Greetings! I hope you were all able to enjoy the holidays with family and friends.


This time I actually received news from classmates that I can pass along. Mark Gamell sent a note that aired on the class Facebook page, “My daughter Jenny was married on Sunday, December 18, at the Water Club in Manhattan. She’s also the ‘centerfold’ of the current Forbes Investment Guide article on the 20 new rules for the economy. And she’s a yoga instructor!” Keep in mind that this was received heading into the home stretch of the fall and he’s referring to a prior issue of Forbes. 


By the time you receive this, the class will have already had a mini-reunion at the home of Rip and Noreen Quinn Fisher in Stuart, Florida. I’m sure people were able to enjoy what they had planned.


I know that heading into the holidays, many of us were following the Dartmouth Aires in The Sing-Off. I heard from Paul Lazarus and Martha Johnson Beattie urging people to vote for the Aires and afterwards received a YouTube video from Charlie Brumback showing one of the Aires’ performances. Congratulations to the Aires on their fantastic showing on the national stage. What great representatives of the College!


Thinking of the Aires’ experience at Dartmouth made me wonder to what extent Dartmouth’s wonderful opportunities for extracurriculars affected each of our lives. I know a lot of my experiences were outside the classroom. Whether it was faculty ’tails with professors or dinners at Professor Erdman’s house to sample Indian food during a term taking Indian history, working in either the woodworking shop, the metal shop or the jewelry shop at the Hop, I know that all of those experiences went into rounding out my experience at Dartmouth. All those and learning about “life” from baseball coach Ulysses “Tony” Lupien helped round the edges to help make me who I am and how I approach things. 


I’m sure others who played sports spent time in the basement of Davis House with the true originators of logoed apparel, “Duke” Duclos and Carl Whitney of Duke and Carl Athletic Clothing fame, came away with experiences to remember. They were always famous for their “single orb suspensory devices” and always could be counted on for some Upper Valley wisdom. Quite an introduction and initiation for freshmen!


Whether your experiences involved the DOC, Band, Glee Club, Aires, athletic teams, the Aquinas House, foreign study, travel on projects with professors, fraternity friendships, WDCR or some other group, I’m sure you’ll agree that those other times helped make the Dartmouth experience complete. Please do me a favor and think back to some of those times and send me some of the things that you remember that are printable and share them with the class either through this column or in Martha’s class newsletter.


Best wishes to you and your families for a healthy, happy 2012.


—Jay Josselyn, 106 Yukon Lane, Chapel Hill, NC 27514; (919) 452-3928; jayjosselyn@hotmail.com