Congratulations to Hilary Kovar Justice on her selection as keynote speaker at the Idaho Hemingway Festival next fall. Hilary, an Associate Professor of English Studies at Illinois State University, wrote The Bones of the Others about Ernest Hemingway and his lost manuscripts. Here’s her report from the heartland: “My husband, David Kovar ’85, and I both miss New England, but life’s treating both of us well.” I asked Hillary to share some book recommendations and received a great list including many from her current course on food and culture. They are posted on www.dartmouth88.org in a new tab for book picks. Thanks for launching this literary list for our class, Hilary!


Additional congratulations to John Replogle who was just named CEO of Seventh Generation in Burlington, Vermont. (Is anyone else having selfish thoughts right now about forgoing the Burt’s Bees swag bags that John provided for our 20th reunion and facing recycled toilet tissue goodies for the 25th?) Seriously, it’s great to know that ’88 talent will be leading this socially responsible company. 


Catherine Craighead Briggs reports from California: “Had dinner with Robin Joy, Kate Phillips and Kristen Steck. All look better than ever! Kate’s off to South Africa for a five-month work stint with her family. Kristen and Robin live in San Fran and lead ultra-active lives. I’m helping a nonprofit expand—it supports impoverished women in 24 countries by selling their artisan goods. Dartmouth College Fund plug: Class of ’88, we can beat the participation record for 23 years out (54 percent)—just 55 more donors than last year. Any amount that you can give by June 30 helps the College and will make the ’88s great! Questions? E-mail dartmouth88@gmail.com.” 


Did you catch the terrific article “Happiness and the Classics” by Paul Christesen in the Jan/Feb issue of this magazine? Paul argues that studying the humanities helps us lead a more contented life. If you’d like to read his full lecture, go to www.caneweb.org/pubsnref/ChristesenBradleyLec.pdf. I asked Paul for an update: “Life in Hanover is good. I’ve been on faculty since 1999 in the classics department. I teach ancient Greek history and lead the classics department’s FSP to Greece every other year. It took a little getting used to being back in Hanover after more than a decade in Manhattan, but I’ve come to appreciate, more fully than I did as a student, just how extraordinary a place Dartmouth really is. I count it a great privilege to have the opportunity to teach some of the brightest students in the world and to learn with and from them. And the Upper Valley is improbably beautiful, in different ways at different times of the year.” Thank you, Paul!


Finally, I am deeply sorry to report the death of our classmate Carl D. Deblois on December 29. Carl died at his home in Miami after battling brain cancer for more than three years. Our heartfelt condolences to Carl’s family and his wife, Sue Carter ’90. The Miami Herald’s obituary chronicling Carl’s successful career in technology and his amazing charitable efforts is linked through the class website’s “In Memoriam” section. The comments posted there by Carl’s friends and family describe a man brimming with talent and kindness. As Ceda Ogada wrote, Carl’s “friendship made me laugh, relax, make time to smell the roses. How I pray that our friendship gave you even half as much as it gave to me! You will be greatly missed.”


—Jane (Grussing) Lonnquist, 4510 Drexel Ave., Edina, MN 55424; jjlonnquist@earthlink.net