Class Note 1986
Issue
November-December 2025
Class Note 1986. I hope everyone is looking forward to our upcoming 40th reunion! Be on the lookout for more information coming to you in the mail and your inbox! Mark your calendar and save the dates: Thursday-Sunday, June 18-21, 2026. Don’t you want to get your news in person from your fellow classmates in addition to hearing about them in this wonderful magazine?
I recently heard from Kevin Curnin, who responded to DAM’s request for authors to showcase their books. His recently published novel is called The More We Take, and it’s about three Nebraskans trying to make sense of their lives and the turbulent history of Nebraska and the High Plains, from the war on Indigenous peoples in the 1800s to the decimation of their stolen land and waters in the present. The book is literary fiction that blends drama, historical fiction, and magical realism. His main characters are brave but no match for “big agriculture” until they are helped by the Sky Council: legendary Lakota chiefs such as Red Cloud and Crazy Horse and Indigenous female mavericks such as Josephine Waggoner and Ada Deer. Chief Justice John Marshall makes an appearance as does General William Tecumseh Sherman. The story explores how law, religion, and technology helped to nearly eradicate the Plains tribes and how those same instruments can either create or avoid a second ecological desecration today. Kevin states, “The book is timely. Climate, science, law and power, Indigenous rights, and religion are in the headlines every day. People are interested in exploring where they stand in relationship to these issues, but they’re hard to wrestle with head on. Fiction gives us a chance to understand and discuss them in new light.” One of his reviewers, who calls it “an inventive and fearless novel,” is classmate Allison Barlow, who is the executive director of Johns Hopkins University Center for Indigenous Health.
Tony Stearns retired at the end of January. He was a paralegal for many years, most recently with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Some of the things he is looking forward to in retirement are learning Spanish and playing more tennis. He has been married for six years to Sara and has two stepchildren, Samantha, 20, and Erik, 15.
Karen Voss Gruzen has been married to Alex for 32 years. They raised four children—Elsa, Sonja, Ava, and Bear—who range in age from 29 to 24. Now that their youngest has flown the coop, they are enjoying life as empty nesters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Crested Butte, Colorado. The two locales offer them a great life balance with winter skiing and summer hiking in Colorado and the hustle and bustle of city life in Massachusetts and the New England region after many years in Texas.
We have lost several classmates in recent months. Josephine “Jo” Buford Siegfried died on April 5, and Paul Korfonta passed away on July 11 following a stroke.
—Suzy Nachman Mercado, 55 Aspen Wood Lane, Fairfield, CT 06825; suzynmercado@gmail.com
I recently heard from Kevin Curnin, who responded to DAM’s request for authors to showcase their books. His recently published novel is called The More We Take, and it’s about three Nebraskans trying to make sense of their lives and the turbulent history of Nebraska and the High Plains, from the war on Indigenous peoples in the 1800s to the decimation of their stolen land and waters in the present. The book is literary fiction that blends drama, historical fiction, and magical realism. His main characters are brave but no match for “big agriculture” until they are helped by the Sky Council: legendary Lakota chiefs such as Red Cloud and Crazy Horse and Indigenous female mavericks such as Josephine Waggoner and Ada Deer. Chief Justice John Marshall makes an appearance as does General William Tecumseh Sherman. The story explores how law, religion, and technology helped to nearly eradicate the Plains tribes and how those same instruments can either create or avoid a second ecological desecration today. Kevin states, “The book is timely. Climate, science, law and power, Indigenous rights, and religion are in the headlines every day. People are interested in exploring where they stand in relationship to these issues, but they’re hard to wrestle with head on. Fiction gives us a chance to understand and discuss them in new light.” One of his reviewers, who calls it “an inventive and fearless novel,” is classmate Allison Barlow, who is the executive director of Johns Hopkins University Center for Indigenous Health.
Tony Stearns retired at the end of January. He was a paralegal for many years, most recently with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Some of the things he is looking forward to in retirement are learning Spanish and playing more tennis. He has been married for six years to Sara and has two stepchildren, Samantha, 20, and Erik, 15.
Karen Voss Gruzen has been married to Alex for 32 years. They raised four children—Elsa, Sonja, Ava, and Bear—who range in age from 29 to 24. Now that their youngest has flown the coop, they are enjoying life as empty nesters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Crested Butte, Colorado. The two locales offer them a great life balance with winter skiing and summer hiking in Colorado and the hustle and bustle of city life in Massachusetts and the New England region after many years in Texas.
We have lost several classmates in recent months. Josephine “Jo” Buford Siegfried died on April 5, and Paul Korfonta passed away on July 11 following a stroke.
—Suzy Nachman Mercado, 55 Aspen Wood Lane, Fairfield, CT 06825; suzynmercado@gmail.com