Class Note 1988
Issue
November-December 2021
Greetings, ’88s!
In my last column I invited you to share your memories from Sophomore Summer, and I am pleased to highlight several classmates’ recollections from that memorable summer of 1986.
Jeff Green, who was promoted this year to full professor in the psychology department at Virginia Commonwealth University, remembers the “surreal” experience during Sophomore Summer of having his mother on campus. She took a computing course at Dartmouth, lived in MidMass, and even befriended the chair of the psychology department, whom Jeff did not know even though he was a psych major. Jeff also recalls loving the classes he took that summer, including a psychology statistics class that he views as sowing the seeds of his becoming a social psychology professor. Finally, Jeff told me he talked to Frank Wang every day summer term about the Red Sox, who then broke their hearts in October.
I also heard from Bill Gifford, who is living in Salt Lake City, Utah, and reports having skied nearby with Sturgis Woodberry and Jonathan Altman this past winter. Bill took time out from working on a sequel to his book, Spring Chicken, about the science of longevity, to tell me his Sophomore Summer memory: setting his “then-fabulous” hair on fire in his dorm room and feeling lucky there was a sink nearby.
Julia (Mairs) Weisbecker, who is a physical therapist and is in training to compete in her fifth Ironman triathlon, remembers a hilarious drive with Amy Beller from Minnesota to Hanover for summer term. They took Amy’s stick-shift car, which Julia did not exactly know how to drive but took turns driving anyway. Julia also said it was a dream to live for the summer in her sorority house with Kajy (Rejaie) Vicinelli and many other good friends.
Peter Ryan, who chairs the department of geology at Middlebury and recently published the second edition of his textbook, recalls listening during Sophomore Summer to great reggae and ska music. He cites those influences on his music even now, including the album All Over the Place his band, The Almendros, recently released. Peter also told me about a three-on-three basketball tournament summer term in which his teammates Dave McCusker and Luke Smith, as hockey players, “did all the dirty work and let me take more shots than I could count.”
Matthew Garcia said two memories from Sophomore Summer stand out for him: spending a lot of time partying with Paula Zagrecki and discovering Kurt Vonnegut, all of whose books in Baker Library Matthew then aimed to read during the summer.
Chuck Young lived with Jay Sotos and Bash Derti in Mid-Fayer Sophomore Summer, and he remembers the three of them competing in what they called the “leisure olympics,” complete with a handmade scoreboard. Chuck also participated in the summer cabaret and did a parody of Miami Vice that was called Hanover Vice and featured Scott Bertetti and Chuck as skateboarding campus security officers.
Hope you enjoyed this flashback to 1986, and please keep in touch!
—Tory Woodin Chavey, 128 Steele Road, West Hartford, CT 06119; dartmouth88classnotes@gmail.com
In my last column I invited you to share your memories from Sophomore Summer, and I am pleased to highlight several classmates’ recollections from that memorable summer of 1986.
Jeff Green, who was promoted this year to full professor in the psychology department at Virginia Commonwealth University, remembers the “surreal” experience during Sophomore Summer of having his mother on campus. She took a computing course at Dartmouth, lived in MidMass, and even befriended the chair of the psychology department, whom Jeff did not know even though he was a psych major. Jeff also recalls loving the classes he took that summer, including a psychology statistics class that he views as sowing the seeds of his becoming a social psychology professor. Finally, Jeff told me he talked to Frank Wang every day summer term about the Red Sox, who then broke their hearts in October.
I also heard from Bill Gifford, who is living in Salt Lake City, Utah, and reports having skied nearby with Sturgis Woodberry and Jonathan Altman this past winter. Bill took time out from working on a sequel to his book, Spring Chicken, about the science of longevity, to tell me his Sophomore Summer memory: setting his “then-fabulous” hair on fire in his dorm room and feeling lucky there was a sink nearby.
Julia (Mairs) Weisbecker, who is a physical therapist and is in training to compete in her fifth Ironman triathlon, remembers a hilarious drive with Amy Beller from Minnesota to Hanover for summer term. They took Amy’s stick-shift car, which Julia did not exactly know how to drive but took turns driving anyway. Julia also said it was a dream to live for the summer in her sorority house with Kajy (Rejaie) Vicinelli and many other good friends.
Peter Ryan, who chairs the department of geology at Middlebury and recently published the second edition of his textbook, recalls listening during Sophomore Summer to great reggae and ska music. He cites those influences on his music even now, including the album All Over the Place his band, The Almendros, recently released. Peter also told me about a three-on-three basketball tournament summer term in which his teammates Dave McCusker and Luke Smith, as hockey players, “did all the dirty work and let me take more shots than I could count.”
Matthew Garcia said two memories from Sophomore Summer stand out for him: spending a lot of time partying with Paula Zagrecki and discovering Kurt Vonnegut, all of whose books in Baker Library Matthew then aimed to read during the summer.
Chuck Young lived with Jay Sotos and Bash Derti in Mid-Fayer Sophomore Summer, and he remembers the three of them competing in what they called the “leisure olympics,” complete with a handmade scoreboard. Chuck also participated in the summer cabaret and did a parody of Miami Vice that was called Hanover Vice and featured Scott Bertetti and Chuck as skateboarding campus security officers.
Hope you enjoyed this flashback to 1986, and please keep in touch!
—Tory Woodin Chavey, 128 Steele Road, West Hartford, CT 06119; dartmouth88classnotes@gmail.com