Will have much more to report on in next month’s column following this weekend’s upcoming Dartmouth-Harvard game and our class of ’75 mini-reunion championed by our president and logistical expert, Lon Cross. It should be a great night (it is Harvard’s first-ever football night game) so stay tuned for lots of classmate news in my next report.


On the mail front, at long last Dave Spicer reported in with a long, very inspiring update, the edited version of which appears below:


“Finally got around to actually reading the Vox ’75. I still have some of my bad habits from Dartmouth, like reading required course materials the night before the final exam. For the Dartmouth pals who knew me best, they are still amazed I actually was allowed to graduate. Best friend classmates who believed that include Lee Gotshall-Maxon, George Whitley, Larry Habegger and James O’Reilly—we had a hellatiously incredible time together and remain close friends to this day.


“So here is what is going on with me. Two great kids Chris (29) and Casey (24). Both doing great. For me personally, I am happily married to Marti after 33 years and we have a great life together. I also have three ongoing careers. First I am in my 31st year as an attorney with a part-time law practice out of my home, having formally left the law as full-time lawyer of a law firm I helped start back in May 2005. My full-time career is now with Agros International (www.agros.org), where I have worked for more than five years now. I work with extremely poor rural farmers in Central America and Mexico. In a nutshell I help develop new villages that are all encompassing thriving communities after about five to seven years of development work. Families have to pay back land loans and our repayment rate is 92 percent. I engage in strategic planning, take major donors on trips, clean the bathrooms, do the dishes, etc. In the nonprofit world you live on the margin and I easily work as hard as the days when I was a very busy trial lawyer (however, not under the same pressures).


“Finally, my volunteer passion is working on water projects through Rotary in the developing world. Huge, huge need. Primarily work in Africa and Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Nigeria, though I have also directed projects in El Salvador and Nicaragua and consulted on water projects in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iraq, Peru and others. I have been working on water projects for 15 years and now have completed 32 water projects for an estimated 35 villages and an estimated 250,000 people and large numbers of livestock.


“If any fellow mates get to Seattle, would love to have coffee with you so give me a holler, dspicer@davespicerlaw.com.”


David, thanks for sending this along and for all the great work you do.


Well that’s all the news that’s fit to print for now. Look for more news in the next column following our mini-reunion. In the meantime, keep those e-mails coming. Nanc sends her best, as do I.


—Jim Bildner, 5 Boardman Ave., Manchester, MA 01944; (617) 495-6513; jim_bildner@harvard.edu