Class Note 1986
Issue
Sept - Oct 2015
So this is the midlife issue. Yes, we’re taking the optimistic side.
We are getting our AARP cards and offers to live in senior communities. We singles get the over-50 dating site offers. A few of us have already received reduced-rate dinners and lower-cost movie tickets. We now have some healthcare benefits thanks to Congress, but we are ready to not be properly reimbursed when trying to make a claim.
Collectively, we report no midlife crisis here. We Americans in good health should be extremely grateful to live in this time. Monarchs of four centuries ago never had the resources even the poorest among us now have. Even compared with our grandparents we Americans can travel anywhere quickly and cheaply, eat thousands of foods inexpensively and purchase clothes far less expensively than they did. We can converse with folks in far-away nations, hear their music, watch their TV shows, even influence their elections.
Our third classmate reporting to me as semi-retired is Jon Frank Anderson. Jon played a role in implementing the transportation programs of the Clean Air Act of 1990 for U.S. EPA. “I have worked with car, truck, bus and locomotive emissions control through engines and fuels. I helped reduce the contaminants in reformulated gasoline, diesel, compressed natural gas vehicles and liquid propane vehicles.” Jon now lives in the Hyde Park section of Boston with his two cats.
Some solid Class Notes: We are now in a reunion year. Our 30th, in mid-June, runs four days. The College seems to think we’re retirees or have the leisure to mimic retirees at summer’s onset. We will have mini-reunions leading up to June. Wherever you and a few ’86s want to gather, it’s a mini-reunion. If you want to publicize it beyond your cadre, let Krista Corr know; she directs our mini-reunions. Mark Greenstein is coordinating any who want to reunite in Vail, Colorado, in early March. We’ll latch on to CarniVail, but have a special yurt dinner and snow-cat skiing by the Continental Divide for just ’86s and guests.
Nancy Stein Woolf reports very good work and very good results by Dartmouth Partners in Community Service (DPCS). These are the sometimes-misunderstood projects that our class sponsors. Nancy says, “DPCS is alive and flourishing.” This summer our class sponsored two of eight ambitious undergrads to volunteer in Boston hospitals. The call to apply for a DPCS summer internship in healthcare drew dozens of applicants, from which we selected eight, giving them housing in Boston and a stipend. Physician Andy Stein (brother of Nancy) is the main mentor now.
DPCS also enlists post-grads for nonprofit or low-pay work in New York. They have a one-year commitment, but thus far all have stayed for two or more years. “It’s an amazing experience for them,” says Nancy. Anna Morenz ’13 came to New York as a foster care worker who had Nancy for her mentor; she heads to Harvard med school in September. These DPCS opportunities fit President Phil Hanlon’s mold of promoting “experiential learning.”
—Mark Greenstein, 107 Fenn Road, Newington, CT 06111; msg@ivybound.net; Davida Dinerman, 12 Kings Row, Ashland, MA 01721; davida@dinerman.com
We are getting our AARP cards and offers to live in senior communities. We singles get the over-50 dating site offers. A few of us have already received reduced-rate dinners and lower-cost movie tickets. We now have some healthcare benefits thanks to Congress, but we are ready to not be properly reimbursed when trying to make a claim.
Collectively, we report no midlife crisis here. We Americans in good health should be extremely grateful to live in this time. Monarchs of four centuries ago never had the resources even the poorest among us now have. Even compared with our grandparents we Americans can travel anywhere quickly and cheaply, eat thousands of foods inexpensively and purchase clothes far less expensively than they did. We can converse with folks in far-away nations, hear their music, watch their TV shows, even influence their elections.
Our third classmate reporting to me as semi-retired is Jon Frank Anderson. Jon played a role in implementing the transportation programs of the Clean Air Act of 1990 for U.S. EPA. “I have worked with car, truck, bus and locomotive emissions control through engines and fuels. I helped reduce the contaminants in reformulated gasoline, diesel, compressed natural gas vehicles and liquid propane vehicles.” Jon now lives in the Hyde Park section of Boston with his two cats.
Some solid Class Notes: We are now in a reunion year. Our 30th, in mid-June, runs four days. The College seems to think we’re retirees or have the leisure to mimic retirees at summer’s onset. We will have mini-reunions leading up to June. Wherever you and a few ’86s want to gather, it’s a mini-reunion. If you want to publicize it beyond your cadre, let Krista Corr know; she directs our mini-reunions. Mark Greenstein is coordinating any who want to reunite in Vail, Colorado, in early March. We’ll latch on to CarniVail, but have a special yurt dinner and snow-cat skiing by the Continental Divide for just ’86s and guests.
Nancy Stein Woolf reports very good work and very good results by Dartmouth Partners in Community Service (DPCS). These are the sometimes-misunderstood projects that our class sponsors. Nancy says, “DPCS is alive and flourishing.” This summer our class sponsored two of eight ambitious undergrads to volunteer in Boston hospitals. The call to apply for a DPCS summer internship in healthcare drew dozens of applicants, from which we selected eight, giving them housing in Boston and a stipend. Physician Andy Stein (brother of Nancy) is the main mentor now.
DPCS also enlists post-grads for nonprofit or low-pay work in New York. They have a one-year commitment, but thus far all have stayed for two or more years. “It’s an amazing experience for them,” says Nancy. Anna Morenz ’13 came to New York as a foster care worker who had Nancy for her mentor; she heads to Harvard med school in September. These DPCS opportunities fit President Phil Hanlon’s mold of promoting “experiential learning.”
—Mark Greenstein, 107 Fenn Road, Newington, CT 06111; msg@ivybound.net; Davida Dinerman, 12 Kings Row, Ashland, MA 01721; davida@dinerman.com