In preparation for this column I emailed many of you asking for you to reflect on whether your lives had taken any unexpected turns since graduation. 


The first reply in the inbox was an important reminder of the limitations of the Class Notes format. The note stated that my question was a “minefield” that “if answered honestly, could take up two magazines.” Right on. “Life throws us curveballs and as we struggle to react, we question where we are, what we’ve done, where we want to go next.” We should remember for every Dartmouth alumnus celebrating career or personal high points in the Class Notes, there are many others working through life’s challenges.


Jonathan Sulivan now the managing director of web management and development at the American Institute of Architects, writes that as a senior he “would have predicted that I would be living in Washington, D.C., and working in government or international relations.” He tried it for a couple of years but then found that the interviews he kept getting were for information technology [IT] jobs rather than government or international relations jobs. “It turned out that the informal education in computers that I had received at Dartmouth coupled with my passion for technology was my most valuable asset.” As a result he’s spent the last 25 years living in Washington, D.C., working in the information technology sector “but never for the government.”


Kevin Roon, now a postdoctoral student at the CUNY Graduate Center, took the opposite route when it came to information technology. He was a Russian major interested in linguistics and teaching but spent 13 years in IT consulting before returning to more academic pursuits. His personal life has also undergone a transformation since his senior year. “Personally I had just come out as gay to a very small group of friends just before our senior year. I was still not out to my family when Michael Lowenthal gave his valedictory address at Commencement.” He writes that it would have been difficult back in 1990 to have envisioned a long-term relationship or even legal marriage but he and his spouse, Simon, have been together since 1997 and were married at the Dartmouth Club in New York City in 2009 with many Dartmouth friends in attendance. 


Tom Parker and Seth Jacoby also pursued their athletic dreams after graduation as players and coaches for a semi-pro American football team in Aix-en-Provence, France. They were champions of France, met many interesting people and learned a little French. Both returned to the United States and went to law school. Tom now “makes patio umbrellas” as the president and general counsel of Tuuci.


A year from now we will come together once again in Hanover for our 25th reunion. It will be an opportunity for us to meet each other’s children, reflect on roads taken and not taken, celebrate our collective accomplishments and mourn those we have lost along the way. I can’t wait to see you all. Thirty years ago, in June 1984, I attended my father’s 25th reunion and although I had visited Hanover many times before, it was then, lying on my back on the Green on a warm June afternoon, that I knew I would try to return as a student. In that spirit your class officers will be holding monthly conference calls and reaching out to many of you through the next year. We’re getting ready and looking forward to seeing you back in Hanover soon. 


—Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com; Rob Crawford, 47 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; robertlcrawford@yahoo.com