We may dress better, look older, dine in finer restaurants and more often than not behave as civilized adults. But there’s still no mistaking a reunion of Dartmouth friends. When Mark Alperin, Rick Gemberling, Jeff Citrin, Hans Morris, Tom Daniels ’82, Craig Lambdin, Robert Ruocco, David Turino ’81, Chuck Wheelock, Doug Sacks and I recently assembled for dinner in Greenwich Village in N.Y.C., the couple at the adjacent table approached to ask, “Are you college buddies?” It was a bold and accurate identification that helped wipe away the introspection and confusion caused by the bartender’s earlier guess, “Are you guys in the cast of Jersey Boys?”


Our classmates continue to accomplish great things in the world of academia. I recently caught up with Beth Baron, who has been the director of the Middle Eastern American Center at the City of New York Graduate Center since its establishment 11 years ago. Beth has stayed busy by starting up a major in Middle Eastern history and an master’s program in Middle Eastern studies, editing the International Journal of Middle East Studies and keeping up with research and writing that includes the upcoming completion of a manuscript: The Orphan Scandal: Christian Missionaries and Muslim Brothers in Egypt. One of Beth’s greatest joys has been mentoring graduate students. One former grad student, Sara Pursley ’91, worked with Beth on editing the journal and with the recent awarding of her doctorate, is now Beth’s associate editor. 


If you visit Hanover this fall you might consider looking up Larry Robinson. Larry is guest teaching the “Decision Science” class at Tuck before he returns to Ithaca, New York, where he has been a professor of operations management at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management since 1986. In recent years Larry has taken sabbaticals at Duke, the University of Rochester and the University of Chicago. Larry enjoys teaching—grading, not so much—and compares the classroom to a stage. Some of Larry’s recent work involves research on scheduling doctor appointments and designating an optimal number of handicapped parking spaces. Larry and wife Marcie have been together for 23 years, with son Eli entering his sophomore year in college out west.


Currently serving a three-year “sentence” as chair of the chemistry department and a professor of chemistry at the University of San Francisco (USF), Larry Margerum sees himself as more of a coach than a teacher in the classroom. Larry thinks that all the youth coaching he’s done—children Derick and Val both currently participate in college-level sports—convinced him that less talking and more doing leads to more learning. During the 15 years between Dartmouth and landing the position at USF, Larry developed his expertise by “doing” lots and lots of lab work in both the classroom (he earned a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina and did post-doctorate work at UCLA) and corporate world (he once worked as a chemist at Oakland, California-based Clorox, where he met wife Suzanne, a chemical engineer). For research Larry runs a group that is looking at possible applications of nano-chemistry to color sensors. Larry and Suzanne live in Lafayette, California, where they have been reduced to biking and swimming after their legs gave out a few years ago.


Stay posted. There are many more great stories to share.


—Frank Fesnak, 111 Arbor Place, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010; (610) 581-8889; ffesnak@yahoo.com; Rob Daisley, 3201 W. Knights Ave., Tampa, FL 33611; (813) 300-7954; robdaisley@me.com