Class Note 1983
Issue
January-February 2023
Happy 2023, ’83s! What a stellar year it’s going to be as Dartmouth College welcomes President-elect Sian Leah Beilock! She’ll be the College’s 19th and first female president! The stars are also aligning because the constellation of the ’82s, ’83s, and ’84s will all be celebrating our “40th” reunions on the Hanover Green June 15-18. Mark your calendars and book your rooms now!
The ’83 reunion committee is gaining momentum beginning with our reunion co-chairs: class co-president Maren Christensen and Mike Hjerpe. Our class treasurer, Joe Dempsey, will also be our reunion treasurer. Robin Henning Rocchi is our new reunion giving chair for the Dartmouth College Fund. Then Laura Vail Wooster has signed on to coordinate our reunion entertainment.
Laura writes, “I happily retired from John Hancock in Boston a few years ago as head of insurance marketing after a 25-plus-year career. I recently decided to ‘unretire’ in 2021 to join a fully remote insurance tech startup called Reframe Financial, focused on helping families manage the financial issues of aging (a subject I’ve long been passionate about). My husband, Jim Wooster ’84, is the exec director of the historic folk music venue, Club Passim, in Cambridge, Massachusetts—so I’m planning to tap into his entertainment insights for our reunion. The highlight of our year (decade!) was the fairytale wedding of our oldest son, Zach Wooster ’15, in Ravello, Italy, in September. We feel incredibly blessed.”
The Hopkins Center is about to close for a two-plus-year renovation; it served as a creative springboard for many classmates. Lisa Tromovitch, a thespian during her years at Dartmouth, went on to obtain an M.F.A. at Southern Methodist University and today is a theater professor at University of the Pacific; much of her scholarship focuses on Shakespeare and she also directs and produces professional theater. Jim Sterling writes that the Hop was his Dartmouth home. His equity card came 10 years after graduation, having performed in a ton of N.Y.C. theater, including Shakespeare productions, and waiting tables. After starting his full-time job as a sales consultant and trainer with Exec-Comm in 2003, he pinched himself that he had played roles in theatrical productions that included King Arthur in Camelot, Fagin in Oliver, and in film and TV productions as cops in Law and Orderand Conspiracy Theory.
Shout out to Jonathan Howland! His book Native Air received the Mountain Fiction and Poetry Award and is currently a nominee for the grand prize at the 2022 Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival. The festival is an international competition that celebrates mountain literature. Congratulations, Jonathan!
From Tucson, Arizona, Kathy Hoy Burgess and Jeff Burgess ask: “Anyone going to, or living in Australia?” They will be there for a few months starting in February 2023. “Get in touch!”
Please consider making a tax-deductible year-end gift to the Dartmouth College Fund, at dartmouthcollegefund.org, in anticipation of our 40th reunion next summer! See you in June! “Let the good times roll!”
—Shanta Sullivan, 1541 North Sierra Bonita Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046; shantaesullivan@gmail.com; Elliot Stultz, 2600 N. Flagler Drive, #503, West Palm Beach, FL 33407; elliotstultz@yahoo.com
The ’83 reunion committee is gaining momentum beginning with our reunion co-chairs: class co-president Maren Christensen and Mike Hjerpe. Our class treasurer, Joe Dempsey, will also be our reunion treasurer. Robin Henning Rocchi is our new reunion giving chair for the Dartmouth College Fund. Then Laura Vail Wooster has signed on to coordinate our reunion entertainment.
Laura writes, “I happily retired from John Hancock in Boston a few years ago as head of insurance marketing after a 25-plus-year career. I recently decided to ‘unretire’ in 2021 to join a fully remote insurance tech startup called Reframe Financial, focused on helping families manage the financial issues of aging (a subject I’ve long been passionate about). My husband, Jim Wooster ’84, is the exec director of the historic folk music venue, Club Passim, in Cambridge, Massachusetts—so I’m planning to tap into his entertainment insights for our reunion. The highlight of our year (decade!) was the fairytale wedding of our oldest son, Zach Wooster ’15, in Ravello, Italy, in September. We feel incredibly blessed.”
The Hopkins Center is about to close for a two-plus-year renovation; it served as a creative springboard for many classmates. Lisa Tromovitch, a thespian during her years at Dartmouth, went on to obtain an M.F.A. at Southern Methodist University and today is a theater professor at University of the Pacific; much of her scholarship focuses on Shakespeare and she also directs and produces professional theater. Jim Sterling writes that the Hop was his Dartmouth home. His equity card came 10 years after graduation, having performed in a ton of N.Y.C. theater, including Shakespeare productions, and waiting tables. After starting his full-time job as a sales consultant and trainer with Exec-Comm in 2003, he pinched himself that he had played roles in theatrical productions that included King Arthur in Camelot, Fagin in Oliver, and in film and TV productions as cops in Law and Orderand Conspiracy Theory.
Shout out to Jonathan Howland! His book Native Air received the Mountain Fiction and Poetry Award and is currently a nominee for the grand prize at the 2022 Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival. The festival is an international competition that celebrates mountain literature. Congratulations, Jonathan!
From Tucson, Arizona, Kathy Hoy Burgess and Jeff Burgess ask: “Anyone going to, or living in Australia?” They will be there for a few months starting in February 2023. “Get in touch!”
Please consider making a tax-deductible year-end gift to the Dartmouth College Fund, at dartmouthcollegefund.org, in anticipation of our 40th reunion next summer! See you in June! “Let the good times roll!”
—Shanta Sullivan, 1541 North Sierra Bonita Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046; shantaesullivan@gmail.com; Elliot Stultz, 2600 N. Flagler Drive, #503, West Palm Beach, FL 33407; elliotstultz@yahoo.com