Class Note 1980. When we were young, Dartmouth was in the spotlight as the home of BASIC computer language, Kiewit, and the John Kemeny of it all. Everyday digital communication was roughly a decade in the future. I am sure all of us have some kind of relationship with the online world now, including raising generations of digital natives. I see some of us on the “interwebs” on the regular! Dartmouth is host to a conference on the College’s contributions to artificial intelligence (i.e., coining the term at a 1956 research conference) this fall.
What has this to do with the class of 1980, you may ask. Recently I had a chat with Jayne (Heimlich) Conroy, a partner at Simmons Hanly Conroy, which takes on multidistrict litigations consolidated at the federal level, particularly in the areas of product liability and mass torts (e.g., opioids, hip implants, environment). We spoke just after the firm had won a significant victory in a California suit against social media giants Meta and YouTube on behalf of a family of a teen—on the basis of a failure to warn and a failure to verify age (even with the tools at their disposal)—based on product features intended to addict young users. Jayne leads teams that work for years on end to get into court, including opioid cases that began more than 20 years ago.
At Dartmouth Jayne was a government and biology double major. Upon graduation, wavering between med school and law school, she got a job helping with a drug lawsuit (DES), and a law career chose her. I was fascinated to learn about the complexities of her work and, as a bonus, to learn that she goes to court in beautifully constructed vintage suits from the 1940s. (Glamour!)
Jayne’s Lord Hall suitemates Ellen (Groetch) LaBerge, who lives in Syracuse, New York, and Lies Sapp, who splits time between New York City and North Carolina, weighed in. During freshman year, the trio met and bonded, which included navigating the demands of College academic and social life (cast your mind back to 1976, if you dare). These three future law school graduates remember roadtripping with their Lord “big brothers” to paint John Harvard’s statue green. Although they each lived in Lord all four years, the D-Plan set them on separate paths. The three of them speak with such warmth of the intimate bonds forged through that first-year experience and the friendships that endure today. Forty years later, when they had more occasion to be in New York, they started to meet often, along with Daniela Varon and her Lord roommate Val Berk, to forge reconnection for this time of life, a product of the experiences they have had in disparate geographies, work, and family lives. Nevertheless, that foundational bond from earliest days is what they all cherish from the College.
As we forge relationships with the class of 2030 through “30connect80” (see our class website), I hope we will share with them the cherished foundations of our own Dartmouth experiences.
—Kal Alston, 948 Euclid Ave., Syracuse, NY 13210; alstonkal@gmail.com; Wade Herring, P.O. Box 9848, Savannah, GA 31412; (912) 944-1639; wherring@huntermaclean.com; Jennifer W. DesCombes, 256 W 7th St., Claremont, CA 91711; (909) 921-3402; jennifer.descombes@gmail.com