Warm wishes for a happy and healthy seasonal holiday(s) of your choice. As I mentioned in the last Class Notes, I have relocated from the East to the West Coast. So I decided to reach out to some of my new California neighbors and see what brought folks to the West Coast.


Sofia Veniard, Th’94,moved out here for her master’s in architecture and has been here for most of the past 16 years. She is an architect who specializes in public projects, and for the last two years a stay-at-home mom with two children. She and her family live up in west Sonoma County—her husband is a winemaker. If you want to taste the fruits of their labor, the wine is called Rainborne and is dry-farmed using no irrigation.


“The last thing I heard about myself from the alumni magazine was that I had gone to China to find myself. This sounds rather grandiose and hippie-ish—all I really wanted was to find a job,” writes Peter Lorentzen.After spending a few years in China, then London, he returned stateside to pursue the academic life. He graduated with a Ph.D. in Business from Stanford and decided to stay in northern California—joining the faculty of Berkeley. He and wife Karen Park have two young boys. “Currently I am in publish-or-perish mode, trying to get tenure by saying some new and exciting but rigorously argued things about China.”


Moving south down the coast is Jennifer (Beams) Sheppard, who has been here since 1994. She lives in Pebble Beach on the Monterey Peninsula. “The central coast is a pretty incredible area with something for everyone. Almost every weekend my family gets in the Pacific (wetsuits of course) for boogie boarding or body surfing,” she says. She and her husband both work at Stevenson School, an independent pre-kindergarten to grade 12 school with two campuses. She brought the family, including her two kids, to reunions and writes, “It was so good for them to see a college campus. My kids know the high school seniors ‘graduate, leave and go on to college,’ but they didn’t have a true sense of what that really meant. Seeing Dartmouth put it all in perspective.”


And from someone that’s closer to my home in southern California: Brent Schindele came to Los Angeles 15 years ago after completing conservatory acting training in N.Y.C. He’s currently doing a stint at a theater up north in Santa Cruz, “but they got me a rental car so I can drive back down a couple days a week and keep doing my job playing the piano at Disneyland.” 


Before I get too lost in the “Good Vibrations” and fully become a “California Girl,” I have some kudos to offer closer to campus. Congrats to Clayton Adams, Tu’99,the new CEO of Simon Pearce! Hey, Clay, what do you recommend that’s earthquake proof?


Well that’s the column for this month—a quick plug to remind you to visit the Dartmouth Name Directory and make sure your alumni records are updated so the class has your accurate e-mail address, mailing address, etc. Visit alumni.dartmouth.edu and click on directory to make sure you are all up to date.


—Beth Krakower, c/o CineMedia Promotions, 11500 Olympic Blvd., Suite 400, Los Angeles, CA 90064; dartmouth93@gmail.com