Class Notes 1979

Doug Arion spent the first 15 years of his career in nuclear survivability as senior scientist in the U.S. underground test program. Recently, at 2023 Stellafane telescope convention in Springfield, Vermont, he won first prizes for Master Class’ telescope design and optics. Doug is responsible for placement of telescopes at every White Mountain hut operated by the Appalachian Mountain Club, letting hikers view the heavens away from urban bright lights. Reaching some 70,000 people, Doug’s Mountains of Stars science outreach program (mountainsofstars.org) aims to create “environmental awareness from a cosmic perspective.” Several Dartmouth undergrads have participated as interns. Active with Dark Sky International, he serves on the American Astronomical Society Committee to Protect Astronomy and Space Environments. On the PBS documentary Defending the Dark, he discussed the dangers of light pollution far beyond our inability to see the stars.

My last column included Tom “T.R.” Ryan’s soccer teammates. He also complimented his Topliff freshman roommate Pete Roby as a “class act and great friend.” Pete adds, “T.R. is the best! I’ve served as lead consultant to the NCAA in its leadership development programs for 15 years and have gotten so much satisfaction from helping future leaders within the NCAA. I recently completed my role as Dartmouth’s advisor to the athletic director, Mike Harrity, who completed his first year. Lastly, and most importantly, I married Dr. Debbie Gries in October 2022. We are having a ball living in Newport, Rhode Island, and watching our two grandchildren grow up. “

Bennett Kashdan thanks Burr Gray and Carol Mondschein for organizing a Zoom reunion of their spring 1977 Blois, France, language study abroad (LSA) group. Bennett even found his LSA French sister for an e-reunion. He visited France a few times during the 10 to 15 years after graduation. On one of those early trips he missed a very good friend’s wedding because he misunderstood the time of departure on the French charter company’s phone recording the night before. He wrote, “Shoulda taken French 10!” A retired interventional radiologist now living in Wakefield, Rhode Island, he added, “Susan and I see neighbors Jean and Lloyd Albert frequently. Knee surgery keeps me skiing in winter and shoulder surgery keeps me sailing the other seasons! Trying also to see the rest of the world while we can!”

Jeff Karan sent Burr a “snapshot since the LSA in Blois: hostel in Amsterdam; scuba diving in the Mediterranean in a very small French wetsuit that made the locals laugh; return to Dartmouth; forget most of my French; go to business school at Tuck; work on Wall Street; do years of penance; get married, have twin daughters and lots of cats; more years of penance; get a degree in philosophy and religion on the West Coast; become an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley; join a crypto company’s founding team (hide my Medicare card); dye my hair and get full body tattoos (aspirational); watch Seinfeld, Thelma and Louise, Harold and Maude reruns; think about the future; avoid fast cars and cliffs…for now.”

—Janie Simms Hamner, 7327 Centenary Ave., Dallas, TX 75225; jshandkids@aol.com

Steve Dorvee, who is eyeing retirement, is still active on the board of the Children’s Development Academy (CDA), which provides early childhood education to children of the working poor. The CDA has been closely aligned for more than five decades with Zion Baptist, the church Julian Schmoke has rejoined since his return to Atlanta from D.C. Steve and Julian are looking forward to working together to benefit both organizations. Aside from volunteering for the CDA, Steve still practices law and collects Southern folk art. His daughter works for the Centers for Disease Control and has been selected for its rapid response team, which can be deployed anywhere in the world on a moment’s notice. Steve’s son, Russell, graduated from Stetson last year and is now working for the Orlando City Soccer Club.

Julian still works for the U.S. Department of Education. At Zion Baptist he serves as first chair on the trustee board and will be the executive director of the Dr. Frank Lewis Legacy Foundation, which focuses on improving the quality of life of families, advocacy for those in need, and improving preschool to 16 educational outcomes. Moreover, Julian is a grandfather to a little boy who will surely grow up to be handsome, smart and, we hope, a Dartmouth student!

Michael Wilkinson married in August 2022 and moved into “preferment” (not retirement) as of January 1. He and his wife, Porsha, have been traveling far and wide, including to Bora-Bora, Costa Rica, Riviera Maya, and Jamaica. As if that were not enough, Porsha published a book and they are remodeling their condo. Michael’s daughter, Danielle, is finishing up her first novel while being recognized as having one of the top blog sites for authors. Not to be outdone, daughter Gabrielle is doing amazing work through her podcast Dear God, I’m Sad, which focuses on the intersection between spirituality and mental health.

Glenn Colville is enjoying retirement. His son is a software engineer at Toyota (involved with storing vehicle identification numbers). Glenn proudly announced his daughter’s acceptance to a residency in pediatrics at Emory University Hospital. (Secretary’s Note: My own pediatrician, Dr. Leila D. Denmark, my role model for my pediatrics career, lived purposefully for 114 years. As Emory’s first pediatric resident back in the 1920s, she had ICUs full of patients with pertussis and was instrumental in the development of the first vaccine against that deadly disease.)

My thanks go to Steve Dorvee for helping me with this column by supplying content about attendees at the ’79 mini-reunion held last spring in Atlanta.

Being an Atlanta native myself and having attended Emory University School of Medicine after Dartmouth, I feel a kinship to these classmates. Thus, I end this column with a quote from W.E.B. DuBois when he was a professor at Atlanta University, established in 1865, the nation’s first institution to award graduate degrees to Black students: “The true college will ever have one goal, not to earn meat but to know the end and aim of life that meat nourishes.”

—Janie Simms Hamner, 7327 Centenary Ave., Dallas, TX 75225; jshandkids@aol.com

Last spring Tom Ewing learned that he needed open heart surgery to correct hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. “The prospect of having my heart stopped, combined with news of classmates’ passings, brought out feelings around mortality and leading a purposeful life. One positive aspect of the experience was reconnecting with old friends from all periods of my life, especially Dartmouth. The operation went well; my stamina is coming back steadily. Having started a serious exercise regime during Covid lockdown, I entered surgery 35 pounds lighter than in 2019. Milestones of my recovery include finishing a five-mile charity run-walk on Thanksgiving and ice skating on Boston’s Frog Pond during Christmas.

“I have been married for more than 20 years to Deanna Raih, a Cornell-trained attorney who fights Medicare fraud. Our daughter, Miranda, perhaps the youngest ’79 legacy, is a dedicated figure skater. This year we’ve traveled to Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois to watch her compete in synchronized skating. She’s a high school freshman in a program for athletes at Shattuck St. Mary’s in Minnesota, where she goes for two-week long residencies and practices with their figure skating team while doing most schoolwork online. She’s happy and we’re thrilled with the education she’s getting in this adaptation to distance-learning.

“I’m a classics major at heart. After a stab at architecture, I got an M.B.A. in finance to be practical. I’ve built several corporate budgets and can’t help but recognize the element of fiction in them all. I turned to writing as a way of integrating disparate facets of my life: fatherhood, business, creativity, and classical mythology. Facing mortality drove me to finish a ‘new adult’ novel I’d been working on, The Diaspora of the Gods. The story follows a classics major graduating from Dartmouth who’s trying to figure out his career and to find love. He’s helped by a Dartmouth freshman who reveals that she’s a Greek goddess and his guardian angel and that the real story behind Greek mythology is nothing like he thought. With other Dartmouth students and other gods, my protagonist comically thwarts a plot to launder drug money and destroy the full-scale replica of the Parthenon situated in Nashville, where I live. The tale incorporates a business plan for the bad guys and a fun twist about music royalties.” For an electronic copy, email thomas.c.ewing.d79@gmail.com.

On a sober note, I report the death of a son of Dartmouth, Kellen Haak, who was son of Vail Haak ’49 and brother of Amy Haak ’80. After a 15-year battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, he died on January 13 at his home in West Lebanon, New Hampshire. He is survived by his partner, Mary LaMarca, beloved dog Rosey, his sister, and his mother. Kellen spent several summers after graduation working as the chef at the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge while being enrolled in New York University’s anthropology and museum studies graduate program. After a stint at the Smithsonian in D.C., Kellen returned to Hanover to be collections manager for the Hood Museum for 25 years.

—Janie Simms Hamner, 7327 Centenary Ave., Dallas, TX 75225; jshandkids@aol.com

Phil Olson shares about his life after Dartmouth as follows.

“After majoring in math at Dartmouth, playing football, and throwing the shot and discus on the track team, I tried out for the Chicago Bears, hoping for a career in the NFL. I joined the Bears in the summer of 1979 and was with the team for several hours. At that point they suggested that I pursue another career. So off I went to the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, an M.B.A., and a career in business.

“I was with a commercial real estate developer in Tampa when one of my tenants, an industrial film producer, asked me if I would be an actor in a training film for the police department. When I arrived on the set, not having a single day of acting experience, they told me I would play a husband who would argue with his wife and the wife would pull out a gun and shoot me—blood packs and everything. They didn’t have a script and asked me to ‘just wing it,’ so I improvised. They kept asking me back to do more industrial films. They even paid me. I think they liked not having to hire a writer.

“From that experience, I moved to Los Angeles to write while keeping a day job. At 40 I wrote my first play. Better late than never.

“I follow the advice, ‘Write what you know.’ I grew up in a Scandinavian household in the Twin Cities. My great-grandparents on both sides came over from Norway. My parents were actually related to each other before they were married. That was truly disturbing to hear until I found out they were second cousins removed, so not Deliverance related. Big sigh of relief, but still.

“Being 100-percent Norwegian, my plays tend to be about emotionally reserved families. My play, A Nice Family Gathering, is a story about a man who loved his wife so much he almost told her. I never heard my parents say they loved each other or us kids. I’m sure they thought it, they just didn’t say it out loud. It was understood. In one of my Don’t Hug Me musicals, I wrote the following exchange. Clara: ‘Gunner, tell me you love me.’ Gunner: ‘Oh, of crying in the beer nuts, I told you I loved you when we got married. If anything changes, I’ll let you know.’ That was my life and I liked it. Saying or hearing the ‘L’ word is uncomfortable.

“Apparently, the emotionally reserved theme resonates with audiences. Since I was 40 I’ve written 18 published plays that have had 450 productions in seven countries. Two of my plays were optioned to be made into feature films and I sold two screenplays, script-doctored three that were produced, and have never been in therapy. I’m still waiting for my ship to come in, but I gave up my day job in 2009. Check out philolson.com.”

Share with me your experiences since graduation.

—Janie Simms Hamner, 7327 Centenary Ave., Dallas, TX 75225; jshandkids@aol.com

Bruce Smoller, M.D., chair of the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at University of Rochester Medical Center, has been selected by the College of American Pathologists (CAP) board of governors to receive a CAP Lifetime Achievement Award at its October meeting to recognize his excellence as a teacher of dermatopathology, scholar, mentor, and diagnostician. However, he writes, “My proudest achievement is having won the Nickel Award from the American Society for Dermatopathology for a lifetime of excellence in education upon the nomination by trainees. On the side, my hobby has been developing an expertise in wine, currently studying for the diploma from the Wine and Spirits Educational Trust. I currently give lectures and seminars and even teach a full-year college class on the art and science of wine.”

Connecting and encouraging others, not as a professor, but as a life coach, Eleanor Shannon uses a body-centered approach, based on the work of trauma expert Dr. Gabor Maté and Steve Porges’ polyvagal theory. As she puts it, “At birth all of us are programmed to connect—both to our intuitive, body wisdom and to our caregivers for food, shelter, protection. It wasn’t until I had bossed my body into the breakdown lane and experienced crippling back pain in my mid-40s that I realized I had lost connection with my body and desperately needed it back.

“Almost everyone has this work to do on an individual level, but the pandemic, political polarity, gun violence, police violence, racism, climate change, disinformation, social media, war, economic inequality, etc., have created uncertainty in the collective beyond anything in living memory. People tend to get reactive in their anxiety or shut down in depression. The way out of the fear spiral is connection—first connection to ourselves and our body wisdom, and then safe, authentic connection with others.

“In this chaotic moment I’ve been inspired by Dartmouth alumni who have created and sought connection in new ways—not focused on traditional topics such as fundraising, sports, Class Notes, the usual rah-rah fealty. Groups have been led by, and allowed room for, alumni who do not fit the historical Dartmouth prototype to express difficulties experienced as students, as alums, or both—to be vulnerable in speaking their truth and to have their successes (even if perhaps unconventional) witnessed and celebrated.

“We need each other to resist feeling overwhelmed and without hope. Ironically, the terribleness of what is happening is a miraculous mirror—an opportunity to drop into our bodies, to feel what we are feeling, to question ourselves, to become conscious of habits of harm, and to reevaluate the institutions that have shaped us and the culture we live in.” Learn more at cometoyoursenses.com.

I hope you were able to tune into the ’79 Zoom presentation in June by Dave Stone and Jim Hake during which they shared their passions for serving, equipping, and educating people who live in need, often in war-torn areas. Please share with me and inspire classmates with news about your passions.

—Janie Simms Hamner, 7327 Centenary Ave., Dallas, TX 75225; jshandkids@aol.com

Psychiatrist and nationally recognized expert in enhancing the learning environment for medical students, Leon “Lee” Jones, M.D., became dean of medical education at Georgetown University School of Medicine last August, having served most recently as associate dean for students at the University of California, San Francisco. He sees the notion of taking an interest in a whole person and looking beyond their symptoms or diagnosis as fundamental to success in medicine. “I love people’s stories and how different parts of people intersect.” Lee describes his approach to medical education as grounded in truth, science, and equity. He says that working toward a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce creates the conditions for better healthcare overall.

Having had surgeons in his family, loving science and being curious about others, Lee designed his undergraduate major in psychology, anthropology, and education. He went on to medical school at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Joining him in D.C. are his partner, Bill Flynn, and their three dogs.

