Class Note 1987
Eric Stern is a professor at the University of Albany, State University of New York, College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cyber-Security. In addition to teaching courses in emergency preparedness and leadership and ethics, he is also the author of numerous studies and articles. In December both The Conversation and Newsweek published his article examining why the Trump administration has the highest staff turnover of recent presidents and George W. Bush had the lowest. Eric and Russell Kemp met up when Eric and his family visited Denver. “Life is happily comfortable and stable,” Russell said. “Married for 24 years, same law firm for 20 years, and home address hasn’t changed in 18 years.” The past two years Russell has joined Bob Gans on backpacking trips on the John Muir trail in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range, which Russell described as “the most time I’ve spent in a tent since freshman trips.” Russell also sees fellow Denver residents Greg Rippey and co-head class agent Peter Murane: “We get drinks and laugh a lot on a regular basis.”
In the years we are not talking each other’s ears off under the class tent at reunion, my freshman roomie Susan (Barto) Emery and I swap career and family news via email. Susan and her family live in Larchmont, New York. In addition to her work in real estate, Susan is the co-president of the Larchmont Historical Society. She has enjoyed traveling up to Hanover for Homecoming the past few years, though she missed it in 2018. This past fall Susan had fun with Petra Schaefer when Petra, her children, and her dad (a Dartmouth ’62) visited N.Y.C.
Betsy (Booth) Scalco emailed me her news from North Carolina while she was snowed in after a record-breaking storm in December. Always active for Dartmouth, Betsy hosted a Dartmouth alumnae brunch at her home. Twenty-three women attended, including ’73s (the first female graduates who transferred in when Dartmouth went coed), co-newsletter editor Julie (Park) Hubble, and Betsy’s and my Kappa Alpha Theta sorority sisters, K.K. Lam ’89 and Dawn (Green) MacLaren ’89. “It was a fun afternoon of getting to know each other and making new friends,” Betsy said. They even created their own Facebook page, “Women of Dartmouth of the Piedmont,” and hope to hold events every few months. Speaking of fellow ’87 Thetas, Betsy had dinner with Martha Ehrmann when Martha, an obsetrician-gynecologist in Massachusetts, was in the area for a conference in November, and also hosted Colette (Bourquin) Nygren, who was judging a skating competition in Raleigh, North Carolina, in December. “When are you coming to visit?” Betsy asked me.
If you can make it to Hanover the weekend of March 1, Greg Garre and Neal Katyal ’91 will be reenacting the Dartmouth College case as part of Dartmouth’s sestercentennial celebration. Check the class newsletter for details about ’87 mini-reunion events.
—Laura Gasser, 746 17th Ave., San Francisco, CA 94121; marcklaurag@aol.com
