Another academic year bows out.


With few exceptions, not much of a winter across the United States this year. Many Winter Carnival events had to be cancelled due to lack of snow; the milder temperatures resulted in a record-setting number of 500-plus participants in the 18th annual polar bear swim in Occom Pond. View the cold water plunging at http://now.dartmouth.edu/2012/02/students-rise-to-carnival-challenge-se….


This cheerful note came in from Harrison Marks: “As some of you may know by now, Suzie and I were married January 7 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina! We had a very small ceremony in front of five family members and our minister. It was our ideal wedding. Casual, low-key and perfect for us. Our only wish is that we could have shared the experience with more of our family and friends. As many of you know, Suzie has a job now in Winston-Salem as the VP of clinical services at Hospice. I am continuing to work with former associates on a quest to recapitalize a community bank. We are happy to be in one place rather than always on the road between Raleigh and Winston-Salem, and will continue to trek back and forth to New Bern as often as we can. We look forward to seeing our friends and family in coming months and years. Thanks for letting me share the great news!”


Harrison also wrote, “How about Ben Wilson! Ben was part of an all-freshman suite in Brown Hall, not something the College normally engineers. Eric Schwartz, Ray Gottesfeld, Paul Johnson, Dave Wender, Larry Edelman (deceased), Lennice Glaze (status unknown) and I were the others in 103.”


Unfortunately, word has come of the deaths of two of our classmates. Charles Thomas Drake died on November 26, 2011, at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, after a courageous battle with cancer. A native of West Lebanon and a graduate of Lebanon High School, after graduating from Dartmouth Charlie returned to Lebanon, where he taught for several years in elementary school before he established Drake Builders and became an accomplished carpenter. Michael Derek Keeshan died unexpectedly on January 18 at home in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. After earning an M.B.A. in 1975 from the Tuck School, Mike (to us; Michael to others; Mikey to family) began a 35-year career in advertising and marketing. At the time of his death he was the managing director of MagiKbox, LLC, a private marketing consultancy that he founded in 1998. More extensive obituaries can be found at http://dartmouthalumnimagazine.com/obituaries. Condolences go out to Charlie’s wife, Kristi, and Mike’s wife, Lynn, as well as the children in both families.


Doug Noll has been named co-recipient of the 2012 California Lawyer Attorney of the Year Award for the Prison of Peace pro bono project, which teaches communication, mediation and peace-keeping skills to inmates at Valley State Prison for Women. Noll, a founding member of Mediators without Borders, specializes in complex and intractable conflicts and is certified under International Mediation Institute standards. He is president of the California Dispute Resolution Council.


—Val Armento, 227 Sylvan Ave., San Mateo, CA 94403; val.armento@alum.dartmouth.org