Class Notes 1990

I asked all of you (for the fourth time since 2014) to identify the best (or most impactful or memorable) book you’ve read since 2021. Here is Part III of your responses.

Christine Smith writes, “The Passage by Justin Cronin. If you like Stephen King-style dystopian fiction, then this is crack for your reader’s brain. My son Matthew was given a few choices for ninth-grade summer reading and I skimmed the first 30 pages of this book just to find out how Cronin decided to end the world. Yup, got hooked. I finished the remaining 920 pages and then bought the rest of the trilogy for a happily occupied summer. Matthew chose Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, which I have also read and would highly recommend.”

Matt Miller writes, “Though it’s been out there for a while, I recently read Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. Terrific story. Touching, sad, uplifting. A couple of years ago I grabbed the English AP reading list from my youngest to get some ideas. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson is another really great and meaningful true story. How many of us would graduate from Harvard Law School and pursue a career like his?” David Greenberg writes, “I recently revisited all four novels of John Updike’s Rabbit series and feel changed by the experience. I read them in my 20s and 30s, but here in my 50s they mean so much more as I can bring my life experiences to the novels. I heartily recommend re-reading books you enjoyed as a young person now that you know so much more about life.”

Sanda Lwin writes, “One of the best books I’ve read in recent years is The Critic’s Daughter by Priscilla Gilman, a former colleague of mine when we were both English professors at Yale. This is a beautiful and powerful memoir about growing up in New York in the 1970s. Her father, the late Richard Gilman, was a prominent drama critic for Newsweek and The Nation and taught at the Yale School of Drama for decades; her mother, Lynn Nesbit, is one of the foremost literary agents in New York. Their Upper West Side dinner parties were full of literati and intellectuals—from Harold Brodkey to Susan Sontag, Toni Morrison to Bernard Malamud—and it’s against this backdrop that she writes primarily about her complicated and tumultuous relationship with her brilliant father. A really great read.”

Kevin Roon writes, “Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error by Kathryn Shultz. An incredibly thorough, thought-provoking, and funny exploration of human fallibility by one of my favorite authors.”

Paul Haffner writes, “I finally tackled Moby Dick during the past few months, finishing the weighty tome on an overnight Amtrak out West. I had no idea the tale we know of Ahab’s obsession to vanquish the great whale is likely less than 20 percent of the story—the novel is an anatomy, biology, and history lesson as well. It was a bit of a grind to get underway and it’s not for everyone. If you have any attention deficit issues, don’t dig archaic analogies, or struggle reading language deemed offensive today in historical context, I would stay safely on shore. But if you have a thirst to learn the ways of the whale and the men who hunted them to feed an enormous industry, get ye prepared to join the epic voyage of the Pequod—thar she blows!”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

This month I asked ’90s to pick a salient memory from our 35th reunion in June or to discuss what our reunion meant to them. Here are your responses: Michelle Brownlee writes: “The most meaningful part of reunion for me was connecting with Ann Fromholz over shared experiences with parents who have Parkinson’s disease. My mom moved in with me in April due to dementia and other symptoms of advanced PD. It has changed my life in so many ways, so it was a topic of conversation with just about everyone I talked to at reunion. It meant the world to me when Ann shared some of her family’s experiences, which were closely aligned with challenges that I was (and still am) facing. It made me feel so connected and supported to know that I wasn’t alone.” Jack McBride writes, “I have several important memories of 35th reunion: the nature walk led by Mark Schiffman; taking a photo with undergraduate advisor (UGA) mates Pete Harvey and Mike Kanarick with our UGA Jeff Lazarus ’87; an amazing lunch at the Bema and conversation with Angela McConney; catching up with dear friends Lauren Kehoe and John Sucke; chatting with Marcus Weiss. The hundreds of hours put into this event by Laurilyn Dowling, Meg Sommerfeld, Cheryl Shepard, and others meant that I could reconnect with my imagined halcyon days of undergrad and create new friendships over our shared experience at Dartmouth College.” Ted Carleton writes: “I recall the indomitable enthusiasm of Jack McBride, the powerful memorial service, and the joy of spending precious time with Anna Cathcart and Pete Harvey.” Matt Miller writes, “Highlights for me were: Listening to Second Hand Jam, our class memorial service (a beautiful ceremony and a meaningful way to remember classmates we have lost); and hiking Moosilauke. It’s a beautiful hike and view from the summit, and it has such an important sense of place and connection with Dartmouth’s outdoor heritage.” Jessica Silver writes, “What stands out to me the most about this reunion is that I made new friends. Of course, I caught up with lots of wonderful people I spent time with during college. But some of my favorite conversations were with people I had not known or had barely known. I loved that!” Jenn Scott writes, “I have so many great memories from attending reunion for the first time. I arrived Sophomore Summer on exchange from Smith and never went back. I was always nervous about reunions because, as a transfer and an introvert, I didn’t know as many people in the class. Being there in June solidified my connection with Dartmouth and inspired me to integrate being a woman of Dartmouth into my day-to-day life to a greater extent (still figuring out what that means). What is most salient to me is how wonderfully kind and freakin’ amazing our classmates are! (Thanks, Marcus Weiss!)” Mike Kennealy writes, “Our class meeting on Sunday morning was a great way to wrap up an amazing weekend with a really special group of people, and I’m grateful for all the work our class leaders did to make it happen!” Steve Linde writes, “Probably our [Second Hand Jam’s] second rehearsal, when Al Realuyo was there and we started to sound okay!” Mary (Bachman) DeSilva writes, “I’ve been thinking and probably over-thinking, but honestly the absolute best part of reunion was the dancing. I never ever in my whole life felt comfortable with it yet was vaulted in Hanover in June. I was also wowed by how decades instantly evaporated in terms of all sorts of friendships.”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

By the time y’all read this our 35th reunion will be in the books. Prior to reunion, however, I sent the following prompt to all ’90s: “We have all changed a lot since we graduated from Dartmouth 35 years ago, but how have you not changed since 1990?” Below is Part Two of your responses.

Carolyn Choi writes, “Hello Kitty is still the object of lots of love from me, even at 55 years old!” Nick Stanham writes, “This is a tough one because externally a whole bunch has changed—we all get older and for some of us, our clothes fit a little tighter, we have less hair, etc., but something that has never changed is how much I love hanging around with my Dartmouth friends. It’s always a positive experience and somehow I feel smarter and a better all-around person when I do. That, and since I have been back living in Miami since 1994, I am still ‘Nick from Miami.’ ” Laura Jackson writes, “One thing that hasn’t changed for me is that I still love hanging out with Sandy Yusen, my freshman-year roommate. We just got back from a yoga and surfing trip in Costa Rica. I’m lucky to have seen many of my other ’90 friends recently, including Dea Follmer and my husband, Tim Cleary.”

Kristin Jacobson writes, “I think two things that have not changed about me are perseverance and resilience. The perseverance was more obvious in college, the resilience maybe not so much because things probably appeared to come easily to me and many of my biggest challenges had yet to arrive. Then, on two days in the same week of February 2005, my oldest son was diagnosed with autism and my middle and youngest sons were diagnosed with cerebral palsy. It wasn’t something I thought I’d be able to survive, but my perseverance and resilience got me through. I learned the lesson that parents must make sure to take care of themselves so they can care for their kids (put your own oxygen mask on first), something I did not remember to do. But I am resilient and overcame that as well. And recently I’ve faced another set of very significant health challenges myself. In December I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, and my health hit rock bottom. It’s a long story, but—as was true of me in college—I persevered.”

