Class Note 1979
Issue
July-August 2026
Class Note 1979. There are two questions I’ve been asking myself, our ’79 classmates, and random people around our age if they make eye contact: If you can retire, why would you work; if you can work, why would you retire?
Our classmate Neal Luppescu has a terrifically inspiring response, one that describes his years of heading toward, practicing, mastering, then stepping away from being defined by what in the old neighborhood we’d call a “fancy” professional position and then discovering a universe that intrigues and delights him. He says: “After finishing med school and residency in New York City in 1988, my wife and I moved to central New Jersey, where I practiced gastroenterology and taught medical students and residents as a clinical assistant professor of medicine at Rutgers Medical School. At the end of 2022 I retired, and we moved back to New York City. This past December I started a new job, volunteering at the American Museum of Natural History as an ‘explainer’ (the equivalent of a docent), in the Earth and space exhibits. The training took four months. You can find me in the planetarium and the halls of the universe, meteorites, or minerals and gems. After retiring, I really missed the joy of learning that came from interacting with my med students and residents. Now at the museum, it is truly exciting to share with others the extraordinary complexity and ineffable beauty of the natural world.”
Growing up to be an explainer—an official one, trained and everything—sounds glorious. That Neal also used the word “ineffable” makes him even more a hero. It’s one of my favorite words even though I can’t tell you why.
Dave Kelley, a television journalist who spent many years at CBS News, is now “basically retired in scenic northern New Jersey” and finding out that retirement is like having a part-time job.Dave writes, “Like the rest of us, I am dealing with Medicare and attempted scams by phone, email, and text—and I have a whole new group of friends with ‘M.D.’ after their names!” One of the best parts, Dave says, is that he is “reading actual books.” He does, however, miss working with younger folks he once mentored. At his last job before retirement, which was at Cheddar News, “Everyone was 25—I was like Robert De Niro in The Intern. They were so much fun and so talented.” He does “speak occasionally to a friend’s class on media literacy. [Yikes.] The media landscape is imploding now—at least in terms of factual information.”
One of the books Dave (and the rest of us) would enjoy is The Diaspora of the Gods—lots about Dartmouth in the mid-’70s—by Thomas Ewing. Even the novel’s disclaimer is entertaining: “Characters and locations resembling real people or places are used fictionally. They wish they were having so much fun.”
Send me a note, please, and let us know more about the fun you’re having now, my friends. Deal?
—Gina Barreca, 394 Browns Road, Storrs, CT 06268; gb@ginabarreca.com
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Our classmate Neal Luppescu has a terrifically inspiring response, one that describes his years of heading toward, practicing, mastering, then stepping away from being defined by what in the old neighborhood we’d call a “fancy” professional position and then discovering a universe that intrigues and delights him. He says: “After finishing med school and residency in New York City in 1988, my wife and I moved to central New Jersey, where I practiced gastroenterology and taught medical students and residents as a clinical assistant professor of medicine at Rutgers Medical School. At the end of 2022 I retired, and we moved back to New York City. This past December I started a new job, volunteering at the American Museum of Natural History as an ‘explainer’ (the equivalent of a docent), in the Earth and space exhibits. The training took four months. You can find me in the planetarium and the halls of the universe, meteorites, or minerals and gems. After retiring, I really missed the joy of learning that came from interacting with my med students and residents. Now at the museum, it is truly exciting to share with others the extraordinary complexity and ineffable beauty of the natural world.”
Growing up to be an explainer—an official one, trained and everything—sounds glorious. That Neal also used the word “ineffable” makes him even more a hero. It’s one of my favorite words even though I can’t tell you why.
Dave Kelley, a television journalist who spent many years at CBS News, is now “basically retired in scenic northern New Jersey” and finding out that retirement is like having a part-time job.Dave writes, “Like the rest of us, I am dealing with Medicare and attempted scams by phone, email, and text—and I have a whole new group of friends with ‘M.D.’ after their names!” One of the best parts, Dave says, is that he is “reading actual books.” He does, however, miss working with younger folks he once mentored. At his last job before retirement, which was at Cheddar News, “Everyone was 25—I was like Robert De Niro in The Intern. They were so much fun and so talented.” He does “speak occasionally to a friend’s class on media literacy. [Yikes.] The media landscape is imploding now—at least in terms of factual information.”
One of the books Dave (and the rest of us) would enjoy is The Diaspora of the Gods—lots about Dartmouth in the mid-’70s—by Thomas Ewing. Even the novel’s disclaimer is entertaining: “Characters and locations resembling real people or places are used fictionally. They wish they were having so much fun.”
Send me a note, please, and let us know more about the fun you’re having now, my friends. Deal?
—Gina Barreca, 394 Browns Road, Storrs, CT 06268; gb@ginabarreca.com