Harold “Hal” Frazier, M.D., urologist and nationally recognized expert in robotic surgery, has a role at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences not unlike Lee’s at Georgetown. Hal is associate dean of graduate medical education. Additionally, he is chairman of the board of trustees and clinical director of the urologic oncology program at the George Washington University Hospital. Because both Hal and Lee are in D.C., they have been in touch. As premed undergrads they were partners in many chemistry labs and were both members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Hal went on to Dartmouth Medical School. His wife, Aletta Ann (Bork) Frazier, is a Dartmouth ’82.

While Lee noted above that medical education should be grounded in truth, science, and equity, Diana Lawrence, an American studies major, finds trust, truth, and understanding are on her mind these days. “Regarding trust, how does one decide whom, what, and when to trust given the divergent views around us?” Diana considers information source and intentions. Intentions are key. Are they self-serving (designed to push an agenda or inflict hurt) or do they elevate the conversation? Her quest for truth includes gathering data and talking to friends with special insights or different biases. While “messy,” she finds her take on truth emerges, often as “an educated gut, but solid enough to inspire action while remaining open to evolving.” Finally, understanding how truth can vary among people and to better appreciate differences, Diana’s in a group that explores thorny contemporary issues. After Dartmouth Diana earned a B.S. in electrical engineering from Michigan and an M.B.A. from Harvard. Her career, largely in startups, especially high tech, culminated in advising small businesses across their lifecycles. She and her husband live in Golden, Colorado.

—Janie Simms Hamner, 7327 Centenary Ave., Dallas, TX 75225; jshandkids@aol.com

Kerry Hershel shared in the fall 2021, “After 30 years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, I am retiring; ‘re-launching’ would be a better term! It was a fun run, but I am ready to add new, fulfilling activities in my life. I plan on doing lots of hiking and reading, so if you have any favorite hikes or books, I’d love to hear about them or even do them with you! My new contact information is kerry.herschel@gmail.com.”

Mark Snyderman retired in the summer of 2021 after a 27-year career at Fidelity that he “truly enjoyed.” Mark wrote, “I love investing, and Fidelity gave me a chance to pursue that with ample resources and freedom.” He was warned not to overcommit in the first year of retirement. “I have grandchildren and many outdoor pursuits, so it shouldn’t be too hard to stay busy.”

After graduation Carol Gieg earned graduate degrees in social welfare and public health from UC Berkeley. She authored TBI, Surviving and Thriving After a Brain Injury, a well-researched memoir outlining her own struggle to recover from a traumatic brain injury and offering tips for managing brain injury and other brain-compromising illnesses. Her poetry and prose have appeared in journals and anthologies and have been featured on her local radio station. She shared, “I have found myself migrating toward certain topics, batched into individual series. For example, I have a cache of them about homelessness (a population with which I have had a significant amount of contact), dementia (my husband has a rapidly progressing form), love and friendship and others.” Ask her about them at carolgieg7@gmail.com. Now retired after 35 years as a social worker and psychotherapist, including returning to work for 10 years just three months after having had brain surgery, Carol lives in Benicia, California, where she takes care of her husband, Luis.

Carolyn Greene wrote, “Except for my Sophomore Summer in Lord Hall, I spent all four years in Brown Hall in the Choates. A great group of people lived in that dormitory, and I still maintain contact with many of them. Right after leaving Dartmouth, I went on to UC Berkeley School of Public Health, where I obtained my M.P.H. in epidemiology. Following that I married David Hathaway ’78 and we moved to Vermont, where we have remained. After many years in state government, I retired and now do quite a bit of volunteer work.” A fun Dartmouth ’79 fact about Carolyn is that she shares her birthday with seven other classmates.

Not all of us have retired. Dave Reed, who practices business law in Syracuse, New York, had a chance encounter with classmate Tom Givas at a real estate closing. They “had no recollection of each other from Hanover but were able to discuss a few shared memories.” A fun fact about Dave is that his 18th birthday in 1975 marked the first day of classes during our freshman year!

Share your fun ’79 facts.

—Janie Simms Hamner, 7327 Centenary Ave., Dallas, TX 75225; jshandkids@aol.com

Social distancing imposed by Covid-related restrictions made many classmates feel that we were impaired from serving others. Such was not the case for Cindy Marder Calder, who decided in September 2020 to reconnect in a meaningful way with Greece, the country she left in 1975 to come to Dartmouth. “I wanted to give back to refugees there who are in great need of emotional and educational support. As a teacher of the classics, I am well versed in trying to make the acquisition of grammar and vocabulary fun and meaningful, so I reached out to a friend working with refugee women in Greece to see if I could organize language classes for the most vulnerable women. Fleeing from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Somalia, and other war-torn countries, these women now live in refugee camps and nongovernmental organization [NGO] housing throughout Greece with extremely limited resources.

“I began by teaching English and modern Greek to a few women by Zoom. Realizing the need and demand for education among them was vast, I reached out to my ’79 girlfriends for help. I was easily able to call upon my fellow classmates via multiple Zoom meetings we had throughout the pandemic. I named my project ‘’79 women for 79 women.’

“Among our classmates, the many writers, diplomats, teachers, and philanthropists joined this project in different ways. Ellen Welty and Jennifer Hughes have made an enormous impact on the individual women with whom they work, as well as on their English classes as a collective. Starting by assisting students with homework, they soon volunteered to teach their own English classes. Despite living among chaos in Kabul, Margo Squire has served as a steadfast teacher and conversation facilitator for many vulnerable women that we teach.

“If classmates were not available to teach or help with homework, they spread the word to family and Dartmouth alums, to girlfriends of their children (thanks, Laura Swigett!), and friends with Dartmouth connections. My niece, Becky Marder ’15, has been a huge source of energy and love in her English writing class. With these volunteers, I have been able to organize multiple pods teaching basic English, writing, advanced reading comprehension, conversational English, and modern Greek. Several female classmates, one superstar male (Rob Worley) and some Dartmouth alumnae from other classes donated money, which was sent to my friend in Thessaloniki who procured computers to give to the women for online access to our classes. I also collected funds to buy internet minutes, cover rent, and help those who have lost NGO funding. Along the way Beth Blatt provided me much-needed emotional support out of the empathy and knowledge she gathered through writing a play about refugees in America.

“We have all deepened our Dartmouth ties through this experience and together made a huge difference in so many individual lives. We Dartmouth ’79 women have now come close to touching the lives of 79 women! Initial mission accomplished, but there’s much more work to be done.”

If you want to contribute, contact Cindy (calderclassics@gmail.com).

—Janie Simms Hamner, 7327 Centenary Ave., Dallas, TX 75225; jshandkids@aol.com

In late 2020 Anne Cramer shared, “All is fine with me—though working far harder than I’d like.” At Dartmouth “I was a happy geography major—great program!” After University of Wisconsin Law School and working in Madison, Wisconsin, she moved in 1985 to Vermont, where she was asked to do antitrust-related work for the Vermont Hospital Association just as Medicare regulation was expanding. Her health law practice provides regulatory and corporate advice to mainly nonprofit healthcare providers. “The pandemic has brought so many challenges for my clients beyond trying to navigate an endlessly changing regulatory landscape. I spend too much time reading the federal register—but I am healthy, live in a beautiful town, walk my dog in the woods, see relatives, and try to hike, bike, and ski when possible.”

Kate Augenblick wrote, “I suspect my Dartmouth experiences, good and bad, contributed to transferable skills that permitted me to traverse a variety of careers. Inserting myself into the N.Y.C. art scene after finishing college in December 1978, within years I had a real exhibition at a real gallery. I worked a wonderful day job as assistant to the curator of the Forbes magazine collection and moved to a loft with no heat in Brooklyn with my painter boyfriend. (Still same husband, same loft, same leaks…). After working part-time jobs while balancing raising two sons with selling our artwork, I eventually opted for merit-based employment and a steady income as executive assistant to the dean of Columbia College, spending eight exciting years at the front and center of the college: so many great people, stories, and experiences. In 2011 I was recruited by the Simons Foundation, whose mission is to advance the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences (neither of which are my strong suits!). My colleagues are extraordinary. After a few pivots I ended up working directly with the chair and president on a wide range of projects. I still pinch myself every time I walk into the office.”

Officially retiring in 2016 after a 37-year career in public education as teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, and superintendent of schools in Bloomfield (eight years) and Fairfield (six years), Connecticut, David Title is now professor at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, where he directs the superintendent of schools certificate program and the Ed.D. program in educational leadership. He lives there with wife Laurie, three children, and one Australian Labradoodle.

Emil Pollack retired “August 2019 after 31 years of practicing cardiology in a DHMC satellite office. The hassles of relative-value unit goals, electronic medical record documentation, etc., overshadowed the joy of dealing with patients, so I stepped away. Initially thinking I might do locums work, I found catching up on what I had not had time to do when working has kept me more than busy. My wife and I enjoy having time together and spending time with our son and daughter. Covid has scuttled travel plans, but the area of Vermont where we live is a beautiful place to stay.”

—Janie Simms Hamner, 7327 Centenary Ave., Dallas, TX 75225; jshandkids@aol.com

The year 2020 is past! All of us made necessary adjustments. Steve Schreiber, named 2019 Distinguished Professor by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and chair of Architecture at UMass Amherst since 2005, has a beautiful new design building on campus, mostly studios and shops for students. Architecture studio instruction (the core of design programs) is deemed to be “face-to-face essential” because it relies on one-on-one faculty-student mentoring and is very tactile (model making, physical drawings, etc.). Ideally, students learn from each other in studios open 24/7. Through August everything shut down at UMass, so he was forced to learn new technologies for teaching, discovering that Zoom and learning management systems are effective for one-on-one discussions; professor and student can see each other on screen and digital drawings are right in front of both parties. “In September we reconvened partially face-to-face, with students in the studios and faculty connecting on Zoom. That is effective, because students can use shops for models and desks for large drawings. However, it’s hard to maintain the student-to-student studio culture critical for design education.”

Donna Smyers, a self-employed physical therapist in Vermont, took advantage of pandemic unemployment assistance for eight weeks before returning to work with precautions. She is filling her time during shutdown with running and biking and, seeing many peers already retired, limiting her hours and pondering retirement.

Polly Ingraham has sent to agents a book manuscript, her memoir of being an “un-churched” clergy spouse. Meanwhile, we can enjoy Polly’s perspective at www.pastorswifeblog.com.

David Brown’s career has focused on growing communities through leading economic development organizations and chambers of commerce in several states. “Since 2003 I have been CEO of the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, an organization with dual responsibilities of serving 3,000 business members while supporting economic growth regionally. Along with chairing the boards of our national professional association and local nonprofits, this gives me a unique perspective of community leadership nationwide in response to the pandemic, civil unrest, and economic downturn. Our chamber is a catalyst for change using collaboration to delve into community challenges. We led the effort in 2017 to create ‘Omaha 2040,’ a preferred future statement developed by hundreds of business and community leaders. As a result, we created an aggressive ‘People Initiative’ that is our vehicle to combat pandemic-associated unemployment and organized a CEO group that addresses issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Billions in capital investments have been committed in our urban core supported by our ‘Place and Prosperity Initiatives.’ While the chamber leads on many issues, we collaborate with dozens of committed public, private, and philanthropic leaders on other projects. We have developed trust amongst the leadership of these organizations, which makes it possible to accomplish remarkable things. Dartmouth drilled into our heads and hearts that we should make the world a better place. This collaborative, catalytic leadership model can work in any organization or community.”

—Janie Simms Hamner, 7327 Centenary Ave., Dallas, TX 75225; (214) 477-9868; jshandkids@aol.com

It’s 6 p.m. on Father’s Day and John and I have just finished talking about what we want to say in this, our last Class Notes column. We are waxing nostalgic about our dads, thinking about how much we miss them, when we learn that these men we loved, admired, and respected died in our arms, mine just a month before our fifth reunion at the age of 58. The memory of how proud he looked when we arrived on campus freshman fall is still strong in me, like the granite of New Hampshire that was made part of us ’til death. Equally strong is the gratitude John and I feel at having been given the opportunity to serve as class secretaries. Thank you for allowing us to share your news and tell your stories—it has been an honor and a privilege.

We are thrilled to be passing the torch to Janie Simms Hamner, a loyal daughter of Dartmouth, starting with the November/December issue of DAM. But before we do, I thought I would take a few paragraphs to reflect on my many years in this role, the most rewarding of them being the last five working alongside my brother from another mother, John “Juan” Currier. I could not have asked for a better wing man.

It occurs to me that “Building Bridges,” the welcoming 40th reunion theme coined by Dawn Hudson and Otho Kerr, our can-do co-chairs, aptly describes the job John and I have been doing during our tenures as class secretaries. We have derived immense satisfaction from connecting with a broad and diverse spectrum of classmates, particularly those who, for any number of good reasons, have been reluctant to respond to class outreaches in the past. With 54 columns and more than 2,500 birthday greetings in the rearview mirror, we hope our message of inclusivity has come through loud and clear: “We are grateful for you” (thank you, Gemma Lockhart!); you all matter.

Since penning my first column nearly a decade ago, I have written about 142 of you (including nine guest columns) and mentioned 113 others, chronicling your families, careers, activities, successes, and tribulations. You are educators, authors, surgeons, politicians, philanthropists, social workers, artists, engineers, entrepreneurs, scientists, and so much more. Sadly, we have also mourned the passing of 22 of our 52 deceased classmates, the most recent being the death of Doug Egan on May 14. John and I have always regarded you as an exceptionally talented, kind, caring, and supportive collection of individuals; what we couldn’t have fully appreciated without meeting you or reconnecting with you through our class secretary efforts, however, is the incredible breadth and depth of your humanity. You are a remarkable group!

We want to thank Dawn, Otho, and the 50-plus members of their 40th reunion committee for their hard work during the past year and commend them for successfully pivoting to a series of joyful virtual reunions following the postponement of our eagerly anticipated physical reunion. Despite our shared disappointment, there is much to look forward to when we return to Dartmouth next June or July, including lots of 60-something-year-old dancing to classic 1975-1979 tunes culled from your responses to the music committee’s online “Battle of the Bands” contests.