Gary Katz writes, “For me I’d say, ‘loyalty to and focus on my friends and family,’ but how good can I be at judging myself?” Kate Burnaby Wright writes, “For me, the thing that immediately popped into mind was Noel Perrin’s distillation of me: ‘pragmatic idealist.’ Or more precisely, as he wrote: ‘Kate is an idealist, but a pragmatic one.’ I suspect my friends would agree. Shoutout to all the amazing professors (and coaches) who offered us so, so much!” Ted Carleton, my Hanover Middle School baseball teammate, writes exactly what we all expected him to write: “Handsome as ever—or should I say brilliant? So many choices….”

And in other class news, Walter Palmer is getting his revenge on coaches who made him sleep in six-foot beds on road trips. Recently his name popped up in The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, which depicted him as an advisor to NCAA teams (including our beloved Big Green men’s basketball team) curious about unionizing. Keep making history, Walt!

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

Our 35th reunion will take place June 13-16—which is less than four months away. Because of that nasty pandemic, we didn’t get to have a 30th reunion, so this will be the first time we’ve all gotten together in 10 years! Of course Joel Newton’s and Chris Newton’s law of Dartmouth reunions states that the depth of joy experienced by reunion attendees is directly proportional to the number of alumni who show up—the more, the merrier! Thus, this month, I asked ’90s who have already decided to attend reunion to write messages to the rest of our class, encouraging them to register. Here are your messages. Dave “Danger” Sherwood writes, “By now I think everyone’s heard about blue zones—places where people live longer due to strong community and healthy diets. Strong community is one of the greatest predictors of our health and happiness as we get older. In a similar light, Dartmouth is a green zone for all of us—the community we forged in 1986 still nourishes us to this day and gathering as a community in June will serve to strengthen that community. Live longer. Be happier. Come to reunion! And green is way cooler than blue…or brown…or crimson.” Megan Hammond writes, “Come, because if Covid taught us anything, it is that our greatest treasure is having a sense of community with people that matter to us.” John Stouffer writes, “Pretty simple message to friends on the fence: I’ll go if you go!” Josh Vogel writes, “Going to our 20th and 25th reunions dramatically reduced the power of my recurring nightmares about my actual college days. Ever since attending, even when I have missed the entire class, it’s time for the final and I can’t even get to the room to take it. Thanks to reunions, now at least I usually have my clothes on, which is so much better! This could happen for you too! Come to reunions and exorcise your demons!” Rob Crawford writes, “Contrary to popular belief, I am an introvert, not an extrovert. I have a slight fear of large gatherings such as college reunions. However, my experience at our 25th reunion revealed to me how important it is to overcome ‘reunion hesitations.’ At the conclusion of our 25th reunion, as I began my drive back home, I started bawling like a baby. Deep sobs. Why? I suspect it’s because those two and a half days in Hanover helped me rediscover the greatest rewards of life: relationships with other humans and personal growth. Plus, seeing close friends and friends I’d lost touch with and spending time with people I hardly knew when I was at Dartmouth revealed to me just how much of who I am was shaped by my four and a half years at ‘the College on the Hill’ and just how much of my heart will always be in Hanover. I suddenly realized the truth expressed in the lyrics of two Dartmouth songs I’ve sung countless times: ‘Dear Old Dartmouth,’ ‘Though ’round the girdled earth they roam, her spell on them remains,’ and ‘Dartmouth Undying,’ ‘Dartmouth—the gleaming, dreaming walls of Dartmouth—miraculously builded in our hearts.’ So, if you’re on the fence about attending our 35th reunion, it’s time to come down, down to the river. See you there!”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

Recently, I asked ’90s, “What book from your Dartmouth academic career comes to mind first?” Here is Part III your responses: Jeff Buchsbaum writes, “The first is The Iliad. I read this freshman fall in a required seminar with the title ‘Memories of War.’ The second is Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, juxtaposed in the same class. Our professor was amazing and the class was designed to push us to realize that writers had been trying to educate their audiences on the horror of war so that it would not be repeated. To this day I still think about those books and that class.” Heather Block writes, “Things Fall Apart—of course.” Karen Behling writes, “Things Fall Apart—of course.” Dan Fuchs writes, “The one and only Things Fall Apart! Wait—did we actually have to read the book for it to count?”

William Boulware writes, “I remember Things Fall Apart, the debut novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. Of the books I read while at Dartmouth, Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a Woman? is memorable, not necessarily for the content but for the version of the book we read in freshman English called Aren’t I a Woman? As a child of North Carolina, I was exposed to this book in my home. I slowly raised my hand to challenge the correction of the book’s title and was then compelled (asked) to read aloud with my Southern drawl. Ah, memories.” Jeff Bedell writes, “Paradise Lost—and falling asleep in Sanborn trying to keep up with the reading assignments.”

Scot Paterson writes, “Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe, which I read in the class ‘Rise of the Novel.” It’s a perfect example of the rise of the trashy novel, and it’s a page-turner.” Basia Nikonorow writes, “The Color Purple. I read this in an excellent, memorable literature class focused on Black female authors taught by the legendary Professor Cook. The movie never lived up to the book. In fact, it’s one of the few movies I’ve ever walked out of in my whole life.” Satin Mirchandani writes, “The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. It was released at the beginning of junior fall, and it ignited all kinds of controversy, including the fatwa by Khomeini. The printers of the book were in such a hurry, they shipped the books without trimming the edges. I called the bookstore and when they confirmed they had one last copy available, I asked the gentleman on the phone to kindly hold it for me. He asked me for my name. I spelled it out for him: S-A-T-I-N. Long pause…‘You’re kidding, right?’ ”

Ann (McDevitt) Miller writes, “War and Peace from a Tolstoy class our Sophomore Summer.” Sebastian de Atucha writes, “Hard Times by Studs Terkel. I read it in a freshman seminar with Blanche Gelfant. She taught this book so well. It’s a long book about the Great Depression that obliged me and my classmates to spend hours buried in the stacks, living through those hard times. It was like a two-day silent meditation retreat focusing on how shitty things can be. Unexpectedly uplifting.”

And finally, congratulations to Heidi Julavits on her most recent book, Directions to Myself: A Memoir of Four Years, which has received extremely positive reviews in numerous major newspapers and magazines.

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

This month I asked ’90s, “What book from your Dartmouth academic career comes to mind first?” Here is Part I your responses. Jessica Silver writes, “Things Fall Apart, of course, because it was the first book I had to read for college and I was so nervous!” Kyrie Robinson writes, “Jews Without Money was the book for my freshman seminar. I was wholly unaware of the stereotypes about Jewish people and wealth. I had grown up singing along with Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof as pretty much my only entree into Jewish culture and stereotypes. I still remember the professor probing the class about the title of the book and having no earthly idea what she was talking about.” Michael Cohenuram writes, “The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test for Bruce Nelson’s freshman seminar, ‘The History of the 60s.’ ” Wendy Whitcomb writes, “Paradise Lost, from ‘English 5.’ This was the first time that I had to read something that felt completely over my head. And it was probably one of the few times that I had to resort to CliffsNotes to gain a minimal understanding of the material and scrape together a paper where I felt I had no idea what I was talking about—not a great feeling when you’re starting college and wondering if you belong there. I’m glad things got better the next semester.” Laurin Grollman writes, “I wish I could say something more erudite came to mind, but nope—the Over the Hill face book, which I still use as a reference.” Deborah Greene-LaRoche writes, “Definitely Don Quixote, parts 1 and 2 and the spurious sequel—all part of a memorable Cervantes course I took as part of my Spanish lit major. I especially loved the metafiction of Part 2.” Susan Hirt writes, “Professor Henricks’ new translation of the Tao Te Ching, which he taught to our class even before the book was officially released. Though I did not major in religion, I appreciated his elucidation of Taoism and its poetic foundation text. What a privilege to explore so many diverse topics and be guided by the best scholars in their fields.” Jonathan Weatherly writes, “El Principe Destronado (The Dethroned Prince) by Miguel Delibes, which I got to read during my language study abroad program in Granada, Spain. Such a cute story of a first child who is dethroned when his younger sibling comes along. By the way, my daughter, Madison ’19, tells me her reunion is the same time as ours, so I look forward to seeing you all then.” Mark Sternman writes, “Before exams in one of the freshman year semesters, I read the novel On the Beach by Nevil Shute. Greatly moved by the dramatization of life after nuclear war, I eventually pursued a master’s in international security policy and a career in arms control before moving to Boston and working on domestic policies.” Judi Cassel writes, “Pierre; or, the Ambiguities by Herman Melville. Instead, we should have read Moby Dick, which was a favorite pandemic read of mine. Tom Thompson, what do you think?” David Jacobs writes, “I still haven’t read Things Fall Apart.”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

This month I asked ’90s: “What is something you didn’t get involved in or do at Dartmouth that, if you had a second chance, you would get involved in or do?” Here is Part I of your responses.

