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The 2012 B&B Reunion DESPITE PERFECT STORM OF OUTSIDE EVENTS, 100 ALUMNI ATTEND TENTH REUNION! CAME FROM ALMOST THREE CONTINENTS! SEVERAL HAIRY STORIES INCLUDED! It was April 9th 2012, the day after Easter Sunday. Also the day after Passover. Also three days after a full moon. Also the start of the baseball season. Yet B&Bers came in droves, others in planes, trains, buses and on foot, to the 10th Not Quite Annual Alumni Reunion. They came from far and wide to the Society of Illustrator’s Club to eat more, drink more and talk more than ever before on what all agreed was the grandest reunion of all. There were representatives from every decade of B&B since the 1960’s. HAIR YESTERDAY, GONE TODAY There was general agreement that Don Blauweiss had more hair than all the men combined, if you didn’t count Jack Bowen. And that Al Bensusen had less hair than all the men combined, including Jon Guliner.
THEY CAME FROM FAR AWAY AND NOW WORK FAR AFIELD Jay Fraser helps keep us safe with his companies specializing in homeland security software and proprietary technology, as does Diane Lane-Hymans in her work as a Transportation Security Officer at the TSA; Janet Stanton runs a management consultancy to the legal industry with her lawyer husband Bruce, working with US and international law firms; Bingo Wyer runs her flower & event-planning business, creating destination weddings in the South of France, fancy dinners at the Explorers’ Club and the like; she’s also a free-lance writer; Sandy Wilbur continues to work with her love of music, running two creative song and musicology companies out of her apartment in Chelsea; check out her new music video of her composition “We The People The Song (Constitution)” on You Tube – it’s wonderful; John Peace has become a mega software maven in cloud computing and financial analysis … we don’t understand it but he does. (One hopes.); Roy Eaton has discovered the fountain of youth, as father to his almost-teenaged twin sons (he also serenades NYC at on-going concert events and venues … you can buy his CD’s!); Al Hampel had all good intentions to come all the way uptown from Battery Park City but had to cancel; Norm Siegel has evolved into a noted artist and illustrator specializing in aircraft, and now visits Air Force bases around the country immortalizing planes (he’s also gotten great rides in some of the memorable ones like B-52s); Don Blauweiss and Diane Dudzinski are inaugurating the Mad Couple era of advertising with their eponymous advertising firm. Don also moonlights on the Board of his alma mater Cooper Union, founded Senior Creative People with pals from DDB and, most importantly, did the cover design for Peter Nord’s new book … … yes, Peter Nord will debut, in Summer 2012, a collection of satire called Pinchik And Other Kvetchers Plus the Official Tennis and Potchy Manuals. Buy it on Amazon to help Peter get on the NYTimes Bestsellers list; Pamela Eisenstadt Berns runs her own global training business; Bill Sandberg runs a sports marketing consultancy, turning his love of boating into $$$; he also has been a columnist for years for Windcheck (a monthly magazine devoted to sailors and powerboaters in the Northeast); John Fenton is now a Guardian ad Litem (court-appointed advocate for children in need) in Connecticut. He is also on the advisory board of the Office of the Child Advocate in Hartford; and on the board of the Open Door Shelter (a model shelter in Norwalk CT); Joel Harrison kvells about his & Sally’s two grandchildren, Bennett and Sarah Rose; Gail Zeltman raises $$$ for her local library in Sandwich MA on lovely Cape Cod while also dealing with the politics and pleasures of the local Chamber of Commerce; Paul LePelletier writes at NBC on 30 Rock; Jack Bowen and Jack Taylor bond over stories of their fabled Mad Men days, though they wouldn’t admit who they were mad at. Both enjoy travel and their expanding families; Diane Murray raises funds and school supplies to help children in Zimbabwe; Abbie Snyder travels with hubby Harvey when not bemoaning the Mets’ bullpen. Their latest was a lengthy trip to Vietnam, Bangkok and Singapore; Phil Wallace continues to write historical fiction (read his A Call of the Sea, a great tale revealing his lifelong passion for military history); Jon Guliner, John Peace and Joe Petruccio eat regularly at the Society of Illustrators, though Petruccio, some claim, just sends an imitation of himself, being too busy writing his popular sports blogs; Pam Çohen planned on flying in from Chicago, and Ro Leone wanted to bus in from New Jersey, but work got in the way. (We should all be so lucky.) FAMILY AFFAIRS Some B&B-ers came in couples too + other family connections:
A FAR CRY FROM THE BUFFET ON THE 30TH FLOOR AT 909 THIRD. Wish Roy and his crew had been there. A bounty of food and drink sated the parched B&B-ers who clambered up the narrow staircase to the Society’s 3rd floor dining room: roast turkey & chicken roulade with 3 sauces, 4 kinds of pasta, fruit and other salads, nuts, nibbles and butlered appetizers washed down by lovely wines, beers and sodas. There was plenty of room to stand and mingle, sit and talk, and get away from the madding crowd inside to join the madding crowd on the terrace. WE’RE FINANCIALLY – UH, ALMOST – SOLVENT Because we had $$ left over from 2010 and the Society waived its usual $1500 event fee, we were able to almost afford the Illustrator Club’s costs. (See the two paragraphs down for full disclosure.)