Finally, to the more than 600 classmates whose names have yet to appear in this column, we want to hear from you! Please send news to jshandkids@aol.com and help Janie hit the ground running.

Refresh, enjoy, and travel on, good people.

—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com; John Currier, 82 Carpenter St., Norwich, VT 05055; (802) 649-2577; john.h.currier@dartmouth.edu

Buckle up and get ready to start your engines gang, because our “Building Bridges” 40th reunion is now just two months down the road! If you haven’t done so already, please visit our class website at 1979.dartmouth.org and register for what promises to be a truly special and inclusive milestone event. We will celebrate our extraordinary shared ’79 experience and honor those we have lost, including beloved classmates Dave “Coach” Philhower and Dave “Rusty” Joyce most recently. The tragic and unexpected deaths of Coach and Rusty on January 27 and February 3, respectively, leave gaping holes in our hearts.

Brighter news comes from Lori Arviso Alvord, who went by her maiden name (Cupp) during our time at Dartmouth and who has lived a remarkable and accomplished life. Please enjoy Lori’s bountiful update, which we greatly appreciate her sharing: “Thank you, Stanley and John, for inviting me to write a few words. Let me first say that, outside of some members of the Dartmouth Club of the Upper Valley and some Native American alumni, I don’t know most of you. For Native Americans such as me (I was born Navajo and spent my formative years on the Navajo reservation in Crownpoint, New Mexico) and other people of color, relative undergraduate isolation at predominantly white academic institutions is a not uncommon shared circumstance. The unfortunate reality is that the gulf between sharply contrasting backgrounds and adolescent experiences has always been a difficult one to bridge. I won’t bore you with everything I’ve been doing since graduation, but here are some of the highlights. I was the first person in my tribe to become a surgeon and am currently working as a general surgeon in eastern Washington State. I am the author of The Scalpel and the Silver Bear, a bestselling 1998 memoir that is still being used in many university courses. I was associate dean for student affairs and admissions at Dartmouth Medical School from 1997 to 2009 and have had the honor of giving several speeches for Dartmouth, the most recent being the 2017 baccalaureate address. I have also served at the colleges of medicine at the University of Arizona and Central Michigan University. In 2013 I was nominated to be the surgeon general of the United States and in 2018 I received a Lifetime Achievement Award in Medicine from the Stanford University School of Medicine, where I earned my medical degree. I do a lot of work in Native American health and healing practices and mentor many Native American students. My husband, Jonathan Alvord, is a physician assistant, pilot, and world-class competitive trimaran sailor. Together we have two wonderful children who I fully expect to eclipse any of my work. Our son, “Kodi” (Kodiak), is a Yale graduate now in his third year at Brown Medical School. My youngest, Arviso (“Vi”) Alvord ’20, is a double major in Native American studies and studio art currently interning at the Hood Museum. I hope to meet more of you at Dartmouth club events in Washington.”

—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com; John Currier, 82 Carpenter St., Norwich, VT 05055; (802) 649-2577; john.h.currier@dartmouth.edu

With the passing of Joe “Dr. J.” Nicolosi this summer, we have lost another bright light in the ’79 constellation. We hope you’ll be able to join us to honor Joe and our 45 other deceased classmates at our traditional milestone reunion memorial service next June.

Dartmouth is rich in familiar, cherished traditions—first-year trips, Homecoming bonfire, and Winter Carnival, to name a few. A little known (and most certainly not cherished) class of 1979-specific tradition is that Billy “Bags” Mitchell and I have been running music at reunions since 2000. When our madly skilled 40th reunion co-chairs, Dawn (Hudson) Beach and Otho Kerr, set about building their team, we reflexively volunteered to lead the entertainment committee. Our pre-reunion planning was disrupted, however, when Otho asked if we’d be willing to bring two women on board to share DJ responsibilities. Being gentlemen—if not scholars—of Bones Gate, we graciously assented, only to wind up demoting ourselves to JV entertainment committee status when the dynamic rookie duo blitzed our inboxes with inventive schemes and suggestions. No shame in taking a back seat, we reasoned; “Man Smart, Woman Smarter,” after all, as you’ll surely agree upon reading the following report from the team that we have respectfully dubbed “Varsity”—Pat Pannell (formerly a first-stringer with Arista Records) and Carol (Neitz) Mondschein.

“We’ve been enjoying a busy fall with our respective families in Princeton, New Jersey, and Aiken, South Carolina, just ‘Stayin’ Alive’ and ‘Takin’ Care of Business’ on our home fronts. We’ve been spending lots of time ‘Lately’ putting together the 40th reunion party playlists with fellow entertainment committee ‘Volunteers’ Billy Bags Mitchell and Stanley ‘Stanno’ Weil (both clearly ‘Still Crazy After All These Years’), laughing and ‘Reminiscing’ (despite a bit of ‘Amnesia’ now and again) about all the great tunes we listened to back in our ‘Glory Days’ in college, when we were ‘Oh Very Young.’ For so many ‘Reasons,’ we’re eager to ‘Escape’ to our June 18-20 ‘Weekend in New England,’ where we’ll be ‘Reelin’ In the Years’ with our beloved classmates. We still have tons of ‘Work to Do’ before setting out on ‘The Long and Winding Road’ to Hanover; barring ‘Fire and Rain,’ or whatever else Route 91N may put in our way, we expect to be ‘Stumblin’ In’ in time for Thursday night’s festivities, when we’ll be the ‘Ladies Night’ DJs of record. ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’ on Friday night, when they’ll assume responsibility for serving up a second ‘Cool Night’ of ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ at our class tent. The four of us have ‘More Than a Feeling’ that our 40th will be marked by ‘Landslide’ attendance and can’t wait to ‘Let the Good Times Roll.’ So, come one, come all—even if it means having to board a big old ‘Jet Airliner’—because it’s ‘Always and Forever’ so much ‘Fun Fun Fun’ when we ’79s are ‘Reunited’!”

Have fun identifying the artists behind these song titles everyone, “One Way or Another.”

—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com; John Currier, 82 Carpenter St., Norwich, VT 05055; (802) 649-2577; john.h.currier@dartmouth.edu

National Book Month (NBM), which was created by the National Book Foundation in 2003 to focus attention on the importance of reading, writing, and literature, is celebrated annually throughout the month of October. To commemorate NBM, we asked some classmates to respond to the prompt, “What’s the best book you’ve read (or audio book you’ve listened to) in the last year or two, and why did you select it?” Here are their recommendations.

Steve Hufford: “If I were to pick just one book it would be Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Why? Because while it is a small volume, there are those who love it! The author, who must have been a very funny child, is certainly a humorous, deeply perceptive adult. As she says, when you put your life in order (an enduring quest for me), things become clearer. What could be a better outcome from reading a book than that?”

Otho Kerr: “By far my favorite book in recent years is Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. Harari is a brilliant author who describes the complexity of human history in a way that is entertaining and helpful regarding how you think about the future. If you want to know how we got where we are today, read Sapiens. Harari’s more recent 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is also an outstanding read, by the way.”

Norm Richter: “Let me recommend reading as a pair two short books published more than 100 years ago. The first is Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Calder, published in 1903. This British novel is regarded by some as the first of the espionage fiction genre, and despite the convoluted literary style of that time, is a fast and gripping read. The second book—The 39 Steps by Scottish novelist John Buchan, published in 1915 and made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1935—is better known. Buchan was a fascinating mix of writer and politician, publishing 30 novels while serving as a British member of parliament and as governor general of Canada. Though also written in an older style, this classic thriller will pull you in fast and hold you.”

Adam Samuels: “The book I’ve enjoyed most so far this year is Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver. She does a terrific job of juxtaposing two different times—1871, when the writings of Darwin threatened the worldview of modern society, and 2016, a time we are all familiar with—using a run-down home in New Jersey as the common foundation. There’s a mix of real people and invented characters, all of whom I could relate to independent of when or whether they existed. I read Unsheltered on my Kindle, but it would make for a great listen in audio book format given Kingsolver’s gift for dialogue.”

Sadly, we must close by mourning the passing of our kind-hearted, good-natured friend Robert Ng this past April. Bobby and his infectious laugh will be greatly missed.

—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com; John Currier, 82 Carpenter St., Norwich, VT 05055; (802) 649-2577; john.h.currier@dartmouth.edu

John and I love serving as co-class secretaries on many levels. We get to establish new relationships, nurture old friendships, promote inclusivity, and tell the interesting, often little-known stories of our amazing class. John surfaced one such story when he approached his old friend Barbara “Barb” Smiley Bula about penning a Class Notes guest column. The two were engineering majors with a special bond deeply rooted in Dartmouth history, as you’ll now find out. Enjoy!

“I was inspired to attend Dartmouth by my maternal grandfather, Dartmouth class of 1918. As namesake of the H.P. Hood & Sons dairy company, he made many contributions to the College, including the Hood Museum of Art. My freshman year brought another, unexpected connection from my grandfather. John Currier’s family farm in Vermont delivered milk to Hood & Sons creamery in Boston and our grandfathers were acquainted decades before we met. Our friendship at Dartmouth brought that family connection full circle. I spent most of the last three decades in Austin, Texas, practicing my chosen vocation of ‘stay-at-home-mom.’ Running alongside parenting duties, I used the problem-solving skills from my engineering studies at Dartmouth and the organizational and finance skills from my M.B.A. in a variety of educational and nonprofit volunteer activities. As my kids got older and needed me less, however, I wondered, what next?

“My dad had been a lifelong physician and medical researcher, and in 2004, following his death, I filled a board position for a healthcare software company that he and my brother had started. I dove into the healthcare arena, serving on that board for six years prior to its eventual sale. In 2007 I was invited to join the board of the Charles H. Hood Foundation, which has been part of my family since it was established in 1942 by my grandfather, Harvey P. Hood II, and named for his father, Charles. I have been honored to serve as a trustee for the Hood Foundation for the past 12 years and help continue this part of my family legacy. Charles H. Hood was a pioneer in the New England dairy industry who was passionate about science, education, innovation, and health. Today the foundation (charleshoodfoundation.org) works with institutions throughout New England to support pediatric medical research aimed at transforming the quality of life for children. It has been amazing to learn about innovative breakthroughs in pediatric research and know that we make an impact that reaches around the country and the globe. Through relationships with researchers at the Geisel School of Medicine and work we supported through the Dartmouth Atlas Project, I have also been happily reconnected with Dartmouth.

“Now a grandmother, I find faith and family are still my mainstays. The Hood Foundation provides the chance to bring together many things that have impacted my life and the opportunity to contribute something meaningful through the next decade, as well as continue a legacy for my own children and grandchildren.”

And you thought “The Hood” was just about art! Many thanks, Barb.

—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com; John Currier, 82 Carpenter St., Norwich, VT 05055; (802) 649-2577; john.h.currier@dartmouth.edu

It’s about time to close the book on another year and welcome in 2019, which marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of Dartmouth. Yearlong celebratory events—including this special issue of DAM—have been in the planning since 2015 and can be found at 250.dartmouth.edu. Juan and I thought we would help bring the 250th to our class by asking some ’79s to briefly respond to this anniversary-themed question: “If you could talk to our founding father, Eleazar Wheelock, about which aspect of Dartmouth’s ethos is most meaningful or inspirational to you, what would you tell him?” Here are four sample responses.

Laurie Laidlaw: “Eleazar, thank you for Dartmouth and the versatile motto you adopted for generations of students to find meaning in according to their unique personal circumstances. Vox. Voice. My voice. Our voices. In making my way in this world and hoping to be a part of making it better, developing, growing, and using my voice has been an important aspect of the journey. Joining our voices, being together and understanding each individual’s voice, has been part of reaching the next level of a meaningful life.”

Laura Powers-Swiggett: “Community matters. If there is any Dartmouth value that has stuck with me, it’s that. My understanding of the voice in the wilderness is that it is not about a lone voice crying out in despair, but is instead about the one in the desert hearing a voice and receiving a call to action. We can stay in the desert or we can get in the game, engage with our community, and serve each other. Thanks, Eleazar (and Isaiah)!”

Peggy Epstein Tanner: “Hey, Eleazar, what did you put in the Kool-Aid that caused the still north to be in our hearts and the hill winds in our veins? Who knew a four-year residential college experience could provide a lifetime of friendships, a love of the outdoors, a love of learning, and enduring connections. Thank you, Dartmouth, and thank you to my awesome class of ’79 family!”

Mark Winkler: “Eleazar, even though you graduated from Yale, you redeemed yourself late in life by founding Dartmouth. You were 60 at the first commencement in 1771. Exactly 200 years after you died, our class graduated to continue championing your cross-cultural legacy of enlightenment. You’re best known for what you did after 60; our promise is, ‘So will we!’ Stay tuned.”

What would you tell Eleazar? Please email your responses to us so we can sprinkle them throughout our remaining 2019 Class Notes columns.

It is with great sadness that we must close by noting the passing of Joe Asch, our devoted classmate and one of Dartmouth’s most passionate, albeit controversial, alums. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Joe’s family. His life is memorialized at the “In Memory” page on our class website (www.1979.dartmouth.org).

Don’t forget to highlight June 17-21, 2020, in your calendars, when we’ll come together for our 40th reunion to celebrate friends here and gone. Happy New Year!

—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com; John Currier, 82 Carpenter St., Norwich, VT 05055; (802) 649-2577; john.h.currier@dartmouth.edu

Five years ago I posted a Class Notes column in which I wrote, “We have much to be proud of, particularly when it comes to service. Did you know, for example, that we have had more Dartmouth Partners in Community Service (DPCS) mentors than any other class in Dartmouth history?” That statement has weathered well as our class’ “Partycipatory” legacy continues to grow across the four key pillars of a successful class—leadership, communication, community, and service. This summer, for example, ’79s represented almost half of the total number of DPCS mentors across the country. Thanks to Carol Kurtz Bates, Paul Krupka, Bill McGee, Josh Nossiter, Etta Pisano and Jan Kylstra, Kevin Rand, Ben Riley, Libby Roberts, and Stanley Weil for stepping up.