Andra Bowditch writes, “After high school I did a gap year overseas and I literally did not get the memo about freshman trips. I wonder, in a parallel universe where I signed up for a trip, what I would have learned and what friends I would have made and how that would have changed the trajectory of the next four years and perhaps my whole life. (Although maybe I would’ve tripped over a tree root, gotten concussed, and flunked out freshman fall, so perhaps I actually dodged a bullet!)”

William Boulware writes, “Dartmouth track and field was my extended family. I opted to stay on campus and run rather than study Spanish in Spain and marine biology in Costa Rica. I have a great life and have had amazing experiences, but I wonder what other joys or traumas I could have endured had I pursued these two interests while at Dartmouth.”

Lauren (Waller) Smith writes, “I would take a gap year or two and grow up first. I went to college at 16, and I didn’t have the maturity or confidence to take full advantage of the opportunities Dartmouth offered. My 20-year-old daughter went to college at 18 instead of 16 and was one of the oldest kids in her class. Watching how the extra two years of emotional maturity allowed her to develop a firm sense of herself and how that has allowed her to maximize her college experience makes me wish I’d had those two extra years as well.”

Roth Herrlinger writes, “I would get out into nature way, way more than I did the first time around. My inclination was to stick around campus when we were in school. Nowadays, I so appreciate time outdoors, solo or with family and friends.”

Bill Rexford writes, “Do I dare say more pong? We all have good friends who are now gone. If I could I would have lingered longer with them, looked them in the eye a little longer, and stretched those moments out now that I know how precious those moments were. I regret not spending more time with those who have passed and try to do better for those that are still here—so, more pong.”

Kyrie Robinson writes, “Dartmouth Outing Club no doubt. I have no idea why I didn’t get involved with it in the first place. I love to hike and camp.”

Brad Drazen writes, “I took two fantastic art history classes during senior year and realized that I may have missed my calling. If I could do it over I would have majored in art history!”

Kyle Davis writes, “After traveling from L.A. (the ‘Big City’) to Hanover (the backwoods of New England) the thought of traveling abroad terrified me, so I didn’t do a language or foreign study abroad. It is the one regret I can point to in my entire life (not just at Dartmouth). As a consequence, however, both of my kids studied abroad and I got to live vicariously through them!”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

This month I asked ’90s, “What has that small voice in the back of your head been telling you over and over for years and years?” Here are your responses. Lauren Smith writes, “Sadly, that I, my daughter, and the other women in my life who I love will never have the same rights, privileges, and freedoms as the ones with which men get to walk through the world.” Michael Keller writes, “643-6135, 643-6135, 643-6135.”

Bill Wilson writes, “I’ve been hearing, ‘Go back to Hanover, it has been too long!’ I’ve missed the class reunions through the years, but I did get a chance to go to the 50th Black Alumni at Dartmouth Association reunion this past Memorial Day Weekend. I had a fantastic time and after 20 years it was great to be back on campus. While there I ran into Kelly Green Kahn, Brad Bennett, and Dan Patton.”

Karen Behling writes, “With the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade I have been thinking about the first protest march I went to in D.C. in April of 1988. I remember Kathy Heafey marching with the ‘Catholics for Choice’ crew, and Jane Blum and Tom Thompson and I road-tripping together. The voice in my head has been telling me to keep up the fight. I protested in Raleigh, North Carolina, a few weeks ago and will keep fighting so all our daughters have the same rights we grew up with.”

Hallie Brooks writes, “Say ‘yes!’ As we enter middle age, our bodies aren’t getting any younger, and if someone gives you an opportunity to do something fun, say ‘yes!’ Hike Kilimanjaro (Rick Dunham and Rob Norris), meet up with your college buddies from across the country for a weekend getaway, try a new sport (I just tried eventing on a friend’s most wonderful horse loan). Carpe diem, friends!”

Suzanne (Rathbun) Fetter writes, “ ‘Keep going,’ a lesson learned on my freshman year hiking trip at Dartmouth.” Roth Herrlinger writes, “The small voice in the back of my head has been saying, ‘Go to New Zealand. Find what’s there for you.’ I was going to go in 2020, but then…well, we all know what 2020 brought. So I’m going to head over later this year and explore!”

Kyrie Robinson writes, “My inner voice is largely critical and I spend three-quarters of my time telling her to shut up. But I do have another inner voice that tells me to join the Red Cross, Peace Corps, Feed America, travel the world, walk the Camino Trail, or bike across the United States. Basically, go on adventures, because I figure at 52, I’ve got about 25 years of great health before I start to slow down. I have another voice that says, ‘It’s been nine years, maybe you should get out and date again.’ But my twin boys are 19, still trying to launch, so I’m largely staying put until they are a bit more steady on their feet.” Kyle Davis writes, “ ‘This is not the dog talking to you…it’s also not God. Now stand up straight and you need to be better about remembering the names of people you meet and you need to call your mom once in a while.’ (My small voice is part Dale Carnegie and part Nigerian auntie.)”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

This month I asked ’90s, “Out of all the people you’ve never met (living or deceased), who has had the biggest positive influence on your life?” Here is Part I of your responses.

Marcus Weiss writes, “What a beautiful question. At this very moment Tony Robbins holds the top spot. In very recent times he helped empower me to pivot my whole life into conscious hope and positivity. (But I can think of an endless list of people, as everyone I come across has impacted me dearly!)” Michael Keller writes, “Neil Peart. If you just think he’s a rock drummer, you don’t know his story and who he was.” Mark Sternman writes, “Paul Farmer.” Lauren (Waller) Smith writes, “The person who first figured out how to make coffee.” Larry Specht writes, “Astronaut Chris Hadfield, author of An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything. A great book about taking every chance to learn a new trick.” Nancy Groth writes, “Paul McCartney and John Lennon.” Christian Henrich writes, “Christ.”

Jen Gittes writes, “This was a hard one, but it didn’t take long for me to decide: Dr./Dame Jane Goodall. Although I haven’t followed her closely or even read any of her books, every time I see, hear about, or am reminded of her I feel proud and hopeful. And it turns out that her latest book is indeed about hope. That one I plan to read as soon as possible. Jane Goodall has been true to herself and to her instincts and interests throughout her life. In the 1950s, while in her 20s, she left England for Africa and entered the male-dominated worlds of ethnology and anthropology with little preparation but with huge interest and dedication. She has experienced all of the joys and traumas life puts in one’s path, including love, marriage, motherhood, higher education, divorce, illness, real danger, criticism, humiliation, recognition, and mind-boggling awards. Through it all she has persevered and remained true to her integrity and to her North Star in her efforts to acknowledge, respect, and protect animals, the environment, and nature in general. She is truly an inspiration and a comfort.”

