Class Note 1997
Did you know 7 percent of our class is married to each other? In honor of Valentine’s Day, I reached out to ’97 couples to see how they met, their favorite Dartmouth memories, and what they’re doing now.
Mikael Mörn sent greetings from Geneva, Switzerland, where he and wife Marie Pauline “Empi” (Esguerra) Mörn live with their children, Gabriela, 13, and Matias, 9. Mikael wrote: “Empi and I met on freshman trips in the fall of 1993. We were on the same canoeing trip with John Doub, Eric Newton, and Amanda Jones, among others.
“Some of our favorite Dartmouth memories together include road tripping with international students Torbjorn Dimblad, Dickon Verey, Rob Leathern, Sariya Sharp, and Sophie Billekens in the fall of 1993 to play a rugby game in eastern Massachusetts, and late 1990s Halloween parties in Boston with fellow Ivy grads and classmates Jeff Woods, Craig Whitmer, and Doug Vandenberg.
“The Dartmouth homecoming reunion in Switzerland on October 12 went very well. We had 28 people, including grad students, and the classes of ’80s, ’90s, ’00s, and ’10s were well represented.”
Quite the climber, Mikael recently ascended Pik Lenin in Kyrgyzstan, Elbrus in Russia, and Cotopaxi in Ecuador. Read about Mikael’s and Empi’s adventures at bigmountainchallenge.wordpress.com.
Lynne Campbell Soutter and Morgan Soutter met freshman fall through Lynne’s roommate Kathryn Miller-Jensen and freshman tripmate Rob Bannerman. Lynne wrote: “Rob and Morgan rowed together on freshman crew. Morgan rowed for four years and studied computer science. He and the vibrant Jim Zak were inseparable teammates and friends in those days. I played rugby and studied geography. Our story together didn’t begin until senior year. During exam period in December, the snow fell and the lights briefly went out across campus. As we stood gazing out the window of Baker Library at the snow, Morgan asked me to dinner, a favorite memory for us. The next evening, he arrived in a car borrowed from Will Taylor, his housemate at Fire & Skoal, to drive us to Sweet Tomatoes in Lebanon. It was a proper date. Morgan was charming, and I was smitten.
“We married in my hometown after my first year of law school. Morgan joined me in Ithaca, New York, to attend business school, and we graduated from Cornell together in 2003. We moved to Boston, where we live now with our two boys, ages 13 and 11.
Lynn is assistant general counsel for international law firm Ropes & Gray and Morgan heads instructional technology at Boston College High School, which their older son attends. Their younger son goes to a neighborhood school with the daughter of Jeff Longnecker and Johanna Longnecker ’98, who live down the street. Morgan also wrote a novel, The Madman’s Daughter, a thriller set at Dartmouth.
“We often swing through Hanover on our way to ski or hiking weekends in Vermont. It is a special place to us both.”
Kathleen (Williams) and Mark Abel met winter term freshman year. “I’m pretty sure it was on the dance floor at a fraternity house,” Mark wrote. “We became good friends, often met for lunch at the Hop, and shared breadsticks from EBAs. We started dating sophomore fall and the rest is history.
“Many fond memories. No one thing jumps out. Sophomore Summer was a blast, lunch every Monday at Panda House, Kat jumping off the bridge into the Connecticut River, Homecoming bonfires. Kat had Baker Tower ‘Happy Birthday’ bells played for me.
“These days we’re busy chasing around our two young girls and experimenting with careers outside corporate America.”
More ’97 couple news in the next column.
—Jason Casell, 10106 Balmforth Lane, Houston, TX 77096; jhcasell@gmail.com
