Our annual virtual reunion on the 92nd day of the year happens Thursday, April 2. Send a quick description of how you spent your day (no overthinking!) to news@dartmouth92.org or post it in our Facebook group. We will include all responses in a newsletter and email it to the entire class.


Many thanks to Winnie W. Huang for telling us about her participation in this important annual event: “I headed to Hanover on November 9, 2014, for the Honor the Heroes Veterans Day gala hosted by the Dartmouth Uniformed Services Alumni (DUSA) and Marine Corps birthday ball. My friends Bernardine Wu ’90 and Maureen Marley McCarthy accompanied me. The highlight of the evening was the presentation of the James Wright Award for Distinguished Service, which DUSA administers to honor the legacy of retired Marine and former College President James Wright and his work in inspiring veterans to return to college, including many at Dartmouth. I served as the chair of the award’s nominating committee and am grateful for my fellow committee members Jack O’Toole, Tu’14 (Marine Corps), and Desmond Webster, Adv’13 (Navy), who were an honor to work with as we carefully reviewed each deserving nominee.


“As a former Dartmouth Army ROTC cadet, it was a true privilege to read the citation and present the prize alongside President Wright and DUSA founder and executive director Nathan Bruschi ’10 (Navy). This year’s recipient—Hanover resident Clinton Gardner ’44, WW II Army veteran and two-time recipient of the Purple Heart—truly embodies the award’s ideals of service, college and country. While a Dartmouth student Clint chose to enlist in the Army and was wounded at the Normandy landing and the Battle of the Bulge. He later became the commander of the liberated Buchenwald Concentration Camp, where he oversaw the care of the survivors and the burying of many of the estimated 55,000 tragically killed there. DUSA, since its founding in 2013, has been conducting amazing work, including securing funding for the Dartmouth veterans fly-in program, which pays for prospective veteran students to visit our campus. DUSA welcomes all veterans and supporters of veterans; please email dartmouthusa@gmail.com or join via its website at dusa.dartmouth.org to become involved.”


Jane Hodges filled me in on her progress in launching Mineral School, a future artists’ residency in Mineral, Washington, a small lake town near Mount Rainier National Park. She bought the school building in 2013 with plans to develop it into an artists’ residency where writers, visual artists and performing artists will come and stay for multi-week stints to advance their creative work. Mineral School did a test-run residency during summer 2014, hosting Bennyroyce Royon, a Juilliard-trained choreographer and dancer with ties to the Northwest, along with four other dancers who choreographed and put on a public performance in the school’s gym. Mineral School has also held public events and collaborations with other area organizations, including a talk by a historical novelist and an evening of Texas-style blues. The big plans, however, are to launch residencies for writers this coming summer. Because Jane is involved in both the property ownership and the nonprofit formation, she says, there was a long period of talking to lawyers and insurers during 2014, but now the Mineral School group is looking forward to getting to the good stuff—bringing writers to the 1947 building, feeding them good food and encouraging their creative work. Jane said she’s enjoyed talking nonprofits with Robb Andrade ’91, who recently returned to Seattle after several years abroad, and that she and the team (alum alert) are working on growing the board (see mineral-school.org).


—Kelly Shriver Kolln, 3900 Cottage Grove Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52403; (319) 533-4326; news@dartmouth92.org