Scott Facher writes, “Always happy to see your name pop up in my email, Rob. Due to people like you, here’s my response: J.D. Salinger, because I chose to go to Dartmouth hoping I’d bump into him at Lou’s, which never happened. Instead I made friends who continue to bring the greatest joy and inspiration to my life.” Susan Domchek writes, “Rosalind Franklin.” Christopher Farrens writes, “Fred Pillsbury Carleton III. His turn of phrase, ‘The damage is the tradeoff for the fun,” has inspired generations. From raconteur to lonely goatherd, he’s been around!” David “Danger” Sherwood writes, “Bruce Springsteen.” Sam McLean writes, “At the moment I’ll go with Charles Darwin. His discovery of how enormously complex life forms evolve from simple processes both explains life on Earth and provides the conceptual scaffolding for much of what us medical researchers do.”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

Here is Part III of your answers to, “What’s your favorite album that was recorded after we graduated in 1990 or who’s your favorite musical artist whom you discovered after we graduated in 1990?” Andy Affleck writes, “The album Laid by the British rock band James. It was produced by Brian Eno and has those ambient touches that make it haunting at times and beautiful at others. And it also slaps, as my daughter would say.” Adam Bookbinder writes,“A Rush of Blood to the Head by Coldplay and The King is Dead by The Decemberists.” Lauren Beiley writes,“Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Moby, and Beck.” Brad Drazen writes,“Solo artist: Hozier. Band: Jukebox the Ghost.” (But you all should keep an eye on Max Drazen, Brad’s son…he’s a future star.) David Greenberg writes,“In 2014 I read a little Wall Street Journal feature about a local N.Y.C. artist named Alynda Segarra who writes songs (that seem as though they’ve always existed out in the Americana ether) and sings for a group called Hurray for the Riff Raff. I’ve followed the band for years now and see them live whenever I can. I recommend their albums Small Town Heroes and The Navigator.” Kyle Davis writes,“The Roots, a.k.a. Questlove’s other gig!” Mary (Bachman) DeSilva writes,“I’m unabashedly a total crunchy folky hippy and delight in the album Stand by The Kennedys (not the dead ones).” Tracy Leavelle writes, “Wilco and their album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.” Michael Lindgren writes, “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco.” Michael Keller writes, “My favorite artist discovered post-college has to be Death Cab for Cutie. Dumb name but amazing band with thought-provoking lyrics. My favorite album by them is Plans.” Lou Mabley writes,“John Prine’s The Tree of Forgiveness and Jason Isbell’s Southeastern. These two guys were really good friends and influences on each other. Losing John to COVID-19 last year was a devastating blow.” Ali Long writes,“Rozzi Crane.” Kristin Jacobson writes, “No song favorites, but I had a big personal accomplishment earlier this summer. I and my two older boys (Connor and Finn) summited Half Dome. It was 13 hours, 21 miles, and 4,800 vertical feet. I am not sure I could have done it in my 40s (I had so many injuries), so I’m very proud to have made it in my 50s!” Hal Holway writes,“When I first heard Nirvana’s album Nevermind in 1992, my world was rocked. I don’t hear it much anymore, but it’s the first ‘new’ music I was into after college and, unlike some music that sort of blurs with ‘before or after Dartmouth,’ Nevermind is firmly on the soundtrack of a later, newly adult era of my life.” Andrew Latimer writes,“I have to say Cake is my favorite artist discovered since 1990. They’re almost too cool, but I just really like their beats and attitude, and I still enjoy their older stuff. (I also really love Bon Iver and Radiohead.)” Jenny (Goldberg) Wood writes,“Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem!”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

This month I asked ’90s, “What’s your favorite album that was recorded after we graduated in 1990—or who’s your favorite musical artist whom you discovered after we graduated in 1990?” I think I received more responses to this question than any other question I have posed, so it may take a few columns to get through them all. Here is Part 1. Kelin (Pickard) Colberg writes: “We, especially Stig Colberg, have become big fans of Slightly Stoopid. Other family favorites include G. Love & Special Sauce (they do some good stuff with Jack Johnson), The Cat Empire, Macklemore, Dispatch, Lumineers, Beyonce, Ali Farka Toure, Stick Figure, OAR, Doja Cat, and Alabama Shakes. Also, here’s a quick family update: Our eldest, a senior at the University of Vermont, is hoping to attend medical school; our middlest will be a freshman at Dartmouth; and I just took our youngest on her college trip. The nest is clearing out, and I’m not quite sure how I feel about that.” Rennolds Ostrom writes: “The Dave Matthews Band. This is literally the only music I listen to (much to the chagrin of my wife, I might add).” Jennifer (Huska) Merriman writes: “An album by Cowboy Junkies, 200 More Miles: Live Performances 1985-1994. I saw them live in graduate school and have loved them and that album ever since. My top-five favorite artists since 1990 would be Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga (who was on a Southwest flight with me from Oakland to L.A. before she became famous), Dave Matthews Band, Snow Patrol, and Imagine Dragons.” Chris McCabe writes: “Definitely Beck, perhaps because he works some Jagger chicken dance elements into his live performances.” Ramzi Nemo writes: “I can’t think of a band I like better than the too-conveniently-named Ivy, which released six albums from 1995 to 2011. The band’s founder, Adam Schlesinger, who was a year ahead of us at Williams, also played in Fountains of Wayne. With Ivy co-founder Andy Chase, he created the iconic theme song for the movie That Thing You Do. Very sadly, in April 2020 Covid-19 cut short his remarkably prolific career in pop, theater, and motion pictures.” Laura (Van Wie) McGrory writes: “I credit my kids for ensuring that my musical tastes didn’t stay stuck in the 1980s. Two of my favorite newer groups—which I like well enough to have seen them in concert multiple times—are Milky Chance and Cage the Elephant.” Mark Sternman writes: “As a lover of most things Canadian, I discovered The Tragically Hip long after graduation. Tight musically and interesting lyrically, the Hip, among its many other accomplishments, spotlighted the unimaginable horrors suffered by Indigenous populations in Canada, a history that sadly resonates for those of us who have lived our entire lives south of the 49th parallel.” Julie Urda writes: “Ben Folds.” Eric Hageman writes: “With apologies to great albums by Lauryn Hill, Nirvana, and Wilco, for my money, Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange is the best album since 1990.” Kerstin (Stanley) Clark writes: “Hi from Calgary (we moved here in 2017). I discovered Spearhead (Michael Franti) post-Dartmouth and make my kids listen to it on drives around the Canadian west.”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

This month I asked ’90s, “In what way(s), big or small, has the pandemic changed you (or your outlook, or your habits, or your values, or your self-knowledge, etc.) forever?” Here is Part I of your answers. Greg Millett:“If anything, the Covid-19 pandemic is all too familiar. After Dartmouth I returned to N.Y.C., which was being ravaged by AIDS. I remember a botched government response, a city gripped by fear and anxiousness, and being 22 and already knowing 13 people who had died. For many of us in the gay community, Covid-19’s stigma, testing, denial, and politicization brought up so much of what we lived through in what we call ‘the plague years.’ It has not helped that five of my friends and work acquaintances lost their lives to Covid-19 in the past year. As an infectious disease epidemiologist who has had a career spanning the Centers for Disease Control to the Obama White House, I’m grateful for my experience in HIV to provide insight on surveillance and prevention measures—as well as the ability to contribute my published studies to the Covid-19 scientific literature. What I did not expect was our nation’s haphazard and half-hearted response to the pandemic. I hoped that, collectively, we would handle this pandemic better after the mistakes that were made 40 years earlier. Sadly, that has not been the case. What does that say about us?” Kimberly L. Robinson:“This pandemic hasn’t changed me forever. Adversity happens in life. I think people have been so thrown by this pandemic because they thought their comfortable lives couldn’t be shaken and that such a global catastrophe couldn’t happen in the 21st century. I’ve never been under any such illusion. In the short term, the pandemic prompted me to quit my job because I didn’t believe they could keep work conditions safe, plus I was unwilling to expose myself to public transportation twice a day to get back and forth. I was going to leave that job anyway; I just didn’t think it would be because of a pandemic. Now I’m going to try to do something where I can work from home. Of course, starting something new is always a little bit anxiety-producing, but I think I will be okay. I wouldn’t say that what I’m embarking on, in terms of career, will last forever, but I hope it will last a few years and be reasonably lucrative. The truth is that God has been looking out for me during this very trying year, so I don’t have to worry about what will happen tomorrow. This past year’s catastrophe is hardly the first I’ve been through in recent years and I’m still here, by God’s grace and provision. He has been looking out for me since I accepted Him, which was, not ironically, at Dartmouth. (I’ve always told people that Dartmouth is a place that will drive you to one side of the divine divide or the other.) So I just try to do my part each day and not worry about the rest.”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

