Class Note 1979
Issue
July-August 2021
Some classmates are still busy with youngsters, while others are retiring. Tom Ewing was in Nashville in the mid-1990s for grad school, then returned to Boston. “I married in the late 1990s. We moved to Nashville in 2001. Nashville has a world-class fertility clinic, so we had a daughter, Miranda, in 2008. Her first love is figure skating—she’s famous for attending the Scott Hamilton classes in a Dartmouth sweatshirt and a white and green ribbon the Dartmouth figure skating club gave her from their batch made to wear at the canceled 2020 Nationals. She can’t wait to see them at the 2022s.”
Romuald Gac’s children are young—his daughter is a sophomore in college and son is in seventh grade. His March note said, “Both are taking classes from home. We only go out for walks and bike rides. I pick up groceries that are ordered online from the local supermarket or pick up takeout meals; I always mask-up. We watch Sunday services at our parish church through YouTube. My bank does not have plans to return to the office, but I’m hoping that once the rate of vaccinations in Delaware gets high enough, we’ll have the confidence to return to our workplaces.” Meg Clayton writes, “I live in northern Vermont. Getting outdoors is our salvation during these days of isolation. I’m an elementary school teacher. We are doing a hybrid of remote and in-school learning. It is doubling my job. I can’t wait until our kids can all be together learning in person. All of us have a new appreciation of what in-person education is and how that face-to-face exchange between students and teachers adds to the learning experience, not to mention the human experience!”
Tom Berryann retired a couple of years ago from IBM after a 37-year career in information technology and project management. Last year he and his wife moved to the Raleigh, North Carolina, area to be closer to their son and grandchild. “This is where we are finding our greatest joy these days,” he says. Bert Edwards retired, too, after 40 years in the wealth management business. He “plans to stay in Los Angeles and travel as much as possible once things open up.”
Rueben Stokes retired from his diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) role at Thermo Fisher Scientific May 2020 and moved from Waltham, Massachusetts, to Tallahassee, Florida. “I’m building a house in the woods which should be done May, 2021. I spend my time riding my mountain bike, hiking and doing a little DEI consulting.” John Currier sent the following update: “We have moved to the family farm, where I grew up, on Currier Road in Danville, Vermont. Life’s a circle, after all. I still work at Thayer School and also at MVP Robotics. Now I get to add farming. I can give lessons in how to do retirement in reverse. Better to burn out than rust out!”
—Janie Simms Hamner, 7327 Centenary Ave., Dallas, TX 75225; jshandkids@aol.com
Romuald Gac’s children are young—his daughter is a sophomore in college and son is in seventh grade. His March note said, “Both are taking classes from home. We only go out for walks and bike rides. I pick up groceries that are ordered online from the local supermarket or pick up takeout meals; I always mask-up. We watch Sunday services at our parish church through YouTube. My bank does not have plans to return to the office, but I’m hoping that once the rate of vaccinations in Delaware gets high enough, we’ll have the confidence to return to our workplaces.” Meg Clayton writes, “I live in northern Vermont. Getting outdoors is our salvation during these days of isolation. I’m an elementary school teacher. We are doing a hybrid of remote and in-school learning. It is doubling my job. I can’t wait until our kids can all be together learning in person. All of us have a new appreciation of what in-person education is and how that face-to-face exchange between students and teachers adds to the learning experience, not to mention the human experience!”
Tom Berryann retired a couple of years ago from IBM after a 37-year career in information technology and project management. Last year he and his wife moved to the Raleigh, North Carolina, area to be closer to their son and grandchild. “This is where we are finding our greatest joy these days,” he says. Bert Edwards retired, too, after 40 years in the wealth management business. He “plans to stay in Los Angeles and travel as much as possible once things open up.”
Rueben Stokes retired from his diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) role at Thermo Fisher Scientific May 2020 and moved from Waltham, Massachusetts, to Tallahassee, Florida. “I’m building a house in the woods which should be done May, 2021. I spend my time riding my mountain bike, hiking and doing a little DEI consulting.” John Currier sent the following update: “We have moved to the family farm, where I grew up, on Currier Road in Danville, Vermont. Life’s a circle, after all. I still work at Thayer School and also at MVP Robotics. Now I get to add farming. I can give lessons in how to do retirement in reverse. Better to burn out than rust out!”
—Janie Simms Hamner, 7327 Centenary Ave., Dallas, TX 75225; jshandkids@aol.com