A series of incredibly fast-moving wildfires ravaged Napa and Sonoma counties in northern California in October and caused multiple fatalities and widespread property devastation. Blown by winds that at times reached 70 to 80 miles per hour, ash fell from the sky in San Francisco and acrid-smelling smoke cloaked the entire Bay Area for days. A former co-worker of mine lost her house, with just the chimney left standing. Napa resident Brian Hurley believes he is the “luckiest man alive.” Not only did he and his family survive one of the most destructive wildfires in California history, but his cabin in Napa survived it as well, despite the fire consuming ancient trees just feet from his back door. Brian admitted that “the clichés about valuing people over things are true.” When forced to evacuate, all Brian wanted to save was “years’ worth of goofy artwork” from his stepchildren, niece and nephews. “Maybe it’s because I don’t have a lot of nice things, but it seems to me that the only things truly irreplaceable are reminders of how fast people grow up and how short life is,” Brian said. Most of all, he feels overwhelming gratitude for the firefighters: “Sometimes we never know the people who have the biggest impact in our lives. My home was saved because a group of courageous, hard-working firefighters stood on my back deck, keeping the fire at bay. I know they were ‘just doing a job’ as one of them said afterward, but they chose that job and chose to intentionally put their own lives at risk to help complete strangers. I will be forever in awe of that.”

In the relative safety of Washington, D.C., Michele Rivard has taken a leap from government to venture capital. When she is not running after entrepreneurs and impact investors, she and Andrew Patzman (Stanford ’88) are keeping up with 15-year-old son Ian on cross-country courses and tennis and basketball courts.

As we turn the calendar page to the start of a new year, class mini-reunion chairs Allison (Obermann) Exall (aexall@exallwood.com), Pam Haering (haeringp@yahoo.com) and Kathleen (Joyce) Kusiak (kathleen.kusiak@gmail.com) are assembling a team of doughty volunteers to organize class mini-reunions in 2018 around the country and the world, including our annual “87th night of the year” mini-reunions this spring. Contact them if you would like to plan a gathering in your neck of the woods. I have hosted a San Francisco event for the past 10 years and it is always a laughter-filled evening!

—Laura Gasser, 746 17th Ave., San Francisco, CA 94121; marcklaurag@aol.com