When life’s hardships have come, some have seen the bright side. As a first-year student, Barbara Weise Ross recalls that a professor “was scathing in his comments on a paper I submitted. His unforgettable words, ‘I don’t know how you got into this college,’ still sting 45 years later. So I signed up—incredulously, because I had never struggled with writing before—for writing help. I met some amazing and inspirational people in the English department, unofficially minored in the subject, studied regularly in Sanborn, and spent the next four decades in a fulfilling career in the language business as a book editor, coauthor of four books, freelance writer, technical editor, and more.”

Covid-19 caused the postponing of reunions, yet 60 percent of our class gave to the Dartmouth College Fund, totaling $1.7 million, surpassing all other 40th reunion classes by 160 participants, 101 more than any class. William “Billy Bags” Mitchell, co-head agent with Laurie Laidlaw Deacon, reminds us that 101 tiers was our bonfire record.

Inconvenienced by Covid-19, Sova Fisher wrote, “Remote teaching is more work than face-to-face teaching! Especially for a tech-challenged person like me!” Nevertheless, she is grateful for her job; friends; Princeton, New Jersey, community; and daughters back temporarily from N.Y.C. Eileen Szypko, although disappointed that son Greg ’20 had no graduation ceremony, is grateful for biking with husband Mark, walks with friends, YouTube yoga with daughter Colleen, her family’s “crazy good cooking,” and amusing texts from her five siblings.

Bruce McDowell and his wife have worked from home for more than 10 years. “In terms of our day jobs, not much has changed.” Now he has plenty of time to garden and ride the rail trail.

Working remotely since the pandemic began, Boston resident and biotech veteran John Orloff and wife Gwen will have likely moved to the home they built in Maine by the time you read this. Here’s his shout-out to Tim Higgins, Carl Gehring, Chip Campbell, Ed Heilbron, Jeff Cross, and Duff Horton,with whom he skis yearly: “Great trip to Squaw Valley [California] this past March, though I have to admit we’re no longer skiing first tracks to closing bell anymore!” George Floyd’s murder was a wake-up call for America, prompting Curtiss Takada Rooks and Gail Frawley to organize a series of ’79 Zoom conversations on race, culminating in actions we might consider.

In 1977 George Stone worked for civil rights leader M. Carl Holman at D.C.’s National Urban Coalition. More recently his daughter, Jenny ’10, working on the Innocence Project at Michigan Law, helped liberate a wrongfully imprisoned man. While traveling cross-country together, George and Jenny visited Alabama’s Rosa Parks Museum and the Equal Justice Initiative, the setting of Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy. The book inspired George: “It changed the way I saw the world.”

Sadly, I report that on March 1 classmate Ed Sabisky died days after a stroke. He had been living in the United Kingdom.

If sadness affects you, seek help at ’79 LifeNet on our class website.

—Janie Simms Hamner, 7327 Centenary Ave, Dallas, TX 75225; jshandkids@aol.com