scott Silvers, June '65

I have experienced an amazing adventure since I left Bowen 45 years ago.  In my wildest dreams, I could not imagine what was going to come next.  I am a Southern Illinois University graduate and a CPA.   I am married to an amazing woman, Carolyn, for almost 35 years and have three children, Ryan (33), Eric (29), and Gabrielle (20).   I have worked for the Federal Government and the private sector.  My jobs have required various moves to such places as Chicago Illinois, Atlanta Georgia, San Jose and Los Angeles, California, Paris France (working at the American Embassy), Brussels Belgium, Tokyo Japan (working at the American Embassy), and the Washington, DC area (where I presently reside).   I have traveled throughout the US and throughout the world.   One of the most amazing trips was when my wife and I traveled on the Concorde from London to New York.  We were at a height where we saw the curvature of the Earth.   It was sight that I still remember to this day.  I had the opportunity to work on a broad range of activities from international investigations to working on legislative changes.    As I enter the twilight of my professional career, I start to shift my efforts to retirement which will allow me to take more cruises.  I look forward to seeing everyone in Chicago at the reunion and a future cruise somewhere.  Email Silvrbears@verizon.net  

Denise Simon, Class June '65

Over the years I realize more and more that growing up on the South Side had a huge influence on me.  The cultural diversity, mix of people and different communities gave me an appreciation of people that was my start toward the career I’ve loved for more than forty years.  I started working for the State of Illinois in housing projects such as Rockwell Gardens and Cabrini Green.  Over the years I’ve moved up to the position I hold today as Bureau Chief of Child and Adolescent Health for the state Department of Human Services.  That’s a long way of saying that what I do is try to develop programs such as day care facilities that allow young parents the chance to get through high school.  My work has taken me back to Bowen, where it all started.  There I set up a day care facility for children of Bowen students.  There are so many things I love about my life; most of all the friendships I’ve made and kept.   Music, books and the life I lead in Springfield are very precious but I come back to Chicago as often as I can.  (I love the city).   I am divorced, laugh easily and enjoy conversation.  The sum of the person I am is probably that I’ve learned to love life for what it is – not for what I want it to be. 

Leslie Simon, Class June '65

Even after living in California for forty years, when I go to conferences and people ask me where I’m from, I always say “Chicago.” I never intended to leave the Midwest, having also enjoyed my years at the University of Michigan, but when UCLA paid me for a year long master’s degree program in African Studies in the days when California put money into education, I went West, where I met Don at a poetry reading. We moved to San Francisco in the mid 70s with Jerry Jeff Walker on the radio singing “If I can just get off of the LA freeway without getting killed or caught…” We raised our children here: Caya (Natan), 33, a social worker, and Sage (Blossom–yup that’s his girlfriend’s name; it IS California after all), 30, a city planner.  I’ve taught at City College of San Francisco since 1975, coming to the college with a course I invented called “Poetry for the People.” Then I made an honest English teacher of myself and picked up a master’s (20 years after the first one) in English at UC Berkeley, making, I hope, my favorite Bowen English teacher, Lou Stanek, proud. Chairing the Women’s Studies Department at the college for ten years has made me proud, along with the poetry and essays I’ve managed to publish and the oral history collection I co-authored with Jan Johnson Drantell, A Music I No Longer Heard: The Early Death of a Parent (Simon and Schuster, 1998). In it I tell the story of my dad dying six weeks before our high school graduation, a bittersweet memory, that. Email lsimon@ccsf.edu

Mike Sitrick, Class June '65

A lot less hair and a lot more wrinkles, unfortunately, but it beats the alternative. As you may know, I am running a crisis management firm, specializing in strategic communications.  We have offices in LA, NY, SF, and Miami.  I have three daughters and three grandkids and am still married to the sweetheart of my college fraternity (at University of Maryland).  In LA having only one wife makes you unique.  Online bio at http://sitrick.com/about/michael-s-sitrick 