I recently asked ’90s, “What’s the best (or most impactful or memorable) book you’ve read during the last three years?” Here is Part I of your responses. Lauren Waller Smith: “Florida by Lauren Groff.” Paul Haffner: “Last year I re-read Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, and it just blew me away. It’s a masterpiece (and funny as hell). Honorable mention goes to Grandma Gatewood’s Walk by Ben Montgomery—a true story of a grandmother who leaves home to walk the Appalachian Trail on her own with no one knowing—and in tennis shoes.”

Mike Lindgren: “The Doctor of Aleppo by my former roommate Dan Mayland was pretty durn good!” Deborah Cornavaca: “New Power by Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms, which I read as I began working for the governor of New Jersey. A great book is a great book. A really memorable book is a great book read at the right time.” Kyrie Robinson: “Nonfiction, The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson; fiction, A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.” Heather Block: “Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Three times because you have to.” Jonathan Sullivan: “Most recently The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson, Educated by Tara Westover, Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, and Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates are showing me how different the world looks when viewed through the eyes of Black people and the rural poor and helping me understand why we are in this moment as a society. The Three-Body Problem trilogy by Cixin Liu has been mind-expanding in completely different ways and a welcome escape when the day-to-day is too much.”

Andrew Latimer: “The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk. Although, annoyingly, I will also tell you the best-written book I have read during the last few years is Middlemarch by George Eliot—also the funniest! And the book that moved me the most was All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.” Wendy Richmond: “Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, also Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.” Pamela Chandran: “Recently, during a hot, dry L.A. summer, I read The Overstory by Richard Powers (which is, to unfairly simplify it, about the interconnectedness of trees and humans and how humans need trees and how trees very much do not need humans). I would wake up very early and read the book outside on our front porch in the quiet and the growing light. While we have three lovely palms in the front, we do not have the broad-trunked, wide-canopied trees that undergird the book. The book left me with a feeling of an absence. I once again felt the regret of not spending enough time outdoors when I was at Dartmouth, and it only now occurs to me that the book may have played a subconscious role in our decision to move to the Pacific Northwest next month.” Michael Keller: “Telegraph Road by Michael Chabon. Nobody writes like he does. His storytelling is not always perfect, but his use of language is sublime.”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

Back in late April, way before our successful, awesome 30th reunion on Zoom in mid-June, I asked ’90s, “Please tell us one positive thing that’s come out of the Covid-19 pandemic for you or a member of your family.” Here is Part II. Ted Carleton: “First time in my life I’ve ever been deemed essential. So, like Carl Spackler, I’ve got that going for me.” Kim Lewis: “I’ve had 42 consecutive nights (and counting) of family dinner with all four of us (husband, son aged 21, daughter aged 18) in attendance, leisurely one- to two-hour dinners followed by all-family clean ups and movie or game nights. No one wanted this drastic change of pace, but Brent and I are cherishing it.” Mark Sternman: “I’ve gotten to grow my first beard since my Edinburgh foreign study program. On a more serious note, I’ve done multiple Zoom calls with Tor Blaisdell, Roth Herrlinger, Jamie Pringle, and Scott Spring. The old banter never fails to cheer me.” Josh Vogel: “Renewed family time has been an unexpected treat. I never expected to once again have us all together, with time to really connect. I find that my children have become mature, thoughtful, caring individuals whose company I really enjoy. Having a taste of retirement has been a nice treat as well. My wife and I haven’t spent this much time together since before we were married.” Quincy Vale: “The ability of humans to adapt to change is truly remarkable. I look at the wrenching change in lifestyles wrought by the global pandemic in a few short months and it makes me hopeful that the collective, global ‘we’ will be able to address climate change in a meaningful manner. The money can be found and invested. The laws and policies can be enacted. The technologies can be repurposed, developed, and deployed at scale. And we can do it quickly and efficiently in a way to minimize loss of life and our natural world. In short, one positive of all this is that it is a good dress rehearsal for what we all need to do during the coming 20 years to manage and mitigate the unintended impact we are having on our home planet. We can do it, and we will.” Jane Blum DeMarchi: “I have to admit I am enjoying spending so much time with my college-aged children. I thought they were gone for good and now I get to eat lunch with them!” Sue Domchek: “At the risk of sounding flippant, given that I work in a hospital and things have been stressful (and I fully realize that the following is a First World problem), I learned how to color my own hair. However, I have no intention of continuing this newfound skill on the other side.” Brad Drazen: “The five of us have really enjoyed reconnecting as a family unit. It’s been a decade since we sat down at the dinner table consistently, and we’ve found a great sense of comfort in being together. I believe one of the positive, long-lasting results of the pandemic will be that nuclear families will remain stronger and more cohesive for years to come.” Gary Katz: “The one positive thing that has come out of the Covid-19 shelter-in-place orders are the Wednesday night ‘virtual house meetings’ we have been having on Zoom with the Sigma Nu ’90s, including Bruce Sacerdote, Quincy Vale, Todd Eagle, Brian Mittman, Rob Fasciano, Bob Galindo, Chris Farrens, Jon Ezrow, Mike Kanarick, and Matt Hemry. I’m embarrassed to admit, though, that given our age we have adjusted the start time from 10 p.m. to 8 p.m.”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

With our 30th reunion just around the corner (June 18-21—go register now at d90reunion.org!), I asked ’90s to contemplate the following question: “What’s something on your bucket list that you’re at least 50 percent committed to achieving or experiencing or what’s a challenging goal you’re currently pursuing?” Here are your responses. Jennifer (Huska) Merriman: “At age 50 I decided to embark on a new career in wildlife medicine! I am back in school studying to be a veterinary technician and at the same time volunteering and doing internships caring for native wildlife in northern California.” Lauren Kehoe: “I’m committing to travel more, but less for ‘enrichment’ than just stuff that makes me happy. In October I went to Las Vegas to see Billy Idol’s show at the Palms, ride the roller coaster around the New York New York hotel, and eat soufflé in the bar at the Paris hotel while watching the fountain show at the Bellagio out its windows. My next planned bit of happiness travel is to see the Stanley Cup at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto!” Michael Keller: “Sky-diving. Have been on the tarmac when a flight got canceled for weather, so hoping to get back to it before I start daisy-pushing!” Robin Plager Lapre: “My major ambition is to reduce animal shelter overcrowding by improving access to low-cost spay and neuter surgery in Tennessee. Having spent two years volunteering in rural shelters, I reached the conclusion that the solution to the surplus animal population requires education, incentives, and affordable access to low-cost sterilization. Please consider adopting your next pet. And if you want to save 1,000 future dogs or cats, just spay or neuter the ones you have!” Paul Hill: “I am somewhat more than 50 percent committed to hiking 50 separate peaks with 50 different people in my 50s. I’ve done eight so far. Todd Thayer and I did Hunter Mountain to the fire tower last October. The best part (besides the obvious of getting outside) is catching up with friends and family from different parts of my life, often in a place I’ve never been!” David Greenberg: “For many years I’ve wanted to compete at the World Masters (over age 40) Track and Field Championship, but never have. Wearing a Team USA uniform and competing against the world’s best has a strong appeal to me. But for years the meet has been in faraway places, so I’ve had to skip it. This year the meet is in Toronto, and I’m more than likely going to compete. Just to make my ‘challenging goal’ even more challenging, I’m doubling down by learning a new event: the 3,000-meter steeplechase. The final is August 1.” Bernadine Wu:“I have a ton of bucket list items that involve family and travel and selling my company and living a meaningful, powerful, extraordinary life, but the one real goal I’m out for is this: simplifying!” Jonathan Sullivan: “I am 100 percent committed to drastically reducing my consumption of meat, poultry, and fish this year in an effort to live more sustainably. So far, I’m making good progress. I’m less committed, but still trying, to simultaneously reduce my sugar intake, just because. I’ve been less successful on that front.” Julie Urda: “I am pursuing a lifelong acting dream. I’m taking classes and doing improv. I’ve been in two local children’s plays and I just recorded a voiceover demo. Hoping to turn the latter into an avocation. Stay tuned.” Baeth Davis: “A goal we’re striving for here at our company is 200 new people in our business mentoring program in 2020 with a percentage of the proceeds going to the charities we support.”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

