Class Note 1984
Issue
Back in 1982, in the small French town of Arles, riding on a bus on a quaint, tree-lined country road, with the mistral winds swirling, we met. All right maybe it wasn’t quite that romantic—after all we were pals back then and mostly drank beer at the Grande Café de La Bourse and played a lot of Pac-Man, but we did meet in the Dartmouth-infused atmosphere of the language study abroad program. And it turned out to be a meeting that would result in long-lasting friendship and marriage.
There are many others we know who met through Dartmouth and ended up tying the knot. This month we took the time to catch up with a couple!
It was Freshmen Week during Streeter ’Tails where Doug Burke claims to have met his future wife of 21 years, Ilyssa Golding. Unfortunately, she has no recollection of this meeting! If Ilyssa’s memory serves her correctly (she admits, it may not) they met later and did not go out on a date until Doug got up his nerve senior year. After college they spent many years in New England together, Ilyssa doing her master’s in public health at Harvard (boo, hiss—sorry, we can’t help it) as well as going to Dartmouth Medical School and Doug getting his M.B.A. at Tuck. Ilyssa and Doug got married in 1989 and eventually ended up in Los Angeles, where Ilyssa grew up. There they had their children Connor (10) and Cameron (7). Ilyssa currently works parttime as a radiologist and Doug, who previously worked in banking for Tucker Anthony and Sutro, has left that behind to become the general manager for a software company. When they are not hard at work they love to ski, frequenting the powder in Utah and Colorado. (Ilyssa is pretty hardcore. Once, while skiing in Vail’s back bowls, the lift broke. She had to hike all the way out!) To relax Doug has been known to play the harmonica while driving in L.A. traffic. (He doesn’t signal either, but we’ll save that explanation for a future column. It has something to do with not tipping off the enemy!)
Another Dartmouth couple, Lisen Stromberg and Bill Rossi, actually met at Dick’s House. Although Bill, who was tending to a knee ailment, claims that Lisen was stalking him Lisen insists that she had a horrible flu and really was sick—really! That chance meeting (we believe you, Lisen) was in October 1983 and they have been together since. Married 22 years, the couple lives in Palo Alto, California, where in their spare time they attend Stanford football games, “pretending we went there,” with their three kids William (15), Maret (13) and Soren (10). Since college Lisen has been a marketing executive and founded a nonprofit called Supporting Our Sons (www.supportingoursons.com). She is currently doing her M.F.A. in writing and is working on a collection of short stories. Bill, who got his M.B.A. at Harvard (boo, hiss—sorry, we can’t help it), is an executive at Google. When they are not working Bill is back on the ice playing hockey and they both love to travel to faraway lands such as Vietnam, Thailand and Costa Rica. On their next road trip to Argentina they plan to visit fellow ’84 Alex Featherstone.
If you haven’t already, please show your spirit of ’84 (no, you don’t have to marry a Dartmouth classmate) by visiting our class Web site (www.dartmouth84.org) and clicking through to pay your class dues, bundled with a $19.84 contribution to the Dartmouth College Fund and $30 toward the 30th reunion project.
—Jan Gordon and Derek Chow, 132 Wildcat Lane, Boulder, CO 80304; (303) 448-1580; janandderek@comcast.net
Mar - Apr 2010
Back in 1982, in the small French town of Arles, riding on a bus on a quaint, tree-lined country road, with the mistral winds swirling, we met. All right maybe it wasn’t quite that romantic—after all we were pals back then and mostly drank beer at the Grande Café de La Bourse and played a lot of Pac-Man, but we did meet in the Dartmouth-infused atmosphere of the language study abroad program. And it turned out to be a meeting that would result in long-lasting friendship and marriage.
There are many others we know who met through Dartmouth and ended up tying the knot. This month we took the time to catch up with a couple!
It was Freshmen Week during Streeter ’Tails where Doug Burke claims to have met his future wife of 21 years, Ilyssa Golding. Unfortunately, she has no recollection of this meeting! If Ilyssa’s memory serves her correctly (she admits, it may not) they met later and did not go out on a date until Doug got up his nerve senior year. After college they spent many years in New England together, Ilyssa doing her master’s in public health at Harvard (boo, hiss—sorry, we can’t help it) as well as going to Dartmouth Medical School and Doug getting his M.B.A. at Tuck. Ilyssa and Doug got married in 1989 and eventually ended up in Los Angeles, where Ilyssa grew up. There they had their children Connor (10) and Cameron (7). Ilyssa currently works parttime as a radiologist and Doug, who previously worked in banking for Tucker Anthony and Sutro, has left that behind to become the general manager for a software company. When they are not hard at work they love to ski, frequenting the powder in Utah and Colorado. (Ilyssa is pretty hardcore. Once, while skiing in Vail’s back bowls, the lift broke. She had to hike all the way out!) To relax Doug has been known to play the harmonica while driving in L.A. traffic. (He doesn’t signal either, but we’ll save that explanation for a future column. It has something to do with not tipping off the enemy!)
Another Dartmouth couple, Lisen Stromberg and Bill Rossi, actually met at Dick’s House. Although Bill, who was tending to a knee ailment, claims that Lisen was stalking him Lisen insists that she had a horrible flu and really was sick—really! That chance meeting (we believe you, Lisen) was in October 1983 and they have been together since. Married 22 years, the couple lives in Palo Alto, California, where in their spare time they attend Stanford football games, “pretending we went there,” with their three kids William (15), Maret (13) and Soren (10). Since college Lisen has been a marketing executive and founded a nonprofit called Supporting Our Sons (www.supportingoursons.com). She is currently doing her M.F.A. in writing and is working on a collection of short stories. Bill, who got his M.B.A. at Harvard (boo, hiss—sorry, we can’t help it), is an executive at Google. When they are not working Bill is back on the ice playing hockey and they both love to travel to faraway lands such as Vietnam, Thailand and Costa Rica. On their next road trip to Argentina they plan to visit fellow ’84 Alex Featherstone.
If you haven’t already, please show your spirit of ’84 (no, you don’t have to marry a Dartmouth classmate) by visiting our class Web site (www.dartmouth84.org) and clicking through to pay your class dues, bundled with a $19.84 contribution to the Dartmouth College Fund and $30 toward the 30th reunion project.
—Jan Gordon and Derek Chow, 132 Wildcat Lane, Boulder, CO 80304; (303) 448-1580; janandderek@comcast.net