 Darcie Smith Wadycki, Class June '65

Reading all the bios of the people who already did their submissions  brings back a flood of memories of Bowen. As I hastily write this to make the deadline, I am getting ready to go to the wedding of the daughter of Marlene Steiner (Bowen Class of 1966). Her daughter and my daughter have been friends since kindergarten through rooming together at college and now into adulthood.  Small world. Speaking of my daughter, she has taught French at Schurz High School for the last eight years. One of the first people she met there was the Assistant Principal Sherwin Bulmash, another Bowen graduate. They quickly made the Bowen connection and I regret I didn't get over to the school to talk old times with Sherwin before his untimely death.  Bowen connections are everywhere. Even Schurz High School brings me back to Bowen. It is a Chicago landmark building designed by Dwight Perkins  and built in 1909. It was the prototype for Bowen which I think was built two years later in 1911. Two of my closest friends (one a Bowen class of 1968 grad) of the last 25-30 years have mothers who went to Bowen with my mother. I must gravitate to those with south side connections.  When my husband Wally and  I moved into our little northwest side neighborhood down the street from Schurz about 35 years ago we found a nice spot to live our lives. We  both have been active in our community organizations and schools. Our children  went to public schools and I always thought their experiences were a little bit like going to Bowen.  They went to schools with children from a myriad of ethnicities and cultures similar to our  experience at Bowen in the early 1960s. I have always counted that as one of the strengths of my Bowen education.  The rest of my story. I have been married to my patient and understanding husband for 37 years. I currently work part time at a Chicago public library, do volunteer work in the neighborhood and at my church, am in three book clubs and  getting  bleary eyed trying to keep up, garden a whole lot, don't exercise enough and  take senior (meaning over 55 years not highly proficient) classes in art where I am not great but have a good time.  My husband and I have two children: the above mentioned  daughter Valerie, 31 and a son Andrew, 34 who has his dream job of working at Apple Computers in California. We're happy for him but wish he was closer to home. Our daughter fortunately lives two blocks away. They both married their college sweethearts. Life has been good.

Update 2025

I am still here with all original parts and still finding ways to contribute to society in a positive way. When I was young, oh, say 55-60 years old, I joked about writing a book for retirement. I was going to call it “Get Ready for Retirement: Go Back to High School.”  I had this vision of retirees wrestling with what to do with their time and I thought I would give them a sure fire formula on how to spend their Golden Years. Well, I never wrote that book, but when I needed to come up with something for this bio, I realized I am following the plan that I joked about years ago. Just like at Bowen, where we had a structured day filled with different classes and activities, my days play out in a similar way. I hit all those classes we had to take:

English - I’m in a number of book clubs and I write and produce  a children’s play each year for my church Sunday School.

Science -Ms. Thom would be surprised that this struggling biology student is now an avid gardener, using both biology and chemistry skills to tend my flowers and vegetables.

History- Well, what can we say about civics these days?  I go to as many marches and protest rallies as I can. Also some neighbors consider me the historian of my neighborhood.  I have lived in the same house for 49 years and I did write a book (actually co-authored 30 years ago) about my neighborhood’s history.  

Geography- I’ve had the good fortune to be able to travel quite a bit the last few years. It’s been both enjoyable and enlightening pastime.

Math-I use it all the time from taking care of bills and finances to converting U.S. dollars into international currency.    

PE and Health - I start each day with exercise, walk everywhere, try to eat well, but it also seems there is a weekly visit to some kind of doctor or other.

Art- I piddle around with art classes, experimenting in different art forms from painting to collage to weaving. The process is great, the product okay plus.

Music- I’m probably failing this class - can’t keep up with all the new artists but still enjoy the songs of the 60s.

Extracurricular Activities- Oh yeah, clubs were a big part of high school and I stay busy with a bunch of different social groups and volunteer organizations. I’m always up for a field trip to dine out or see plays or other cultural events, or a game of Rummikub on the front porch. I am fortunate to say I am content with who I am.

Email: Darcie51@aol.com 

Warren Smith, June '65

David Sohn, Class June '65

After graduating from Bowen, I spent the next 5 years at Oklahoma City University where I received a Bachelor of Science degree in business.  As it turned out, I was a far better student in college than I was in high school.  Upon graduation, I was recruited by General Motors where I spent the next 34+ years in various capacities in numerous locales, primarily in the Western United States. I retired as Regional Manager from GMAC Financial Services in 2005 and immediately went to work as VP of Sales and Marketing for a law firm in Tustin, Ca.  I have lived in Coto de Caza, California (Orange County) for the past 20 years.  I enjoy my work and have no plans yet to retire.  I have traveled extensively and continue doing so on a regular basis.  I am an avid golfer, and in fact, participate yearly on a golf trip with fellow Bowenite classmates Alex Pappas, Mike Rubin and Mike Winicour.   I visit my mother frequently in Chicago and still consider it home after all these years.  I have remained loyal to the Cubs, Bears and Bulls despite all their adversities and strong local opposition.  I look forward to seeing everyone in July.  Email DCSohn@aol.com

