Class Note 1988
Issue
September-October 2026
Class Note 1988. “No matter how smart you are, you don’t know everything,” Rachel Dratch, the first ’88 to serve as Commencement speaker, told the class of 2026. “And you’re going to find a lot of people as you move forward who didn’t even go to college who may know a lot more than you do.” Dratch delivered her keynote June 14, 50 years and one day after Dartmouth graduated its first cohort of women. Many ’76 women joined to celebrate that anniversary, along with thousands of graduates, families, and friends on the Green and more than 7,000 online. “You’ve got to give it up for those first women. They endured catcalls, ridicule, and sexism from men who felt threatened by their brilliance. Thankfully, those things never happen today,” she deadpanned.
After a segue into her breakout Saturday Night Live role as the saturnine Debbie Downer, Dratch compared the ’26 class to a comedy ensemble, rather like the improv groups that launched her career—which took flight only after many auditions, countless rejections, and seemingly endless do-overs fueled by gritty resolve. “Improv is all about the ensemble,” she said. “The safety of the ensemble makes the unknown less scary. So, class of 2026, look around: This is your ensemble. Rely on each other, celebrate each other, and be there for each other.” Now a Tony-nominated actor, comedian, author, and podcast host, Dratch noted that when she applied to graduate school for theater, “I did not get in anywhere.”
Bob Yee’sclaims to fame are many, including being a fourth-generation Hawaii resident. But his favorite accolade came 25 years ago when Bank of Hawaii appointed him country manager for the Republic (and Micronesian archipelago) of Palau. “Forget ‘division manager.’ I peaked in 2001,” he says. Yee spent 19 years with Bank of Hawaii before moving in 2007 to Central Pacific Bank, where he is now a senior vice president. Class of ’88s in Hawaii include Eric Kloninger and Beverly Hagerdon. Yee meets up annually in Tahoe, California, with Colin Stewart, John Replogle, Alec Frisch, Doug Brockway, Victor Limongelli, Steven Turner,and Jeff Albright. The downside: Tahoe snowboarding, which dislocated Yee’s shoulder, prompting an emergency evacuation aboard the red “toboggan of shame.”
More than 300 friends and relatives gathered February 21 to remember Sam “Chip” Telerico, who died after an accidental fall. They included Dana Beard and Jeni Anderson,who remember Telerico as a loving man with a near-gravitational gift for friendship. At Dartmouth “the Chip effect” impacted Steve Gutmann and many others, as Telerico pulled them into his orbit with his antics and signature snort. Beard recalls coaxing him into a rustic camping trip without running water: “Ever dapper, he brought pressed shirts and wore them camping anyway.” Telerico’s Catholic faith sustained him during times of struggle, Beard says. “It helped him tremendously—it’s how he reinvented himself as a personal trainer—and helped so many people” after an early career in film and advertising.
Finally, bravi to organizers of our ongoing class birthday parties! More at www.dartmouth88.org.
—Sarah Jackson-Han, 6213 Winnebago Road, Bethesda, MD 20816; smjhan2@gmail.com;Bill Bundy, 442 Cedar Lane, New Canaan, CT 06840; bill.bundy@mac.com
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After a segue into her breakout Saturday Night Live role as the saturnine Debbie Downer, Dratch compared the ’26 class to a comedy ensemble, rather like the improv groups that launched her career—which took flight only after many auditions, countless rejections, and seemingly endless do-overs fueled by gritty resolve. “Improv is all about the ensemble,” she said. “The safety of the ensemble makes the unknown less scary. So, class of 2026, look around: This is your ensemble. Rely on each other, celebrate each other, and be there for each other.” Now a Tony-nominated actor, comedian, author, and podcast host, Dratch noted that when she applied to graduate school for theater, “I did not get in anywhere.”
Bob Yee’sclaims to fame are many, including being a fourth-generation Hawaii resident. But his favorite accolade came 25 years ago when Bank of Hawaii appointed him country manager for the Republic (and Micronesian archipelago) of Palau. “Forget ‘division manager.’ I peaked in 2001,” he says. Yee spent 19 years with Bank of Hawaii before moving in 2007 to Central Pacific Bank, where he is now a senior vice president. Class of ’88s in Hawaii include Eric Kloninger and Beverly Hagerdon. Yee meets up annually in Tahoe, California, with Colin Stewart, John Replogle, Alec Frisch, Doug Brockway, Victor Limongelli, Steven Turner,and Jeff Albright. The downside: Tahoe snowboarding, which dislocated Yee’s shoulder, prompting an emergency evacuation aboard the red “toboggan of shame.”
More than 300 friends and relatives gathered February 21 to remember Sam “Chip” Telerico, who died after an accidental fall. They included Dana Beard and Jeni Anderson,who remember Telerico as a loving man with a near-gravitational gift for friendship. At Dartmouth “the Chip effect” impacted Steve Gutmann and many others, as Telerico pulled them into his orbit with his antics and signature snort. Beard recalls coaxing him into a rustic camping trip without running water: “Ever dapper, he brought pressed shirts and wore them camping anyway.” Telerico’s Catholic faith sustained him during times of struggle, Beard says. “It helped him tremendously—it’s how he reinvented himself as a personal trainer—and helped so many people” after an early career in film and advertising.
Finally, bravi to organizers of our ongoing class birthday parties! More at www.dartmouth88.org.
—Sarah Jackson-Han, 6213 Winnebago Road, Bethesda, MD 20816; smjhan2@gmail.com;Bill Bundy, 442 Cedar Lane, New Canaan, CT 06840; bill.bundy@mac.com