Fellow, ’78s: We had a record-breaking 35th reunion in June, with 262 alumni (plus guests) returning to Hanover. That demolished the record for a 35th set by the class of ’77, with a mere 171 alumni attending. Kudos to reunion co-chairs Jim Bassett and Chris Simpson Brent and everyone who helped put together a truly wonderful weekend. One of the highlights was the panel on polarized politics with our three classmates in Congress: Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Reps John Carney (D-Md) and Annie McLane Kuster (D-NH). I don’t think I was the only one who came away with renewed hope in the system.
Some folks braved long trips to make it back. Bill Wechsler came from Kosovo, Paul Kuhn from Portugal. Twenty-two classmates were attending their very first reunion, including Genet Ide Duke, now a geologist at Arkansas Tech, and Sam Lippin, who spent a year at Dartmouth before decamping for Cornell, but has always remained connected. Perusing the data, I could not find anyone who had been to all our reunions—5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35. Can that really be true?
Class agents Bill Daniel, Barbara Dau Southwell, Elissa Hylton and David “Jody” Dietze presented a check to President Phil Hanlon for a whopping $7,863,705, and as we go to press that amount is approaching $8 million, with class participation at a remarkable 42 percent, tied for a 35th-reunion record. Job well done! Bill and Elissa are stepping down from the development team after years of dedicated effort, while Charlie Allison has agreed to become co-chair for Dartmouth College Fund annual participation.
Other new officers: Ricki Fairley is now a vice president, Bob Gray joins Mike Pittenger as co-treasurer, and I was somehow persuaded to take over from Dave Hov as secretary. Dave has done an outstanding job for the last five years, and I only hope I can live up to his example. The class is still looking to fill a few empty positions and also supplement existing teams with additional classmates. Anyone interested should reach out to Barb or any of the class officers.
The 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awardshas named Michael Urban’s second novel, Ironsides’ Peril, as the winner in the suspense/thriller category. Both Michael’s novels feature “gutty adventurer” Zach Colt. Sheldon Ceaser has just come out with a new book, The Most Powerful Book of Affirmations Ever Written. Sheldon is a Chicago M.D. who has embraced holistic medicine during the last decade.
Douglas Murphy has retired after 36 years of tax collection work in New York, while also serving as a delegate, vice president and later treasurer of the Civil Service Employee Association Local 460. Up in Minnesota Rich Hoeg retired from Honeywell after 28-plus years as a senior technologist. He then decided to take the graduation trip he never took in 1978. So as you read this he and his wife, Molly, are working their way through a 2,000-mile bike trip that you can read about on his blog, NorthStarNerd.org. I feel tired already.
Please send news! Next deadline: August 21. Cheers!
—Rick Beyer, 34 Outlook Drive, Lexington, MA 02421; rick@rickbeyer.net