Anne Spangler Hollenbeck, June '65 

Inspired by Mrs. Chenowith, the art teacher at Luella (which has been renamed Lawrence), I graduated from NIU to become an art teacher.  Much, much later I earned a Masters from the Art Institute of Chicago.  After 36 years of teaching in the Chicago Public Schools, I am retiring this year.  This new-found freedom should open an exciting new chapter in my life.    Volunteer work, traveling and  new projects await me.  In addition, my brother, David Spangler (Bowen ‘67), and I teach an integrated art and math workshop for teachers at Columbia College.  Mr. Wolf and Mr. De la Cerda would be proud! I’ve been married to Stan who is the Director of the Legislative Reference Bureau of Chicago’s City Council.  We’ve been married happily for 29 years and live in a vintage condo near the lake on the North Side.  Email annehollenbeck@netzero.net

Ellen Marsha Spears (1947-1964), June 1965

Ellen Spears was always the epitome of the nice girl. She was naturally pretty, smart and quite talented at the piano. At Caldwell she was one of us, that close little group of girls who walked to school together, went to the 87th street library to "study" after cokes and Fries at Thomas', and enjoyed Friday night parties and sleepovers. She was active in USY and BBG as she moved into high school and became active in many school groups. Sadly I will always remember the morning Ellen came to pick me up on the way to school. She complained of a headache. It got worse and by mid morning she was rushed to the hospital, never to return. It was only days before her 16th birthday and her parents were going to surprise her with a party. I will always think of her as "Sweet Sixteen."  ~Enid Feldman Grabiner

Ellen's friendship was suddenly taken from her family and friends. However, the joy of her friendship is what is most remembered.  It started in the PM Kindergarten, Caldwell School, in January 1953.  It expanded to the friends she made during her years at Bowen. It was easy to spot her – she was the one with the radiant smile, always there for others. She was an honor student, a member of the Future Teachers of America, on the student council, and was in the French Club.  She had a beautiful voice and was a member of the band. She wrote songs and led her friends in musical groups. 

Susy Steele Weiss, Class June '65

It always makes me smile when I think of the "South Side", and how lucky I was to have had the experience of growing up there. No one can take away the bond we all have with each other. We feel each happines, as well as each others pain. I loved my friends at Bowen. The person I most admire,is my Daughter Amy, who will be 42 in August. She has embraced Judaism, keeps a "Kosher" Home, has 5 rambunctious children, and one on the way in August, in addition to a handsome husband Mitch who is an Attorney! They all live in West Rogers Park! They live an active life in an amazing community. My Husband Jay with his 62" T.V. is a SPORTS FANATIC! Ask him any question-he will know the answer.  My brother Scott is a Computer wiz-with two Harleys: one for him and one for his adorable wife Pam. And, our most supportive MOM, LORRIE, is the BEST.  She just turned 84 in March, still has her own condo, drives her car, and weighs 90 lbs. I'm so jealous. I'm always fighting my weight.  Then there is ME: I do lots of writing and make jewelry-- but for the last 15 years, I have managed a high-end womens' boutique. "ADELAIDE",  LTD, located in Old Town two blocks from our Condo. I walk to work. I haven't traveled much, but I have a great imagination. I visualize all of the places I'd like to visit. I'll be working till they carry me out of the store in a Black Garment Bag with my Hair Hanging Out. See You Soon!  Susy Steele Weiss. Email: SusyWeiss9@aol.com

Update:

I'm embellishing jeans and doing styling for clients.   I have 6 beautiful grandkids; the oldest is 15 - 4 boys and 2 girls from my beautiful daughter Amy and my son-in-law Mitch.

Lois Stein Looney (1947- 2009),  June '65

The first day at Bowen High School was the luckiest day for me as Lois Stein and I had the exact same class schedule and from that special day our friendship endured over 40 wonderful years.

