Class Note 1991
I was lucky enough to return to Hanover twice this fall: I attended Class Officers Weekend (COW) in September and Homecoming in October. At COW I was joined by David Cogar, Sarah Barton Gardella, Scott Magrath, John Pepper and Heather Lane Spehr, and our upcoming 25th reunion was topic No. 1! Co-reunion chairs Heather and Sarah are hard at work planning the program, so make sure that a trip back to Dartmouth is on your calendar for June 16-19.
I also saw a ton of ’91s at Homecoming! The festivities began with marching in the Friday night parade with Geoff and Kristy Bronner and Thomas Hong and his family, but along the way we dragged David Cogar, Keith Dunleavy and Brendan O’Day (and their respective families) into the parade with us. I also saw evidence over social media that Alex Glovsky, Paul Mutter and John Pepper were in Hanover for the bonfire festivities, although I never saw them in person. Both David and Keith were giving their high school-aged children the prospective students’ tour, but it turns out that Brendan’s son, Aidan, already calls Dartmouth home. Aidan is a member of the class of 2019, loves being at Dartmouth, according to his parents, and led the student group responsible for constructing the bonfire on the Green.
When I checked my class records, I discovered that Brendan’s son is not the first ’91 legacy—our class has three of them! I reached out to Charles and Mary (Aselton) Budd to get more information on their Dartmouth student. “Mary and I are indeed the parents of a member of the class of 2018. Our daughter, Lauren, is now halfway through her sophomore fall and has been delighted with her Dartmouth experience thus far, to the point that she has already begun to express regret at how quickly the time seems to be passing. Mary and I were extremely proud when Lauren chose Dartmouth, as you might imagine. We have two younger children, Charlie (a high school sophomore) and Elisabeth (an eighth-grader), whose observation of their sister’s Dartmouth experience has been a tremendous selling point for them, much stronger than Mary or I can provide.”
But the first member of our class to send a child back to Hanover is Rachel Bond, whose son, Noah, is a member of the class of 2013. Noah was born at Dartmouth during our senior year and you may recall that Rachel carried him on her back at our graduation ceremony, so it is quite fitting that he returned to Hanover (his first home) as a student. It sounds like we have lots of potential ’91 legacies applying to Dartmouth this year—good luck to all of them!
In other news, Mitch Epner wrote in with an update about a new organization that he is supporting: “At the suggestion of Jordy Green, I was added to the board of directors of the Sepsis Alliance. I am proud and extremely humbled by the responsibility to the sepsis community. Each year, approximately 1 million Americans are attacked by sepsis. Of those, approximately 200,000 die. With early intervention (measured in hours), the majority of deaths are preventable. I am hoping to make a difference.”
Sadly, I received news of the passing of Darshana Patel this past spring. If you have memories or insights to share for the obituary that will be posted on the class website, please send them directly to me.
—Sara Burbine Potter, 108 Hillcrest Road, Fairfield, CT 06824; sara_burbine@yahoo.com
