Greetings, all! I received some great memories about fellow classmate Kelly Polen, who passed away last August. Michael Lovett wrote in to share, “Kelly and I were never close friends, but he was one of the most gentle, generous, gifted people I’ve known. We met sophomore year, when James Colligan ’02 recruited us to join his short-lived (yet epic!) metal band. That summer, based on the strength of some demos, Kelly earned an opening slot in a music festival in Baltimore and he asked me to form a band. Kelly sang and played guitar, I sang and played bass and his younger brother, Tim, played drums. We spent a week at his parents’ house, rehearsing these odd, beautiful, deeply personal songs he had written. Kelly was a wonderful musician, never afraid to stray from convention in pursuit of the harmonies he heard. The day of our performance, the heat was oppressive and the crowd non-existent, but Kelly didn’t care. He tore through the set, singing with his eyes closed, bashing away on his PRS. Between songs he’d turn to Tim and me with a big smile, grateful we hadn’t screwed up. We closed with Nirvana’s ‘In Bloom’ with Kelly hitting high notes he’d never tried in practice. That’s how I’ll remember Kelly Polen. Big smile, eyes closed, playing his heart out.” Another memory comes from Sam Rothenberg,who wrote, “I remember him as an insanely brilliant guy that managed to remain humble and self-effacing. One night, while cramming for a psych test, he got so caught up in the material that he actually read the entire textbook! He was also a genre-defying musician who toyed with the idea of entering improvisation contests but usually opted out so that the contest sponsors couldn’t simply appropriate his riffs. He was well loved and respected.” Thank you both for your words of remembrance for our classmate. I am happy to report any and all that I receive.

Our most recent news comes from Jenny (Stewart) Manuel, who was married April 2 to Colin Manuel (University of Kansas ’05) in their hometown of Austin, Texas. “Lots of Dartmouth ’03s were in attendance, including Hillary (Shaw) Hyman, Beth Vadasdi, Kristen (Knoll) Miller, Matt Miller, Laura Grip, Allison Sydlaske, Erika Fry, Courtney Grimes, Katie (Brown) Mollere, Kate (McGinn) O’Connor, Lauren (Sherry) Gimlett and fellow Austin-ites Lindsey Wolf, Grace McNamara and Elsa (Sprunt) Broeker.” Congratulations, Jenny! I bet it was an amazing a party!

Just a reminder: If you haven’t yet contributed to the Dartmouth College Fund, you still have time to do so by the June 30 fiscal-year deadline. The dues are minimal and help to provide need-based scholarships to students. Please consider giving!

Last, the class executive committee (president, Mike Vidmar; vice president, Kamil Walji; treasurer, Jamie (Singley) Shatsman; and secretary, me) is planning a mini-reunion in Chicago the weekend of July 29. I will be there along with a few other ’03s and we are trying to get involvement from the ’04s and ’05s. Join the 2003 Dartmouth Facebook page as we will be posting updates there as well as on the website about the specific time and venue as we get closer to July. Have a great summer everyone!

—Kellee (Harper) Hanigan, 4347 Golf Bag Lane, Terre Haute, IN 47802; dartmouth2003notes@gmail.com