John VanEss Brewer

FAVORITE MEMORIES OF WILLIAMS

Neill Megaw in English 101 – A freshman seminar with 12 students in a Greylock classroom. An excellent experience . . . and all you would want to know about James Joyce!

Terry Perlin’s history class on American utopian and millenarian movements. As I recall, it was called Defiance in History, but I may be confusing the course name with our freshman orientation reading assignment.

CURRENT INTERESTS, PASSIONS, AND ORGANIZATIONS

My highest priority is advocacy for services for people with intellectual/developmental disabilities (I/DD). I am currently the chair of Regional Family Support Planning Council #3 (covering Union and Somerset Counties), which educates families about services available for people with I/DD, and advocates with state agencies and the legislature to improve access to services and supports. Still a lot of work to be done . . .

LIFE SINCE GRADUATION

I signed up for crew in September 1968, never having rowed a stroke before. Rowing on Lake Onota in the fall, driving to Stillwater to row on the Hudson in February (!), spring break trips to Florida for practice, and racing in the fall and spring, and the friendships that have lasted up to now—all memorable. I enjoyed crew so much that I rowed intermittently (Potomac, Stanford, Milwaukee) for several years after graduating. Our freshman crew won the Little Three trophy in 1969 (now named after Bill McGraw ’72, who was in that boat)—the first Little Three trophy won by a Williams crew in the “modern era” of rowing at Williams. A collateral benefit was getting to know Jack Shaw and George Marcus outside the classroom.

I was a Political Economy major. The interdisciplinary approach allowed me (and us) to connect things that would not have been so obvious in Econ or Poly Sci separately—see The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory by Gunnar Myrdal. And who could forget George Marcus’s Four Variable Causal Model in his Statistical Methods class? Also, I remember wandering around Mauritius with Paul Isaac during our junior year Winter Study, vainly trying to prove the link between urban and rural income differentials and the rate of rural to urban migration. It turns out Mauritius is so small that people don’t migrate, they commute! A well-spent 99, even if we couldn’t prove the thesis.

My father was in the Foreign Service, so as a family we moved frequently. I was born in Beirut and lived in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and India, as well as two tours in Washington, DC, before arriving in Billsville. My interest in international affairs intact, I left for DC (MA at SAIS and five years in the US Chamber of Commerce’s International Division), then to Palo Alto for an MBA, and finally to the management training program at American Express International Bank (where, happily, I met my bride, who worked in AmEx’s leasing company in Brazil; we married in ’82). Amex Bank took us to Pakistan for a temporary assignment, then to Bahrain, NYC, Chile, Miami, and finally to Bombay (now Mumbai) for a seven-year tour. We returned to NYC in 2004, and after AmEx sold the bank to Standard Chartered in 2008, I worked on the transition and then took an early retirement in 2010.

In the course of these migrations my wife and I have had two children. Nicola was born in 1987 with profound disabilities, and has gamely kept up with us during our travels—and has taught me a lot about love, life, and what is really important. We have been able to keep her living at home with us, although finding a long-term residential solution for her will be our next, and great, challenge. Guilherme was born in 1990 and has evidently not just survived but thrived in our nomadic existence. He graduated from the College of New Jersey in 2014, and is now working with a community services non-profit in Trenton. Out of the house, but not too far away . . . and still comes home to do laundry!

After spending more than half of my life outside the US, we have lived in the same town for 18 years. A welcome change, particularly because we have been able to get involved in local community activities in ways that were difficult during our frequent moves. I have been the treasurer of our local parish church for about 10 years, and I am an elected member of the town’s Republican Committee.

A full life so far, strongly influenced by my time at Williams and by the friends who have sustained me and enriched my life. I think of those who did not make the full journey with me, including, in particular, Bill McGraw (sophomore roommate), Peter Adams (junior roommate and road-trip companion), and Randy McManus (roommate in DC), and my sister Priscilla Brewer ’77, with thanks for their friendship and prayers that they and our other departed classmates rest in peace.