Class Note 1988
Issue
The College forwarded me an article on Ed Merrens and his role as physician for the U.S. biathlon team. I asked him to tell us more: “I’ve been involved with the U.S. Olympic Committee for more than 10 years, have been to the past three Winter Olympics and have been closely involved with the U.S. biathlon team. In that role I work very closely with Max Cobb ’87 (executive director of the U.S. Biathlon Association) and Max Saenger (my college roommate from South Mass!) and the manager for the biathlon venue at the Vancouver Olympics. The Games in Vancouver were well organized and a huge success for the U.S. team. It was great to watch Billy Demong get a gold medal with members of the biathlon and cross-country teams cheering and to have Hannah Kearney (from Norwich, Vermont) get a gold medal in moguls.” When not at the Olympics, Ed is the section chief for hospital medicine at DHMC and on the faculty at Dartmouth Medical School. He lives in Norwich with his wife, Peg (Lamb) ’87, and their kids Sam (14) and Anna (12).
A second clipping arrived about another class doctor’s community work. Jay Kleeman, an orthopedist specializing in foot and ankle surgery, was recognized in the Wilton, Connecticut, paper for helping a Haitian earthquake victim. Jay explained, “I was asked to treat this woman who was buried in her home during the earthquake. She was pulled out by neighbors, took a bus to the Dominican Republic, then flew to the United States. She is doing well and is very appreciative. You need to contact Albert Diaz, who is also an orthopedic surgeon in Fairfield County, Connecticut. He just returned from a week-long trip to Haiti and his story is far more compelling than mine.” I asked Albert for a report and received this: “I volunteered in Haiti as an orthopedic surgeon with the University of Miami/Project Medishare for a week at their tent hospital near the Port-au-Prince airport. While the first wave of trauma patients has been stabilized, there is now a second swell of complications, mostly bone infections. If anyone is interested in volunteering in Haiti I would be happy to discuss my experience and opportunities with Project Medishare. Reghan (Foster) and I are well. We have three boys—17, 13, 10—and live in Redding, Connecticut.” Thank you, Jay and Albert, for this news of your good works.
I had the pleasure of seeing Julie (Pelkan) Glusker and her family in Park City this spring. She and husband D.J. have launched a tutoring company, Aptitude Academics, and seemed very energized to have reincorporated teaching in their lives. (Perhaps the caffeine required to grow a business and a family had something to do with their exuberance as well.) Their website has a terrific reading list (under “Forms”) for any of us interested in raising good kids and strong students. Julie also passed on news of Wendy Pabich, who is getting some wonderful recognition for her water rights expertise. Stay tuned for a movie that Wendy is developing about opposition to a dam proposed in Patagonia.
When the executive committee was planning regional mini-reunions this winter, Tony Mavrinac suggested creating a visual tool to find clusters of ’88s beyond the obvious cities. After stumping his IT department on this quest, he had the bright idea of employing Hanover talent. The resulting map, created by the director of Dartmouth’s applied spatial analysis laboratory, is certainly worth a good look! You can find a link on the class website, www.dartmouth.org/classes/88, and view where our collective roaming has led us.
Cheers.
—Jane (Grussing) Lonnquist, 4510 Drexel Ave., Edina, MN 55424; jjlonnquist@earthlink.net
July - Aug 2010
The College forwarded me an article on Ed Merrens and his role as physician for the U.S. biathlon team. I asked him to tell us more: “I’ve been involved with the U.S. Olympic Committee for more than 10 years, have been to the past three Winter Olympics and have been closely involved with the U.S. biathlon team. In that role I work very closely with Max Cobb ’87 (executive director of the U.S. Biathlon Association) and Max Saenger (my college roommate from South Mass!) and the manager for the biathlon venue at the Vancouver Olympics. The Games in Vancouver were well organized and a huge success for the U.S. team. It was great to watch Billy Demong get a gold medal with members of the biathlon and cross-country teams cheering and to have Hannah Kearney (from Norwich, Vermont) get a gold medal in moguls.” When not at the Olympics, Ed is the section chief for hospital medicine at DHMC and on the faculty at Dartmouth Medical School. He lives in Norwich with his wife, Peg (Lamb) ’87, and their kids Sam (14) and Anna (12).
A second clipping arrived about another class doctor’s community work. Jay Kleeman, an orthopedist specializing in foot and ankle surgery, was recognized in the Wilton, Connecticut, paper for helping a Haitian earthquake victim. Jay explained, “I was asked to treat this woman who was buried in her home during the earthquake. She was pulled out by neighbors, took a bus to the Dominican Republic, then flew to the United States. She is doing well and is very appreciative. You need to contact Albert Diaz, who is also an orthopedic surgeon in Fairfield County, Connecticut. He just returned from a week-long trip to Haiti and his story is far more compelling than mine.” I asked Albert for a report and received this: “I volunteered in Haiti as an orthopedic surgeon with the University of Miami/Project Medishare for a week at their tent hospital near the Port-au-Prince airport. While the first wave of trauma patients has been stabilized, there is now a second swell of complications, mostly bone infections. If anyone is interested in volunteering in Haiti I would be happy to discuss my experience and opportunities with Project Medishare. Reghan (Foster) and I are well. We have three boys—17, 13, 10—and live in Redding, Connecticut.” Thank you, Jay and Albert, for this news of your good works.
I had the pleasure of seeing Julie (Pelkan) Glusker and her family in Park City this spring. She and husband D.J. have launched a tutoring company, Aptitude Academics, and seemed very energized to have reincorporated teaching in their lives. (Perhaps the caffeine required to grow a business and a family had something to do with their exuberance as well.) Their website has a terrific reading list (under “Forms”) for any of us interested in raising good kids and strong students. Julie also passed on news of Wendy Pabich, who is getting some wonderful recognition for her water rights expertise. Stay tuned for a movie that Wendy is developing about opposition to a dam proposed in Patagonia.
When the executive committee was planning regional mini-reunions this winter, Tony Mavrinac suggested creating a visual tool to find clusters of ’88s beyond the obvious cities. After stumping his IT department on this quest, he had the bright idea of employing Hanover talent. The resulting map, created by the director of Dartmouth’s applied spatial analysis laboratory, is certainly worth a good look! You can find a link on the class website, www.dartmouth.org/classes/88, and view where our collective roaming has led us.
Cheers.
—Jane (Grussing) Lonnquist, 4510 Drexel Ave., Edina, MN 55424; jjlonnquist@earthlink.net