As I write this column, our home in Boulder, Colorado, is getting pummeled by snow. Our kids have a funny ritual in trying to pine for a snow day. They get an ice cube on a spoon and flush the ice cube down the toilet. Then they put spoons under their pillows and go to sleep wearing their PJ’s inside out. I don’t have the heart to tell them that our new superintendent of schools hasn’t granted a snow day in 10 years! 


The transition to winter weather might be hard for our family (just last week, 65 and sunny) but all the ’84 alums in Alaska have certainly gotten used to it (and dare I say, embraced it?).


From Anchorage, Dr. Steven Compton writes, “I grew up in Anchorage and am happy to have returned after 20 years. Married with two boys, we have resurrected the local Nordic ski jumping program in addition to downhill and cross country. In the summer we’ve been flying around the state in an amphibious Grumman Widgeon. (Think ‘da plane,’ ‘da plane’ from Fantasy Island.) I am chief of electrophysiology at the Alaska Heart Institute. I had no idea there were so many Dartmouth people here until Ken Miller got the local Dartmouth club fired up!”


Ken Miller reports that they just had their first meeting of the newfound Dartmouth Club of Alaska and more than 35 of the alumni and their guests showed up! Ken also hosted a couple of Dartmouth basketball players for Thanksgiving while they were playing in the Great Alaska Shootout. Outside of rooting for the Big Green and getting all the ’84s in Alaska to rally, Ken says, “I have a position as the development director for a large nonprofit that feeds and shelters the needy in Anchorage and I love it. The most rewarding position I have ever had.” Ken says that he is happily married to his high school sweetheart (reunited after a 29-year separation!) and looking forward to returning to Dartmouth in February, his first return to Dartmouth since 1984. Ken adds, “In my spare time I am still lifting weights and hope to compete in the coming year in power lifting in the masters classification.”


Also staying in shape in nearby Juneau is Ricardo Worl, who has been back in his native land since graduation. He runs a mortgage loan program that serves rural communities, low-income families and Native Alaskan borrowers. “It is a great challenge considering that Alaska’s housing market is among the most expensive in the United States.” Rico stays in shape by skiing Eaglecrest with his family and keeping his fishing boat spotless. He also just finished the Rock & Roll half marathon in Las Vegas, which was run at night up and down the strip. Rico said there were 44,000 runners, which is 14,000 more people than reside in his hometown!


Just a skip across the water (or ice) in Washington State, C.C. Crenshaw writes that she’s been living in Seattle with husband Bill ’82 for the past decade. C.C. reports that she and Bill “have been actively volunteering in Haiti since the earthquake. The work is truly inspiring. Bill is now the director of imaging at the one critical care hospital in Port au Prince and I have been doing any and everything else that I can when I go. I headed up logistics at the tent hospital right after the quake and then worked as a nurse (no training) and assisted in the hospital with patients and procedures. Otherwise, we have three kids who keep us busy at home.”


—Jan Gordon and Derek Chow, 132 Wildcat Lane, Boulder, CO 80304; (303) 448-1580; janandderek @comcast.net