Robin Ellsberg Caton

Email: r4obin@gmail.com
510.847.9926

After completing my freshman year of college at CCNY, I transferred to Brandeis where I was an English/Linguistics major. I married David Neuman between my Junior and Senior years. After graduation, I worked for a year in the Brandeis library and then, in the Fall of 1972, we moved to Ann Arbor where David began law school at the University of Michigan and I began a Ph.D. program in philosophy. I was unhappy with the program, but felt committed to Ann Arbor while David finished school. So I dropped out, worked, and in the Fall of 1973, I began law school as a Michigan resident, which meant I could study very cheaply. I liked it more than I ever imagined I would, did well, and became the Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review in my third year. David and I moved to San Francisco in the summer of 1976, where I practiced antitrust and commercial litigation.

The eighties were busy, variously happy and unhappy years: we had a daughter, Laura, in 1980, I became the first woman partner at my law firm in 1983, David and I divorced in 1985, and I married Curt Caton, another partner at the firm, in 1987. As the decade proceeded, I became increasingly stressed by the travel demands and high pressure of law practice, especially while raising a child. I also found that while my work was extremely challenging intellectually, I had no heart connection to what I was doing. At age 40, I had a kind of crisis of meaning; I wanted a job I loved and a more purposeful life.

The result was that I left law practice in 1990 and began to do what I had wanted to do since High School: write. I found myself writing poetry and eventually returned to school to get an MFA. Later, I began teaching college-level courses as an adjunct.

In 1999-2000, Curt and I moved back to NYC for a year, so that he could help to start a NY office of his law firm. While there, I had a routine mammogram and was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. We quickly returned home to SF where I then went through a long period of treatment: surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and hormone therapy. During my recovery, a book of my poetry, The Color of Dusk, was published.

Somewhere along the way, while I was writing poetry and teaching, I began to study Tibetan Buddhism. I found a community in Berkeley that was started in the late 1960’s by a traditionally trained Tibetan Lama, Tarthang Tulku. He was about the same age as the Dali Lama, but was no longer teaching the public. His senior students ran a school in Berkeley, where I took courses and then began to teach. Over the years, my love of Buddhism grew, my interest in poetry somewhat diminished, and I wound up giving up college teaching to devote my time to teaching, study and practice with this Nyingma Buddhist Community. Curt and I moved to the East Bay in 2003, and in 2010, we were asked by Tarthang Tulku to become the first directors of a new school he was starting called Dharma College. Curt retired in 2013, but I am still at Dharma College, serving as Director and as lead instructor. Our courses are secular, not devotional or even meditation-oriented. They focus on mind, the formation of self and identity, and on what it means to live a meaningful life in the world. You can get more of a feel for this on the Dharma College website: www.dharma-college.com

On the personal side, Curt has three sons, so 29 years ago I inherited a large and wonderful family that is now spread out all across the country. We have three granddaughters, one 23 who is studying public health at Emory University, one 15 who is a freshman in High School in Southern California, and one eight. My amazing and lovely daughter, who is gay, lives in Philadelphia with her partner; Laura is a poet and a dancer and currently teaches English as an adjunct at Temple University.

I have not been in contact with anyone from Hunter for many years now, so attending the reunion dinner will be a treat. I look forward to seeing all of you who will be there in June, and welcome communication from anyone not able to attend.