In other “doing well by doing good” news, congratulations go out to Gina Barreca, who received the University of Connecticut’s (UConn) highest faculty honor when she “was named the Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of English Literature” in May and was also honored with “the 2018 UConn-AAUP (American Association of University Professors) Excellence in Research and Creativity Career Award”; Richard Conn on the publication of his controversial, thought-provoking new book titled The Earthbound Parent: How (and Why) to Raise Your Little Angels Without Religion, which you’ll find featured as one of the “Editor’s Picks” in this issue of DAM; head and neck cancer specialist Kevin Cullen, who for the last several years has served as director of the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center and who was elected chair of the 2018 American Cancer Society board of directors; Jim Feuille, who will be taking his mad business skills and decades of experience in the equity capital markets to the Tuck Center for Private Equity and Entrepreneurship in September as executive director; Bill Holmes, who received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree at Dartmouth’s 2018 Commencement ceremony for his altruism and his humanitarian efforts “on behalf of the neediest of patients in every corner of the globe, often at great personal risk”; Bruce Smoller, chairman of the University of Rochester Medical Center, who received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine “for achievements in the areas of basic research, education, clinical care, health service administration, and public and civic duties”; Dave “Guy” Van Wie, who in 1984 had the good sense to marry Cheryl Bascomb ’82, Dartmouth’s recently appointed vice president for alumni relations in charge of worldwide alumni engagement efforts; and Cheryl, primarily for having had the good sense to marry a ’79, but also for her well-deserved appointment!

Hope you’re all ready for some football, tailgating, and parading at Homecoming October 26-27. We have it on good authority that head coach Buddy Teevens, his staff, and his squad will be ready to put a can of something on Harvard instead of on the ridiculously talented Mobile Virtual Player.

Finally, now is a good time to start preparing for our milestone 40th reunion June 17-21, 2020, so please be sure to mark your calendars and save the dates. You don’t want to miss this one, not with the likes of reunion chairs Dawn Hudson and Otho Kerr running the show!

—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com; John Currier, 82 Carpenter St., Norwich, VT 05055; (802) 649-2577; john.h.currier@dartmouth.edu

Some of you will recall that our Class Notes for the March/April 2015 issue of the DAM featured then Santa Monica, California, city councilman (now mayor) Edward “Ted-O” Winterer. In his guest column, Ted-O lamented “the fractious level of discourse which has infected national politics has also afflicted our local dialogue.” Today, sadly, our leaders in national government have managed to take discord and divisiveness to a whole new level, making the need for honorable community representatives who will work to promote understanding through respectful dialogue and find common ground greater than ever.

Enter Bill Conway: “Classmates—greetings from the campaign trail. I took early retirement from my law practice at Skadden, Arps last year thinking I would accept an attractive offer from a solar company. The current White House occupant got me so agitated, however, that I decided to stop complaining and run as a Democratic candidate for one of four at-large seats on the Montgomery County (MoCo) council here in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. My endeavor sounds like small potatoes until you realize that MoCo’s population exceeds 1 million and its annual budget is $5.4 billion.

“The race is on a congressional scale. Turnout in the June 26 Democratic primary will be about 110,000, and I’ll need 30,000-plus votes to win one of the four slots. Winning in the primary essentially guarantees election in November, but the field of Democratic candidates is huge—29 by last count. I am campaigning full-time, seven days a week, and it’s grueling, especially since I’m relying on public financing to raise the necessary budget and can’t accept more than $150 from any individual contributor.

“My not-so-secret weapon in all of this is my wife, campaign chair and prominent career community activist, Diana Conway, who is routinely encouraged to run for office. Diana has zero interest in putting up with the abuse of being a council member. On the other hand, she thinks the idea of sending her relatively thick-skinned husband into the fray is rather ideal. While I can pretty much stand on my own now, the campaign largely began with me riding her coattails. I’m continually amazed by how many people know Diana and am very fortunate to benefit through her. Her nickname, appropriately given by my campaign manager, is ‘Madam Kickass.’

“The issues facing MoCo are daunting: Tax revenues not keeping up with the need for services, choking traffic, troubling performance gaps in our schools and conflicts between neighborhoods and development. But we also have significant strengths: a well-educated workforce, a strong foundation in the sciences (particularly biotech) and an incredibly diverse population that engenders a wonderful vitality. I’m optimistic for the future.

“So far the campaign is going well. Sometimes it’s fun, other times not so much. But it always feels meaningful. You can find out what I stand for and learn about my priorities in an online essay I penned for Maryland Matters (www.goo.gl/xteSvN). For more information and to donate to the campaign, please visit my website (www.billconwayforcouncil.com).”

—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com; John Currier, 82 Carpenter St., Norwich, VT 05055; (802) 649-2577; john.h.currier@dartmouth.edu

This has been a challenging year on many fronts, with Mother Nature being high up on the list. Since our last Class Notes column submission, two major Atlantic hurricanes made landfall in the United States and a rash of devastating fires scorched much of Northern California. On behalf of your class officers, our prayers go out to all those who have suffered from these natural disasters.

Our Homecoming 60th birthday celebration weekend, orchestrated to perfection by mini-reunion co-chairs Carl Briscoe and Phil Odence, offered some relief in the form of new and rekindled friendships and a thrilling, last-minute 28-27 come-from-behind gridiron victory—the largest in 136 years of Dartmouth varsity football—over Yale. Here’s to head coach Buddy Teevens, his staff and their resilient squad!

Speaking of football, on October 13, 2017, National Football League chief marketing officer Dawn Hudson served as the keynote speaker of the Gasser Lecture Series at the Saunders College of Business at the Rochester Institute of Technology. In a display of ’79 Partycipatory spirit, Dawn kindly donated her entire speaker fee to the Brandon Marshall Foundation in support of its mission “to help promote awareness of mental health, end the stigma and raise funding for treatment.”

While more than 60 classmates and guests reunited in Hanover over Homecoming weekend, Barb Smiley Bula, Suzanne Carr Shepard and Louisa Guthrie organized another 60th birthday bash that drew 19 of the 25 women who lived in North Mass our first year on campus to Austin, Texas. A great picture of these lifelong friends can be found at our ’79 group on Facebook; if you don’t yet belong, please visit the class website (1979.dartmouth.org), cursor over the “Social Media” tab in the “Staying Connected” drop-down menu, click on “Facebook” and join in!

In Girdwood, Alaska, Steve Tower and his wife, Janice, brought a number of alums together this summer to celebrate the marriage of their daughter, Dana, and son-in-law, Dermott McHugh ’09, Th’12. The festivities were held in a beautiful setting at the base of Mount Alyeska with John and Barbara Currier among the guests in attendance. The reception had the potential to turn into an orthopaedic research meeting as Steve and the Curriers collaborate at Thayer on studies of joint replacements. Coincidentally, the bride and groom met at Thayer’s biomedical engineering lab when Dana was a summer intern and Dermott was a graduate student.

The award for most spontaneous appearance at a mini-reunion goes to Tom Ryan, who made a quick round trip from his home in Kansas City, Kansas, to reunite with Larry Gordon, Rich Brown and Dave “Wils” Wilson the weekend before Tom’s 61st birthday on October 25. Tom writes, “We went and paid a visit to our former Dartmouth soccer coach, Tom Griffith, who now lives in Princeton, New Jersey. We had a wonderful time and even told a few old stories!” No soccer was played, we’re told; instead they kicked back and watched a Wils-produced slide show of the group’s glory days for entertainment.

—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com; John Currier, 82 Carpenter St., Norwich, VT 05055; (802) 649-2577; john.h.currier@dartmouth.edu

Mini-reunion co-chairs Carl Briscoe and Phil Odence have a not-to-be-missed 60th birthday party planned for us during Homecoming weekend in Hanover, including a Thursday, October 5, overnight class fellowship retreat at the new Moosilauke Ravine Lodge (for those who can get away a day early) and a Saturday night dinner. Please join us at this milestone celebration. For inspiration, here are more takes on turning 60.

Carol Kurtz Bates: “I am trying to stay young with hard work and outdoor adventures. On my 60th birthday weekend we got one step closer to our goal of ascending the high points of the lower 48 states with a lovely climb up Mount Mitchell in North Carolina. The following weekend we braved Tuckerman Ravine for the first time and climbed a third of the way into the bowl. Though I don’t recall hearing of Tuckerman while at Dartmouth, I doubt I would have been courageous enough to climb the whole wall if I had! We’ve been heli skiing annually for the last five years in Nevada’s Ruby Mountains and hope to pull off a hut-to-hut ski trip in Colorado next year. After climbing all of New Hampshire’s 4,000-foot peaks with our kids, David and I have been working on winter ascents of the same mountains by ourselves. My greatest birthday inspiration was meeting a 102-year-old scientist who looks not a day over 70, won six swimming gold medals in her 90s and works out with a personal trainer twice a week. Enter my new role model!”

Bill McGee: “Although reflection is a necessary part of aging, I look at 60 as a milestone that should primarily be spent looking ahead at how we can shape and influence the rest of our lives. We all have much to be thankful for, with the bonds and friendships formed almost 40 years ago in Hanover at the top of my list. Going forward I want to strengthen those bonds and assure that the legacy of important friendships is an enduring lesson I continue to impart to my children. On a personal note, I went to Dartmouth primarily to be in the North woods; from my suburban perspective I might as well have been headed to the Yukon. For the past year, and I hope for many more to come, I plan to spend more time on the trail—so far so good!”

Mark Tomalonis: “Turning 60 was a lot easier for me than previous milestone birthdays. Now I have a much clearer path toward retirement, perhaps in five to seven years. My daughter, Erin ’14, is on her own in Manhattan working in the retail fashion industry. Kathy, my wife, has tolerated me (and has purchased my underwear) for more than 38 years. We recently moved to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. We continue to run our ‘boutique’ Internet business from this new location, but we have replaced hectic San Francisco Bay Area traffic with daily walks on the beach. I am grateful that all my current life challenges are ‘first-world problems.’ ”

—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com; John Currier, 82 Carpenter St., Norwich, VT 05055; (802) 649-2577; john.h.currier@dartmouth.edu

Bette Davis said, “Getting old ain’t for sissies.” There’s plenty of truth in that, but if turning 60 means we’re old, well then bring it on. In the words of Oliver Goldsmith (English majors shout-out!), we “love everything that’s old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.” Here are some of your classmates’ takes on their milestone birthdays:

Michelle Kane O’Donnell: “How did I make turning 60 a good experience? First I took down all the mirrors in the house—instant satisfaction! Then I went to school to prepare for a new goal where age and experience are considered assets and am now happily working in hospital chaplaincy as a result. Last but not least, I have birthday plans with my wonderful family to bike and frolic through Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley, California, and drink some of the great wines associated with investor Rick Magnuson and winemaker David Jeffrey, respectively!”

Bob Glicini: “I’m still hard at work as a general surgeon at a small, struggling community hospital. Being on call takes its toll more than it did 15 years ago; I wonder if I have 15 more left in me. Retirement would be nice but I need at least another five years just to pay off the mortgage and college tuitions. There is the sadness of losing friends and loved ones mixed with the joy of being new grandparents. I was always hoping that we would have time to travel, but it’s clear that vacations will now be about seeing our children and grandchildren rather than the world. I asked an 85-year-old patient I was treating for a leg injury if he was keeping busy in his retirement. He replied that he was so busy he didn’t know how he ever had time to work. I’m hoping that will be me. That being said, I just took two ibuprofens!”

Doug “Shman” Canning: “As I approach 60 I am grateful. I had two supportive parents and have two kind brothers. I am grateful Dartmouth accepted me and for my Dartmouth friends, who nearly 40 years since graduation are still a part of my life. While at Dartmouth I met Annabelle ’81. No one deserves a wife this lovely. My son, John, and my daughters, Caroline and Maddy, are strong, happy and prosperous. I am still healthy and have a job that I enjoy each day. I work with partners who are equally committed to helping the lives of each small child we see in our practice. I can’t imagine being happier.”

Elizabeth “Puddie” Sword: “For me the milestone of 60 has been softened by the recent arrival of my first grandson, Hudson. He is a daily reminder to put gratitude first and refocus on the gift and possibilities of my life. Though I could not have predicted its trajectory in 1979 and am indebted to so many for guiding and supporting my journey, the runway that remains is eagerly anticipated, uncharted and filled with memories to come.”

—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Rd., Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com; John Currier, 82 Carpenter St., Norwich, VT 05055; (802) 649-2577; john.h.currier@dartmouth.edu

The hardest part of our volunteer work is reporting the passing of a classmate, and so it is with great sadness that we mourn the recent loss of three dear brothers and sisters: Carrie Ann Garfink Dixon succumbed to breast cancer on October 19 after a courageous struggle, Karen Knudson Nossiter died on August 18 after a long illness and Charlie Rowe died unexpectedly on August 24 during a family vacation. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the families and friends of Carrie, Karen and Charlie, each of whom you can find memorialized on our class website.

With 2017 just around the corner, we thought it would be fun to share some of your classmates’ New Year’s plans:

Barbara Bula resolves “to make the effort to rekindle old friendships that have fallen by the wayside since leaving Dartmouth. I also hope to travel to more places of my choosing and not just places dictated by my kids’ activities.”

Author, illustrator and recently adopted classmate Bob Chamberlin shares: “I have been painting a lot and am looking forward to inspired art—much of which will surely emanate from trips to California, Penobscot Bay, Maine, and of course the Second College Grant—in the coming year, when I will turn 60.”

