Class Note 1978
Issue
Nov - Dec 2017
“Busted!” writes Ray Sweeney. “I thought I might manage to get through my entire career without a Class Notes entry!” Sorry, Ray, but nothing can protect you from your intrepid class secretary’s insatiable hunger for news! Ray was responding to a note I wrote after learning that he and Dean Richardson ’74 are co-chairs of the department of clinical studies at New Bolton Center, which is the equine and farm animal department of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. “Dean is the chief of surgery and I am chief of medicine in the department’s teaching hospital for large animals,” writes Ray. “We both have been on the faculty here for over 30 years, working as clinicians in the hospital, doing research and training veterinary students.” Ray’s wife, Corinne, is also on the faculty at Penn Vet. “We have two kids (Ray and Corinne, very original) and one grandchild with another on the way!”
The illustrious Brooks Clark has penned a new book, his fourth by my count, including A Lifetime of Total Recall, a biography of his mother. This one, Sally’s Genius, tells the story of American University education professor Sally Smith, who founded the innovative Lab School in Washington, D.C. “My friend since kindergarten, Randy Smith, read my mom’s biography and asked me to write his mother’s biography,” writes Brooks. “I immediately said yes. It turned out to be a perfect M.F.A. project for my degree in nonfiction writing, which I received in December 2016. This is what I love to do—researching and connecting the dots of people’s lives. As I said to the American University alumni mag, every person I interviewed (including my older brother, Stocky) said, ‘Sally changed my life.’ ” Books by Brooks are available on Amazon.
The accomplished and generous class of ’78 set a new giving mark for a class celebrating its 40th reunion with donations totaling $6.19 million. And that doesn’t even include the $1,007,124 donated by 268 classmates for the 1978 Bunkhouse at the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge ($92,876 to go!). Thanks to the donors and those who work so hard to manage these campaigns.
I reached out to our new class president Barbie Snyder Martinez to see what she plans for her term. She wants to continue Dave Graham’s emphasis on inclusion and reaching out to all members of the class, whether we knew each other during our undergraduate days or not. To that end, Barbie says, her themes will be “congregation, celebration and collaboration!” She aims to encourage ’78s to congregate formally and informally, to celebrate milestones together and to collaborate on how to handle Act 2 (or in some cases, Acts 3, 4, and 5) of our lives as we march through our 60s and beyond. Barbie wants to make the official class adjectives “accomplished and generous” to extend well beyond fundraising and into helping each other with the challenges we face through our 60s and beyond.
Send news!
—Rick Beyer, 190 Bridge St., #4409, Salem, MA 01970; rick@rickbeyer.net
The illustrious Brooks Clark has penned a new book, his fourth by my count, including A Lifetime of Total Recall, a biography of his mother. This one, Sally’s Genius, tells the story of American University education professor Sally Smith, who founded the innovative Lab School in Washington, D.C. “My friend since kindergarten, Randy Smith, read my mom’s biography and asked me to write his mother’s biography,” writes Brooks. “I immediately said yes. It turned out to be a perfect M.F.A. project for my degree in nonfiction writing, which I received in December 2016. This is what I love to do—researching and connecting the dots of people’s lives. As I said to the American University alumni mag, every person I interviewed (including my older brother, Stocky) said, ‘Sally changed my life.’ ” Books by Brooks are available on Amazon.
The accomplished and generous class of ’78 set a new giving mark for a class celebrating its 40th reunion with donations totaling $6.19 million. And that doesn’t even include the $1,007,124 donated by 268 classmates for the 1978 Bunkhouse at the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge ($92,876 to go!). Thanks to the donors and those who work so hard to manage these campaigns.
I reached out to our new class president Barbie Snyder Martinez to see what she plans for her term. She wants to continue Dave Graham’s emphasis on inclusion and reaching out to all members of the class, whether we knew each other during our undergraduate days or not. To that end, Barbie says, her themes will be “congregation, celebration and collaboration!” She aims to encourage ’78s to congregate formally and informally, to celebrate milestones together and to collaborate on how to handle Act 2 (or in some cases, Acts 3, 4, and 5) of our lives as we march through our 60s and beyond. Barbie wants to make the official class adjectives “accomplished and generous” to extend well beyond fundraising and into helping each other with the challenges we face through our 60s and beyond.
Send news!
—Rick Beyer, 190 Bridge St., #4409, Salem, MA 01970; rick@rickbeyer.net