It’s mid-February when you’re reading this, but we’re still pre-New Year, in a topsy-turvy year where it’s colder in L.A. than it was back east! Maybe it was the fact that my daughter discovered my Dartmouth ski school instructor Patagonia jacket and now proudly wears it to school and around, despite never having gone skiing. That would be all on me, and yes a bit ironic. I’m still adjusting to the fact that I have a freshman in high school and a fifth-grader—they’re growing up and soon we’ll be doing the college tours, like we all did 25-plus years ago. Which makes me think of my freshman roommates and beyond. Let’s turn back time to early September 1985: Craig Morton and Dave Irwin were my freshman roommates, South Fayer 302. We had a blast during our first year. Craig, of course, went on to amazing things in football, but I was excited to see him at Reunion where he’s a pastor at the Wellspring Worship Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire; I also saw Dave at our 25th and it was great to reconnect. He’s still up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, working for Fiserv.

Sophomore year I went into the housing lottery, as many of us did, and ended up roommates with Chris Baldwin and Phil Singh in Mid-Fayer—same room number! They were my roommates for only a term and then moved on. I then had Tim Osby as a roommate. Tim was our goalie for the hockey team and has moved down to Atlanta, where he’s the owner of Wahoo Docks, one of the largest residential dock companies around. Spring term I can’t remember—it’s not the fault of my roommates, but more that it’s been 25-plus years. I do remember being a health coordinator for Dick’s House, which meant people came when they wanted aspirin, Tylenol or other things.

Junior year: Ripley, and Harry Bernieri was my roommate. Odd twist: We had played football against each other in high school, when I was at Pingry and Harry was at Poly Prep. My senior year Poly whipped us 42-2, and several years later, we were roommates! Harry has been at teacher now at Poly Prep since graduating.

Senior year Zach Levine was my roommate and we had a blast. I got to see the budding romance between Zach and Jennifer Avellino (she lived across the hall) and still remember our Friday night social hours.

What about your roommates through your years at Dartmouth? Have you kept in touch with them? Were you able to reconnect during reunion? If not, you can reconnect via email, Facebook, snail mail—these are people who shared part of your Dartmouth experience and it’s worth reaching out if you haven’t. Even after 25 years it’s still a great time to reconnect. I enjoyed all of my roommates over the years and learned and benefited from all of them. I hope they did as well from me.

Quick update: I had mentioned change and how my family was moving up to northern California for my new job. I’m still at my new job (thanks to all the ’89s who bought Dash and Dot robots during the holidays) but due to the nature of startups, we didn’t move. I’m still commuting a week a month handling marketing and sales, but our roots are still in Redondo Beach, California, for now. I say for now because I know that the future may be in southern California or it may be in other areas of the United States or international; we’re excited for the adventure either way.

Would love to hear from roommates that have reconnected after all these years—let me know! And please send me your updates and news, no matter how small.

—Ned Ward, 2104 Graham Ave., #B, Redondo Beach, CA 90278; ned@nedorama.com