This month I reached out to our stellar host of classmates in the realm of higher education. I felt a little like Kathy (DeGioia) Eastwood, world-renowned astronomer and longtime faculty member of Northern Arizona State University, who measures the most massive stars in the universe. Their galactic achievements outstripped my column length. Read more about how they shine at our class website, 1976.dartmouth.org. Myron Allen, former provost at the University of Wyoming, returned to his full-time position in the math department and received the university’s highest teaching award. Henry Hart, esteemed William & Mary English professor, has published a new biography, The Life of Robert Frost. David Plane shines in his 36th year (10 as department head) in the school of geography and development at the University of Arizona. Steve Shmanske,emeritus professor of economics at Cal State, East Bay, and a pioneer in sports economics, wrote the popular Golfonomics and the 2014 sequel, Super Golfonomics.

David Spalding is enjoying his fourth career as dean of the college of business at Iowa State. Bill New teaches in the education and youth studies department at Beloit College and is dedicated to bringing “mindfulness, laughter and art” to the classroom. Lucky graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Lauder Institute benefit from the networking and nurturing of Kim Conroy, global career advisor. Our beloved, adopted class memberprofessor John Rassias was the inspiration for many of our career educators. Fairfield University French professor Joel Goldfield continues as managing editor of the Rassias Center journal, The Ram’s Horn, as well as teaching in Rassias programs in Hanover and abroad. Cesar Munoz writes from Colorado Mountain College, “Professor Rassias would have liked the wardrobe I have assembled over 16 years of teaching Spanish at this little community college in the Colorado Rockies. My students range from AP high schoolers to retirees in their 70s.” Also lighting up the west is Cynthia Ford, law school professor at the University of Montana, who writes that she “chose this school because it is the closest to the Dartmouth experience in the law school world.” She is often cited for articles on Indian law and serves part-time as a tribal court judge. Jamie Angell teaches theater at Occidental and loves his summer stints as artistic director of the Occidental Children’s Theater. Ed Bever is director of the school of professional studies at SUNY, Old Westbury. His prior claim to fame was creation of a video game simulation of the Civil War. Finally, our north star is physicist Ursula Gibson, longtime Dartmouth professor, now teaching full-time at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim and serving as vice president of the prestigious Optical Society. Speaking of Norway, Arne Nielsen writes that he and Christian Berggrav, Christian Bjelland and Gabriel Smith will all trek to reunion from the Land of the Midnight Sun! Join the Norwegian invasion June 15-18!

—Sara Hoagland Hunter, 72 Mount Vernon St., Unit 4B, Boston, MA 02108; sarahunter76@gmail.com