As my first order of business, I feel that we should all recognize the great work carried out by Jim Bildner all these years. He was an excellent steward of the Class Notes and it will be difficult to maintain his standards. He did indeed receive Class Secretary of the Year recognition; so thank you, Jim, for your devotion to the College and your class.


You should all know that we have a Facebook page—“Dartmouth College Class of 1975.” If you are on Facebook, please join up. If you are not on Facebook, please join up—yes, there is only one option. There are now 57 classmates in the group and we want as many as possible. Robbin Derry got us started and I would not want to lose the momentum she developed. The more people we have, the more robust the discussion. A recent flurry of activity around the Moving Dartmouth Forward campaign elicited some excellent discussion from many, including A.G. Rud (who is involved in a similar effort at Washington State University), Stu Rolfe, Pamela Brewer Smyth, Pam Schlobohm, John Battle, Rob Manegold…well, you get the picture. Sign up!


In other notes, this just in from James Reynolds: “A couple of years ago I was elected to the board of directors of the Galapagos Conservancy. To my surprise I found that another Dartmouth earth sciences major, Erich Fischer ’89, was also on the board. Dennis Geist ’80, a third Dartmouth earth sciences major, is president of the board of directors of the Charles Darwin Foundation, located in Puerto Ayora, Galapagos. The three of us got together at a fundraising event in Washington, D.C., last November.” ’Round the girdled earth, indeed.


Back to Robbin Derry, who recently traveled all the way around this planet, to Sydney and then on to the United Kingdom with her family. If you are unaware, Robbin is a member of the faculty of management at the University of Lethbridge in Edmonton. Robbin was taking part in the International Association for Business and Society gathering, where 150 scholars were addressing issues related to social responsibility, business ethics and sustainability. I suspect she had some time for the beach and then some great family time with her husband and children (ages 20 and 16).


On a final note, please let Lon Cross or me know if you are a cyclist—this means you have been on a bike. We are planning a cycling mini-reunion and would like to understand where interested classmates are located before picking the site. We have already identified a few cyclists, including Dale Edmonds, Rich Clark and Larry Johnson. Larry tells me that cycling is great for the knees (that is why I do it) and he recommends that we get this going soon before our joints fail. He also reminded me that he and Renita have been married for 27 years and they have two sons, Philip, 24 and Colin, 20. Philip is a research technician keen on med school and Colin is at Trinity in Hartford, Connecticut, exercising his writing and creative talents. Larry remains involved with his orthopedic surgery practice and is not letting the steadily rising wave of bureaucracy and financial demands get in the way of his passion.


I look forward to connecting with all of you during the course of the next few months and years.


—Steve Gray, P.O. Box 296, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019; (650) 392.8739; stephendgray@gmail.com