The following bio for Lois was written by her beloved husband Danny ~Barbara S. Cohen (Gore)

I first met Lois in 1970. She was a friend of Natalie Goldman who was sharing a house with me at the time, and Natalie thought Lois and I would be a good match. She got that one right. Lois was absolutely gorgeous, fun-loving and always positive. Two years later we were married.The initial attraction to Lois was our mutual desire to travel, especially Europe; I had studied there an entire year during college and Lois took a wild road trip for an entire summer in the late 60's, driving a stick-shift Volkswagen Beetle with a girlfriend. Lois had never driven a stick shift before, and the girlfriend "forgot " to get a driver's license. It was this sense of adventure that effectivley permeated our life together. We were married in 1972 and waited 8 years to have children, averaging two big trips a year: usually one road trip to Europe and another excursion to places ranging from Hong Kong to South America to Moscow. Lois was degreed from Roosevelt University and when we were not travelling Lois taught  at a branch of the Audi Home for maladjusted girls in Chicago and for awhile worked in the travel agency business. After we left Chicago for rural northern Illinois Lois opened a small jewelry store in Lake Geneva, WI. She learned how to cut and set stones, designed her own jewelry for the store and did a lot of custom design work.  In 1980 we had our first son, and that was so cool we had two more by 1986. Then we started  hauling them all over the U.S. exploring and camping in National Parks and National Forests. In 1981 we found a dream home on five acres on a creek in rural McHenry County. Lois enjoyed organic farming and at various times raised everything from sheep and chickens to Collies and Jack Russell Terriers. We made incredible lifelong friends in Marengo.  Lois became a fantastic cook and bread maker. She even learned how to can the food she grew. She was a terrific, loving mother.  Lois and I both went through cancer scares, and although she beat the cancer my lovely Lois succumbed to heart disease in January 2009. She died suddenly and unexpectedly and did not suffer. She was able to see our three sons grow into kind, intelligent, creative, adventurous human beings, all of whom have studied abroad and travelled as much or more than we ever did.  My sons and I are extremely close even though the two oldest live in Berkeley and Sarasota respectively.  We were devastated by Lois' passing, but we continue in her spirit. I cannot believe how blessed and/or lucky I was to have fallen in love and then spent nearly forty years of my life with Lois. ~Danny Looney danloon45@yahoo.com 

Susan Stern (1947-), Class June'65

Susie was always short in stature but large in personality and enthusiasm.  I remember grammar school years at Caldwell, brownies, and of course SSJP, raising money for learning disabled children.  We rode our bikes, went to movies at the Jeffrey Theater and hung out at Rainbow Beach.  Those were the days of Tammy and Gidget!!   There were lots of memorable times together, but the best times were also shared with Cherie Halper, Ellen Spears, and Nancy Askanase, Judy Fradkin and Barbara Jacobs. We played dolls as little girls and moved onto clothes, make-up and boys!

Unfortunately Susie developed MS in our senior year in high school which cut short many of her dreams.  She may have struggled but always did it with a smile on her face.  I’ll remember her that way. ~Enid Feldman Grabiner

We were best friends in grammar and high school. It was her Mother’s death from polio when we were five years old that started my Mother’s philanthropic endeavors, which spawned mine when I started the South Side Philanthropics at the age of 12. Susan was a part of that and we raised money for a school for special needs kids on the South Side. 

~Cherie Halper Kirschbaum, founder of City Projects, Denver, CO., dedicated to social change through real estate by providing consulting and development services for nonprofits

Rich Styles,  Class June '65

After graduating from Bowen, I went from playing in Wrigley Field on a Friday to being at freshman at SIU on the following Monday. Not much transition. Played baseball, then broadcast the games, then got into radio doing play by play of SIU Football and Basketball games. After graduating from SIU, got a job in Springfield, IL as a news reporter. Went into the National Guard and then in 1972 started a radio station, WDBR-FM in Spfld, IL.   What fun, we were the top station in the market. Got divorced in '74, got custody of my sons, age 4 and 2. Got remarried in '76 to a wonderful lady with a great heart, Vickie and I had two girls. Left in '80 for a year of consulting radio stations with promotions, then in '81 went back into radio in Raleigh, NC. In 1986 started an advertising agency, sold it in '05 to a guy who did not honor his agreement. So, I started another company in '05.  In 2013, we embarked on a new adventure.  We moved from NC to St. Simons Island, GA, a lovely island off the coast of Brunswick, GA, with only 14,000 people, some of whom do not live full time on the island.  I have taken my love for golf and work, part time, at Sea Island Resort.  Plus, I do a weekly golf show on ESPN Coastal, a group of five radio stations from Sea Island, GA to Hilton Head.  I also  host and produce a golf show on http://www.back9boys.com.  Vicky, my wife of 39 years, and I have four children and now 10 grandkids, 8 months to 17 years.  Yikes!  See y'all at the reunion.  Email  rich@back9boys.com