Tom Ewing and his wife, Deanna, “hope to see more live music performed by local Nashville, Tennessee, talent.” Tom also resolves “to finish the novel I’ve been writing the last five years, focus on what I put into life rather than what I get out of it and read something written in ancient Greek, either New Testament or Plato.”

Leslie “Lulu” Gordon writes: “I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, but I do pick a carefully chosen aspirational word (such as serenity, love, equanimity) for the year based on where I am in my life and where I would like to be. Then I use the word as a filter whenever I’m faced with a decision. For instance, I will ask myself, ‘Will this course of action bring me more serenity or less or is it at least serenity neutral?’ Staying true to this guiding word has helped make my choices much clearer, especially when I’m having trouble recognizing the right path.”

Bill “Huff” Huffman resolves to attend our 40th reunion in 2020, and “not get too excited when the Buffalo Bills beat the New York Jets on January 1 and make the NFL playoffs for the first time since 1999!”

After witnessing the football team’s disappointing loss to Columbia University in miserable N.Y.C. weather, Joe Nastri still managed to resolve “to laugh out loud every day, and I’m not going to wait until January 1!”

Julie Varga, emergency physician and vice chair of emergency medicine at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, resolves “to be able to gracefully get down on the ground and back up again without using my hands and to work my last night shift ever on December 31, 2016!”

May the force be with you all in 2017!

—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com; John Currier, 82 Carpenter St., Norwich, VT 05055; (802) 649-2577; john.h.currier@dartmouth.edu
 

Having worked our way up Tuck Drive from the Gold Coast to Russell Sage and Hitchcock, we now turn the corner of the Mass Row cluster to gather current news and old memories from classmates who first resided in Mid Mass.

Harry Griffith says he is “doing great” and “looking forward to a busy summer.” After searching his brain for Mass Hall memories, Harry confesses “that most of those brain cells have passed on.”

Not so for Walter Elliott, whose brain cells appear to be as fresh as the day he arrived on campus. Here are some of Walter’s remembrances: “Our awe at the proximity of President Kemeny, whose car with its BASIC license plate was most mornings parked in his spot behind Parkhurst Hall across from our bedroom window; my roommate John Sewell’s ‘cool,’ with his beard and leather bag brought back from a gap year in Sweden; listening to Robert Palmer’s ‘Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley’ and ‘Man Smart, Woman Smarter’ (which we quickly learned) with my roommate Peter Bigham; Chris Wells’ [RIP] laugh and Michio Soga’s wit; Justin Aro’s Colorado bravado and Ben Schwartz’s quiet intelligence; hall hockey played late into the night.”

Scott Filler writes from Ranchos Palos Verdes, California: “My oldest daughter, Elan, just graduated from high school and will be attending the University of Southern California. Her sister, Chen, who is a member of a competitive dance team, will be starting high school in the fall. My wife, Bett, is keeping busy in her rheumatology private practice. As for me, I became the chief of the division of infectious diseases at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center about two years ago. The increased administrative duties have been largely rewarding despite cutting into research time. My best memories of Middle Mass include ski races down the stairs, sitting on the stoop watching students walk to and from meals at Thayer and having barbecues out on the fire escape with you [John Currier] and Bob Glicini!”

Judy Ornstein, who lives in Plainview, New York, with her husband and two younger boys, has been teaching history and social studies to Jericho High School (JHS) students for 22 years. She remembers toilet-papering Bruce Smoller’s door and pulling other good-natured pranks on him, only to learn many years later that Bruce graduated from JHS! When Bruce was elected to the JHS Alumni Hall of Fame in 2004 for his work as a dermatopathologist, Judy fittingly sat on the committee that coordinated the event “and had a great time reconnecting with him.”

Are you ready for some football? It’s time to start getting fired up for head coach Buddy Teevens and his squad to begin their defense of last year’s Ivy League championship. Don’t forget to mark Homecoming weekend (October 28-29) vs. Harvard in your calendars. In addition to leading the parade, this will likely be our last opportunity to gather at Bill and Bray Mitchell’s legendary “Partycipatory” home that they have so generously shared with us during the past 37 years.

—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com; John Currier, 82 Carpenter St., Norwich, VT 05055; (802) 649-2577; john.h.currier@dartmouth.edu

In the spirit of under-exertion, the secretarial tag team of Currier and Weil departed Hitchcock Hall and strolled across the street to visit with some classmates who met as first-year residents of Russell Sage. They and their fellow ’79 dormmates became a close-knit group amidst what David Jeffrey describes (with 40 years of perspective) as an “odd social scene” during “a time of great optimism.” Here are some of their heartfelt recollections.

“I remember driving up from New Jersey with my dad and approaching Russell Sage,” writes Mary Ann Zetes, a pediatrician and mother of three who met her husband of 34 years at Dartmouth Medical School. “There were sheets that read ‘Co-Hogs Go Home’ hanging from the windows. I asked dad if he knew what a Co-Hog was and he said it was some kind of Cape Cod clam. I said I didn’t think that was what they were referring to! We learned that a vocal group of upperclassmen had been ousted from their rooms to accommodate three floors of ‘girls’ on Sage’s short wing. I had never experienced overt sexism before but quickly understood how it felt. Not surprisingly, our sizeable ’79 contingent, many of whom were premed, bonded together. Roommate Anne Carlson and I formed nice friendships with Linda Ferguson, Lizanne Galbreath and Holley Allen upstairs. Back then we could make fires in our fireplaces, definitely a thing of the past. My youngest child, Hannah ’18, currently lives in Richardson Hall and took me to visit her friends in what was the ‘boy’ section of Sage back in our day. I have to say it hasn’t changed very much, which is just as I would have wanted to find it.”

“Returning to Dartmouth for our 35th reunion,” says David Jeffrey, “brought back many emotions. I requested a room in Russell Sage and went to see my fourth-floor triple, which of course was locked up. Nevertheless, the empty hallway evoked fond memories of the many great classmates I met there, including Jim Holden, Mark Mills and Dave Frankel, and the colorful upperclassmen who mingled easily throughout the dorm thanks to our welcoming open door policy. Career-wise I had several finance jobs and ventures before attending enology school and working in Bordeaux, France. I’m now a happy, hard-working winemaker in Sonoma County, California, where I founded Calluna Vineyards in 2007. I am blessed with a wonderful wife and three children finishing their college years. Life is good.”

“There was great camaraderie in the dorm during 1975 and 1976,” writes Rich Pugh, “and a fair amount of innocent mischief. One of my fondest memories is of the Russell Sage Slalom during Winter Carnival, when some of the more playful residents would strap on old skis, ski down the four flights of stairs (without the benefit of any snow, of course) and out the front door. Remarkably, I don’t recall any major injuries. On an unrelated but relevant subject, I’ll take this opportunity to report that my daughter, Molly ’14, recently married her Dartmouth classmate Ben Morse ’14. With grandfathers of both the bride and groom having been members of the class of 1951, and ’79s Ted-O Winterer, Steven O’Neill, Larry Mills and Bill McGee in attendance, it was a very green wedding celebration indeed.”

—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com; John Currier, 82 Carpenter St., Norwich, VT 05055; (802) 649-2577; john.h.currier@dartmouth.edu

John “Juan” Currier, my dear friend and co-class secretary, shared the sad news that his beloved mother, Janice, died on October 7 at the age of 94. I will commandeer this installment of our Class Notes while Juan attends to family matters. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Curriers and their extended family at this difficult time.

One of my favorite Dartmouth memories is walking into Lord Hall for the first time and establishing what would become priceless lifelong friendships. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s “Rosalita” greeted me in stereo in the hallway outside Lord 5, courtesy of roommates Billy “Bags” Mitchell and Bob “Funk” Funkhouser. Fittingly, Bags still serenades us with Rosie at every milestone reunion! We are all bound by such special memories of our freshman residences, so let’s use first-year dorm-mates as a loose theme for this and a to-be-determined number of future columns, starting with Lord Hall.

Nancy Wilder writes, “Forty years after some jokester in housing thought it made sense to put me (Rye, New Hampshire), Amy Cull (Athens, Ohio) and Cindy Loomis (Cheyenne, Wyoming) together in Lord 308, the freshman trio reassembled at reunion to share what few memories they have left. In keeping with the Grateful Dead lyrics often heard coming from their room in 1975 and 1976, ‘ What a long strange trip it’s been.’ Cindy now lives in N.Y.C., Nancy in Chicago and Amy in New Hampshire.”

Bob Funkhouser lives in Pacific Palisades, California, where he is working on two documentaries that rewrite large chunks of America’s “missing” years between Abraham Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech at the 1858 Illinois Republican convention and the crash of 1929. “Daughter Greta,” says Bob, “is a medical student in Germany and will go to Beijing, China, for sabbaticals in Chinese medicine and acupuncture. In classmate news, Dean Esserman just returned from meetings with President Obama on policing and incarceration. In the receiving line Dean was pummeled with questions about security around New Haven, Connecticut, where he serves as chief of police. Just as Obama began to explain what was going on, Dean interrupted and said, ‘You don’t think I knew about your daughter’s interview [at Yale University]?’ Taken aback, Obama smiled. Smiling back, Dean concluded, ‘If you can get her in, we’ll look after her.’ ”

It was great catching up with Matt Hurley and Bob Watterson, who roomed with Ted Goldberg in Lord 207. Matt lives in Boston’s Back Bay with his wife, Joanie Kellar, “a most patient and caring woman who I met in Sigma Nu’s basement senior spring and with whom I still celebrate Winter Carnival, the anniversary of our first date in 1980.” Bob lives in Yarmouth, Maine, with his wife, Karen, and his youngest daughter, Sage (15). Lara (24) and Jack (22) are “out of the nest and living in Portland, Maine, and Atlanta, respectively,” says Bob, who is hard at work launching MyHealthMath, a new venture featuring “decision support software for analyzing health insurance choices.”

—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com; John Currier, 82 Carpenter St., Norwich, VT 05055; (802) 649-2577; john.h.currier@dartmouth.edu

I am trying to shake off the blues after our epic 35th reunion. There is no way to adequately describe how special the weekend was; you had to be there to experience firsthand the camaraderie that flowed from beginning to end. Kudos to co-chairs Ellen Gomprecht Oppenheim and Charlie Vieth for raising the reunion-planning bar again, and to all you crazy diamonds who made the gathering sparkle as never before!

I didn’t get to say hello to John Gilbertson during the weekend, though I was fortunate to spend a little time reconnecting with his lovely wife, Kathy Harper Gilbertson. John, who served as strategic and financial advisor to clients of Goldman Sachs for the past 27 years, recently retired from Goldman and has been named board chairman of Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, the largest indoor aquarium in the world!

I enjoyed chatting with Dave Costello and Chip Fauver Saturday afternoon of reunion weekend before getting trounced by Steve Franklin in a “friendly” game of tennis. Chip shares the following news: “I’ve been working at RBC capital markets’ New York office the past five years handling operations for the global research division. While my job consumes the majority of my time (I still work nearly 15-hour days and portions of each weekend), increasingly I’m carving out time for travel and exercise. Several years ago I built a home in Manchester, Vermont, where I look forward to spending more time in future years. Fran and I have three boys. Jake, my oldest, graduated from Middlebury College in 2009 and recently completed his M.Ed. from Harvard University. Cory, who is busy starting an Internet company in California, was class of 2012 at Carleton College, where he won the USA Ultimate D-III Championship three out of his four years there. Ryan, my youngest, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Skidmore College in May and is headed to San Francisco to work at a startup called Scripted.”

Michael Boldt (one of four Boldt cousins at reunion!) writes, “Thanks to Bill Helman ’80 for hosting the April 7 gathering at his apartment in N.Y.C. It was a great way to prep for our reunion. Brooklyn, New York, resident Wayne Arden was one of many notable guests in attendance, but apparently was unable to join us in Hanover due to a big Afghanistan deal. Later in April Lisa and I visited Rob Enelow ’80 and his wife, Amy Kossoff, in Bethesda, Maryland, then rendezvoused with Denny Geist ’80 in Washington, D.C. We’ve also had a couple of nice visits with Evans Huber and his wife, Elaine, one in East Boothbay, Maine, last summer. Now we’re home in Millburn, New Jersey, after a phenomenal reunion weekend. I’m only sorry I missed seeing Jim Silverstein Moisson, my freshman and sophomore roommate.”

This marks my last column as your sole class secretary, friends. Starting with the next issue I will be joined by the very capable John Currier. We hope to make a formidable tag team!

—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com

Apparently there’s no escaping this frigid winter. I’m staying warm by thinking about the fun we’ll have when we go “Back to the Green in Twenty-Fifteen” for our 35th reunion. Here are some reunion reflections from several class officers to warm you up for June 18-21 as well.


Jim “Wazoo” Wasz: “I blew off the band Friday night of our 15th reunion and headed to Frat Row. I recall playing beer pong at Alpha Chi until the kegs were kicked around 4 a.m., then weaving my way to Bones Gate in search of more spirited pong with Joe Henley, Steve Franklin and Stanley Weil, among others. To my surprise, the only soul sloshing around the Gate’s lovely basement was Laurie Laidlaw. Several beers later, at sunrise, Laurie and I set out across campus for powdered donuts and screwdrivers at Lou’s Restaurant. The rest is a blur.”


Laurie (Laidlaw) Roulston: “Scott Jr. and Stewart were 8 and 5, respectively, at our 15th reunion. We awoke early Sunday after a great weekend, ate breakfast in the class tent and drove to Logan Airport. Upon arriving in Boston we were horrified to discover that Stewart’s treasured teddy bear, Big Bear, had been left behind. We notified the College and took off with heavy hearts. Several days later I received one of the best voicemails ever saying, ‘Big Bear has been found! He was sitting by himself guarding the ’79 tent. We gave him a hug, boxed him up and shipped him back to Cleveland [Ohio].’ Stewart is 27 now, and timeless Big Bear is still sitting here at home.”


