Class Note 1970
Greetings, fellow ’70s. It being a slow news period I decided, like any good journalist, to go on the road. Don’t worry, no class funds (if we have any) were spent on my behalf. I headed to the Pacific Northwest to visit daughter Christy in Portland, Oregon. While there I took the opportunity to get together with Judy and Dan Hoarfrost. Dan graduated from Oregon University Law School and stayed on in the Rose City. Along the way he had the good sense to marry Judy, a nationally ranked table tennis player who at age 15 was a member of the ping pong diplomacy team traveling to China during the Nixon (remember him?) administration. Dan will be back in Hanover this June for daughter Adrienne’s graduation from Dartmouth.
Before flying home from Seattle, Washington, on a redeye I was privileged to have dinner with Carole and Bill Koenig. Bill is currently director of the organizational systems renewal graduate program at Seattle University and earned his Ph.D. in January. Bill’s career path defies explanation, so if you want to learn an inspiring lesson about career renewal and reinvention, Google him. It was a memory-filled evening that almost resulted in a missed flight back to Boston.
Among those responding to my call for thoughts about dealing with retirement was Bill White. Bill reports retiring at 55 from The Travelers and now resides in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. He gets to “indulge [his] passions” and concludes with, “I have my health, my wife of 35 years and a golden retriever as an excuse to walk five miles a day. What’s not to like?” Umm, I can’t think of anything.
While in Hanover at the end of January I ran into Skip Sturman at a hockey game. Skip retired last June as director of career services at the College. After guiding thousands of graduates to “life after Dartmouth,” Skip is fulfilling his own quest with writing and involvement with the Institute for Lifelong Education at Dartmouth. Skip and Marilyn’s son Jed is a second-year student at Tuck School.
As reported in the December 16, 2010, Wall Street Journal, Rhode Island’s state-appointed receiver to the city of Central Falls, Mark Pfeiffer, was making some bold moves to save that beleaguered city from the brink of bankruptcy.
Mark, an attorney and former state Superior Court justice, is quoted in the article as saying, “Rhode Island must pass legislation reforming union contracts, pensions and retiree healthcare.” Two months later Wisconsin stole Pfeiff’s ideas!
That’s all for now folks. Keep those cards and letters coming or I may show up on your doorstep looking for news and a free meal. If you don’t believe me just ask Koenig.
—Bill Wilson, 85 Blueberry Lane, Concord, MA 01742; wilson8689@aol.com
