Happy holidays! Much news to share, most happy and some sad. On the happy side, your humble secretary David Peck and wife Diane enjoyed celebrating the wedding of their son, Sam Peck ’10, with Elise Lewyckyj ’10 in October in Pittsfield, Vermont. A glorious day, just past peak foliage and only one week before the first snows at Killington. A total of 17 Dartmouth graduates attended, including Elise’s brother, Jonathan ’14, mother Beth Shapiro Lewyckyj ’81 and grandfather Gil Shapiro ’53. On the sad side, John “Bear” Everett died of an apparent heart attack while hiking on the Camino di Santiago in Spain. John has been a mainstay of reunions and executive committee meetings for decades. We will miss him greatly. Watch for his and other classmate obituaries on the class website. Other classmate news: John Hamer is happily retired and living on Mercer Island, Washington, with a condo at Suncadia on the east side of the Cascades to escape from Seattle-area rains. Two stepsons and three grandchildren live nearby. John’s wife Mariana Parks was recently named president of the Slade Gorton International Policy Center. Tom Stonecipher plans to retire at the end of this year, from his full time practice of law in Bozeman, Montana. Farewell to “the work of shuffling papers and talking tough, sometimes making the argument of the weaker appear to be the argument of the stronger (in honor of Socrates), and bravely risking paper cuts daily.” He and partner Lisa Albert plan to walk the Way of St. Francis, Florence to Assisi to Rome, about 350 miles in 2017. They also plan to include time with Steve Elliott in Vermont this spring helping with sugaring and maple syrup production, “experiencing, once again, honest work.” Gary Kriss wrote from Cambridge, Massachusetts: Fifteen years ago, after a 10-year career as dean and president of Nashotah House, a seminary of the Episcopal Church, he took an early retirement. Since then he served as part-time vicar of a small rural parish where they restored the church building and its historic organ. He also is deeply into family genealogy (Swiss, not German), which has prompted a trip to Switzerland and trips to 49 out of 50 states, seeking out fascinating family connections. And most important of all, Gary shared a quote from St. Arnold of Metz: “From man’s sweat and God’s love, beer came into the world.” Insightful guy, that St. Arnold. Watch for a more detailed report of our class 70th birthday in Napa, California, this past September. Thirty-eight classmates and 34 guests and friends attended, a total of 72. A great event and a hint of better things to come, including our 50th reunion in June 2018. Still looking for responses on our two class online surveys. The links are https://surveymonkey.com/r/2N2HH6H and https://surveymonkey.com/r/DMKLMLB.

Watch for an update in a future column or on the class website. And of course, please use e- or snail mail—always thirsty for news. Thanks!

—David Peck, 16 Overlook Road, Plymouth, MA 02360; davidbpeck@aol.com