Class Note 1981
Issue
January-February 2026
Class Note 1981. Happy New Year. I am pleased to join Christy Hunter Mihaly as co-class secretary. Taking on this role after serving as co-head agent means asking classmates for news rather than money. Please send!
Our class deserves kudos for raising a record $3.3 million for the Dartmouth College Fund in our 45th reunion year. Thanks to my fellow outgoing cohead agent Susan Adler Funk, leadership giving co-chairs Lee Carson and John Casaudoumecq, and co-presidents Lynne Hamel Gaudet and Beth Shapiro Lewyckyj for all their work.
We heard fascinating TED-style talks during reunion, including by Pancho Ryan, who describes himself as an architect, photographer, artist, and entrepreneur. Pancho earned a master’s in architecture as well as a master’s in public and private management from Yale. Based in Greenwich, Connecticut, Pancho has designed houses, apartment buildings, golf clubs, churches, theaters, railroad stations and other commercial buildings. Pancho reports that his best clients have been Dartmouth classmates.
Pancho’s talk inspired me to find other architects in our class. I tracked down Sue Reed, who has worked in the Hanover area since the late 1980s, after getting her master’s in architecture from Virginia Tech, designing schools, courthouses, and fraternities as well as custom homes and multi-family housing. Sue founded and has been active in Dartmouth Alumni in Design and Architecture (DADA), bringing together alumni interested in the built environment.
Another Upper Valley architect, John Vansant, led Smith & Vansant in White River Junction, Vermont, for more than 30 years after getting his master’s from the University of Virginia. In addition to designing homes with solar power, John has led renovations of Casque & Gauntlet and Zeta Psi.
Susie Nutt, also trained at UVA, has joined the growing ranks of retired classmates after working for 40 years in New York City designing high rise residential rental and condo buildings.
Jeff Ganem, who earned his master’s from Harvard, is a vice president with Leggat McCall, a real estate developer in Boston, where he manages design and construction for projects in the academic, corporate, healthcare, and cultural fields. Among other projects, Jeff has done preservation work at Trinity Church in Back Bay.
Naomi Pollock, who has architecture degrees from both Harvard and Tokyo University, lived for many years in Tokyo and writes about design and architecture in Japan. She has published 10 books and has an 11th, Vanishing Japan: Modern Architecture Gone but Not Forgotten, coming out in July.
Jim Rill, whose master’s is from Catholic University, leads Rill Architects in Bethesda, Maryland, designing new homes and home renovations as well as interiors, with current projects in Florida, Maine, and Montana as well as the D.C. area. Jim’s work has been published widely, from American Farmhouse to Home and Design.
Meanwhile, Lucy Irwin, who received her master’s from Yale, worked for both large and small architecture firms before taking a break to focus on her family and community service in San Francisco. She has more recently relaunched her architectural career.
Simply said, there is amazing talent in our class.
—Howard Morse, 1836 Milvale Road, Annapolis, MD 21409; m.howard.morse@gmail.com; Christy Hunter Mihaly, P.O. Box 119, East Calais, VT 05650; christymihaly@gmail.com
Our class deserves kudos for raising a record $3.3 million for the Dartmouth College Fund in our 45th reunion year. Thanks to my fellow outgoing cohead agent Susan Adler Funk, leadership giving co-chairs Lee Carson and John Casaudoumecq, and co-presidents Lynne Hamel Gaudet and Beth Shapiro Lewyckyj for all their work.
We heard fascinating TED-style talks during reunion, including by Pancho Ryan, who describes himself as an architect, photographer, artist, and entrepreneur. Pancho earned a master’s in architecture as well as a master’s in public and private management from Yale. Based in Greenwich, Connecticut, Pancho has designed houses, apartment buildings, golf clubs, churches, theaters, railroad stations and other commercial buildings. Pancho reports that his best clients have been Dartmouth classmates.
Pancho’s talk inspired me to find other architects in our class. I tracked down Sue Reed, who has worked in the Hanover area since the late 1980s, after getting her master’s in architecture from Virginia Tech, designing schools, courthouses, and fraternities as well as custom homes and multi-family housing. Sue founded and has been active in Dartmouth Alumni in Design and Architecture (DADA), bringing together alumni interested in the built environment.
Another Upper Valley architect, John Vansant, led Smith & Vansant in White River Junction, Vermont, for more than 30 years after getting his master’s from the University of Virginia. In addition to designing homes with solar power, John has led renovations of Casque & Gauntlet and Zeta Psi.
Susie Nutt, also trained at UVA, has joined the growing ranks of retired classmates after working for 40 years in New York City designing high rise residential rental and condo buildings.
Jeff Ganem, who earned his master’s from Harvard, is a vice president with Leggat McCall, a real estate developer in Boston, where he manages design and construction for projects in the academic, corporate, healthcare, and cultural fields. Among other projects, Jeff has done preservation work at Trinity Church in Back Bay.
Naomi Pollock, who has architecture degrees from both Harvard and Tokyo University, lived for many years in Tokyo and writes about design and architecture in Japan. She has published 10 books and has an 11th, Vanishing Japan: Modern Architecture Gone but Not Forgotten, coming out in July.
Jim Rill, whose master’s is from Catholic University, leads Rill Architects in Bethesda, Maryland, designing new homes and home renovations as well as interiors, with current projects in Florida, Maine, and Montana as well as the D.C. area. Jim’s work has been published widely, from American Farmhouse to Home and Design.
Meanwhile, Lucy Irwin, who received her master’s from Yale, worked for both large and small architecture firms before taking a break to focus on her family and community service in San Francisco. She has more recently relaunched her architectural career.
Simply said, there is amazing talent in our class.
—Howard Morse, 1836 Milvale Road, Annapolis, MD 21409; m.howard.morse@gmail.com; Christy Hunter Mihaly, P.O. Box 119, East Calais, VT 05650; christymihaly@gmail.com