Ben Riley: “My favorite time at reunion is seeing a face that I’m not sure I recognize at first glimpse. I check the nametag and realize I know this person! Then the years melt away and I see my friend clearly, and wonder why I didn’t recognize him/her right away. Within minutes of catching up it’s as if we’re back at Dartmouth and were never really apart. Wonderful! I can’t wait to reconnect with everyone!”


Bill Mitchell: “I have a distinct memory of listening to Gina Barreca recount 1970s horror stories in her fetching New York accent at one of our milestone reunions and praying I wouldn’t surface as the infamous protagonist in any of them. And who can forget Dean Manual at our 25th reunion reminding us that he was younger than we were when he was our ‘Mean Danual.’ Tops, though, was Jerry Jeff Walker at the Bema in 2000 singing ‘L.A. Freeway’ twice, with margaritas and Budweiser on tap. One of my top 10 days ever in Hanover, and that’s saying something.”


The reunion schedule, including a regularly updated attendee list, can be found by clicking on the reunion tab on our stellar new class website, 1979.dartmouth.org, courtesy of webmaster Mark Tomalonis. See you in June, mates!


—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com


A host of ’79s returned to the Hanover Plain to march in the Homecoming parade and watch the football team run its record to 4-1 (2-0 in the Ivy League) with a 24-21 victory over Holy Cross. We’re all pulling for head coach Buddy Teevens in his pursuit of an Ivy League title!


Carey Fiertz was among the revelers at Homecoming and shared the following: “If you do not want to be invited to contribute a class note, serve as a class agent or help out at reunion, do not march in the Homecoming parade or attend any class activities. Our officers don’t take ‘no’ for an answer. Actually, my wife, Kim, and I had a great time over the weekend, highlighted by seeing daughter Maggie ’15 belt out a solo in the Gospel Choir concert. Back home in Salisbury, Connecticut, I broker receivables insurance, mainly for U.S. exporters. In my spare time I use my environmental studies background to run the local lake association, relive my Outing Club days as an officer in our ski jumping club, teach skiing at nearby Catamount Mountain, act as a board member for Alpha Theta and serve as district enrollment director for Dartmouth in Litchfield County.”


Harold “Hal” Frazier also attended Homecoming and said: “I have been married to Dr. Annie Bork Frazier ’82 for 29 years. Annie is a renowned chest radiologist and a gifted medical illustrator, not to mention a tremendous partner in our life walk together. We have two great sons: Ian, who is a junior at Cornell University, and Duncan, who is in high school and seriously considering Dartmouth. I am passionately involved in the Boy Scouts. I still love my camping time in the George Washington National Forest and my backpacking time along the Appalachian Trail of Virginia and West Virginia. I am an avid waterman, sailing and kayaking on the Potomac River and in Chesapeake Bay as often as possible, and am deeply involved in my church and our Kensington, Maryland, community.”


Holly Clark Grainger wrote: “Thanks for tracking me down, Stanley. [My pleasure, Holly!] I assumed I’d been lost from our class when it took me seven years to finish, but I finally graduated in 1982. I married Dave Grainger ’83 and followed his peripatetic academic career before settling in Park City, Utah, seven years ago. After Dartmouth I did lab research but switched to full-time mom and volunteer to everything. Nat ’08, my oldest, spends his time ski patrolling at Canyons and Big Sky. He loves packing dynamite at 5 a.m. for avalanche control. Jessie graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in 2010 and Maddy from Willamette University in 2013. Eliza just finished her freshman year at Dartmouth.”


Last but not least, congratulations to Dawn Hudson and Lisa Mendelson Friel on their recent NFL appointments. Dawn was named chief marketing officer and Lisa has been drafted to help Commissioner Roger Goodell clean up the league’s domestic violence and sexual assault issues. 


—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com


I attended the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association 63rd National Awards Dinner on June 23 and was fortunate to be at a table in a primo viewing location near the dais. Honorees included Fred Couples and Nancy Lopez, but my focus was on the young man seated directly across from me: Cameron Wilson, son of our own Dave Wilson and the first Stanford University golfer to win the individual NCAA championship since Tiger Woods in 1995! Another standout student athlete in the national spotlight this spring was Larry Wolf’s son Jordan, who led Duke to its second NCAA lacrosse title in a row and was named the tournament’s most outstanding player after a two-goal, four-assist effort in their 11-9 victory over Notre Dame. Round of snaps to these two outstanding seniors!


It was great to correspond coast-to-coast with Josh Nossiter recently. Josh, a 30-year resident of San Francisco who is now doing finance and administration for the city, shared the following news: “San Fran is in the blood, especially now that my son and daughter, both graduates of the University of California, Santa Barbara, are living and working here. I’m enjoying my 13th year as treasurer of the board at the French American School, my kids’ alma mater, and am never far from tennis and squash courts. I still fall down ski slopes (roommate and ski school head Bennett Kashdan used to wince whenever he saw me schussing the Skiway) when there’s snow. I heard from Cheryl Morgan that she’s dividing time between Paris, France, Hamilton, New York, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Alysa Ward sends word from Tampa, Florida, and I lunched recently with freshman year roommate G. Blake Meike, who a mere 40 years after sharing cinder block digs in Hinman landed in an office around the corner from my own.”


Closer to home John Marshall writes, “Funny enough I received your email last night as I was having dinner with Jon Wendell. Jon lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, with his wife (Tracy) and son (Jack) and runs his own private equity firm after spending many years at Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank in mergers and acquisitions. I have lived in Bronxville, New York, for more than 20 years and am a partner in an investment firm in midtown Manhattan. I have two children; my son just finished his freshman year at Wake Forest and my daughter is an incoming freshman there as well. I ran into Bill Swenson recently after not having seen him since graduation. It turns out he works right around the corner from me at a Canadian investment bank.”


In closing, our hearts go out to the family of Holly Ann Marshall, who died unexpectedly from a heart attack on June 7. Holly was married to Philip Holland, Ph.D., and was the devoted mother of Freedom and Phoebe. Holly served as director of student placement at Bennington College from 1983 to 1985 and taught English and drama at Anatolia College in Thessaloniki, Greece, from 1995 to 2013. She will be sorely missed.


—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com


Our last column featured ’79s who have served as Dartmouth Partners in Community Service mentors. Continuing with the theme of service, here is news from several classmates who contribute to the Dartmouth experience through their volunteer work interviewing applicants to the College.
From Brookline, Massachusetts, Linda Button writes, “Thirty-five years later I’m still thrilled to be in the business I tripped into: branding and advertising for entertainment and cable networks. My current company is Tooth-and-nail.com. Life has been a series of happy accidents and wonderful partners. I wish our schools encouraged more risk-taking; kids need to explore, fail and discover by trial. My son, 20, started out as a film major at Emerson College. Now he’s not sure about the direction he wants to take. My daughter, 12, is absolutely positive that she wants to design characters for anime and live in Japan. I hope wherever they go they find satisfaction and happiness.”
Darcy Prendeville Lawes, who lives in Oceanport, New Jersey, with her husband, Don Lawes ’76, says: “We continue to work on recovering from Superstorm Sandy. As of mid-October we still have no furniture, kitchen or bathroom on the first floor. In the spring we plan to lift the house four feet so we never have to experience this again. In other news, our son (Vassar ’09) is engaged to a wonderful woman and plans to move back to New Jersey to rejoin the family business. Our daughter (Vassar ’11) is living in Chicago and contemplating grad school.”
Debra Sortor Parnon reports: “After all these years and a stint as executive director for a nonprofit to revitalize downtown Darien, Connecticut, I am still filling my plate with volunteer work. While I was serving as chairman of the building committee, the town finally approved a $3.6-million initiative to rebuild the bathhouse and construct a new paddle tennis hut at our beloved Weed Beach. I am currently serving on a board whose mission is to turf three ball fields and build a new junior varsity softball field at Darien High School, and I also serve on the Tree Conservancy of Darien board along with John Schlachtenhaufen ’61. During the past three years we have planted about 75 trees. Stay green, everyone!”
Last but not least comes word from Colleen Sullivan Bartlett: “My husband, Peter, and I live in southern California with our daughter Maizie. I work in development at Claremont McKenna College (CMC) and Peter is the director of student life at the Webb Schools. At CMC’s recent presidential inauguration the president’s daughter spoke about how her dad always gave her stories for birthday presents, then told a story about her childhood as a present to him. I subsequently bought a journal for Maizie’s ninth birthday and told the story of how the Boston Red Sox broke their 86-year Curse of the Bambino World Series drought the week she was born. Best week of my life! She loved it and can’t wait for the next story. Try it with your kids.” 
—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com



In September I attended Class Officers Weekend with seven other ’79s. As you all know Hanover in the fall is beautiful and, as you may have heard since then, the class of 1979 walked away with awards for Class of the Year and Mini-Reunion Class of the Year. You can read all about our class accomplishments on the 1979 Web site.


Later that weekend I was at Lou’s for breakfast with my son when Jeff Jackson recognized me and came over to chat. He and his wife and their son, a senior at St. Mark’s in Dallas, were looking at the College. I used our encounter to try to convince my son that I haven’t aged much since I was an undergrad; that might have worked except that I didn’t remember Jeff, so my son pointed out that my memory could be better! Anyway, Jeff graduated from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and was the CFO of Sabre for 10 years until handing off those duties a few months ago. Jeff is now doing business development work for Sabre. He and his family live in Dallas. His wife, Sally Warren, originally from San Antonio, Texas, is a contemporary abstract artist and their daughter is a junior at Carleton.


I spoke with Renée Diao Graham, who lives in Connecticut with her husband and three sons. Their oldest graduated from Colgate, the next is a junior at Choate and their youngest is in eighth grade at Brunswick School. Renée’s husband works in banking and Renée has recently reinvented herself: She is working in admissions at a private school. The whole family loves summering on Block Island, Rhode Island. Last year Renée learned to skimboard; she sent me photos of herself jumping on a fiberglass board in the waves. 


I heard from Polly Ingraham, who lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Rob Hirschfeld ’83. She sees Mary Cleary Kiely and Steve Schreiber, who also live in the Amherst area. Polly is a high school English teacher in Springfield, Massachusetts, and is also writing about being a clergy spouse. She and Rob have a son who is a high school senior, a daughter in 10th grade and a son in sixth grade.


Congratulations are in order! In October Karen Loeffler was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as U.S. attorney for Alaska. Loeffler, a longtime federal prosecutor, graduated from Harvard Law School in 1983 and was admitted to the bar in Alaska in 1985. She served as an assistant attorney general and assistant district attorney for the state before joining the federal government in 1989. 


I am so sorry to report that John D. West III, M.D., died on September 9 at his home in Maine. Our heart goes out to his wife, Stephanie, their sons Drew and Geoff and to the rest of John’s family. 


Don’t forget to send news, especially if you haven’t done so in the past. If you don’t I may track down someone who knows you and ask for all kinds of information.


—Deborah Krieger Jennings, 34 Godfrey Road, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043; (973) 744-2582; djennings@mka.org 


At a Dartmouth club function on December 14 in Chatham, New Jersey, I got to hear (and sing with) the Aires. They gave a great concert. My younger son, an ’11, had just gotten home from fall term and joined me at the party, where he discussed life at the College with prospective students and newly accepted members of the class of 2014 as well. I saw Gina Inguaggiato Maguire there; she organized the event and is a district enrollment director for Dartmouth. Gina married in 1991 and has three children—a son who is 16 and daughters who are 12 and 10. Gina reinvented herself recently and has been an oncology nurse for the past three years.


I heard from Bob Glicini and his wife, his high school sweetheart, Paula. Bob is a surgeon in Pennsylvania and he and Paula have four children. Bob was their scoutmaster for seven years. David goes to Penn State, Diana graduated from Ithaca College and is now in a doctoral program there, Michael is a junior at Ithaca and Matthew is a sophomore at Susquehanna. In their holiday letter I got a great photo of the whole family at the summit of Mt. Katahdin in Maine. I also learned that Bob and Paula saw Scott Filler (Bob’s Dartmouth roommate) and his wife, Bett, in San Diego in April.


I also heard from Bill Newell, who lives with his wife, Carla, and their three sons in Piedmont, California. Robbie is 17, Danny is 15 and Andrew is 10. Bill had practiced law for 15 years, then started working in the biotechnology industry. After moving back to California from Vancouver he was the president of Aerovance for two years. Bill is currently the CEO of Sutro Biopharma. 


Congratulations are in order! The Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents selected Dr. David Title as Connecticut’s Superintendent of the Year for 2010. Dave is the superintendent of the Bloomfield public schools and was chosen because of “the exemplary leadership that he has given to the Bloomfield schools, particularly in the areas of providing high-quality learning experiences for students from diverse backgrounds, providing modern and efficient school facilities for the children of Bloomfield and leading successful efforts to improve the learning of Bloomfield’s children.” After Dartmouth Dave earned his master’s from the University of Massachusetts and his doctorate in educational administration from Harvard University. He and his wife, Laurie, have four children.


I am so sorry to report that Gary W. Davis died on July 17. Gary was a school administrator in Pennsylvania. Our heart goes out to his wife, Deborah, and their two sons, two daughters, daughter-in-law and the rest of Gary’s family. As some of you may know the Alumni Magazine will not be publishing obituaries in the magazine for the time being. Instead, obituaries will appear on the magazine’s new Web site. This change will allow classmates and others to post their remembrances via an online commenting feature.


—Deborah Krieger Jennings, 34 Godfrey Road, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043; (973) 744-2582; djennings@mka.org 


A very heartfelt congratulations to Peggy Epstein Tanner, who was elected to the board of trustees in June. As you can read on the College’s website, Peggy lives with her husband, David, in New York City. Her older sister and their father are Dartmouth alums, and one of Peggy’s three sons, Eric ’11, was elected president of Dartmouth’s Student Assembly for 2010-11. Peggy was honored as an inaugural recipient of the Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award, and with an Alumni Award “for extraordinary service to Dartmouth and civic organizations in addition to career accomplishment.” She has served as chair of the Tucker Foundation’s board of visitors and as a member of the Alumni Council and the President’s Leadership Council. She served two terms as our class head agent and was reunion giving co-chair for our 25th and 30th reunions. Peggy was also inducted into Dartmouth’s Stephen F. Mandel Sr. ’52 Society. 


