Newly minted newsletter editor Dee Dee Granzow Simpson and I will try our best to keep all of us connected with our class. I am proud to continue the literary lineage of class secretaries Griemann, Wingate, Wingate, Muller, Ireland, McDonald, Carter and Cimina, and pleased to report that our record-shattering total giving for a 35th reunion is a remarkable $3,610,000! Thanks to all who gave their time, talent and treasure. Quick introduction: If you did not know me at college, call me Birdman. (Oddly, our class alumni representative Jeff McKee calls me “Mazeroski,” the 2001 Baseball Hall-of-Famer I wrote a book about.)


After Andover, where I now also write class notes, at Dartmouth I was a history major who, despite leading a freshman trip, spent most of his time underground at Zeta Psi. Lucky enough to study French in Blois, spring 1975, I could not miss the John Rassias (adopted ’49 and ’76) lovefest on the Baker-Berry lawn, where Susan Dentzer got icon hugs as Tom Cohn applauded. Bourges language study abroad veterans Rich Sarner, Rika Pierson Clement, Mark Robinson, John Storella, Thad Seymour and Steve Cordy all seemed to enjoy catching up. A California contingent included my summer ’75 roommate Peter Mills, Bill Hooper, Tom Ropelewski, Eric Edmondson, Kristin Bjorklund, Al Henning,Carol MullerandDoug Ireland; Jim Mayfield flew in from Hawaii, Frank Long from Tempe, Arizona, and Don Wiviott from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Across the pond came a host of financiers led by Nichole Lewis-Oakes, Andrea Korman Lowe and Allen Sinsheimer. I had never met former London Goldman Sachs man Mark Luning, now in Naples, Florida, until we banged stools at Lou’s at 7 a.m. Making new friends at reunion, such as David Karoff, is easy and worthwhile. At least 11 medical doctors were in the house: George Andreae, Larry Appel, Cathy Burnweit, David Cutler, Will Danford, Peter H’Doubler, Peter Gutschenritter, Steve Mentzer, Vincent Pellegrini, Kathy Phillips and Walter Wingate.


There were lumières and Dartmouth Aires. Steam tunnels explored, Ann Duffy’s award. Percussion on the Green, friends finally seen (Mike Huffman, Saturday afternoon). Artists and authors, filets and lobsters. Diana Taylor and the mayor, “the Commons” we knew as Thayer. Bartlett Tower ascended; reunion, ended. We reflected on salad days when we became green, not too many rules, really, just a puzzling friend-wrenching Dartmouth Plan, a mulligan called NRO (non-recording option), drinking age 18, no lab science requirement, all this after the end of the draft and before AIDS. I suppose we all eventually found order from chaos.


In closing, thanks to Ann Muenzer Beams for a lovely memorial service recognizing all our fallen comrades who are now in a better place: Charles Alpert, Ricardo Angulo, Michael Antonio, Derika Avery, Peter Beutel, Wilson Bostic, Michael Brigham, Jeffrey Brooker, Lawrence Cubas, Kevin Curley, Lili Dollar, Edwin Estepa, Joseph Flounders, Robert Grafford, Adrienne Hewitt, Lynda Huang, James Jennings, Gary Komarow, John Kulik, Mark Lebowitz, Scott Newton, John Olbrych, Richard Roy, Sheila Russell, Peter Smith, Harry Turner II, Neal Webber, Grace Williams, Jeannie Williams, Harrison Wilson III and Helena Witte.


—John T. Bird, 1920 Chateau Circle, Apt. 306, Birmingham, AL 35209; (205) 276-4609; jtbird.com@gmail.com