Ruthanne Sulewski Dahlberg (1947-2003), June '65

Ruthanne was always friendly and extroverted. During her long career as a a corporate sales representative for Uniglobe Preferred Travel Inc. in Arlington Heights, she often turned clients into friends with her outgoing nature, family members said. "She just had the personality to be in that profession," said her husband, Everett Jr. "She could just walk up to anybody and talk to them and they would love her." Ruthanneworked for Uniglobe for more than a decade, courting corporate clients and acting as a liaison between clients and travel agents. She attended Southeast College in Chicago and Northern Illinois University. She started her career in sales at Marshall Field's State Street store. In the late 1960s she took a job in the media department of Leo Burnett Co. in Chicago.  Her family was of utmost importance to her. In the early 1970s, she left the workplace to raise the children, who now include Everett III, Kristin Karl and Amanda. She returned in the mid-1980s as a sales representative for homebuilder Pasquinelli Inc., before joining Uniglobe. Mrs. Dahlberg organized community service projects with the Elk Grove Village Junior Women's Club during the 1970s and '80s. In recent years, she organized volunteers who paid regular visits to residents at ManorCare Health Services, an Elk Grove Village nursing home. She passed away from cancer complications in 2003. "She was the glue that held everything together," her husband said. 

Maddy Tarnofsky,  Class June '65

Maddy is a lawyer/actor living in New York City, enjoying the local "theater, movies, Central Park walks, Fire Island vacations. Her biggest sources of pride include: "Keeping tenants from being evicted, having my profile in New York Times, pressing on despite the odds," and having "great fashion sense." Her lifelong friendship with classmate Michael Schwartz is also cause for pride as you can see in her tribute to him.  Her two favorite Bowen memories are "1.) Having the crap beaten out of me by Susan Dimirsky in The Miracle Worker play and 2.) I never stopped laughing with Linda Cohen in Ms. Hackenbrach's gym class."

Update 2025: More from Maddy

Oralia (Lolly) Trevino Grzeskowiak, Class June '65

After graduation my plan was to attend college but it wasn't my future.  I started working downtown Chicago and met my husband through a blind date.  Twenty-four years and 4 kids later we were divorced. Since then I've worked in the logistics department of a south side manufacturing facility.  I took the offered package last October and  am trying to find myself.  Email  lollygrzesk@comcast.net

Matilda (Mattie) Vazquez, Class June '65

After I graduated from Bowen in 1965, I was so sad, cuz I just wanted to go back...Well , I took a summer job. I gained some vacation time. I decided to go back home to Puerto Rico...when I arrived in Puerto Rico, BAM there was an airline strike. Guess what? I had to stay there for 2 months, I didn't mind it at all.. Vacation like that couldn't happen again in a million years...Then after that I worked at different companies: Insurance Co, Chicago Motor Club, Mercy Hospital, good ole Goldblatts, etc. I was all over. I then went to Chicago Loop College for 4yrs, part-time Liberal Arts. My parents both passed away plus my eldest sister..I am now a single parent with a terrific 25 yr old son, who is very talented with music. He's written several songs...I am now retired from Peoples Gas Co....I have traveled quite a bit....Now I have 2 lovely cats who keep me busy all day long ...I enjoy cooking A LOT.. I have gone to friends houses just so I can cook for them I should have gone to culinary school.DARN...I love to dance and listen to my salsa music, oldies and R&B....I hang out with some of my fellow Bowenites and we travel together, there are about 12 of us. We call our club the "Virgin Singles. We are waiting to become the next Calendar Gals...we take turns cooking for the group every month. Wow do we ever have fun......Well, I hope I haven't bored you guys with my short life story ......I am still wating for my knight in shining armour. Then was ha ha ha, Now is LOL. Email  smattieone@comcast.net

Update: Well since 5 years since our 45th year reunion. My son  Steve Vazquez got engaged to Kim Jansen last year on his birthday. Today July 26,2015 we went to their Bridal shower. It was very well and beautifully put together. October 17,2015 they will get married. When my son was born the hospital gave me a dinner the day before I left the hospital. My girlfriend Chris Romo who I chose to be his Godmother, I gave her the bottle of wine. Well she said that she will give it to Steve when he gets married. Well I mentioned it to Steve n Kim what Chris is going to do. I couldn't  hardly talk I got all choked up because who'd thought the day was just around the corner. Well most of the family got a bit choked up too. So this is the only exciting thing that has happened.

