Cynthia Rockwell

Actor William Christopher ’54, best known for his role as Father Francis Mulcahy in the popular television comedy/drama series M*A*S*H, died Dec. 31, 2016, at his home in Pasadena, Calif. Christopher's Mulcahy was a gentle Roman Catholic chaplain assigned to a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War on the CBS series, which aired from 1972 through 1983. A theater major at Wesleyan, Christopher began his acting career in New York, playing in Broadway and Off-Broadway productions before moving to Los Angeles, where he worked in television and appeared in a number of popular shows. In a New York…

Last spring, Dan Schwartz ’94 returned from Ecuador where he worked as a physician with Team Rubicon as a part of a rapid-deployment disaster medical assistance team after a 7.8M earthquake hit the area on April 16, 2016. Team Rubicon provided rescue, medical and reconnaissance aid to remote villages that could not be reached by the local government or non-governmental organizations. "One of our mottos is, 'We go where the others can't or won't," Schwartz says. Team Rubicon, a group of military veterans and first responders, was formed in 2010. In its first mission, the team brought lifesaving equipment and supplies to Haiti,…

Bozoma Saint John ’99, head of global consumer marketing for iTunes and Apple Music, was named Women in Music executive of the year. In an article for Billboard.com, writer Shirley Halperin interviewed Saint John, describing the recent months that catapulted the music executive into the industry's spotlight and beyond. "A year ago, she was the streaming service's secret weapon," Halperin wrote. "Now, after a headline-making onstage appearance and a series of high-profile, star-studded ads, she's the (glamorous) new face of Apple Music." Previously at Beats, Saint John had been only three months at that the job when Apple music acquired…

Tierney Sutton ’86 has been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album. The Sting Variations is a collection of Sting and Police songs reinterpreted by The Tierney Sutton Band and released on the BFM Jazz label. Sutton had previously explored the music of Bill Evans, Frank Sinatra, and most recently Joni Mitchell, with her 2013 album, After Blue. In a September interview for Billboard, Sutton told writer Melinda Newman that the choice to explore Sting's work was a natural one: “‘[Sting’s] autobiography is full of references to Miles and Coltrane and the Great American Song tradition.’” The Sting Variations includes both well known songs…

Stephen McCarthy ’75, managing director at KCG Capital Advisors, is also partner/executive producer with Matthew Miele’s Quixotic Endeavors (QE) film production company, featuring corporate/individual biopics, such as Crazy About Tiffany's (starring Jessica Biel and Katie Couric, among others) and Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorfs (starring Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen, among others). Their third film Harry Benson: Shoot First, will be in theaters—including New York City—and video on demand, starting Dec. 9, 2016. Harry Benson: Shoot First is a 90-minute documentary on one of the most accomplished photojournalists of the past five decades. Benson's work has captured cultural icons in…

Return to the Tea-Horse Road, an exhibition by acclaimed National Geographic Magazine photographer Michael Yamashita '71, will be featured in the Sony U Space in Beijing, from Dec. 6, 2016, to Jan. 8, 2017. Drawn from a series of photographs created for a 2010 National Geographic article, "Tea Horse Road," Yamashita traces the legendary trail of grand vistas, where both Chinese tea and Tibetan horses were traded. His photographs offer cultural highlights rendered with intimacy—equestrian festivals revealing pageantry and brightly-colored flags, travelers sipping tea by yak-butter candlelight, men squatting to gather worms for herbal healers—as well vast landscapes of distant mountains…

Tyshawn Sorey MA '11 is the subject of a Nov. 26 article published in JazzTimes titled "Tyshawn Sorey: The Maestro." "It’s something to see," writes David Adler for JazzTimes. "A fired-up young sideman blossoms into one of the most multifaceted and restlessly evolving artists of our time at age 36. It’s hard to tally just the most recent accomplishments." His accomplishments include premiering a work—Sorey on piano and drums—at the Ojai Festival in California that had been commissioned by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) at the Ojai Festival in California last February—and another ICE commission is upcoming. His Alloy trio (pianist…

