Family

Our daughter Jennifer was born on June 14 1967, the day after I graduated with my Ph.D. Our son Eric was born on Dec. 15 1969. Jennifer is married to David Miner, and they have two daughters, Emily born in April 1999, and Jessica born in July 2001. They live in California. Jennifer was initially a counseling psychologist and then a travel writer specializing in family travel, and now is a fund raiser for Democratic candidates. David is a very successful (Emmys on the mantel piece!) manager and producer for comedy on TV. Emily currently is a senior at Colorado College, majoring in Museum Studies, and Jessica is a sophomore at Barnard College, tentatively majoring in Environmental Science.

Eric is married to Mandy Jordan and they have a daughter, Violet, born in May 2010. Eric is a certified transportation planner, specializing in bike and pedestrian paths and lanes (good for your health and less carbon emissions!). He worked for many years for the East Coast Greenway Alliance, and several years ago decided to be his own boss as a contractor. Mandy is an artist and Violet is in 5th grade at Vartan Gregorian Elementary School. They live in Providence RI.

We have an African Grey parrot named Simba. She was our Jen’s bird for the first 10 years of her life, so I blame all her personality problems on her! She has been with us for 21 years; Jen’s daughter Emily, born April 1999 was the impetus for finding another home for Simba, who was described by Jen as having “clinical depression” after the baby arrived. So we volunteered. Simba is a one-person bird, and initially was bonded only with Jennifer, had no use for David when he joined the family, and now she’s bonded with me and has no use for Pete even though he shares food with her and is very kind. She used to talk a lot more than she does now. Jen clipped her wings for the first 10 years and although we don’t do that, she doesn’t fly (thankfully!). I can take her out in the back yard of the summer place and she enjoys scratching in the dirt, and chewing on tree branches. She is grumpy more than I’d like, and that’s clearly Jen’s fault.