Leading off with news of the class of ’78 TNG—that’s “The Next Generation” for those of you who have failed to watch enough Star Trek re-reruns.


When President Obama signed a student loan bill into law in August, one of those present was Ricki Fairlee’s daughter Amanda Brown ’07. While at Dartmouth Amanda interned at then Senator Obama’s office. That led to high-powered gigs at the White House and the Department of Energy, and during the last campaign she was political director for Rock the Vote. “She is a millennial advocate and serves on a committee for youth advocating education,” says Ricki. Meantime Ricki’s younger daughter, Hayley Brown ’14 (who sat on a panel at our reunion with trustees David Hodgson and Rick Kimball, among others), is in Ghana working with World Partners in Education.


“It looks like I am finally done with educational expenses after 24 years,” writes Scott Riedler. “My eldest, Kiersten, will finally be drawing a paycheck as an ear, nose and throat/head-neck surgery resident at USC, where she just finished med school. And younger daughter Stephanie ’11 finished her master’s in education at UCSD this month. Even accounting for inflation, the $4,000 per year for tuition at Dartmouth when we were there was a true bargain compared to what I’ve paid. For comparison, UCSD charged me $600 per year for med school in 1979, now more than $20,000 for my daughter’s grad school. I would hate to be starting this process now.”


At our 25th reunion my daughter Bobbie had the good fortune to meet Johnny Bundschuh, the son of Lex and Pete Bundschuh. They went on to become close friends and classmates at Tulane. This summer Bobbie jetted out to Osaka, Japan, for Johnny’s wedding to Yuri Takekabu. Bobbie reports that the ceremony used “elements from Western weddings, Japanese weddings and some of their own ideas. They wrote their own vows. Johnny said his in English and Yuri said hers in Japanese.” And Lex even wore a kimono for the event! The newlyweds will continue to live in Japan, where Johnny is teaching English. 


Duane Peterson, CEO of Suncommon, was on the cover of Vermont Business Magazine this month. His company is equipping hundreds of houses with solar panels using a business model that requires no up-front funding from the homeowner. Dan Reicher, executive director of the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford, returned to Hanover this summer as part of the “Leading Voices” lecture series. His topic: “Smart Policy and Finance for Clean Energy.” Glen-Martin Swartwout shared the news that he is filming a television series on “the unfolding development of my theory of everything.”


And finally, returning to the topic of Star Trek reruns, I watched a bunch one weekend in Maine this summer with Barbara Moses and her husband, Matt Grayson, as they were taking a break from the rigors of N.Y.C. Barbara is on the faculty at Seton Hall Law School, where sadly she does not require students to face Star Trek’s famous Kobayashi Maru “no-win” scenario. Ah, well….


Please send news! Next deadline: October 21. Cheers!


—Rick Beyer, 34 Outlook Drive, Lexington, MA 02421; rick@rickbeyer.net