"A featured performer at the The Progressive’s 100th anniversary party in 2009, [Dar] Williams [’89] has always identified with progressive causes," writes Bill Luedes, associate editor of The Progressive magazine, by way of background to his Q&A with Williams that follows. "She toured with Joan Baez early in her career and has embraced feminist, anti-war, and pro-environment positions. She’s taught a class titled 'Music Movements in a Capitalist Democracy' at her alma mater, Wesleyan University. A mother of two children, she has written a novel for young adults, Amalee, and is working on a sequel." In the interview, Luedes explores…

"There’s no other sound in music precisely like Mary Halvorson’s guitar, which she plays with a flinty attack, a spidery finesse and a shiver of wobbly delay," writes New York Times jazz critic Nate Chinen in a review of her recent shows around Brooklyn in October. She also released her eighth album, Away With You, on Oct.28. The album is produced by Firehouse 12, a production studio co-founded by fellow jazz musician Taylor Ho Bynum ’98 MA ’05, which has released his work, as well as the music of Halvorson's and Bynum's Wesleyan professor and mentor Anthony Braxton, whom Chinen calls…

The article in Poets and Writers begins, "From the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 program to the New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 list, many organizations make a point of recognizing young, gifted authors at the start of their literary careers. In the November/December 2016 issue of Poets & Writers magazine, we feature five debut authors over the age of 50 ... whose first books came out this past year, and who stand as living proof that it’s never too late to start your literary journey." Highlighted here was Paul Vidich ’72, whose first book, "An Honorable Man" was published in…

As the football teams readied for play on Corwin Stadium on Saturday of Family Weekend, alumni parents joined their first-year students—along with President Michael Roth ’78 and the Wesleyan Cardinal—for the annual Legacy Photograph on Denison Terrace. This year, the gathering included: Bottom row, from left: Alfredo Viegas ’90, P’20, Alessandra Viegas ’20, and Dora Viegas P’20; Sarafina Fabris-Green ’20 and Laurie Green ’80 P’20; Miranda Nestor ’20 and Matthew Nestor ’87 P’20; Elizabeth Eagles ’19 and Kate Homrighausen Eagles ’82, P’19; Gillian Lubin ’20 and Brad Lubin ’87, P’20; Tom Policelli ’89, P’20 and Katherine Policelli ’20; Simone Roberts-Payne ’20, Jackie Roberts ’82 P’20.…

Two alumni who did not know each other as undergraduates—but were both psychology majors and students of Professor of Psychology Karl Scheibe—have collaborated on editing a book examining academic collaborations. The book, Collaboration in Psychological Science: Behind the Scenes, was published this fall by Worth Publishing, a division of MacMillan. The editors, Richie Zweigenhaft ’67, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology at Guilford College, and Eugene Borgida ’71, Professor of psychology and law at the University of Minnesota and a Morse-Alumni Distinguished Professor of Psychology, dedicate the book to Professor Karl Scheibe, their undergraduate mentor, five years apart. Separated by…

Christopher ’54 Remembered for Playing Father Mulcahy on MAS*H

Schwartz ’94 Provides Medical Assistance in Ecuador with Team Rubicon

Saint John ’99 Named Women in Music Executive of the Year

Sutton ’86 Nominated for Grammy with The Sting Variations

McCarthy ’75 Produces ‘Star-Studded’ Documentary Harry Benson: Shoot First

Photographs by National Geographic Photographer Yamashita ’71 on Exhibit in Beijing

Composer/Drummer Sorey MA ’11 is “The Maestro”

Williams ’89: “Bridge Broadly and Creatively”—Interview in The Progressive

Jazz Guitarist Halvorson ’02 Is “Unflinching and Full of Grace”

Vidich ’72 Celebrated in Poets and Writers as First-Time Author

Alumni Parents Join Their First-Year Students for Legacy Photo

Zweigenhaft ’67, Borgida ’71 Co-Edit Book on Psychological Science Collaborations