Hey ’90s, our 30th reunion is June 18-21. We don’t have endless reunions, you know; they’re rare events—so register today!

Recently, I asked ’90s, “What is your best memory (from your Dartmouth career) of something that took place outside of Hanover?” Here is Part II. Kyrie Robinson:“I’m in Toulouse with my foreign study abroad crew and it’s raining (France in spring sounded like a glorious idea) and we are all sitting there glumly in our raincoats on a bench, with hours to kill on some field trip or another, and Mary Vogrin says, ‘Qu’est-ce que f**k are we gonna faire?’ and we all completely cracked up. (Mary almost never swore.) I still mutter that phrase to myself when the weather seems challenging.” Parker Karnan: “When Margie Worthington, Colin Tucker, Mike Uram, Matt Greene, and I all piled into Matt’s Cherokee and spontaneously drove to Boston to buy tickets from a scalper for the U2 Joshua Tree Tour concert. We got stuck in traffic and couldn’t find parking, so we arrived just as the concert was letting out. We all bought concert T’s to fake we attended and then drove back to Hanover. Best five hours ever!”

Jen Gittes: “Hiking down the wrong side of a mountain (not the side we had hiked up all day) in Spain, with Kristin Young. Thankfully, by dusk we managed to hitch a ride in a van transporting vegetables back to the safety of our cozy hostel in the tiny, medieval town of La Alberca, where we enjoyed a most satisfying meal of juicy lechon and roasted potatoes.” Cat Shrier: “At the London School of Economics and Political Science I signed up for the debating society—and quickly learned that parliamentarian debate is very different from American forensics. If you’ve ever seen movies in which members of England’s houses of Parliament get up and talk trash about their opponents to the cheers and jeers of their colleagues, that’s basically what it was like. Oh my God it was so much fun!” Cheryl Shepherd: “Freshman summer, July 4th celebration at the U.S. embassy in China. They flew in McDonald’s from Hong Kong because there was no Western anything in the People’s Republic in 1987—it tasted so good! If I recall correctly, members of our Dartmouth crew took on the Marines in a chug-off.”

Michael Keller: “The 1990 Glee Club spring tour took us across Texas on our way to California. Our budget always had us staying with generous alumni or finding appropriate ‘budget accommodations.’ In this particular instance, we found ourselves staying for the night in a set of abandoned and condemned dormitories at the Texas Military Institute (let your imagination run wild and you will be close). Despite being the perfect setting for a prototypical horror-slasher movie, no lives were lost, but it was certainly a fun (in retrospect) and memorable experience with many Dartmouth friends far from campus.” Jay Davis: “One of many wonderful memories outside of Dartmouth was arriving with 30 other ’90s in Long Island Sound during senior spring, after paddling 200 miles on the Connecticut River from Ledyard on Trip to the Sea. Not so great for my thesis, due eight days after we arrived at the ocean, but I have never regretted it.” Jane Demarchi: “Foreign study program in Beijing in the summer of 1988. China was so different then! Nate Emerson, Sue Mooney, John Sun, and I all missed our Sophomore Summer in Hanover. It was a life-changing experience for me and led to my living in Asia for another six years in the 1990s and early 2000s.”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

Recently, I asked ’90s, “Looking back at your Dartmouth years, when (or with whom or with what group of people) did you feel the greatest sense of belonging?” Here is Part II.

John Kornet: “When I was sung out of my freshman room by a bunch of Glee Clubbers as a way of telling me I had passed the audition. They are lifelong friends, five of whom I just saw last weekend, not to mention the one I married!” Catherine (Youssef) Kassenoff: “Although my philosophy foreign study program trip to Scotland ranks high on my list of ‘belongings,’ I have to say it was being a River Clusterian. Outcasts on the central campus, we River people had our own brand of fun, from jumping in the Connecticut River on icy Hanover evenings to sharing the same rickety old bicycles to get us to the farthest reaches of campus.”

Laurin Grollman: “My small freshman dorm, North Fayerweather, was amazing. We were an eclectic bunch, but we were tight and appreciated each other’s idiosyncrasies. In addition to my roommates Jane Bieneman and Julie Warren, we adopted Pam Behne (who had a single because her roommate decided last-minute not to show) as a fourth, and then spent a lot of time hanging out with Darwin Brown, Ron Phillips, Ted O’Donoghue, Dave Yaccino, John Kelly,John Kornet, Steve Huang, Tom Stone, Mike Bersick, John Stouffer, Kelin Pickard, Julie Alperin, and others who made the transition into the Dartmouth community seamless and fun. Though we mostly dispersed after freshman year, that group made me feel at home pretty much from day one.”

Alan Ellis: “I felt the greatest sense of belonging at Phi Tau. Like any group of people, we experienced conflict, but I felt a strong and enduring sense of acceptance as a human being.” Chris Henrich: “Dartmouth rugby football club, 60 minutes into any match with Harvard, because you knew they were about to crack wide open.” Phil Privatera: “My freshman trip. Not being an outdoorsman, I signed up for hiking level 3 (or maybe lower; it may have been a negative number). The whole time, Lori Graham had me thinking we would be attacked by bears or something. Well, we never hiked. In fact, we hooked up with a fishing trip and never fished. Essentially, we played hearts for three straight days. I can still see everyone’s faces: Sandy Yusen, Richie Mazzola, Lissa Kane, John Carrol, Rick Muise,and others. Who’d have thought we could make so much happiness doing nothing in the middle of nowhere?”

And in classmate news, I’m pleased to announce two new books by ’90 authors. Benjamin Kwakye’s new novel, Obsessions of Paradise, “chronicles the oft-dehumanizing odyssey of migrants in search of hope and is a tender story of insecure but compelling love.” Kirkus Reviews wrote, “Kwakye’s prose finds the tension in the strangeness of place…a bubbling mysteriousness rooted in desire and longing will propel readers ever deeper into this idiosyncratic story. An oddly compelling tale of two connected couples separated by geography and culture.”

And Marjorie Worthington,a professor of English at Eastern Illinois University, recently published The Story of “Me”: Contemporary American Autofiction. (Autofiction is fictional autobiography.) One reviewer called the book “consistently intriguing and elegantly constructed.”

This past April three Dartmouth alumni were elected to town meeting in Milton, Massachusetts, including our own Angela McConney Scheepers.

And keep your eye out for Melanie (Schneeberger) Robbins’ new TV show, The Mel Robbins Show, which premieres on September 16. Mel (a best-selling author and highly successful speaker) may have millions of fans, but her ’90 classmates were her first fans!

