Mini-kudos to six accomplished ’86s about whom professional news reached my inbox: Beth Robinson, Bill Daly, John Hueston, Jonathan Singer, Joshua Greenberg and Shep Kopp. Five of the six are lawyers—good publicists seem to attend the profession. Maybe someone can publicize them to apply their good skills at the federal level. Send them all to Congress! Someone should nominate these six. I might actually then vote for an incumbent for the first time since 1982.


One lawyer who did write is Tony Pellegrini from Bangor, Maine. “I celebrated 26 years of marriage to Joan. I am slowly being bankrupted by my daughters, the eldest of whom begins senior year at Bowdoin and the middle her sophomore year at Tufts. Joan and I visited Sicily, Rome and Greece last fall, then Belize this winter, then Alaska in March (yeah, we do spring break kinda backward). Two of my daughters are working with me this summer at Rudman Winchell, where I am a partner and practice intellectual property and immigration law. We recreate at our camp in Downeast Maine, which we completely rebuilt in 2012 after it was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. The lobster fishing is good, so if any ’86ers are vacationing near Beals, Maine, this summer, drop by and I’ll let you haul a trap or two.”


Lee Merkle-Raymond just completed a seven-day, 545-mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. “Training rides started in January, so we were happy to avoid a severe winter. The event raises funds for research, education and support services for people with AIDS. July marks 25 years since my first day in banking, when I also met my partner Kathy. It has been a great journey for us: Boston to Silicon Valley, then an assignment in Australia and now back in Palo Alto, California, where our daughters are almost 17 and 14. Life has been good. I’m grateful to contribute through the Lifecycle ride while I’m still ‘young.’ ”


Lynn Tracy Nerland wrote for her and husband Greg Nerland: “We are celebrating our Harmonic Convergence year with our 25th anniversary, older son graduating from college, younger son graduating from high school, Greg’s 25th year practicing as an attorney (24 years for me) and that big birthday. We were thrilled to attend the birthday parties for San Francisco East Bay ’86s Tony Stearns and Kelly Keller and an early celebration with sometimes East Bay resident Marie Longo (she travels here often for her fascinating new job with the nonprofit Playworks). We are on our way back east for a Tracy family gathering in the Adirondacks.”


Lynn’s thoughts fit this mid-year of most of us turning 50. Let’s hope that’s our average mid-life. First 50 went fast, but my (minuscule) research allows the proclamation: 50 is the new 36! Hear me out: A century ago the average American 36-year-old was the parent of a teenager, had witnessed the death of one parent and had 37 years’ remaining life expectancy (40 if female). Sound familiar? The great news for us is even if we’re on the “back nine,” there’s so much more we can do in our next decades. And so much faster: Going to Europe a century ago took 10 days, going to China took three weeks. We can see and hear from more people across the globe in a week than our forbears could in a lifetime. The “poor” among us live better than monarchs of ancient times. Americans of our generation are by-and-large the luckiest generation in world history. Baby boomers who were not drafted might tie for luckiest.


—Mark Greenstein, 107 Fenn Road, Newington, CT 06111; msg@ivybound.net; Davida Dinerman, 12 Kings Row, Ashland, MA 01721; davida@dinerman.com