Before we play our next round of “Two Truths and a Lie,” let’s reveal the fictional story from the last game. If you guessed that Bob Spencer did not substitute as the lead guitarist for the band Loverboy during its Canadian tour, you were correct. The other two stories—Carly Geer as Olympic rowing medalist and Vicki Redel as Hollywood screenwriter—are true.


Now some new fun facts. Two of following three stories about classmates are true; one is false. See if you can identify the fictional story.


First, they don’t call it an experiment when a cattle prod shocks a cow. Before pursuing his career as a psychology professor, Steve James worked as a hand on his grandparents’ cattle ranch in Oklahoma. 


Second, after landing his gig as a pediatrician at the Mayo Clinic, Bill Barbaresi played the adolescent role of “Artful Dodger” Jack Dawkins in a local community theater production of Oliver!


Third, they say it’s good to be king, or in the case of Tom Bartlett, “The King.” Tom hires himself out as an Elvis impersonator.


Did Steve choose brains over brawn? Was Bill able to leverage his boyish charm into stage magic? Does Tom have a closet full of jumpsuits? Try to identify the fictional story. The answer will be revealed in the next column.


I recently received an email from James Reynolds ’75 that offers further evidence of our natural propensity to cluster. When James was elected to the board of the Galapagos Conservancy, he was surprised to find a second Dartmouth earth sciences major on the board (Erich Fischer ’89) and a third earth sciences major, Dennis Geist, installed as president of the board of the Galapagos-based Charles Darwin Foundation. Dennis, a professor of volcanology at the University of Idaho, has been conducting field research in the Galapagos since 1982. We are just a few earth sciences majors short in our quest to establish a new native species there!


While sitting in on an information session at Cornell in August with my teenage daughter and a large, very eclectic group of parents and prospective students, my eyes kept wandering over to the dad who looked the most like me. He wore the familiar weekend warrior uniform, the one that makes the women in our lives cringe: polo shirt, cargo pants, baseball cap, sunglasses. Several minutes of uncomfortable staring passed before I was able to match the face with a name: Bruce Daniels. Bruce was touring with his youngest son. He lives in the suburbs north of Boston where he fights the good fight for the Boston Private Bank and Trust Co.


Now is the time to start making your plans to attend our 35th reunion next June. Our bookend friends from the classes of ’79 and ’81 will be on campus too. Reunion co-chairs Cathy McGrath, Kate Wiley Laud and Lisa Shanahan invite you to send your ideas to dartmouth80@gmail.com. 


It won’t be fun for any of us if you’re not there.


—Frank Fesnak, 242 River Road, Gladwyne, PA 19035; (610) 581-8889; ffesnak@gmail.com; Rob Daisley, 3201 W. Knights Ave., Tampa, FL 33611; (813) 300-7954; robdaisley@me.com