It is with both great enthusiasm and slight trepidation that I take on my first official Class Notes as class secretary. I have been gifted in this my inaugural column with a number of little birds that have conveyed news of several ’96s owed some well-deserved kudos. First, Dr. Michael Bradley is making medical history in joint replacement as part of the orthopedic medial staff at South County Hospital in Wakefield, Rhode Island. He and his colleagues have become the first surgeons to perform partial knee resurfacing and total hip replacement with MAKOplasty, a highly advanced, FDA-approved technological innovation that combines robotics with imaging software and a virtual GPS for the human body. Michael, who served as a physician in the U.S. Navy and recently returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, also resides in Wakefield with his wife, Jessica, and their four children.


I’ve also heard that Trumbull Barrett and his company Barrett Tree Services East (located in Somerville, Massachusetts) have been named as one of the 2010 Top Ten National Best Contractors by Angie’s List. This honor places Trumbull in the top 1 percent of an estimated 18,000 contractors in the United States. After obtaining his master’s from Thayer, Trumbull apprenticed himself to his brother, an arborist in western Massachusetts, and then became a certified arborist himself. Since 2000 he has nurtured individual urban trees, managed large wooded properties and everything in between, starting his own company just more than three years ago.


One of our own has been singled out by Fortune magazine as one of the hottest young business stars across the globe. In fact, Greg Jensen was ranked third behind only Mark Zuckerberg (founder/CEO of Facebook) and Larry Page (founder/CEO of Google) on Fortune’s 2011 “40 Under 40” list—an honor bestowed to those individuals the publication deems the best and brightest of “innovators, disrupters and job creators” from around the world and across a number of industries. Greg, who was ranked No. 11 on the 2010 list, is co-CEO and co-chief investment officer of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund that manages assets of $125 billion (whose flagship fund is up 25 percent at a time when many others are losing money). Greg started at Bridgewater as an intern during his time at Dartmouth, joined the firm after graduation and now oversees its investment strategies, research and trading; he also specifically managed the rollout of its $10 billion Pure Alpha Major Markets fund in June.


I heard from Terence Meehan that he had just finished his master’s in public administration at the Harvard Kennedy School and is now on a fellowship in the Ph.D. program in public administration at SUNY Albany. He lives in Albany with his partner Scott Levine.


With a few issues since our last Class Notes, I also have lots of baby news—so please forgive me if it is much condensed! Elizabeth Manheim and her husband, Ken Ades, welcomed their son Jacob in June; Sansea (Kaphan) Jacobson and her husband, Michael, welcomed their son Wilder (who joins older brother Aiden) also in June; and Anh-Thu Cunnion and her husband, Jeff Siegel, welcomed their twin boys Owen Quang Minh and Henry Anh Minh Siegel in April. More recently, Greg Papajohn and his wife, Suzanne, welcomed James Arthur Papajohn in October (who joins brother Nicholas, 5); Kimberly Sanderson-Hutfilz and her husband welcomed their third son in October;and Marc Wilson and his wife, Rachael, welcomed Alexandra Ruby Wilson in November (who joins siblings Benjamin and Gabrielle, ages 6 and 2, respectively).


With so many updates, please forgive me if I did not get to yours in this column—I promise I will get to them in the next issue’s notes! Make sure to join our increasingly active class groups on Facebook and LinkedIn to send in your updates (search for “Dartmouth College Class of 1996” on either site) or e-mail me at the address below!


—Garrett Gil de Rubio, 1062 Middlebrooke Drive, Canton, GA 30115; ggdr@comcast.net