Congratulations to all those who helped support the renovation of the Phi Delta Alpha house after a serious third-floor fire last year. A large contingent of ’66ers, along with President Kim and other alumni and officials, reopened the Phi Palace in late September. It now holds 25 residents, up from 17 in the good old days. Helping cut the ribbon were Ted Amaral, Albie MacDonald, Arne Rovick, Dean Spatz, Charlie Stuart and Bruce Thorsen. 


Also on hand was Neil Castaldo, who has recently taken up residence in Hanover as general Counsel of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Prior to accepting the position in 2009 Neil provided legal representation to Dartmouth-Hitchcock for many years as a partner at Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP in Concord, New Hampshire. 


A number of classmates continue to teach at the college level. Both Bill Ferris and his wife, Cheryl, are tenured professors and “expect to be for the foreseeable future.” Bill, an expert in organizational behavior, is professor of management at Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts, and is a sought-after speaker, with engagements lined up in London and India. He’s also editor-in-chief of Organization Management Journal, one of the leading online-only peer-reviewed research journals in the field. Happily Bill’s 91-year-old parents are still living in the Longmeadow, Massachusetts, home he grew up in, and he enjoys his four under-5 grandchildren.


Bill Gruver joined the management department at Bucknell University in 1993 after a successful 20-year career at Goldman, Sachs. Good move for all. Last spring Bill was named Bucknell University’s first Howard I. Scott Clinical Professor of Global Commerce, Strategy and Leadership. Bill will teach management and international relations courses. In addition he will continue his valuable work with alumni relations and on-campus advising.


At Dartmouth Bill Dowling was editor of the Jack-O-Lantern, a Senior Fellow in English and recipient of the Perkins Prize in English and classics. A clear indication of what was to come. He’s now University Distinguished Professor of English and American Literature at Rutgers University, specializing in 18th-century English literature, literature of the early American republic and literary theory. Among many honors Bill has held Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Humanities and Howard Foundation fellowships. He is past winner of the Richard Beale Davis Prize for work in early American literature and a New Jersey Council of the Humanities award for his book Oliver Wendell Holmes in Paris: Medicine, Theology, and the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. Bill has also received considerable attention for his book Confessions of a Spoilsport and his efforts to maintain high academic standards at his beloved Rutgers.


Mike Diracles has retired from his CFO post at Carlson Cos. but continues, as he has for 10 years, to teach international business as an adjunct professor at St. Thomas University in St. Paul, Minnesota.


Our 45th is right around the corner or just on the other side of summer. An action-packed weekend with plenty of time to reminisce has been planned by Jim Lustenader and the reunion committee. Everything you need to know is on our class website at www.dartmouth.org/classes/66.org.


—Larry Geiger, 93 Greenridge Ave., White Plains, NY 10605; (917) 747-1642; lgeiger@aol.com