Our executive committee meeting in Hanover during Winter Carnival was great fun, with nine classmates in town and another seven joining by phone. Lots of planning, for mini-reunions during the next four years and early planning for our 50th. One exciting initiative is the Connections Program, where our class will develop partnerships with the class of 2018 during these next four years and join together on the Green in June of 2018. Kick-off ideas include having some of us ’68s serve lunch to the incoming freshmen on the trail during the freshman trips and staff a tent during matriculation (volunteers needed!). Watch for details in the coming months and, as always, check the class website for updates. Speaking of mini-reunions, there was a big east ski trip, version 1.0, in late January at Sunday River, Maine. Jackie and Gerry Bell were joined by Bear Everett, Bob Block, Bob’s daughter Jessa Barnard ’02, her husband, Justin Barnard ’02, and grandson skiing phenom Skylar Barnard, future class of ’32, who was already parallel skiing at age 3. Bob recalled that his own father had put him on skis, also at age of 3 (thus way back in 1949!), as Bob then did with his two daughters at a similar age, making Sky the fourth generation of skiing Blocks. In other family news, Bob’s older daughter Alexandra is practicing law in Chicago and raising son Micah, now 4. Wife Lora remains busy in her consulting business, assisting high school students in preparing for and picking the right schools to apply to, and increasingly, advising them on affordability issues. And Bob has slowed down, sort of, in his orthopedic practice. He no longer operates but does see three full days of patients in the office per week and serves on the advisory committee for the Green Mountain Care Board, which is developing the new healthcare system for Vermont. Joe Grasso predicts his transition from work to retirement will be in the next year or two. One recent non-work highlight for Joe: officiating at the wedding in Washington, D.C., of Ann and Parker Beverage’s daughter Emily ’04. Emily had clerked for Joe a few years ago and now practices law in Washington. Bill Zarchy has recently written his first book: Showdown at Shinagawa: Tales of Filming from Bombay to Brazil. The book features 18 tales, from around the world, with photographs and personalized essays on “working film crews making a living in the fascinating, unpredictable, sometimes dark, often comical world of the film and video business as they overcome numbing jetlag, deal with challenges and sometimes gain a deep sense of satisfaction.” Bill is a freelance director of photography, writer and teacher in San Francisco. He has shot film and video projects in 30 countries and 40 states, including interviews with three former presidents for an Emmy-winning West Wing documentary special. Bill is also a member of a writers collective, Townsend 11, and contributed to its anthologies.


—David Peck, 54 Spooner St., Plymouth, MA 02360; davidbpeck@aol.com