University of Denver Autumn 2025

CLASS NOTES

(California) Historical Society Museum. She has written over 50 biographies about Tustin pioneers that are available on the Learning Center computer. Vicki lives in Orange County. 70s 1975 Howard Bronson (BA ’75) has set a goal to write 60 books based on his list of 60 life lessons learned over the course of his 70 years. Two of his recent books are “I Refuse to Be Abused” and “I Refuse to Sing the Blues.” Kelsay Books Robert Cooperman

60s 1965 Bernadine Abbott Hoduski (MLS ’65) has published “Bernadine’s Office Building: Working in the Capitol and Other Dangerous Places,” which chronicles her career as a government documents librarian, including 20 years with the Joint Committee on Printing of the United States Congress. 1966 Vicki Adler Gray (BSBA ’62, MPA ’66) has established a Learning Center at the Tustin

1977 Robert Cooperman (PhD ’77) has recently published two STEERAGE

STEERAGE Robert Cooperman Kelsay Books

poetry collections: “Steerage,” the fictionalized tale of his grandfather’s misadventures

In Steerage , his series of brilliant, narrative poems about his Jewish ancestors who came to America at the turn of the last century, Robert Cooperman gives us what we need to know to understand the world we live in today with its refugees and immigrants seeking shelter and freedom, and he helps us also understand the stupidity of those who talk about how migrants are poisoning the blood of America. — John Guzlowski, author of Echoes of Tattered Tongues, Eric Hoffer Award winner Robert Cooperman has delved into his maternal grandfather’s history and created a tender book that follows the early days of the Abramowitz family, recently arrived in New York City from Russia as part of the mass diaspora in the early twentieth century. Poetry works perfectly for the Abramowitz story, which moves through multiple family member perspectives and is richly detailed with history as it follows math whiz Eli and his power-boxer brother Moshe making their somewhat nefarious way on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. — Magdalena Ball, Compulsive Reader

Poems by Robert Cooperman

on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the early 20th century, and “The Death and Rebirth of Ophelia,” in which he posits Ophelia faked her drowning to escape Hamlet and Elsinore. 80s 1980 Walter Dodds (BS ’80), a Kansas State University distinguished professor and chair of biology, received the Olin Petefish Award in Basic Sciences from the state’s Higuchi-KU Endowment Research Achievement Awards for scholarly excellence. 1982 Michael Hightower (MA ’82) has

published “Justice for All,” a biography of Dick T. Morgan, a frontier lawyer in Oklahoma Territory, six-term congressman,

and father of the Federal Trade Commission. He also has written “At War with Corruption,” about U.S. Attorney Bill Price, who spearheaded prosecutions in the most extensive case of public corruption in FBI history. 1987 Ben Wolters (MA ’87) was named director of development and business services for the City of Lynnwood, Washington.

1981 Julie Kane-Ritsch (BA ’81) was nominated for a Children’s and Family Emmy Award for Best Young Teen Series for her work as an executive producer on “The Spiderwick Chronicles.” Julie is the head of the animation and family entertainment division at The Gotham Group, a talent management and production company in Los Angeles.

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UNIVERSITY OF DENVER MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2025