Class Note 1978
Issue
Sept - Oct 2016
Recent travels have helped me connect with classmates east and west, many with interesting news to report.
I saw Jim Ancona and his wife, Anne, in Boylston, Massachusetts, where they are enjoying life as they hit the big six-oh. “I’m still working at Constant Contact, where we get a one-month sabbatical after 10 years service. Last spring we took advantage of that to spend four weeks touring through Italy, Germany and Austria. We picked up a new BMW in Munich along the way. Our older son Tom, his wife, Laura, and their 8-month-old son, Teddy, are moving from Chicago to the Portland, Maine, area. Barbara Reinertsen ’77 was very helpful to Tom and Laura during their job hunt. We had a great lunch with Barbara and her daughter, Jane, in May! Our younger son, Mark, lives near us in the Worcester, Massachusetts, area. We enjoy seeing Mark, his wife, Cindy, and their two daughters, Cherrice and Caitlyn, often.”
It was great to see Michael Whitcomb, Valerie Jaffee, Chris Simpson Brent and Todd Baker at a Ghost Army event in San Francisco this June. Michael had just become a grandfather—that day, in fact! He and his wife, Julie, jumped on a plane to Berlin a week later to visit grandson Tavi John Whitcomb.
He offered a few details about the name on Facebook. “ ‘Tav’ (pronounced ‘Tov’) has several Abrahamic and pre-Abrahamic meanings, including ‘sun,’ ‘good’ and ‘beautiful.’ Tavi and his parents (Alex and Peri Whitcomb) are all doing very well and we are all, of course, thrilled!” Meantime, Todd and his wife, Diane, are busy packing their bags to come east. He has been appointed a senior fellow at the Mossayar-Rahamani Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School for the upcoming academic year.
I caught up with the ever-enthusiastic Peter Hirshberg the following night. He was just back from the White House, where he took part in the kickoff for the National Week of Making. Peter is deeply involved in the Maker movement, which celebrates and encourages, well, people who make things!
He serves as chairman of the City Innovate foundation, an organization formed with the San Francisco mayor’s office, UC Berkeley and the MIT media lab to promote a network of global civic innovation centers. He is also one of the coauthors of the Maker City Playbook, which recently became available for download at makercity.com. It chronicles the efforts of more than 50 cities during the last two years to encourage makers.
“As a mid- (or maybe late-) life crisis thing, I decided to try to become an actress.” So writes Anne Barschall. Her efforts landed her a role this summer in an episode of Mysteries at the Museum on The Travel Channel. The segment is called “Pigeon Bra.” She played Ida Rosenthal, founder of Maidenform, who is the heroine of this true story of patriotic “support” during WW II. What’s next, Anne? Game of Thrones?
Send news!
—Rick Beyer, 34 Outlook Drive, Lexington, MA 02421; rick@rickbeyer.net
I saw Jim Ancona and his wife, Anne, in Boylston, Massachusetts, where they are enjoying life as they hit the big six-oh. “I’m still working at Constant Contact, where we get a one-month sabbatical after 10 years service. Last spring we took advantage of that to spend four weeks touring through Italy, Germany and Austria. We picked up a new BMW in Munich along the way. Our older son Tom, his wife, Laura, and their 8-month-old son, Teddy, are moving from Chicago to the Portland, Maine, area. Barbara Reinertsen ’77 was very helpful to Tom and Laura during their job hunt. We had a great lunch with Barbara and her daughter, Jane, in May! Our younger son, Mark, lives near us in the Worcester, Massachusetts, area. We enjoy seeing Mark, his wife, Cindy, and their two daughters, Cherrice and Caitlyn, often.”
It was great to see Michael Whitcomb, Valerie Jaffee, Chris Simpson Brent and Todd Baker at a Ghost Army event in San Francisco this June. Michael had just become a grandfather—that day, in fact! He and his wife, Julie, jumped on a plane to Berlin a week later to visit grandson Tavi John Whitcomb.
He offered a few details about the name on Facebook. “ ‘Tav’ (pronounced ‘Tov’) has several Abrahamic and pre-Abrahamic meanings, including ‘sun,’ ‘good’ and ‘beautiful.’ Tavi and his parents (Alex and Peri Whitcomb) are all doing very well and we are all, of course, thrilled!” Meantime, Todd and his wife, Diane, are busy packing their bags to come east. He has been appointed a senior fellow at the Mossayar-Rahamani Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School for the upcoming academic year.
I caught up with the ever-enthusiastic Peter Hirshberg the following night. He was just back from the White House, where he took part in the kickoff for the National Week of Making. Peter is deeply involved in the Maker movement, which celebrates and encourages, well, people who make things!
He serves as chairman of the City Innovate foundation, an organization formed with the San Francisco mayor’s office, UC Berkeley and the MIT media lab to promote a network of global civic innovation centers. He is also one of the coauthors of the Maker City Playbook, which recently became available for download at makercity.com. It chronicles the efforts of more than 50 cities during the last two years to encourage makers.
“As a mid- (or maybe late-) life crisis thing, I decided to try to become an actress.” So writes Anne Barschall. Her efforts landed her a role this summer in an episode of Mysteries at the Museum on The Travel Channel. The segment is called “Pigeon Bra.” She played Ida Rosenthal, founder of Maidenform, who is the heroine of this true story of patriotic “support” during WW II. What’s next, Anne? Game of Thrones?
Send news!
—Rick Beyer, 34 Outlook Drive, Lexington, MA 02421; rick@rickbeyer.net