More news on classmates’ 50th birthday celebrations: Brad Grenham writes, “At Dartmouth I majored in history and dabbled in environmental studies but had no career plan. Sturgis Woodberry convinced me to spend a summer working on a Wyoming guest ranch, where I grew fond of the West. At 50 I feel fortunate that I am able to weave all of these interests together. I work as a lawyer in Portland, Oregon, for the U.S. Department of the Interior, focusing on federal public land management and securing tribal water rights. Projects often require delving back 100 years in American history to frame current issues.” Brad also teaches environmental law at Lewis & Clark Law School and coaches a high school debate team. He and his wife, Lisa (Georgia ’89), are adjusting to their newly empty nest—their son is at the University of Arizona and their daughter teaching with City Year. “I commemorated my 50th with a 50-mile backpack in Yosemite National Park and also celebrated with Dave Magilner (Washington, D.C.), Glenn Morissette (Dracut, Massachusetts) and Paul Steinwald (Denver).”

To mark his 50th Steve Hochman planned to ride solo in Levi’s 100-mile Gran Fondo bike ride in Santa Clara, California. However, Steve’s wife, Juliet, had other ideas: She surprised him by inviting family and friends—including Ken Barrett, Phil Febbo, Bob Victor and brother Paul Hochman ’86 to join.

Ken, who actually rode “only” 40 miles of the ride because of a recently broken thumb, lives in San Diego with his wife, Bebe, and two daughters, ages 8 and 10. He works in industrial biotech and occasionally sees Bruce Steel, who works in biotech venture capital. “We like San Diego. There’s an odd combination of Californian progressivism and San Diego military conservatism with some surf culture mixed in. And it seems to work—the people are (mostly) considerate, diverse and interesting. I hope we’ll be here awhile and, in the meantime, we welcome any fellow ’88s to come visit.” Ken celebrated his own 50th in San Diego with a party thrown by Bebe. Mike Mann was on hand to help Ken mark the occasion.

Mike and his wife, Carrie Brennan, together with their two boys, live in Tucson, Arizona, where they both are teachers. Ken notes: “We reconnected in Tucson when I went back to school (for the third time!) to get a biosciences master’s and it’s been fun having our kids around the same timeframe.” Last year Ken and Bebe traveled to Tucson to help Mike celebrate his 50th. Pete Rutledge traveled all the way from Vermont to join the celebration.

Arnie Wensinger lives in Laguna Beach, California, with his wife, Linda, and three daughters and works as general counsel for In-N-Out Burger: “I celebrated by gathering about 287 of my closest friends and family for a party. My very patient and beautiful wife created life-size posters and giant face boards of little old me to greet everybody as they entered the club. We hit some golf balls off the deck to a target we set up in a lake (raised about a grand for charity!), had a dance contest with a ridiculously large trophy, danced to an 1980s cover band (think neon and glow sticks and bad hair), had both a scotch and a cigar bar and, while everyone danced or left the party, they snarfed burgers and fries (we have one truck that can make fries) off the In-N-Out Burger cookout truck in the parking lot. It was a fun night! My patient wife said never again—so we’re gonna do it again at double nickels in four and a half years!”

—Jere Mancini, 34 Wearimus Road, HoHoKus, NJ 07423; d88correspondent@gmail.com