Rick Warman, June '65

Fredrick D. Warman (Rick),  7413 E. Plank Trail Court, Frankfort IL,60423,    cptmax@core.com,      815 806 9974  Home,   815 919 5089 Cell,   Parsons College in Fairfield Iowa,    Bach of Science in Education,    US Army Reserve,   My two Stores are Flooring America,(Web Site FlooringAmericaChicago.com    Married to Barbara (was Goodman) Two children Susan, now Zuckert, and Daniel,  Sue has two kidlets Sydney,and Simon.  Daniel has three,  Jesse,  Wyatt, and Spencer.

Ronnie Weiner, Class June '65

It is hard to believe that all these years have gone by. After High School I worked in my fathers butcher shop Weiner Kosher Meat Market on 79th Essex for a while. I then took a job as a clothing rep for H.D. Lee Co. I moved to South Bend In and traveled the state selling Lee jeans and lots of bib overalls.   It was quite an experience. I made a lot of friends and saw a lot of beautiful areas of Indiana.While living in South Bend I married my girlfriend who was from Chicago.  After some years we moved   to Hammond In. to be closer to our families.   Again after some years we had our first child and I decided to leave the clothing business as traveling all week was not very good for my wife and child. So I went to work for my cousins who had a light fixture manufacturing company. While there I got involved with facility operations and  maintenance and started taking technical classes . After a few years our son was born. I had an opportunity to join the International Union of Operating Engineers and continued my education and career in facilities and engineering. I am still working as a Chief Operating Engineer for a real estate co in Chicago. I have two beautiful grandchildren. I live in Algonquin IL and  am very fortunate that my children and grandchildren live only minutes from me.  My best friend and loving wife left the living world after a long and  courageous battle against breast cancer 6 years ago.   I am looking forward to seeing all of you.   Email ronaldgweiner@att.net

Mark Weinstein, June 1965

College at U. Chicago (S.B, Statistics, 1969). Made sure not to graduate in June so as to avoid the draft for another year. After about 2 weeks in college I decided never to leave and am now an academic. This means that I write term papers for a living. Started my Ph.D. in Econ at Carnegie-Mellon, but decided to go back to Chicago to do Finance, so I was there when all the stuff being blamed for the financial collapse was being born. Met my wife, Ilene,  who is from Scranton Pa. and comes from a family of Yankees fans, during my first weekend at Carnegie where she was an undergrad. We got married when we were both in grad school. She went to Northwestern and is a Speech Therapist. I have been at the State University of New York (Buffalo), Columbia and NYU before selling myself to the University of Southern California in 1982. I now split my time between the Business School and the Law School. I also do some consulting, always in the litigation context. My research interests lie at the intersection of Law and Finance, and I also dabble in the economics of the entertainment industries (this is soooo LA). I am, I think, one of the few finance professors to have their research written up in Daily Variety.  Ilene is a speech therapist in the Burbank schools. Two daughters; Rachel is an attorney in the U.S. Department of Education working on civil rights, gender discrimination (Title 9 stuff),  Andrea is a teacher at the Brentwood School, a private school in LA. No grandkids. In theory there is retirement, but frankly what I do is more a consumption good than a job. I enjoy getting to visit other universities and have been invited to present my research at most of the major business and law schools in the US, and also in Europe, Israel and Asia. We live in the San Fernando Valley. Did run into some Bowen people out here: Barry and Sandy (Friend) Lakin when we first moved to LA, and for a bit Mike Sitrick and I belonged to the same synagogue. ---and Mike, I, too, have the same wife (38 years).  Even though we live out here, I have managed to raise my kids to be White Sox , Bulls, Bears and Hawks fans and one of my great joys was seeing the Bulls take the Lakers in the finals, lo these many years ago.  I am sorry to read in another posting of Louise Stanek’s  passing. Still miss Chicago, especially the food. It clearly is the best city in North America. I am, however, shocked to discover how many South Siders have moved north and morphed into Cubs fans. Have you no shame?! 