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

First, a shout-out to Mike Kennealy, whom Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker recently named secretary of housing and economic development! Next, here is Part IV of your responses to the question, “What are your salient memories of your freshman trip?” Jane Blum Demarchi: “Although I can’t remember our group number or a lot of names, I do remember that Karen Behling was the first person I met at Dartmouth, and I still treasure our friendship.”

Laura Van Wie McGrory: “Senior year, Bonnie Dickson convinced me to co-lead a hiking trip of ’93s. We volunteered for the easiest hiking level, not realizing that would guarantee us the least-experienced (and least-enthusiastic) hikers, coupled with still-challenging terrain. Add to that our inexperience reading hiking maps, and you had a recipe for missed turns and backtracking, 5-foot-3-inch Bonnie carrying a 6-foot freshman boy’s backpack in addition to her own, and a late-night arrival at our cabin with no water. I can still see our whole group standing in a circle and staring at the jug of stream water, counting the minutes for the iodine to finish doing its thing. I also admit that when a freshman girl screamed in the night that there was a mouse caught in her hair, I responded with no pity: ‘At least it’s not a skunk!’ ”

Cheryl Shepherd: “We were sick of eating the food in our packs and, contemplating the ‘Sticky Stew’ for dinner, a few in our group (I think Mark Campo and Richard Morris) left us on some country roadside and hitchhiked to a town. We dined on hot dogs and M&Ms that night and ate so much we felt ill. Another night we slept in a cabin above a field with cows. Kevin Luensmann, who hailed from Iowa, convinced the city slickers that you can cow tip, so we all snuck down to the field after dark. The ensuing chaos was hysterical (in retrospect). Someone shined a flashlight in the direction of a group of cows and we realized they were wide awake and tracking our approach. That was the fastest we climbed a hill the entire trip!”

Kyle Davis: “I recall the story of Ol’ Doc Benton, having green eggs and ham for breakfast, and meeting my first real New Englandah. I literally followed her around to listen to an accent that I’d only ever heard in movies and on TV shows.” Timothy Douros: “I shared a canoe with Mason Sandell and gradually realized I had made a friend for life.”

Julia Weil Lazarus: “Preparing to be independent in college, I went to pick out hiking boots on my own, and I purchased a pair of gray boots that were cute, cheap—and woefully inadequate. I waited nervously for the bus in N.Y.C., unsure how to break the ice with all these sporty looking folks. Then, lo and behold, there was someone with the exact same boots! And that’s how I met Julie Tomasz, one of my dearest lifelong friends. We both got lots of blisters on that trip, but making a best buddy made it worth it. Our two leaders, Boomer and Phil, carried watermelons in their backpacks so we could have a cool treat. We made instant pudding cheesecake in an icy stream. There wasn’t enough room in a shelter, so Julie and I braved the tent with a few other intrepid hikers (fun!), and I recall writing an ode to our leaders to the tune of the marching song from The Bridge on the River Kwai. This non-hiker will always be extraordinarily grateful for a perfect start to my Dartmouth experience!”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

On the Saturday night of Homecoming Weekend, about 40 ’90s and several spouses gathered at the Hanover Inn for ’tails and dinner to celebrate our 50th birthdays. Highlights included a brief performance by Noah Drazen ’21 and his fellow Dartmouth Aires—and, because Noah’s daddy Brad Drazen and I made it a condition of the gig, we got to perform with them! (Cue Glory Days.) During the dinner Cheryl Shepherd and Brad (who co-organized the event) delivered an informal speech on what turning 50 means to all of us. At times hilarious and poignant, they brilliantly captured our collective mindset at this juncture in our lives—gratitude for joyful moments and relationships that have endured, sorrow for dreams and loved ones lost, the evolution of our definition of “success,” the myriad, difficult challenges that 50-year-olds such as us are facing right now, and the special meaning that Dartmouth College retains in our lives.

After dinner Jay Davis,director ofFirst Year Student Enrichment Program (FYSEP), gave us an overview of this remarkable program he directs at Dartmouth—and which our class supports through class dues. (FYSEP’s website summarizes it well: “Through one-on-one mentor-mentee meetings, social events, retreats, and workshops, FYSEP students learn the mechanics of a successful Dartmouth experience while forging a strong peer network that will continue even after graduation.”) And then Jay introduced two ’21s, both the first in their families to attend college, who took turns eloquently explaining the positive impact of FYSEP in their lives during their first-year-plus at Dartmouth. The dinner concluded with a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” (to Jay Davis and the rest of us). To all of you who attended, thank you for making the trip! And to all of you who couldn’t make it, we missed you, but you were there in spirit!

Now, here is Part III of your responses to “What are your salient memories of your freshman trip?” (Part IV still to come.) Kathy Heafey: “My memory of canoeing is a little different than Elizabeth Allen Edgar’s [in the July/August issue of DAM]. Being a ‘suburban pool child’ raised by city-kid parents, I had never taken a hike and was devoid of any outdoor skills. Since I was a lifeguard, it seemed I could make the cut for a canoeing trip: so 105F it was! As it turned out (and as Martin Short might say), I was not such a strong paddler. We canoed for miles and miles each day (and portaged too!). I am eternally grateful to Mike ‘Spider’ Lee for picking up my slack. Our route was not linked with cabins, so we slept sans tents in the great wide open (and woke up one morning surrounded by cows!). The see-your-breath-kind-of-cold at night had us huddling close in our sleeping bags. Hysterically, my lifeguarding skills ended up being relevant. We had a last-minute addition to our trip—Maz, a new grad student from Pakistan who mistakenly arrived in Hanover weeks before his classes were to begin. His joie de vivre was infectious, but his swimming skills were non-existent. (Thankfully, I did not need to make a rescue!) After graduation Spider and I each landed in Chicago and lived blocks apart in Lincoln Park. In line for a beer at an epic party at an apartment he shared with Les Morant ’89 and Michael Keller, I met my now-husband. In turn, Spider married a childhood friend of mine. And, happily, I see another trip-mate, Sarah Fjelstul, at least once a month, as we have been in the same book club for more than 20 years.”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

This month I asked ’90s, “What are your salient memories of your freshman trip?” I think I received enough responses for at least two columns! Here’s Part I. Kyrie Robinson: “Thinking about freshman trips gives me mild PTSD. I called the College in August to inquire about the details of my trip and was informed that I had never actually sent in my forms! The person on the phone said they couldn’t fit me in (which was undoubtedly not true, had I pushed), so I arrived on campus friendless and feeling lonely (though my undergraduate advisor group quickly made things better). Anyway, those are two life lessons I have never forgotten: Send in your forms, and don’t take no for an answer. This is also why I was so happy to meet up with everyone at the Ravine Lodge for our 50th birthday party this past June—I’d never been!” Laurilyn Goettsch Dowling: “So much fun, although when we arrived at Moosilauke and I was reorganizing my backpack, I pulled out my waterproof ground cover (unused, because we all had one and didn’t need them all), and found inside a brick wrapped in foil. Prank, courtesy of some DOC members—though I suspect they didn’t expect the brick to remain hidden for the entire hike!” Elizabeth Allen Edgar: “I got great advice that no real expertise was needed for the more experienced canoe trip. We drifted much of the time, tying the canoes together and using a tarp as a sail on occasion. We had lots of fun kicking back and getting to know each other, and we definitely got to Moosilauke less exhausted than some folks!” Langdon Doty: “Our hike was amazing, but it rained a lot. On the second rainy night I noticed there was a town near our campsite, and I managed to get a couple of volunteers to join me on a pizza run that took about three hours round-trip. Best rain-soaked pizza I’ve ever had.” Rebecca Baggett:“Disaster in some ways, fun in others. I discovered I love challenging hikes but hate camping.” Jack McBride: “We had a blast! Our trip had seven guys and one woman, Amy Fulwyler. When our hike started, most of the guys did pretty well. I was soon sweating, gasping for air, and exhorting the others to go on without me; I told them I’d just lie there and take my chances. Amy didn’t hear any of that—she was already up the mountain. The next day we were nearing another summit, and had stopped for lunch at a clearing with an amazing view. Our leader, Vic Trautwein ’87, remarked that some watermelon would sure hit the spot. He then reached into his pack and pulled out a watermelon to share with everyone. Vic also taught us every Dartmouth song and cheer, which I fear are lacking in today’s trips. Vic was captain of the rugby team, Amy was later captain of the women’s ski team, and I had a 21-swipe meal plan every term.” Mark Sternman: “I mostly recall the rides to and from Hanover for my freshman trip. Mara Leventhal, who grew up in a neighboring town, drove me both ways. She was the first ’90 from outside my high school whom I met, and her graciousness got my Dartmouth experience off to a great start.” Rahul Ranadive:“None. I caught pneumonia a few days before my trip and had to miss it.” Rich Mazzola’s automatic email reply message: “I am currently on vacation and, with any luck, I am busy at the moment reeling in a big brown trout.”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

