Class Note 1996

As another year comes to its conclusion (and most of us are now solidly in the Over-40 Club, I am elated to pass along updates from a few first-timers to our Class Notes! It appears few of us have had as busy a year as our own Jami Papa. In August she concluded her second tour at the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. By September’s end she had married Robert Geach in Las Vegas (and became an “instant” grandmother!), turned 40 and then moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, to begin a three-year tour at the U.S. consulate there. Jami was sad to report that it appears work will keep her from attending our 20th reunion in June, but she would love to catch up with anyone in that part of the world.


David Reynolds also wrote in with his first update. He and his wife, Lisa Core ’98, recently relocated to Winchester, Massachusetts, after residing in nearby Somerville for the better part of a decade. There they spend most of their time chasing around their two young sons, Wyatt, 3, and Sawyer, 11 months. David has worked for Cabot Corp. (chemical company) for the last 10 years. He said he is fortunate to have stayed in touch with Dartmouth by helping out with the friends of the Dartmouth sailing team—saying, “It’s refreshing to find that recent alumni are not too different than we were at that age.”


Timmeko Love also let me know that in September she joined Mayo Clinic Ventures, where she works to develop commercialization and business opportunities with Mayo Clinic researchers. Previously she was a principal at Best Buy Capital, where she led direct investments in consumer technology startups.


I also heard from Michelle Brattson Majors, who recently celebrated YinLan Zhang’s 40th birthday with her family in Desert Hot Springs, California. They had a great time relaxing in the warm mineral waters with Michelle’s son, Mitchell, 5, and YinLan’s daughter, Willow, 8, and son, Beck, 3 (along with husband Brady). Michelle has been quite busy professionally as well, as a production supervisor on two major films: Neighbors (which came out last spring) and Interstellar (which by the time these notes are published will have premiered in early November).


In other class mini-reunion news, Cameron Turner passed along that Rob Hamilton had just finished his Ph.D. in computer-based music theory and acoustics at Stanford University. Ted Sorom and Josh Wilson were on hand with Cameron for Rob’s dissertation. He indicated that, “We understood very little of what Rob defended, but were mesmerized by his strange sounds!”


I was also happy to get an update on the “ChangStein clan,” which constitutes a class reunion every day! I’m speaking of course of Zach Stein and Margaret Chang, who in July relocated their family from Trumbull, Connecticut, to sunny Delray Beach, Florida. There Zach continues to work for Whole Foods Market as a regional produce buyer. Margaret and the kids love the 80-degree fall weather and Zach stated for the record that he won’t “miss shoveling the snow at all.” He said Josh Marks is planning to visit when he comes to Miami for work in November, which Josh himself independently confirmed (as if Zach’s word weren’t good enough!).


Thanks to everyone who wrote in after my desperate plea for updates—too many for me to include in this month’s column! I promise I’ll get everyone into our next set of updates. Please keep them coming! Happy 2015 to all my fellow ’96s, leaving us with t-minus six months and counting until reunion!


—Garrett Gil de Rubio, 1062 Middlebrooke Drive, Canton, GA 30115; ggdr@alum.dartmouth.org