SO, IF YOU SAID YES YOU WOULD ATTEND, BUT DIDN’T, IT WOULD BE NICE IF YOU SENT US THE $40. WE ENDED UP BASICALLY STIFFING THE SOCIETY’S WAITERS AND BARTENDERS. And, if you are able to donate something additional to help keep us solvent (to cover things like postage and website hosting costs going forward), please write a check made out to Vicky Amon (she’s the keeper of our account books & bill-payer), and send it to her at 9 Normandy Road, Larchmont NY 10538-1910. TRAVEL AWARDS Liz Musch flew in from Paris & saw us after seeing her son Max at college in Philadelphia; Diane Murray came from LA; Butch Foust from Florida; Ann McClenahan and Jim Weinstein from DC; Steve & Marilyn Keenan from Maryland; Jay Fraser from San Antonio; Katie Williams Fahs from Atlanta; Gail Zeltman from Cape Cod; Angie Gruder from PA; Jay Durante from Southhampton LI; Jackie & Alan Harris drove in again from New Jersey and this time had no trouble parking in the lot next door … SARTORIAL AWARDS Tom Conlon, Dan Adams, Marty Rose, Jim Wilbur, Jay Durante, Jon Fisher and our intrepid photographer Larry Sillen all looked Don Draper-like in jackets and ties; Butch Foust, Peter Nord and Andy Edelstein sported the Official Late 20th. Century Creative Director’s Uniform of black turtlenecks, ladies looked fabulous in a range of suits, dresses, jackets, pants (and Diane Dudzinski even wore 3” heels, not fun to run up and down 3 flights of stairs in)
IMMORTAL PICTURES Check out the shots (go to the Reunion 2012 Page)… no captions on photos again this year, but we’ve included a separate link of who’s who so you can ID anyone you wish, even though you probably don’t need it since we haven’t aged at all since last time, except Jack who looks like he’s finally approaching 50. LOTS TO DO ON THE WEB Of course, check our website regularly: www.bandb-alums.com Friend us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Benton-Bowles-Alumni (and thanks to Netta Linder for keeping this updated) Connect to us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/groups/DMB-B-Alumni (kudos here to Norm Sherman for creating and continuing) AND SPEAKING OF THE NEXT REUNION If we have the energy, we’ll meet again in two years, probably later in the Spring, but NOT around a holiday! Don’t let this stop you from getting together with old friends … you can renew ties with info from the website. AS ALWAYS, WE NEED YOUR CURRENT CONTACT INFORMATION Make sure to check in with us periodically – especially when you change jobs or change email suppliers – and tell old agency friends you’re in touch with to get in touch with us for listing or just to check out our website. Some of you were “lost” because we had very old addresses for you and we worked VERY HARD to find you again for this reunion – Jim Meyer, aren’t you glad we did? For corrections and new contact requests, email Gail Zeltman (gzeltman@yahoo.com) or Vicky Amon (vickyma9@aol.com). To give us an update of what you’re doing now, email Diane Dudzinski (diane@blauweissadvertising.com) and bless Kathie Rokita who maintains our website and Peter Greene who helps update our Directory (he just finished 8 pages of changes … a mountain of work!!!)
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