Welcome 2017! With the season’s first snowfall, shorter days and clear blue skies, I’m reminded of returning to Dartmouth after a much-needed break, ready to start the winter term. Can you believe we haven’t headed to Hanover to hear “the crunch of feet on snow” for 23 years?

I heard some interesting news about beverage expert and classmate Dominic Engels. He recently became the CEO of Stone Brewing after years as president of POM Wonderful. While he may not have known that the food and beverage industry would play a dominant role in his future career, he did have the right educational foundation. Dominic says he has been using his German culture and society major and his German foreign study abroad (FSA) experience since Stone Brewing has a significant presence in Berlin, Germany. Perhaps Dominic could work with the German department to coordinate a “field trip” for the next cohort of FSA students. Dominic lives in California with his wife and three sons, ages 7, 11 and 13.

Matthew Babcock is an assistant professor of history and program coordinator of the department of social sciences at University of North Texas-Dallas. He specializes in U.S. history, focusing on the history of North American borderlands, American Indians and the colonial Southwest. He joined the faculty in 2010 after teaching undergraduate and graduate history courses at Stephen F. Austin State University and working as a research associate in its center for regional heritage research. Before that he earned a Ph.D. in history from Southern Methodist University in 2008 and an M.A. in history from the University of New Mexico in 2001.

After years of education, teaching and research, Matthew wrote his book, Apache Adaptations to Hispanic Rule, which was recently published by Cambridge University Press. The book is part of their studies in North American Indian history series, in which Dartmouth professor Colin G. Calloway has also published. Matthew writes, “The book reinterprets Southwestern history before the U.S.-Mexican War through a case study of the poorly understood Apaches de paz and their adaptation to Hispanic rule.” Matthew says that thousands of Apaches settled near Spanish presidios in a system of reservation-like settlements, stretching from Laredo, Texas, to Tucson, Arizona. His research showed that these settlements “constituted the earliest and most extensive set of military-run reservations in the Americas and served as an important precedent for Indian reservations in the United States.”

In closing, I share the sad news of the death of an inspirational classmate, our valedictorian, Kamala Devi Dansinghani. To call Kamala a gifted student is an understatement. She was the first female valedictorian to graduate with a 4.0 from the College, and USA Today counted her as one of the top 20 students in the country. We will all remember her moments of genius in the classroom and insights in her valedictory address at our Commencement. Kamala went on to earn her M.D. and M.P.H. from Harvard Medical School and worked for two years at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Her beautiful legacy can be seen and heard through her two lovely daughters, Arya Vasant (10) and Soraya Vaishali (8). She is also survived by her mother, brother and sister-in-law.

Laura Hardegree Davis, 1664 Cambridge Court, Bethlehem, PA, 18015; lauradavis723@mac.com