Class Note 1982
Issue
November-December 2023
Thank you for electing me co-class secretary. It was a nail biter given I had no opponent. Jenny Chandler is a very hard act to follow, but I’m so grateful she’s agreed to continue helping David Eichman and me with outreach.
There’s reunion fodder for several columns, so buckle up! We’re on the rental car shuttle from Logan Airport. At the stop, I stand up and glance right. “Philippa Guthrie?” “Hank Malin?” We’d been sitting adjacent for 10 minutes unawares. Hank “retired” from running Denison’s career center in 2022 and now has his own coaching business. He and his wife have two grown boys.
There was a mess of people at the Moosilauke overnight and others showed up for the next day hike to the peak. Either way I know Matt Hoffman, Mike Berg, Mark Bunker and Sheryl Bunker, Joe Reinkemeyer, Tom Daniels, Meg Huffman, Dave Plekenpol, Beth Haffenreffer Scholle, Carol Davis, Kathy Boak, Brian Herrle, Libbet Waterman McKeon, Peter Feer, Woody Kingman, JB and Katie Stearns Friday, Sherry Carroll Oberg, Kate Pesek Roski, Steve Burnham, Alex Blumrosen, Sue Elliot and Eric Christensen, Colin McNay, Sam Carlson, Richard Pinkham, Rosie Dupre Littlefield, Peter Saltsman, Brad Weirick, Kathy Briscoe, and Peter Folger were there. I’m sure there were others. Note to self: Next time, take notes. The evening entertainment was our own Tom Burack, pardon me, Jean Baptiste, followed by Schlitz on Mount Washington and then a cool bunk room. Second note to self: Moosilauke cabins are coed. We were 10 to 12 ’82s in ours, all mildly taken aback. “Is anyone a champion snorer?” someone asked. All I know is I slept through whoever was. After breakfast Kathy Briscoe and I, who met on freshman trip, took a 3-mile hike about halfway to the peak and talked nonstop for two hours. What a treat.
Registering at Thompson scored me three more early encounters—Sarah Riddle Lilja, Scrib Fauver and Walt Cressler. Appearances aside (mine only) it could have been 1982 as we talked. Sarah’s a retired mental health professional in Minnesota doing photography, Scrib lives down the road and teaches at Kimball Union, and Walt is a professor of paleobotany and science librarian at West Chester University of Pennsylvania.
A shout-out to the “Rassias Raiders,” an ’82 French language study abroad group and clan for life. They mini-reuned and celebrated one of their own, Matt Yee, who has cancer, and husband Paul Hannigan. Carol Davis will cover it more fully in the ’82 newsletter.
So many ’82s and so little time, but what is time? It seemed we’d left in 1982 for parallel universes and were just slipping back to the original in the middle of summer semester. It was surreal. Maybe all that rain and mist…very Brigadoonish, if you know what I mean.
Final note to self: Bring soap for dorm shower. Running furtively down the hall soaking wet in towel and shower cap to retrieve facial cleanser is not desirable first reunion impression.
—Philippa M. Guthrie, 2303 Woodstock Place, Bloomington, IN 47401; (812) 325-7512; philippaguthrie@yahoo.com; David Eichman, 9004 Wonderland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046; dme4law@sbcglobal.net
There’s reunion fodder for several columns, so buckle up! We’re on the rental car shuttle from Logan Airport. At the stop, I stand up and glance right. “Philippa Guthrie?” “Hank Malin?” We’d been sitting adjacent for 10 minutes unawares. Hank “retired” from running Denison’s career center in 2022 and now has his own coaching business. He and his wife have two grown boys.
There was a mess of people at the Moosilauke overnight and others showed up for the next day hike to the peak. Either way I know Matt Hoffman, Mike Berg, Mark Bunker and Sheryl Bunker, Joe Reinkemeyer, Tom Daniels, Meg Huffman, Dave Plekenpol, Beth Haffenreffer Scholle, Carol Davis, Kathy Boak, Brian Herrle, Libbet Waterman McKeon, Peter Feer, Woody Kingman, JB and Katie Stearns Friday, Sherry Carroll Oberg, Kate Pesek Roski, Steve Burnham, Alex Blumrosen, Sue Elliot and Eric Christensen, Colin McNay, Sam Carlson, Richard Pinkham, Rosie Dupre Littlefield, Peter Saltsman, Brad Weirick, Kathy Briscoe, and Peter Folger were there. I’m sure there were others. Note to self: Next time, take notes. The evening entertainment was our own Tom Burack, pardon me, Jean Baptiste, followed by Schlitz on Mount Washington and then a cool bunk room. Second note to self: Moosilauke cabins are coed. We were 10 to 12 ’82s in ours, all mildly taken aback. “Is anyone a champion snorer?” someone asked. All I know is I slept through whoever was. After breakfast Kathy Briscoe and I, who met on freshman trip, took a 3-mile hike about halfway to the peak and talked nonstop for two hours. What a treat.
Registering at Thompson scored me three more early encounters—Sarah Riddle Lilja, Scrib Fauver and Walt Cressler. Appearances aside (mine only) it could have been 1982 as we talked. Sarah’s a retired mental health professional in Minnesota doing photography, Scrib lives down the road and teaches at Kimball Union, and Walt is a professor of paleobotany and science librarian at West Chester University of Pennsylvania.
A shout-out to the “Rassias Raiders,” an ’82 French language study abroad group and clan for life. They mini-reuned and celebrated one of their own, Matt Yee, who has cancer, and husband Paul Hannigan. Carol Davis will cover it more fully in the ’82 newsletter.
So many ’82s and so little time, but what is time? It seemed we’d left in 1982 for parallel universes and were just slipping back to the original in the middle of summer semester. It was surreal. Maybe all that rain and mist…very Brigadoonish, if you know what I mean.
Final note to self: Bring soap for dorm shower. Running furtively down the hall soaking wet in towel and shower cap to retrieve facial cleanser is not desirable first reunion impression.
—Philippa M. Guthrie, 2303 Woodstock Place, Bloomington, IN 47401; (812) 325-7512; philippaguthrie@yahoo.com; David Eichman, 9004 Wonderland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046; dme4law@sbcglobal.net