AC_1965_Web

85 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 O T L E R KOTLER JANET [OLDT] FAMI LY 4 Sons, Anthony and Joshua 4 Grandchildren, Jacob & Sarah ADDRESS 4 3520 Sexton Woods Dr. Atlanta, GA 30341 CONTACT 770 457-5198 jkotler@aol.com PROFESSIONAL LIFE: Started out at the Institute for Policy Studies, then in its infancy, in Washington, D.C., where I worked with Richard Barnet and Marc Raskin on foreign policy and domestic issues. I learned to read and write critically there. Married Peter Irons. Some years after, Peter went to jail for “draft evasion” (sev- eral years before Seeger), Peter re- fused to declare himself a consci- entious objector if that meant (as it did then) he had to declare a belief in God, we were divorced. Though I remained—and do remain—close to his family. I then married a lunatic I will not name, lived for several more years in D.C. and moved toVermont with my two young children, Anthony and Joshua. Worked for many years at Goddard College both as an adminis- trator and as a teacher.Was fortunate to be selected for an NEH seminar with William Coles on the teaching of writing, which basically changed my life. Earned a master’s degree with Ann Berthoff. Taught at the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee and then at the University of Richmond where I was the first woman on the business school fac- ulty. (I have MANY horror/funny sto- ries from this period.) Returned to Vermont in 1991 because I was hid- eously homesick and because I was deeply in love with someone there. Having had to abandon teaching, I fell into a development job with an anti-poverty agency, which also changed my life. Some very happy years ensued. Reconnected with a man from the Coles seminar, and after eight more years in Vermont, very, very re- luctantly moved to Atlanta (which is a RED, RED state unless my friend Michelle wins—I’m writing this a week before the election), where he is a professor at Oglethorpe University. Spent a few relatively miserable years as development di- rector at a metroAtlanta community action agency, then more (far less miserable) with homeless services agencies. Am now an independent consultant, raising funds for those agencies as well as for refugee edu- cation. PERSONAL LIFE: More or less described above. My two boys have grown up to be successful and wonderfully witty entrepreneurs.Two grandchil- dren, one of whom, Jacob, has just had his bar mitzvah, and the other of whom, Sarah, is a precociously tal- ented artist. Also a bit of a brat. My father, Les, died last year at 107. I am very close to my brother,Tom.After Dad died, we spent a week together with his and my Mom’s ashes, dis- tributing them all over the southeast in places that had been important to them. Often this involved walk- ing innocently onto private prop- erty, humming carelessly with one eye out for neighbors, as we surrep- titiously scattered part of what was left of them. Along the way, we took turns reading aloud the hundreds of letters they had written each other, which we found after their deaths. Astonishingly revealing, they changed much of our outlook on our parents and our childhood. I continue to live happily with Bill (apparently the secret is not to marry). I read, I garden, I needle- point, I travel—mainly to Europe and lately mainly and obsessively to Paris. VICTORIES FOR HUMANITY: My Mom went toAntioch. She worried a great deal about that victory for human- ity thing, all the way to her death at 96. I inherited her worry (sheesh! kind of an existential burden for life) but recently I haven’t actually thought about it all that much. But I think I’ve won mine. I started a school (well, not all by myself) for refugee girls that is now in its sixth successful year. I helped start a char- ter school for refugee and local ele- mentary kids. I am a founding mem- ber of a new venture, Solutions for

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODI0NDUy