Class Note 1989
Issue
January-February 2021
Congratulations to Geeta Anand, who was appointed dean of UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism! Previously she had been interim dean. Congratulations also to Scott McElhaney for being selected for inclusion in the Thomson Reuters 2020 Super Lawyers list as well as the 2021 Best Lawyers in America list.
During Homecoming we held our weekly Zoom call but made it into our ’89 mini-reunion, and had numerous classmates from around the world, including Michael Ballard in Israel (who reminded us that Tecmo Bowl on the Nintendo NES is celebrating its 40th anniversary) and Margo Miller in London, where she’s been now for 21 years. We heard from class president John Van Hooser, who has been volunteering doing mountain search and rescue during all of the fires in northern California. Linda Salzhauer Swenberg has been providing dyslexia intervention since 2009 after one of her children was diagnosed; she decided to take on the tutoring program herself and saw so much improvement that teachers started referring students to her. Andy Wells has a new job in Washington, D.C., with the National Science Foundation, giving money to companies in advanced manufacturing. Kristen Dillon shared that after 20 years living with her husband, Paul Blackburn ’88, in Hood River, Oregon, they moved to Washington, D.C., where she’s a health policy fellow. Per Kristen, “It’s been a wild year; we may go back to Oregon at the end of the year and we’ll take it from there! Back in Oregon Andy Wells lived 60 miles away and now we’re only 10 miles apart!” Wendy Mogan Phillips lives with her husband in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and has a freshman at Dartmouth (apologies, as I’m sure there are other ’89s with ’24s).
We also had multiple New York ’89s on the Zoom, including Peter Lurie, Diana Haladey, Russell Wolf, Bobby Jaffe (who has dogs named Nugget and Baker after Dartmouth places), and Alex Simpson. From Massachusetts we had Antonia Rutigliano Nedder and Joe Nedder, Ken Horton, Tracey Coleman, Laura Bordewieck Rippy, and Michael Conroy.
Kerry Kisiel Jones is an educator in Hartford, Connecticut, in this brave new world. She started a summer doctoral program at UPenn. Interesting factoid: Kerry was the principal for one of Mike’s kids’ principals for three years! We also heard from Laurie Fanger Reed and her neighbor Carolyn Gardella. Laurie is a teacher and Carolyn is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at University of Washington.
Nicole Conte lives in Vermont, where she started working in a local elementary school when a preschool teacher didn’t want to go back. She’s enjoying working with 3-year-old children with masks on. Lenora Brown has been back in Cleveland for 10 years, working as senior fellow at the Cleveland Leadership Center, where she educates people on civic issues in the county and city and works to create partnerships to improve the city. Michael Hafner is living in Houston, enjoying hanging out with friends and grilling food. We also heard from Bridget Hust and Winnie DelliQuadri that D.D. Danforth Burlin has a Facebook Live cooking series—will have to hear more about this next issue!
Speaking of staying tuned, look for the next issue to cover the crazy story of ’89s who were left to run two licensed radio stations (WDCR and WFRD—99 Rock) and some of their tales from back then! If you have news, please feel free to send it to me!
—Ned Ward, 2104 Graham Ave., #B, Redondo Beach, CA 90278; ned@nedorama.com
During Homecoming we held our weekly Zoom call but made it into our ’89 mini-reunion, and had numerous classmates from around the world, including Michael Ballard in Israel (who reminded us that Tecmo Bowl on the Nintendo NES is celebrating its 40th anniversary) and Margo Miller in London, where she’s been now for 21 years. We heard from class president John Van Hooser, who has been volunteering doing mountain search and rescue during all of the fires in northern California. Linda Salzhauer Swenberg has been providing dyslexia intervention since 2009 after one of her children was diagnosed; she decided to take on the tutoring program herself and saw so much improvement that teachers started referring students to her. Andy Wells has a new job in Washington, D.C., with the National Science Foundation, giving money to companies in advanced manufacturing. Kristen Dillon shared that after 20 years living with her husband, Paul Blackburn ’88, in Hood River, Oregon, they moved to Washington, D.C., where she’s a health policy fellow. Per Kristen, “It’s been a wild year; we may go back to Oregon at the end of the year and we’ll take it from there! Back in Oregon Andy Wells lived 60 miles away and now we’re only 10 miles apart!” Wendy Mogan Phillips lives with her husband in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and has a freshman at Dartmouth (apologies, as I’m sure there are other ’89s with ’24s).
We also had multiple New York ’89s on the Zoom, including Peter Lurie, Diana Haladey, Russell Wolf, Bobby Jaffe (who has dogs named Nugget and Baker after Dartmouth places), and Alex Simpson. From Massachusetts we had Antonia Rutigliano Nedder and Joe Nedder, Ken Horton, Tracey Coleman, Laura Bordewieck Rippy, and Michael Conroy.
Kerry Kisiel Jones is an educator in Hartford, Connecticut, in this brave new world. She started a summer doctoral program at UPenn. Interesting factoid: Kerry was the principal for one of Mike’s kids’ principals for three years! We also heard from Laurie Fanger Reed and her neighbor Carolyn Gardella. Laurie is a teacher and Carolyn is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at University of Washington.
Nicole Conte lives in Vermont, where she started working in a local elementary school when a preschool teacher didn’t want to go back. She’s enjoying working with 3-year-old children with masks on. Lenora Brown has been back in Cleveland for 10 years, working as senior fellow at the Cleveland Leadership Center, where she educates people on civic issues in the county and city and works to create partnerships to improve the city. Michael Hafner is living in Houston, enjoying hanging out with friends and grilling food. We also heard from Bridget Hust and Winnie DelliQuadri that D.D. Danforth Burlin has a Facebook Live cooking series—will have to hear more about this next issue!
Speaking of staying tuned, look for the next issue to cover the crazy story of ’89s who were left to run two licensed radio stations (WDCR and WFRD—99 Rock) and some of their tales from back then! If you have news, please feel free to send it to me!
—Ned Ward, 2104 Graham Ave., #B, Redondo Beach, CA 90278; ned@nedorama.com