Class Note 1979
Issue
Jan - Feb 2018
This has been a challenging year on many fronts, with Mother Nature being high up on the list. Since our last Class Notes column submission, two major Atlantic hurricanes made landfall in the United States and a rash of devastating fires scorched much of Northern California. On behalf of your class officers, our prayers go out to all those who have suffered from these natural disasters.
Our Homecoming 60th birthday celebration weekend, orchestrated to perfection by mini-reunion co-chairs Carl Briscoe and Phil Odence, offered some relief in the form of new and rekindled friendships and a thrilling, last-minute 28-27 come-from-behind gridiron victory—the largest in 136 years of Dartmouth varsity football—over Yale. Here’s to head coach Buddy Teevens, his staff and their resilient squad!
Speaking of football, on October 13, 2017, National Football League chief marketing officer Dawn Hudson served as the keynote speaker of the Gasser Lecture Series at the Saunders College of Business at the Rochester Institute of Technology. In a display of ’79 Partycipatory spirit, Dawn kindly donated her entire speaker fee to the Brandon Marshall Foundation in support of its mission “to help promote awareness of mental health, end the stigma and raise funding for treatment.”
While more than 60 classmates and guests reunited in Hanover over Homecoming weekend, Barb Smiley Bula, Suzanne Carr Shepard and Louisa Guthrie organized another 60th birthday bash that drew 19 of the 25 women who lived in North Mass our first year on campus to Austin, Texas. A great picture of these lifelong friends can be found at our ’79 group on Facebook; if you don’t yet belong, please visit the class website (1979.dartmouth.org), cursor over the “Social Media” tab in the “Staying Connected” drop-down menu, click on “Facebook” and join in!
In Girdwood, Alaska, Steve Tower and his wife, Janice, brought a number of alums together this summer to celebrate the marriage of their daughter, Dana, and son-in-law, Dermott McHugh ’09, Th’12. The festivities were held in a beautiful setting at the base of Mount Alyeska with John and Barbara Currier among the guests in attendance. The reception had the potential to turn into an orthopaedic research meeting as Steve and the Curriers collaborate at Thayer on studies of joint replacements. Coincidentally, the bride and groom met at Thayer’s biomedical engineering lab when Dana was a summer intern and Dermott was a graduate student.
The award for most spontaneous appearance at a mini-reunion goes to Tom Ryan, who made a quick round trip from his home in Kansas City, Kansas, to reunite with Larry Gordon, Rich Brown and Dave “Wils” Wilson the weekend before Tom’s 61st birthday on October 25. Tom writes, “We went and paid a visit to our former Dartmouth soccer coach, Tom Griffith, who now lives in Princeton, New Jersey. We had a wonderful time and even told a few old stories!” No soccer was played, we’re told; instead they kicked back and watched a Wils-produced slide show of the group’s glory days for entertainment.
—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
Our Homecoming 60th birthday celebration weekend, orchestrated to perfection by mini-reunion co-chairs Carl Briscoe and Phil Odence, offered some relief in the form of new and rekindled friendships and a thrilling, last-minute 28-27 come-from-behind gridiron victory—the largest in 136 years of Dartmouth varsity football—over Yale. Here’s to head coach Buddy Teevens, his staff and their resilient squad!
Speaking of football, on October 13, 2017, National Football League chief marketing officer Dawn Hudson served as the keynote speaker of the Gasser Lecture Series at the Saunders College of Business at the Rochester Institute of Technology. In a display of ’79 Partycipatory spirit, Dawn kindly donated her entire speaker fee to the Brandon Marshall Foundation in support of its mission “to help promote awareness of mental health, end the stigma and raise funding for treatment.”
While more than 60 classmates and guests reunited in Hanover over Homecoming weekend, Barb Smiley Bula, Suzanne Carr Shepard and Louisa Guthrie organized another 60th birthday bash that drew 19 of the 25 women who lived in North Mass our first year on campus to Austin, Texas. A great picture of these lifelong friends can be found at our ’79 group on Facebook; if you don’t yet belong, please visit the class website (1979.dartmouth.org), cursor over the “Social Media” tab in the “Staying Connected” drop-down menu, click on “Facebook” and join in!
In Girdwood, Alaska, Steve Tower and his wife, Janice, brought a number of alums together this summer to celebrate the marriage of their daughter, Dana, and son-in-law, Dermott McHugh ’09, Th’12. The festivities were held in a beautiful setting at the base of Mount Alyeska with John and Barbara Currier among the guests in attendance. The reception had the potential to turn into an orthopaedic research meeting as Steve and the Curriers collaborate at Thayer on studies of joint replacements. Coincidentally, the bride and groom met at Thayer’s biomedical engineering lab when Dana was a summer intern and Dermott was a graduate student.
The award for most spontaneous appearance at a mini-reunion goes to Tom Ryan, who made a quick round trip from his home in Kansas City, Kansas, to reunite with Larry Gordon, Rich Brown and Dave “Wils” Wilson the weekend before Tom’s 61st birthday on October 25. Tom writes, “We went and paid a visit to our former Dartmouth soccer coach, Tom Griffith, who now lives in Princeton, New Jersey. We had a wonderful time and even told a few old stories!” No soccer was played, we’re told; instead they kicked back and watched a Wils-produced slide show of the group’s glory days for entertainment.
—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