Hello, ’98s! It is an honor and a privilege to be joining the ranks of the ’98 class officers as the newly elected secretary. Thanks so much to Jo (Weingarten) Golub for doing double duty as class president and class secretary for the last couple of years; Jo will certainly be a tough act to follow as secretary, but we are so thrilled to have her continue on as class president for a full five-year term.


I was very sad to be unable to attend our 15-year reunion in Hanover this past June, but I’ve been overwhelmed at the amount of people I’ve heard from recently and the great things that the ’98s have been up to recently. To begin, congratulations to Steve Zrike on two fronts: First, he and his wife welcomed their second child, Edward “Teddy” Ryan Zrike in April; and, during the summer, Steve and family relocated from Chicago back to his beloved New England, where Steve is the newly installed superintendent of schools for Wakefield, Massachusetts.


Also experiencing a recent change of address was Jay Park, who during the spring relocated from New York City to the Long Island suburbs with his wife, son and daughter. Jay reports that he is somewhat terrified in that he has never lived in the suburbs before, but he is excited about, among other things, “entering vegetable-growing contests.” Jay has for several years been an attorney practicing in the structured finance and derivatives group at the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. And on the topic of attorneys, I recently had the pleasure of catching up with Christine Strumpen-Darrie, who is a transactional lawyer at the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. Christine lives in New York City, has a 5-year-old daughter and was all too modest in relaying that she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro this past summer.


Dan Kerzner recently relocated from the Washington, D.C., area to the California Bay Area. Dan now lives in Lafayette, California, with his wife, Stacy, and sons Max and Toby. And a bit further west, just prior to the deadline to submit this column, Marc Lewinstein checked in from his hotel in Hokkaido, Japan, where he was preparing to take part in an Iron Man competition (swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, run 26.2 miles) on August 31. This was Marc’s sixth Iron Man, and I hope we can get a followup report from him for the next alumni magazine.


Last but not least, I had the pleasure of catching up with Simone Swink, who recently was promoted to senior producer and head writer at ABC’s Good Morning America—wow! Simone updated me on what sounds like an amazing trip she took during the summer—a “dream trip” in her words—to France, visiting everywhere from Mont St. Michel to Monet’s Giverny.


That’s about it for now. As Jo said in the last alumni magazine, we are still finalizing the class of ’98 executive committee and other appointed posts, so if you’d like to be a part of the class leadership, it’s not too late! Please get in touch with any of the class officers, including myself. Looking forward to many more opportunities to catch up with the goings on in the amazing class of 1998. Please send me your news or updates; we’d love to hear from you!


—Jeffrey Beyer, 25 Aspen Way, Morristown, NJ 07960; (973) 267-6914; jeffrey.beyer@gmail.com