AC_1965_Web

79 AN T I OC H CO L L E G E C L A S S O F 19 6 5 5 0 t h A N N I V E R S A R Y B O O K A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z K A P L A N KAPLAN PEGGY JARRELL Peggy, self-portrait, 1970. THEN AND NOW 4 B.A. Literature 4 M.A.T., Columbia FAMI LY 4 Husband, Robert Kaplan, deceased 4 Stepchildren, Eric, Michel and Lisa 4 Daughter, Dana ADDRESS 4 510 East 86th St., 16 C New York, NY 10028 CONTACT 212 535-6825 rjkaplanmd@gmail.com I T T O O K M E a while to be able to embrace my life. My early years were peripatetic: my father was a geolo- gist/mining engineer so we traveled throughout the United States and as far away as Cyprus. It wasn’t un- til my fifth grade that the family set- tled permanently in Needham, Mass.. I suspect that continuously being the new student in class helped to shape me: insecure yet resilient.The suburb was conservative, but the family and I found succor in the local Unitarian church, which would make Antioch seem like a natural choice for college. Antioch, however, was not a perfect fit. I majored in English, loving nov- els and class discussions with excep- tional professors (Judson Jerome, Robert Maurer, Milton Goldberg), but I was more in retreat mode and found no satisfaction in co-op jobs. The turn around was my AEA fourth year at the University of Edinburgh, living with a group of international students, working on a Kibbutz, a French children’s camp and a work camp in Czechoslovakia (behind the Iron Curtain!) I returned to Antioch with a new attitude although I never fully felt a part of the community. Upon graduation I moved to New York, buoyed by the support of two native NewYorkers as room- mates, Beth Levenson and Kathy Dobkin, who could navigate the shoals of the big city. After a few false starts, I received an M.A.T. from Columbia as a way to travel, and taught for a year in Istanbul.Another wonderful year but this time the re- turn was a crash and I realized that teaching was not for me. By chance I ended up working for an art gallery specializing in 19th century American art until I could figure out what I wanted to do. One day the temperamental owner turned his wrath on me and I, un- characteristically, walked out of the job, renouncing the field of art for what I thought was forever.However, an ad for a contemporary gallery po- sition promising “a congenial atmo- sphere” drew me in and I have been working in a most wondrous place since 1972: Ronald Feldman Fine Arts. Established only six months be- fore my arrival, the gallery is known for its early representation of artists who have become icons in contem- porary art history and continues its adventurous and politically-charged programming today. More wondrous things were in store: my husband and photography. When I was 32, Robert Kaplan and I fell in love at first sight, and he Bob, Peggy & first grandchild, Molly, 2008.