Class Note 1979
John “Juan” Currier, my dear friend and co-class secretary, shared the sad news that his beloved mother, Janice, died on October 7 at the age of 94. I will commandeer this installment of our Class Notes while Juan attends to family matters. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Curriers and their extended family at this difficult time.
One of my favorite Dartmouth memories is walking into Lord Hall for the first time and establishing what would become priceless lifelong friendships. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s “Rosalita” greeted me in stereo in the hallway outside Lord 5, courtesy of roommates Billy “Bags” Mitchell and Bob “Funk” Funkhouser. Fittingly, Bags still serenades us with Rosie at every milestone reunion! We are all bound by such special memories of our freshman residences, so let’s use first-year dorm-mates as a loose theme for this and a to-be-determined number of future columns, starting with Lord Hall.
Nancy Wilder writes, “Forty years after some jokester in housing thought it made sense to put me (Rye, New Hampshire), Amy Cull (Athens, Ohio) and Cindy Loomis (Cheyenne, Wyoming) together in Lord 308, the freshman trio reassembled at reunion to share what few memories they have left. In keeping with the Grateful Dead lyrics often heard coming from their room in 1975 and 1976, ‘ What a long strange trip it’s been.’ Cindy now lives in N.Y.C., Nancy in Chicago and Amy in New Hampshire.”
Bob Funkhouser lives in Pacific Palisades, California, where he is working on two documentaries that rewrite large chunks of America’s “missing” years between Abraham Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech at the 1858 Illinois Republican convention and the crash of 1929. “Daughter Greta,” says Bob, “is a medical student in Germany and will go to Beijing, China, for sabbaticals in Chinese medicine and acupuncture. In classmate news, Dean Esserman just returned from meetings with President Obama on policing and incarceration. In the receiving line Dean was pummeled with questions about security around New Haven, Connecticut, where he serves as chief of police. Just as Obama began to explain what was going on, Dean interrupted and said, ‘You don’t think I knew about your daughter’s interview [at Yale University]?’ Taken aback, Obama smiled. Smiling back, Dean concluded, ‘If you can get her in, we’ll look after her.’ ”
It was great catching up with Matt Hurley and Bob Watterson, who roomed with Ted Goldberg in Lord 207. Matt lives in Boston’s Back Bay with his wife, Joanie Kellar, “a most patient and caring woman who I met in Sigma Nu’s basement senior spring and with whom I still celebrate Winter Carnival, the anniversary of our first date in 1980.” Bob lives in Yarmouth, Maine, with his wife, Karen, and his youngest daughter, Sage (15). Lara (24) and Jack (22) are “out of the nest and living in Portland, Maine, and Atlanta, respectively,” says Bob, who is hard at work launching MyHealthMath, a new venture featuring “decision support software for analyzing health insurance choices.”
—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com; John Currier, 82 Carpenter St., Norwich, VT 05055; (802) 649-2577; john.h.currier@dartmouth.edu
