I am constantly impressed with the disparate paths our classmates have taken—particularly in light of our collective 50th birthdays (has everyone officially passed that milestone by now?). Almost 30 years have passed since we’ve left the Hanover Plain. While some have pursued traditional careers such as medicine, business and law, others have found different paths.


Kate Smith Fitzgerald writes: “After Dartmouth I moved to Los Angeles, working as a freelance writer for the trades and tried my luck writing spec scripts. I sold two scripts before beginner’s luck ran out—neither got produced, but the money was good and enabled me to go back to school, where I obtained a master’s in public health specializing in infectious diseases. I worked for the California Health Department until I got my present job working in research and development for a large pharmaceutical company based in Europe. I’m also currently working on a doctorate in virology. Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time in England, where I spent a year working on a project with two colleagues at Oxford. I loved living and working there so much I bought a house there. I’ve also been on several medical missions to Myanmar. I made my first trip there in 1989 to do field research and always wanted to return. I finally got the chance in 2006 by joining a group of pediatricians and internists. Myanmar was ruled by a military junta then, and they kept a close eye on us because they were suspicious we were diagnosing cases of AIDS, which of course we were. They told us there were no cases of AIDS in Myanmar and threatened us with jail. Despite all my traveling, I’ve never been back to Dartmouth, though I do check out the Baker Tower web cam every now and then.” 


Jim Buonoccore adds: “After graduating with a degree in art history, a year as intern at the Hood and a lack of motivation to join the real world, I took a three-month internship at the Peggy Guggenheim in Venice, Italy, which turned into two years. Upon returning to the United States I tried banking first, with the old Irving Bank in information technology. Sometime in the early 1990s I switched from buy side information technology to consulting with Coopers & Lybrand. In 2012 a company named EPAM found me and offered me an executive position. Regarding my personal life, I met the current Mrs. Jim as a client at a bank where I was consulting. Fell in love and married June 27, 2009. We live in Pines Lake, New Jersey, where I continue to paint a bit through the years and also play my guitar collection badly, mostly because buying them is easier than making time to practice. As for classmates, I’m talking to Keith Moskow ’83 about some work on our house. He’s turned into quite the architect.”


Lastly, Dwight Aspinwall set out with the modest goal of finding a better way to fire up whatever food he had tucked away in his pack and thus, Jetboil was born. Essentially, Jetboil is a one-liter pot integrated with a wind-protected burner that uses butane cartridges, a fraction of the size and weight of the previous fuel. Jetboil products have been used everywhere from family campouts to the summit of Mount Everest. In less than a decade the company grew from a small startup to a leader in the world of outdoor gear. It was so successful, industry mogul Johnson Outdoors Inc. agreed to purchase the New Hampshire-based company in November 2012.


—Derek Chow and Jan Gordon, 770 Union Av., Boulder, CO 80304; (303) 448-1580; janandderek@comcast.net