As I file this column I will be at the fall mini for Homecoming, October 28-30: ’Tails will be consumed at Linda and Steve Fowler’s, Harvard consumed (we hope) by the Big Green and then dinner at Pierce’s on Saturday night.

Speaking of consumption, Bob Murphy has begun monthly breakfast meetings for local and visiting classmates. “In addition to Mike Gonnerman and myself,” Bob says, “we’ve had Dick Bernstein, Mike Bettman, Mark Eldridge, Steve Fowler, Pete Frederick, Jim Griffiths, Roger Hansen, Sven Karlen, Allen Koop, Rick Mahoney, Bob McConnaughey, Mark Sheingorn and Steve Waterhouse. They started at Lou’s but moved to Skinny Pancake. (An attempt to channel the millennial experience? No, Gonnerman avers that it’s just space needs). Topics have included politics, College issues, out-of-Hanover minis such as Normandy, health. “One thing sticks in my mind,” Murph notes. “(We have) differing perspectives and opinions, but the great thing about those meetings was the well-reasoned arguments and the mutual respect shown by all attendees. If only the general political debate could be like our breakfasts!”

One of the pleasures of writing this column is to find the varied paths our lives have taken and how we are re-inventing ourselves. Brian Butler spent time with Weaver Gaines and Mary Trew at their Fire Island, New York, home “hunkered down against the unremitting rain. We read, ate and talked—including about how we might re-invent ourselves now that our careers are tailing off.” It’s a good pursuit, one I am learning Dartmouth makes inspiring…a dividend for living that we probably didn’t anticipate while studying for comps or raising a glass of Tanzi’s best brew in fellowship.

Which leads me to Jeff Aldred. His life path took him to Vietnam after two years at Dartmouth. He returned to receive an M.S. in mechanical engineering at Colorado University. Then followed seven startups, all centered on mechanical solutions. Jeff talked about engineering elegance, Occam’s razor and the value of seeing things through to completion. Steve Key took his M.B.A. at Cornell, then a stint at Ernst and Young, then CFO duties at ConAgra and Textron. “I flunked retirement,” he says. He now sits on several corporate boards. He says, “The education that I received at Dartmouth served me well in my adult life. It was for me, and for all of us who are alums, an experience in learning how to think and how to conduct oneself.” Robert Schwartz followed yet another path, first to the back-to-the-land movement. That led to a career as a newspaper reporter in West Virginia and now as a community college professor in Arizona. He’s never lost the farming instinct, though. His yard consists of a garden, grapefruit and Minneola trees, and his tendency is to try to convince his neighbors to convert grass to productive plantings (potatoes, for instance).

As always, I look forward to your notes, calls and insight. Also, mark your calendar for CarniVail, March 3-5. Details in the next column.

—John Rogers, 6051 Laurel Ave., #310, Golden Valley, MN 55416; (763) 568-7501; johnbairdrogers@comcast.net