Julie W. Stern (Werner)

Newtown, CT 06470

Undergrad college/major: Arts and Sciences/English & Philosophy.

Affiliations at Cornell: Cornell Writer - Cornell Widow, Women’s Tennis Team. Advanced degrees: MA English, UC Berkeley.

Career/occupation: Retired Teacher (Adjunct Professor Humanities at Western CT State University). Theater Reviewer for Newton (CT) Bee.

Important affiliations: Room Mother Middle Gate Elementary School.

Published Work: Readers guide to four short novels of Joseph Conrad.

Marital status: Married.

Spouse: Peter Stern.

Children: Joe Stern (Rachel Manuszak) and Bill Stern.

Grandchildren: Alexandra (12), Andrew (9) and Elizabeth (7).

Outstanding Cornell memory: President Deane Waldo Malott was burned in effigy, and a photo of Tom Pynchon, Kirk Sale, Richard Farina and Todd Perry made the front page of the NY Daily News under the Headline “Coeds Riot for Sex.”

How has your life differed from what you expected? I’ve been a happily married suburban soccer mom for 45 years. I never wrote the Great American Novel, but I became a teacher and did my best.

Personal reflections: I have been incredibly fortunate/lucky in my personal/family/professional life. I worry that our country is falling down an abyss that it might never climb out of. I worry that the world is becoming more crowded, dangerous, corrupt and violent as well as destroying the planet ecologically. I worry that too many young Americans are becoming technologically savvy and spiritually and intellectually retarded, but, as I said, I am lucky in my family and friends. At least Connecticut didn’t succumb to the Tea Party craziness.