Speaking of Peggy, I reconnected with Joe Nastri at a ’79 mini-reunion in New York City held at Peggy and David’s beautiful apartment. Joe and his wife—an Italian national whom he married in Italy—have lived in Manhattan for about 15 years. Joe was at Bank of America and now works in commercial banking at JP Morgan running a team that specializes in apparel. Joe is still in touch with Jeff Hickey (they played golf together recently), John Gogolak (who lives in Arizona and has three daughters) and Jimmy Eden (who is a commercial pilot for Delta Airlines).


Cindy Marder Calder lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Jon, Tu’83. They have four sons: Tim ’10 earned a Princeton in Asia fellowship and is going to teach history in Singapore, where he plans to see Missy Pemberton; Billy ’12 is currently doing his sophomore summer; and two children are in high school. Cindy worked in banking, then owned a translation company for 20 years. Two years ago she began taking classes in Greek and Latin at Columbia and has earned a post-bac degree. She is going to be teaching Latin part-time at a high school this fall and is planning on earning her master’s.


Kathy Peden Blaisdell is the director of student financial services at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, where she loves being part of the college community. Since financing a college education gets more challenging every year, she has a lot of work to do. Her husband, Ted ’80, teaches middle school science; the highlight of the school year for his eighth-graders is the cardboard boat races in the pool on the last day of school. Kathy and Ted both continue to be involved in Valley Light Opera in the Pioneer Valley area but they take turns being in the shows; he was in Pirates of Penzance last year and she is in Iolanthe this year. Church involvement and keeping up with their teenagers takes up the rest of their time. Kathy and Ted have two daughters, Emma, 15, and Phoebe, 13.


—Deborah Krieger Jennings, 34 Godfrey Road, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043; (973) 744-2582; djennings@mka.org 


Congratulations to Scott Blackmun, chief executive of the U.S. Olympic Committee and Sports Business Journal/Daily 2013 Sports Executive of the Year, on a stellar showing by the American contingent at the 22nd Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The squad finished second in the medal count and included 12 Big Green athletes, the most of any Ivy League school! In keeping with the Olympic spirit, here’s news from several generous ’79 members of the Dartmouth Athletic Sponsor Program, which provides vital support to the College’s athletic teams.


Jim Boldt writes, “I’ve lived and worked in northeast Ohio the past 33 years and look forward to two nice anniversaries in 2014. My wife, Ginger, and I will celebrate our 30th in May with our first-ever visit to Paris. I’ll also be celebrating my 20th year with the Austin Powder Co., where I work as CFO. We manufacture commercial explosives and provide blasting services to the mining, quarrying, construction, and oil and gas industries. Ginger and I have had the pleasure of raising three great kids, all now young adults. Kate ’08 is about to receive a Ph.D. in marine geology and will wed in October. Helen, our middle child, lives and works in Madison, Wisconsin, home to her alma mater. And Jimmy ’15 just finished a fascinating internship with Morgan Stanley in N.Y.C. (thank you Nigel Key, leader, mentor, barkeep!). On the home front we see Steve Terrell and his wife, Sally, regularly and look forward to catching up with Laurie (Laidlaw) Roulston at our 79th-day celebration.”


From the suburbs of Philadelphia comes word from Larry Wolf, now in his 24th year practicing orthopedic surgery: “Life is good. My wife, Barbara (Smith ’79), and I have three boys. Our oldest son, William, is finishing a two-year around-the-world journey. Jordan, our middle son, is a senior at Duke playing on the university’s Division I champion men’s lacrosse team. And Evan, our youngest, will be attending Amherst College in the fall. I continue to be an avid skier and rabid fly fisherman but no longer play tennis, as I did at Dartmouth. I spent a few days skiing with Jim Feuille and his oldest son, Colin, in Utah in January and recently enjoyed catching up with Dave Wilson by phone.”


And from London Jon Zehner reports: “After 28 years at JPMorgan I am now responsible for clients and raising capital on a global basis at LaSalle Investment Management. I feel privileged to have lived in London and Johannesburg for the last 16 years and remain active in various nonprofit causes focused on education. These include the University of Cambridge land economy program and the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg. Most recently I joined Dartmouth’s board of visitors of the Dickey Center for International Understanding. The 32-year-old institution, featuring the ever-popular ‘Great Issues’ lectures modeled on President Dickey’s ‘Great Issues’ course, exists to train tomorrow’s global leaders on complex problems, such as global climate change, world health crises and war and conflict resolution.” 


—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com


Our legacy as Dartmouth’s “Partycipatory” class is alive and well as the College recently honored us with the 2013 Raymond J. Rasenberger 1949 Award in recognition of having achieved the greatest number of donors by a non-reunion class. Kudos to Dave Philhower, Dave Wolff, Jim Feuille, Peggy (Epstein) Tanner and many other volunteers for their tireless efforts, and thanks to all of you who contributed to the Dartmouth College Fund. Together your contributions strengthen every part of the Dartmouth educational experience.


The year 2014 will mark the official 35th anniversary of our graduation, but the actual reunion in Hanover will be shared with the classes of ’80 and ’81 the weekend of June 19-21, 2015. We have much to be proud of, particularly when it comes to service. Did you know, for example, that we have had more Dartmouth Partners in Community Service (DPCS) mentors than any other class in Dartmouth history? Here is news from several, as well as from a classmate improving his city’s quality of life.


First-time DAM contributor Bruce Dallas writes: “I spent a year in deserto after college computer programming prior to enrolling in a J.D./M.B.A. program at Vanderbilt University, then joined Davis Polk & Wardwell, where 28 years later I remain a capital markets lawyer. More importantly, I married Jill in 1991; we started late but have three wonderful boys, Alec (15), Jeremy (13) and Julian (10). I recently got together with Steve ‘Esty’ Richardson and Stu ‘Enzo’ Kim. Steve works as an environmental expert in the Portland, Maine, office of TD Bank. Stu is a biochemistry professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, where he is trying to discover the secrets of aging. I stay current with the College by interviewing and mentoring through the DPCS program, though I fear I failed my delightful mentee Daneille Devlin ’12, who still wants to go to law school!”


Libby Roberts, one of the original ’79 DPCS mentors, reports from Brookline, Massachusetts, that she recently “joined Dartmouth’s Rockefeller Center board of visitors, a great resource to students exploring nonprofit and public service careers. I’m delighted to serve this extraordinary organization and happy to team up with another great resource, fellow board member Peter ‘Rocky’ Rockefeller.”


Also checking in from Massachusetts is Gary Dmytryk, president of the Association of Cambridge Neighborhoods. “Cambridge,” he says, “is in the enviable position of having too many people lined up to invest hundreds of millions of dollars. How the city can best manage its growth and development presents a myriad of challenges that our organization is working hard to meet.”


Congratulations to Carol (Anderson) Shaw, another original ’79 DPCS mentor, who recently joined the board of the Washington State Parks Foundation. “Now in its centennial year,” says Carol, “our state parks system is threatened by severe funding needs. We are working with park commissioners and the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife on transformation strategy and I am thrilled to be playing a role in helping to preserve our state parks!”


—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com


Another summer is drawing to a close, which means back-to-school season is around the corner. So here’s to the ’79 educators, with news from those of you I was able to squeeze into the space allotted!


Meg Morrow Clayton just finished her 20th year teaching at Barnet School in the Northeast Kingdom. “Barnet serves 215 students from pre-K through eighth; I have been teaching fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders. This past year was a difficult one for our community. Like many towns in Vermont, we were affected by severe flooding in 2011. Several of our students lost their homes and possessions to the storms. To make matters worse, a beloved high school teacher was brutally murdered. The students were shaken and dismayed by these natural and human disasters. Together, however, we worked to raise funds and gather materials to help neighbors. This is what I try to do as a teacher—help my students see that they are part of something bigger than themselves, that they can influence their own world by engaging in it positively. It’s a great job.”


Chip Debelius reports: “Life is good. I just finished my second year as a faculty member at Appalachian State University (ASU) in the mountains of northwestern North Carolina teaching architecture studios and a structures course. I hold virtual office hours when the winter weather hits hard. In addition to teaching I continue to practice as an architect and was recently appointed to the editorial staff of Forward, the American Institute of Architects’ design and architectural journal for associate members. Best of all, my daughter Megan just finished her second year at ASU. There’s nothing better than running into your child on campus and hearing that you gave a good lecture!”


Kathy Fraser continues her good work on the faculty of the University of New Mexico’s School of Medicine as an associate professor of psychiatry teaching residents and medical students, and as medical director of the Recovery Resiliency Program helping people with affective, anxiety and personality disorders. She writes, “It’s challenging but gratifying work. Outside of work I’m a parent with teenagers, which is sometimes more difficult than being a psychiatrist! In June I took my oldest son, Tom, to visit colleges in Boston and look at Dartmouth. Returning to Hanover reminded me again of what a great education I received, which I’m proud to be using to help teach people here in New Mexico.”


Last but not least, veteran educator Carol Frost is starting her 30th year at the University of Wyoming on the faculty of the department of geology and geophysics. “There are definite advantages to working at the only four-year research university in the state with the smallest population. There just aren’t enough people to do what needs to be done, so we get many opportunities. For example, in addition to teaching and researching I serve as the university’s associate vice president for research, vice president for special projects in the office of the president and the first-ever director of our school of energy resources. Wyoming is a great place for all those who love the outdoors. Come on out to hike, climb, ski or just look at the rocks and mountains!” (I love rocks, Carol, and I love to rock, as you may recall!)


—Stanley Weil, 14 Woodland Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com


The 2012 U.S. presidential election is fast approaching. In fact this column should hit your mailboxes just a few weeks shy of November 6. Here then is news from some of our classmates who either have been or are currently involved in government and politics.


Writing from “one of the most beautiful places on earth” Karen Loeffler shared this perspective as U.S. attorney in Alaska: “I think most government workers would say public servants see themselves as just that—people proudly working for the public. My colleagues work long hours to enhance safety and improve communities. Of course in Alaska we always say we are somewhat unique given that the public we serve and protect includes bears, moose, caribous, whales and walruses. We had a great ski season last winter with an all-time record for snow here in Anchorage. Despite a rainy summer we still got in some wonderful sea kayaking. While kayaking in Glacier Bay we happened on a brown bear sunning itself on a snow patch next to the black bear cub it had obviously killed; a little gruesome but definitely nature on parade. I welcome all classmates and alumni to contact me whenever they get the chance to visit.”


Steve Hufford writes: “My wife and I just celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary with a two-week trip to Banff, Kootenay and Waterton Lakes National Parks in Canada. Definitely the best day hikes of a lifetime, highlighted by the Carthew-Alderson Trail! Here inside the beltway at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where we both work, we remain hopeful that our system of federal government can rise to its best level of performance, though admittedly the hype and posturing of the political process are overwhelming at times. Just had the opportunity to catch up with Burr Gray and send best wishes to all other ’79 classmates!”


Former Democratic member of the Maine House of Representatives (2008-10) David “Guy” Van Wie reports: “I am back to only one full-time job (environmental consulting) and have discovered what it is like to have something approaching spare time to read, play golf and catch up on long-overdue house projects. Our daughter Rosa just graduated from Dartmouth in June. She returns to Hanover this fall to complete her teaching internship in the White River Junction, Vermont, elementary school. Our son Garrett (a.k.a. “Bubba”) is a sophomore at Amherst College and was quick to point out that Amherst scored well above Dartmouth in the 2012 Forbes college ratings. He is playing soccer and enjoying college very much. Speaking of NESCAC schools, I ran into Ernie Parizeau last year at Middlebury College, where his daughter was playing soccer. My wife, Cheryl Bascomb ’82, and I share a passion for adult-onset ice hockey. She plays tournaments with a highly ‘sociable’ team. After a knee replacement a couple years ago I am on the ice three mornings a week. I hope to keep going as long as I can find replacement parts.”


—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com


I’m up in Hanover the night before my son Jake ’15 and the Dartmouth men’s lacrosse team play their season opener against Colgate University. It’s somewhat disconcerting to be staying at 17 Rope Ferry Road without Debbie and Bill Mitchell or classmates present. So you can all keep me company in spirit now as I write this column, and join me in wishing Bill’s father, Jerry ’51, a speedy recovery from his recent open-heart surgery!


I just got off the phone with Jeffrey “J-Free” Boylan, our big-hearted brother in Nevada City, California. Jeff shared the following to ring in the New Year: “Five days into 2013—so far so good! Maggie and I were blessed with another magical white Christmas holiday, which provided me with a well-deserved respite from my new job at the county court school. We enroll students who have run afoul of the law and tend to be high on things other than the learning curve. Every day presents new challenges, none of which are for the faint of heart. I’m fortunate to work with a compassionate, dedicated team that has brought new rewards and fulfillment to my life.”


Leticia “Missy” Devlin wrote from Singapore with news of her growing family: “My husband, Roy, daughter Tisha and I are back from a week in Rawai Phuket, Thailand, during Chinese New Year. While Tisha learned to kitesurf we relaxed on a tropical island, reading, swimming and hanging out at the beach. Tisha, a copywriter specializing in digital news, will be leaving for N.Y.C. soon, so this was a nice family send-off. Please keep her in mind if you know of any agencies in need! I am staying out of trouble as the chief marketing officer of NUS Business School, Singapore’s highly regarded national university. Any classmates who love dogs (we just acquired our third Yorkie, Daphne) and want to visit, we have a guest room available that Roy may redecorate in green and white given the number of legacy children we have hosted through the years!”


