This was supposed to be our last column before our rescheduled 40th reunion. Alas, Covid-19 spoiled our plans. Instead of hyping the reunion, I’d like to salute some of our classmates who have dedicated their careers to improving the lives of others through education and counseling, professions of heightened importance in these days of the pandemic.

Carol Morrison Willard graduated from Dartmouth knowing she wanted to teach art at the local public school system in her native Massachusetts. She continues that dream today, and her daughter has followed in her footsteps. Kristen Funkhouser Pierce took a pause from being a professional artist to obtain a graduate degree in art therapy and mental health counseling. Kristen now uses art therapy to work with individuals with a range of psychological disorders and those challenged by traumatic brain injury and disease. At age 50, Frank Fesnak also went back to school, leaving a tremendously successful career as a tech executive to teach business and technology to inner-city public high school students. In recognition of the impressive transformation of his high school’s business program during the past decade, Frank was named the Lindback Distinguished Teacher of the Year in 2019.

Susan Ackerman is a professor of religion and women’s and gender studies at Dartmouth. At Homecoming in 2019 Susan wowed the crowd with a thought-provoking lecture titled “Is Dartmouth a Religion?” (It is!) Bruce Duthu is also a professor at Dartmouth, a scholar of Native American law and policy. In 2019 Bruce won an Emmy for research in connection with his coproduction of the documentary film Dawnland, which traces the historically negative impact of Maine’s child welfare practices on Native American communities. Another Emmy winner (as executive producer of a TV public affairs program), Ron Chen is a professor and former dean of the Rutgers Law School. Outside of law school Ron is a renowned U.S. rowing umpire. We ran into each other a few times at collegiate regattas when my middle daughter was rowing. Professor Beth Baron is a historian of the Middle East, focusing on gender and modern Egypt at the City College of New York. She led an academic association that became a leading plaintiff in one of the federal court cases seeking to overturn the Muslim ban. Mary Klages is a professor of English at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she has taught since 1989 after obtaining her Ph.D. at Stanford. She has published a couple of books explaining the perplexing world of literary theory. Professor Mary Ann McDonald Carolan directs theItalian studies program at Fairfield University. This spring she is teaching Italian American cinema. Kal Alston is a professor and associate dean for academic affairs at the Syracuse University School of Education. She is currently working on analyses of contemporary girlhood, early adolescent culture and education, and race and fatherhood.

—Meg Coughlin LePage, 8 Brookside Drive, Cumberland, ME 04021; (207) 791-1382; mlepage@pierceatwood.com; Wade Herring,P.O. Box 9848, Savannah, GA 31412, (912) 944-1639; wherring@huntermaclean.com; Rob Dinsmoor, 14 Rust St., South Hamilton, MA 01982; (978) 269-4069; dinsmo@earthlink.net