Rob Cleary flew 208 combat missions as a Marine bombardier and navigator in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970. When he returned home, to keep in touch with college friends he organized a small reunion of what he called the Society of Mutual Friends in D.C. That tradition continued to grow with informal reunions in New England, Canada, and throughout the West. Even after Rob’s sad passing in 2015, Rob’s wife, Judy, and many friends have kept the now annual gathering going strong.

The most recent event took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, during Balloon Fiesta. Pam and Steve Abram, Dorothy Drummer and Greg Eden, Margot and Don Graves, Joyce and Tony Muller, Chris and Pete Richardson, Linda and Kevin Trainor, Flo and Steve Zeller toasted Rob, the group’s founder, and mourned the loss of their good friend, Howard Neff ’63, who, with wife Sheri, had been scheduled to attend.

Dr. David Harris, a fellow of the College of American Pathologists, has been in the private practice of anatomic and clinical pathology since 1979. While working and living in Malaysia for the past decade, he has coauthored two research papers on an RNA method of predicting the risk for developing cancers of the liver and throat. So, what’s David most excited about now? Why his wife, Bee Har, his 2-year-old “talkative and very active” granddaughter, Eleanor, and his grandson, Isaac, born last July, of course.

Nice work if you can get it: Jonathan Wiesel has spent 40 years in the world of cross-country skiing, writing and consulting on more than 120 Nordic-related projects across North America. Now he’s back in Bozeman, Montana, working to transform snowbelt golf courses into snowshoe and fat-bike areas. “It’s amazing,” Jonathan reports, “how many Dartmouth people are in the tiny cross-country ski world—coaches, competitors, consultants, writers, area operators.”

“Somehow, it still seems natural to be working at age 74 (the new 54?),” says David Johnston. A few years ago David founded and now directs the Center for Higher Education Retention Excellence (CHERE) based in Hartford, Connecticut. CHERE has run 21 conferences and works with a coalition of schools to increase college and employment success for challenged and underrepresented students. Dave and Hera just welcomed their first grandchild in November and will be celebrating their 50th anniversary in May.

Here it comes. Mediaevil, the fifth novel by former motion picture executive and collegiate film course teacher Jeff Stein (nom de plume of J.J. Stein), has just been published. Jeff describes it as “a dystopian satire about the near future set in the environs of a rural university steeling itself against a world degenerating into medievalism.” What’s not to like? Learn more at www.jeffryjohnstein.com or Amazon.

Our deepest sympathies to family and friends of four classmates who recently passed: John Freeman, a noted Aspen, Colorado-based orthopedic doctor and consultant to the U.S. Ski Team; David Goldstein, an avid golfer who coached the University of New Hampshire ski team for 14 years; Jeremy Reitman, CEO of Canada’s largest women’s apparel retailer; and Larry Simms, an expert on the First Amendment who clerked for Justice Byron White. More about each at dartmouthalumnimagazine.com/obits.

—Larry Geiger, 93 Greenridge Ave., White Plains, NY 10605; (914) 860-4945; lgeiger@aol.com