Closer to home, Dave “Wils” Wilson—whose wife, Myra, worked with me at Sports Illustrated (SI) years ago—checked in from Rowayton, Connecticut: “Still working for myself after 25-plus years in the finance arena. Myra left SI in 2001 but is still involved in golf journalism. Our twins are juniors at Stanford University. Cameron plays on the golf and squash teams and competed in the U.S. Open last year at the Olympic Club in San Francisco; his sister McKenzie is on the sailing team. Both are enjoying Stanford tremendously.”


It is with a heavy heart that I bring you sad news of the passing of our dear classmate Robin Smith Jurado on New Year’s Day. Robin leaves behind her loving husband, Ray Gerald Jurado, children Joshua Henry Jurado and Marina Rose Jurado, father Charles Wharton Smith, mother Ellen Robinson David and sister Tina McGerald Smith. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family.


—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com


As I write this we are nearing the end of what has been an unusual winter in many parts of the country; here in northern New Jersey the ground is covered with more snow than is typical. And speaking of ice and snow, a number of our classmates chose to spend Winter Carnival 2011 celebrating with Bill and Bray Mitchell at their Hanover home. They welcomed Mark Winkler, Burr Gray, Otho Kerr, Mike Jackson, Alex Spaulding, Carl Briscoe, Phil Odence, Buddy Teevens, Jim Wasz, Tim Taylor, Kim Donovan Henley, Joe Henley, Guy Van Wie, Nancy Malmquist, T. Weymouth, Rick Reno, Bruce MacDowell, Bob Whalen, Joan Crane Barthold, Libby Roberts, Lizanne Galbreath, Steve Johnson, Rick Swanson, Nancy Lager, Charlie Carr, Dave Dowd and John Currier. Among these classmates are several who live or work in the Hanover and Lebanon area. 


Another one of the participants was Regina Barreca, who was in Hanover as a featured speaker. On the Friday afternoon of Winter Carnival weekend you could find Gina, an English professor at the University of Connecticut, giving a talk titled “Enduring Winter Carnival: Babes In Snowland” in the 1902 Room of Baker Library. Gina then signed copies of her book during the reception that followed. If Gina was half as entertaining as she was at our 20th reunion, I’m sorry I missed this presentation. 


Also in February I had the pleasure of welcoming Adam Samuels to our home. Adam and his partner, Frank, live in California, but Adam was in New Jersey for the week so we decided to get together. It turns out to be a small world, since my husband and I have friends—twin brothers—who grew up with Adam; we all got together for this dinner and had a blast. During our conversations I learned that one of the brothers also knows Otho Kerr! Anyway, my husband so enjoyed Adam’s company that when we travel to San Francisco this spring we’re going to try to get together with him again.


Rob Evans is a successful, accomplished artist. I remember him from Hitchcock and had not been in touch with him since graduation, but I had the pleasure of coming across his website where I was able to see examples of his work. The site explains that Rob worked as a scenic painter on sets for theater, opera, video and cinema before beginning his career as an independent muralist and exhibit painter. The company he founded, Robert Evans Murals Inc., specializes in realistic, depictive painting devoted to exhibits of natural history, history and ethnography. His work appears all over the country, from Boston to Seattle, in locations including the Smithsonian Museum of American History and the Estate at Mount Vernon. Rob lives in Sherborn and works at his studio in South Natick, both in Massachusetts.


—Deborah Krieger Jennings, 34 Godfrey Road, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043; (973) 744-2582; djennings@mka.org 


The Aires, Dartmouth’s oldest a cappella group, may have finished second in the 2011 edition of NBC’s The Sing-Off, but they clearly finished first in the hearts of the entire Dartmouth community! Here are some musings from a few ’79 warblers:


Beth Blatt: “I became a Distraction freshman fall, which was quite an honor. I went to Europe sophomore year and returned to find I was no longer a Distraction, but a Woodswind. Today they’re the Decibelles and the current musical director is Eve (Pratt) Hoar’s daughter, Bailey ’13, which is so exciting because ‘Pratty’ and I were Distractions—I mean Woodswinds—together! Last spring, at a fundraising event at Collis, the ‘Deci’s’ sang Bailey’s arrangement of the new theme song for Hope Sings, the nonprofit organization I founded to empower Latina women through micro-financing. My next Dartmouth a cappella goal is to have the Aires perform a Hope Sings song, too!”


Eve (Pratt) Hoar: “I really enjoyed the Aires’ performances on The Sing-Off this fall and often thought how proud Tom Tomai, Ed Jaicks and Don Reckenbeil must be. A cappella has changed dramatically since we were at Dartmouth, particularly with the introduction of vocal percussion and the increased opportunities afforded by more than a dozen groups, some coed. Bailey has led the Decibelles off and on since her freshman fall. What a joy it’s been for Sam ’77 and me to hear the group sing and carry on the tradition of women’s a cappella at our alma mater!”


Deborah (Krieger) Jennings: “Every year the Dartmouth Club of Suburban New Jersey has its holiday party in Chatham, and for most of the years I can remember the Aires have sung at that event. This year, because of The Sing-Off, there were way more people in attendance than usual. The group has always invited former Dartmouth Aires or Glee Club members to sing with them. So, as is my custom, I joined them on stage, this year for a rousing rendition of ‘Dartmouth Undying.’ It was more fun than ever because I’d gotten to watch the Aires on TV all fall. I had hoped to attend with my sons Drew ’08 and Owen ’11, but only Drew could join me.”


On another note (no pun intended), Michael Wilkinson reports that, “Sherry and I are having fun in Atlanta with our two girls, Danielle (16, Ms. cheerleader) and Gabrielle (13, the soccer queen). Our facilitation company still has me traveling the world. I published my fourth book in October, The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy, and am still waiting for Obama to ask me to help facilitate a White House session!”


And before I sign off, congratulations to T. Clark Weymouth, who was recently chosen to co-lead Hogan Lovells LLC’s global pro bono legal practice. T. is based in D.C. and works regularly with Hank Young, the pro bono partner in Hogan Lovells’ Baltimore office.


Happy New Year everyone! Refresh, enjoy and sing on!


—Stanley Weil, 14 Woodland Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com


Sat down to decompress after work last night and watched about five minutes of the 2013 NFL Draft before remembering that it’s unwatchable reality TV. So instead I decided to offload some guilt by honoring my annual pledge to Terry Gould to contribute to the Dartmouth College Fund. This edition of Dartmouth Alumni Magazine should hit mailboxes mid-June, leaving a week or two to spare for those of you who are similarly inclined but still procrastinating. Please support the College we love if you can, gang; it takes only a minute online at dartmouthcollegefund.org/dcf.php.


In a canny trade I managed to extract some bullet-point news from Terry, and it goes something like this: “I am living in Winnetka, Illinois, with my wife, Susan. My son Ellis is a freshman at the University of Southern California. My daughter Hilary is at New Trier High School, where she rows crew. My younger daughter, Claire, is in junior high and plays hockey. I get out for some men’s league hockey now and then with teammate Kent Mathewson. Travels often take me to Boston and the Bay Area, where I enjoy seeing the likes of Bill Stewart ’80, Mark Alperin ’80 and Joe Henley.” 


In fairness, I caught Terry while he was away on business, so I turned to Karen Thompson Dale for some exclamation points: “What could be better than meeting up with two classmates, specifically Anna Burack Wilson and Bill Mitchell, for spring skiing on the slopes of Vail, Colorado? I wish I could send everyone a ‘wish you were here’ postcard; you would be envious! Imagine how much fun it was for this intermediate skier to follow in the tracks of two former Dartmouth Skiway instructors who, decades later, still manage to keep up with their children. Speaking of children, Anna’s daughter Sarah came back west to study so she could compete in extreme skiing—you know, the kind a mother watches with her eyes closed as the child goes over the cliff! Thank you, Bill, for organizing this small but wonderful March gathering of ’79s!”


And now, in the immortal words of Ed McMahon, “Here’s Johnny!” “Time to break a nearly 25-year run of enjoying Class Notes from the sidelines! I was fortunate to be up in Hanover in late March to watch my oldest son (Johnny ’13) play for the Dartmouth men’s lacrosse team vs. Harvard and had the pleasure of seeing Bill Mitchell, Mike McCarthy (son Harrison ’16) and our omnipresent class secretary in the bleachers. Harvard prevailed, but it was a thrill to see Johnny and Jake Weil ’15 each find the back of the net! Later that weekend I literally almost stumbled into Tom Tomai and John Dolan while looking through the window at Lou’s Restaurant. It was wonderful and momentarily shocking to see them in the flesh (pledge raid?) after these many years. I’m glad to see time treating these classmates well.”


Until next time, refresh, enjoy and travel on friends!


—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com


In March Tim Ehrsam joined more than 30 Alpha Delta alumni in Sarasota, Florida, for an annual Third Monday meeting. Third Monday is a corporation whose mission supports medical care and rehabilitation of children injured in war-torn countries. Bill Holmes, who traveled from Afghanistan, is the point surgeon for Third Monday’s humanitarian efforts. Other ’79s who attended are Dave Daniels (practicing law in Pawling, New York; he and his wife, Susan, have five children and a grandchild), Doug Hodge (he and his wife recently moved from Tokyo, pre-earthquake, to California; they have seven children including two who are recently adopted), John Wetenhall (president of Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh; he attended with his wife, Tanya) and Dave Wilson (at UCS Finance; he and his wife, Myra, have two children at Stanford). Tim is in his 22nd year at Oracle and is a soccer referee in Vienna, Virginia. His wife, Marsha, is a high school teacher and field hockey coach, and they have three children. Max is a high school junior, T.J. is a Louisburg College freshman and Monica graduated from the University of South Carolina.


Margot Schaaf Barker has been in Seattle since 2006. She is an executive assistant in the University of Washington medicine advancement office, which is responsible for fundraising. Margot moved there after living in Florida for 20 years. Her son Charlie, 27, has a master’s in mechanical engineering and works as a structural integrity engineer. Her son Brad, 25, is working on his Ph.D. in Physics at UC Berkeley. Since Margot’s 2007 divorce from Kirk Barker ’76 she enjoys dancing (swing, salsa, waltz) in her spare time. Margot has been in touch with many classmates: She has attended mini-reunions at the Seattle home of Tim Higgins, and one of her colleagues rows every morning with Tom Hull. She sees Carol Anderson Shaw, and also gets together with Mark Schneider, an attorney who was a classmate of Margot’s in Illinois, beginning in kindergarten. She had dinner earlier this year with Peter Greulich, who lives in Chicago but was in Seattle on business, and she stays in touch with Gwen Kujala Stein, an attorney in the Chicago area who went to junior high and high school with her. Finally, Margot stays in touch with her freshman roommate, Debbie Sortor Parnon, who lives in Darien, Connecticut. Debbie and her husband, Tom ’76, have three sons.


Bruce Peyser is an associate professor of medicine at Duke. He spends about half his time seeing patients and the rest of his time teaching residents and medical students. He is also heavily involved in faculty development programs and helps run an innovative program that is training medical students to become leaders in the field of primary care medicine. Bruce is married to Cynthia Shortell ’80. She is at Duke as well, where she is the division chief of vascular surgery. Bruce and Cynthia have three children: Their oldest, Chris, attends the University of Georgia, Cara is 16 and Tim is 14. 


—Deborah Krieger Jennings, 34 Godfrey Road, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043; (973) 744-2582; djennings@mka.org 


Autumn is upon us here in the Northeast. Pigskins fill local ball fields and jack-o’-lanterns crowd front porches. As leaves blow past my window and clog the gutters, I recall a favorite line from my old neighbor David Letterman: “Fall is my favorite season in Los Angeles, watching the birds change color and fall from the trees.” And so on that note, let’s begin with news from out West.


Steve O’Neill is “still practicing law in southern California, working on water supply projects, having fun coaching the Malibu High School boys’ lacrosse team. One of my better players is Rich Pugh’s nephew; in the genes I guess. Oldest son just graduated Swarthmore, second son is at NYU and my daughter is in 11th grade, so I don’t think I’ll be retiring anytime soon.”


Moving north, Carl Yerkovich reports: “I’m approaching my 20th year living in Berkeley, California, where I may be the only city resident to have registered Republican neighbors living on either side of me. I spend my work time managing a software development team for Oracle and my play time riding a bicycle in the Berkeley and Oakland hills, skiing Squaw Valley and swimming, boating and barbecuing in the California Delta. During the summer of 2010 I participated as a local mentor to Kevin Estrada ’11, who worked with Easter Seals of the East Bay as part of the Dartmouth Partners in Community Service (DPCS) program. I encourage other classmates to participate; it was a rewarding experience. I keep in regular contact with fellow classmates Harry Dent, Tom French and Rick “Cowboy” Swanson, as well as ’80s Mark Fischer and George Morris. We’ve been reasonably successful getting together annually for a few days of fun on and off the slopes.”


Football season in the United States means the rainy season is winding down in the Philippines, from whence our beloved center, Michael “Belley” Kelley, writes: “Am still surviving Manila, despite the heat and humidity. I’ve moved back into recruiting and consulting from the call-center industry while dabbling in commodities transactions on the side. My daughter Cleo is finishing sophomore year at St. Benilde College of La Salle University studying production arts; she loves it and was selected as a permanent intern for producing all student plays. My wife, Cathy, is playing touch rugby. She’s traveled to several tournaments in Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore and is considering returning to Bangkok to study Thai cooking, as her long-term plan is to open a restaurant. Please contact me if you find yourself traveling to Asia!”


One business note: Please remember to visit our class website to make your tax-deductible class dues payment; convenient credit card and PayPal options are available. And thanks to those of you who elect to support DPCS as well!


Sadly, my 500-word limit draws nigh, so I must bid you all a fond farewell. Refresh, enjoy and travel on.


—Stanley Weil, 14 Woodland Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com