50th Reunion Update

I write this on the weekend after the Supremes proved that, eventually, the words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence do have import. Amazing Grac

Like many of us I ponder retirement. I continue to teach in both the Business and Law schools,  and write and do my litigation consulting. However, I feel the impending assault of “old fartdom.” I grow increasingly tired of pointing out to young people (which includes just about everyone, these days) that if they would only check the literature before 1995 they would discover that their topic had been addressed by X or Y (or sometimes, even, me!); and that a little common sense is a useful adjunct to the latest mathematical construct. In any event, I suspect I will wind down over the next five or so years and do a lot more travelling. Ilene (wife of lo these many years) did retire and sits in our back yard reading and remarking that the sky is, indeed, blue. I grow envious

As do any of us, I kvell about my children. Rachel, the eldest, (and now married) is a staff (and for a while acting head) of the Title 9 division of the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education. She was the main author of the new standards on how colleges have to establish procedures for dealing with Sexual Assault on Campus, and worked with the White House Task Force on this subject. I had the interesting situation when I was on the Academic Senate of pointing out to an administrator who was going off about these new standards that they had, in fact, been authored by a graduate of our Law School. My youngest is now an administrator at a Jewish Day School.

For any who may have known her, I lost my mother a year ago last spring. So, I am now officially the AK in my family, which means that job is tell all the offspring how well they have it compared to us. How well I remember walking to Bowen in June in the snow, uphill both ways.

In any event, I am sorry I will not be there and all I ask is that those of you who live in Colorado will light up for me. Email Mark.Weinstein@marshall.usc.edu 

Maxine Weksler, June 1965

I'm living in Agoura Hills, CA -- a nice Jewish suburb of L.A.  I am a practicing criminal appellate defense attorney (representing mostly indigent defendants, a kind of public defender on appeal).   I traveled the world in search of a soul mate, living  in Evanston, then Florida (where my family moved), then Israel for a couple of years, then to the west coast, where I completed law school, married (not my soul mate), had a son, divorced, and am now the proud mother of my son the doctor to be -- if he gets into medical school.  (He'd better since I'm sending him on on a "hike for humanity" into the jungles of Panama  this summer to improve his application essays.)   I'm very much a leftie and still stay up very late carrying on and/or reading dense fiction (I was an English major, then an editor and teacher before law school).   I sure miss Chicago -- my friends, those late night blues clubs,  and a decent piece of pizza.   My love to all of you, with a special hug and  kiss to Steve Pritkin and Elliot Delman.   Email Maxweks@sbcglobal.net

Howard Wolinsky Class June '65

Howard Wolinsky, 77, (Bowen Class of ‘65) is an example of how a lack of planning and serendipity can affect the course of a life.  He started off his first year at Bowen lost somewhere in the lower quarter of the class, but finished in the top 10%.  He had no plans for college until his friend Mike told him he was applying to the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and Howard should too. So Howard applied and got in, but Mike didn’t--though eventually he did.  Howard floundered as a freshman until he got his footing. He was on probation when he entered journalism school. The Vietnam War and the looming draft helped him focus. He graduated with high honors.  He applied for conscientious objector status while still at U of I. But his draft board saw things differently. Howard’s father worked for the U.S. Department of Defense so the board felt Howard was “insincere.”

Howard was drafted twice and refused twice. Once the FBI arrested him at work as a young journalist. . The newspaper wrote: “A Kankakee Journal reporter went to the county jail twice on Monday, once for weekend arrest information and the second time as an arrestee.”  Howard ended up spending two years out on bond for draft evasion, but ultimately escaped the draft and a choice assignment in Vietnam. The U.S. Attorney found that the draft board had violated Howard’s rights, told them to review his case and then told them to draft him--a violation of his due process.  Howard is a rare career journalist. He spent most of his time as the medical writer/editor at the Chicago Sun-Times. The newspaper nominated him twice for the Pulitzer Prize for exposes of scandals at  the American Medical Association. He has written two books on the AMA.

Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall presented Howard with an award from the 7th federal district for legal writing for a series of stories about the abuse of patients in state mental hospitals.  Howard was in the Mike Wallace-Knight fellowship program at the University of Michigan and also a fellowship at the National Cancer Institute,  Howard and his wife Judi, a pioneering internet librarian, wrote the 2001  best-seller, “Healthcare Online for Dummies.” They had a great tip  in there: There’s a new thing called Google--check it out.   Email: howard.wolinsky@gmail.com

Russell "Rusty" Yale, Class June '65