Sad news first: Richard Likes of Holts Summit, Missouri, has passed away. Cause of death: lung cancer. While at Dartmouth Richard hailed from Kirkwood, Missouri. Our prayers go out to Richard’s family.


Suffering from E.M.S. (empty mailbag syndrome), I decided to telephone my freshman Topliff roommate. We spent an hour or so catching up. Tom Surprenant, a native of Newport, Rhode Island, came to Hanover from Portsmouth Abbey, where he was a three-sport man.


At Dartmouth “Soup” was active in rugby and as rush chairman at Zeta Psi, whose faculty advisor was classics professor Dr. Matthew Wiencke; Dr. Wiencke became Tom’s honors advisor in classical archeology. Tom was able to travel to Italy and to Greece on foreign study, getting a chance to study sites and antiquities, as a bonus going to the best museums in London, Paris, Munich and Rome. Tom also got to examine remains from ancient Etruscan, Roman, Greek and Minoan cultures.


Soup’s first job after graduation was logistics management for Outward Bound in Hanover. Years later Tom would build his own log cabin surrounded by 90 acres on the Chippewa River in Wisconsin, where he can stalk the elusive sharp-toothed muskie. After Outward Bound Tom earned a law degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has been a resident of St. Paul, Minnesota, since 1987 and the proud resident of a houseboat since 2008.


Tom pays the bills by acting as general counsel for a local construction company. His labor of love, though, is acting as a founder and head of Songs of Hope. This wildly successful effort brings foreign youngsters to St. Paul, where they can perform songs only after rigorous rehearsals. Countries represented by campers known as Hopers include Russia, South Korea, Madagascar, India, Bosnia, Croatia, Hungary, Singapore and many more. After 22 years there are 500 alumni Hopers. Some visit each other, rekindling the once-in-a-lifetime experience of sharing similarities and dissimilarities. Tom has received an award noting his efforts for international peace from the lieutenant governor of Minnesota, but Tom prefers to take pride in the glowing testimonials of Hoper alumni. You can read some on the Songs of Hope website.


Congratulations to Tom Surprenant for his creativity and persistence in thinking globally and acting locally!


—John T. Bird, 1920 Chateau Circle, Apt. 306, Birmingham, AL 35209; (205) 276-4609; jtbird.com@gmail.com