We want to hear from you! Please share thoughts, insights, discrepancies, recollections, photos — and how’s your Tom’s Trivia win-loss percentage coming? Post to our website at magazine.uconn.edu, email the editor at lisa.stiepock@uconn.edu, or send by regular mail to UConn Magazine Letters, 34 N. Eagleville Rd., Storrs, CT 06269-3144.
Here’s a sampling of web, social media, mailed, and emailed comments on our last issue, edited for clarity and length.
In Love With Lizzie’s
I was a habitual patron of Lizzie’s outside Arjona from like 2001 to 2008. Loved reading this in the magazine and seeing it here! She made special vegetarian nachos when I was in my no-meat decade.
Craig Albert ’09 Ph.D.
Augusta, Georgia via LinkedIn
I still miss that brisket sandwich.
Micah Nemerever ’13 MA
Greater Seattle, Washington via LinkedIn
Back where you belong!
Ali Stevens
via Facebook
Husky Pride
I saw an article you published a year or two ago featuring alum Brian Frencese. After the UConn athletic department decided to replace Gampel’s floor after the 2022–23 season, he won a floorboard in an auction and had it framed.
I connected with him, and he said the auctions were over, but he put me in touch with the company that did the auctions. They still had pieces that weren’t yet used or sold, so I purchased two — the “X,” where players checked in by the scorer’s table, and the “H” from “Huskies” that was on the sideline. I got the “H” made into a coffee table about a year ago and just had the “X” framed, combining it with signed jerseys I’ve collected over the years.
Andy Goldstrom ’87 (BUS), ’90 MBA
Atlanta, Georgia
Having graduated from UConn in 1956, I was thrilled to be back on campus in 2006 to celebrate my 50th reunion with several of my fraternity brothers.
Sad to say I won’t be able to make the 70th on campus, nor will most of my contemporaries, but as you can see from the photo, I’m still a Husky and proclaim it proudly to all of South Florida!
Roger Shatanof ’56 (CLAS)
Coral Gables, Florida
GameDay Conor Is Everywhere
GameDay Conor (Conor Geary) is a treasure who lights up and makes every venue he’s a part of special and so very much more enjoyable! It’s easy to see why he’s so successful and in demand!
Tony Retartha ’63 (CLAS)
Avon, Connecticut
One of the most recognizable faces in the whole state.
@just_michelle_o via Instagram
History Lesson
At graduation season this year, as I pored over the many UConn related social media feeds I follow, a wonderful story from my days working at UConn came back to me. One of the best decisions I ever made as associate director of University Communications was hiring Meg Malmborg to be the director of the newly created Philip and Christine Lodewick Visitors Center. Meg and I worked closely to build the visitors center program — though Meg was always the visionary, as you’ll see.
The story of Jonathan’s shiny nose goes like this: One day I was lamenting to Meg the fact that over its history UConn hadn’t established many long-standing traditions, as some other flagship public universities had done. Always one to seek opportunity, tackle challenges, and rectify problems, Meg responded to me, saying something along the lines of, “All traditions have an origin story. Someone started doing something that some others repeated, and it just lasted.” With that, she suggested that she and I join the next tour leaving the visitors center.
We walked along with the tour guests, listening at each stop to the remarkably well-trained tour guide. When we got to the stop at the statue of Jonathan in front of Gampel Pavilion, Meg moved to the front of the group. When the tour guide finished her remarks, Meg spoke up. “You know,” she told the guests, “at UConn we know choosing a college can be a difficult task. You will need all the help you can get and so we invite our guests to rub the nose of Jonathan the Husky for good luck in their search process.” Every person in the tour group stepped up to Jonathan and rubbed his nose. This tradition continued day after day, tour after tour.
When we started, Jonathan’s nose had a dull finish consistent with the rest of the statue. Today, that nose shines a brilliant bronze color from the tens of thousands of hands that have helped to enshrine this (now) long-standing tradition. I’ve rubbed it myself whenever I’ve returned to campus. I’ve smiled at the many, many photos I’ve seen online of people stepping up to rub Jonathan’s nose. Each time, I think back to my walk with Meg and the single event that started what has become a powerful UConn tradition.
John M. Barry ’82 (CLAS), ’84 MA
Richmond, Virginia
Suggestion Box
Hello to all of you. You do a fantastic job with the magazine. I love each and every issue. I only wish there were more issues to read. I have a request for the next issue: Can you give Azzi Fudd a shoutout for being the first rookie in the W to win the 3-point contest? She is amazing and so graceful in all aspects of the game.
Roger Bushhorn
Shelbyville, Indiana
Corrections
UConn DNA
I love the story you wrote about Leonard and his family — strong UConn ties continuing through the generations! You mentioned the number of commencement ceremonies we have as 19, but we currently have 16. If you counted the listings on the schedule, three are duplicates because they include both bachelor’s and master’s degrees, so they are listed twice — once in each section.
Lauren Schaller ’05 (CLAS)
University Events and Conferences
Class Notes
Norma Spector’s daughter wrote to tell us we’d spelled her mother’s name Wegner as Wedner, and that Norma (Wegner) Spector ’55 Ph.D. had turned 102. She shared this photo of her mom, too.