This month, I asked ’90s: “Tell us about a classmate whom you admired from afar during our years at Dartmouth or whom you admire from afar now.” Here is part one of two.

Scott Atwood: “I admire Greg Millett.Although we keep in touch through Facebook, I feel like I admire him ‘from afar’ because he is always traveling the world for his great work on HIV and infectious disease issues. And I admire Brian Sweeney, who lives ‘afar’ away as a doctor in Alaska and is keeping its people healthy. (I admire Jon Sullivan too, but I just saw him, so I can’t say it is ‘from afar.’ But he wanted props.)” Ann Fromholz: “I admire Bradley Bennett for the important work he is doing with the Southern Poverty Law Center and for the fact that he moved his family to a new city to do this vital work. I hope to have visited Bradley and his family in Montgomery, Alabama, by the time this issue goes to print.” Mark Schiffman: “The two people I wish I’d spent more time with at Dartmouth are Abdul Kallon and Sadie Peters. With each, I remember a conversation from senior year wherein I was struck by his or her thoughtfulness and perspective. I came away from those conversations touched by a sense of the warmth, compassion and quiet strength that each possessed.”

Joshua Vogel: “Talking with Walter Palmer at our 25th reunion, I was amazed by his story of standing up as a freshman and questioning why he and his basketball teammates had to sign a contract with the NCAA without any legal counsel. To have that kind of awareness, courage and maturity at such a young age is amazing to me. And then to grow up and get what you thought was your dream job, and to be willing to leave it behind upon finding it wasn’t what you thought, I think is incredibly brave. What a commitment to his principles.” Phil Privatera: “Julie Davis. She was never afraid to be herself. Since I have always been involved on the fringes of production work, I have been asked if I know her (being a fellow Dartmouth grad). It is great to see she pursued her dreams.”

And here’s some classmate news. Quincy Vale: “After being single for about seven years, my long-time girlfriend and I traveled to Tanzania in October 2017 for a trek to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and a safari in the Serengeti. After six and half days trekking and sleeping in tents with 10 other trekkers and a large team of porters and guides, we reached the summit, and I proposed with a diamond and tanzanite ring I had procured in Andover, Massachusetts, and faithfully carried (like Frodo) on an arduous journey up a volcano. I am so happy she said yes. If she hadn’t, the day-and-a-half hike down and the additional nine days traveling on safari and through Amsterdam would have been really brutal and awkward. Michelle Carlow and I are set to be married this summer!” Adam Bookbinder: “After 18 years in the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston, primarily prosecuting cyber-criminals, I ventured into private practice in February, joining the cybersecurity and white-collar practices at Holland & Knight. I expect that there will be plenty to do, trying to protect clients from all of the hackers out there. In January my family spent a great afternoon with Michael Reynolds in New York. Michael is doing well, working as a litigation partner at Cravath, Swain & Moore and living in a great loft in SoHo.”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

This month I asked ’90s, “What thoughts have been roused by this milestone year in which we all turn 50?” Andy Affleck: “Fifty? I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m turning 23. Again.” Sarah Stearns: “Running into Cheryl Sheppard at the dedication of the new Moosilauke Ravine Lodge had me thinking about improving my fitness so that I might feel like hiking Moosilauke at age 50!” Eric Wellons: “After 15 years of vascular surgery I have decided to go back to school for an eM.B.A. My wife also went back to school and my kids are studying for high school so I had to have something to do at night.” Catherine Kassenoff: “Hey—50? Not quite! 2019! I’m still holding on!” Dan Fuchs: “After a 15-year layoff I’m playing ice hockey this fall and hope to make it until March so I can say I played in my 40s and 50s. After that I’ll probably hang up the skates again, as I doubt I’ll be able to walk or stand up straight.” Kim Lewis: “Fifty is just a number. Older is wiser. I have aches and pains in places I didn’t expect. Now I understand why my mother couldn’t stand up straight first thing in the morning.” Theo Gray: “Goal: Do something crazy. Attempt: Get my master’s in cybersecurity at Brown University. Result: Mission accomplished! It is crazy!” Nate Emerson:“Now that I have probably lived 25 percent of my lifespan, I think it’s time to figure out what I want to do when I grow up. I don’t want to be on my deathbed when I’m 200 years old saying, ‘I need another few years to finish up.’ So after having my most recent startup in Hong Kong crash and burn in spectacular fashion, I have pursued a year of reflection, mostly while running long distances, lifting weights and doing yoga. Got to bounce a few ideas off of Brooks Preston and Curt Fish while sailing on Curt’s boat in Maine last summer.” Daniel Sheldon: “I just returned from Homecoming with my wife and youngest daughter. As I have only been able to return to campus three times in the past 27 years, my mind still recalls the people and the campus as they were at graduation. I find myself jealous over the experiences yet to come for the current students, as I feel like I should still be on campus, worried about midterm exams.” Christine Smith: “The only ones giving serious thought to my turning 50 are my doctors, who say ‘colonoscopy.’ Still trying to get out of that one, but I guess age doesn’t lie. Otherwise, I’m choosing to ignore the big date, although you may find me at a spa in early April given that I have the perfect reason to go.” Jonathan Sullivan: “One commitment I recently made is to get in better physical shape—feel stronger, less worried about injuring myself—and make it part of my lifestyle. (Having kids who are athletes is a helpful motivator.)” Bill Rexford: “For my 50th I’m hosting some lacrosse medicine games. I have not missed a lacrosse season as a player (minus one when I was hurt in 1989) and this is my 26th season as a high school coach. So I figured if I were going to throw a party for myself it had to involve lacrosse. Nothing better than a huddle with hands in and saying ‘Team!’ on three!” Quincy Vale’sautomatic email reply: “I am out of the office and off the grid, trekking up Mount Kilimanjaro. As they say, hakuna matata.”

—Rob Crawford, 22 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

I asked ’90s, “In what way(s) do you think your personality has changed since college?” Here is part two.

Ute (Bowman) Utley:“Since college my personality changed in that I became a mom. Three lives suddenly became more important than my own, so I’d say I’m less self-involved, more patient and not such a control freak.” Lauren Smith: “I think that time has made me more sure about what is important and what I believe in. I think I was quite malleable in college. I don’t remember being sure of much of anything.” Basia Nikonorow: “Since college I’ve changed to be less egoistic by becoming a parent of two kids. I’ve also certainly become much more aware of the importance of being involved in my local neighborhood efforts. I recognize now the power and importance of connecting with the people in my building, on my block, my immediate family, even a friendly stranger on the subway. As I’ve begun to learn of distant and not-so-distant friends dying at a ridiculously early age, I appreciate human connection and life more. Basically, I’ve come to realize we’re here only briefly and can make or not make a positive impact while we’re around; better the former. I’ve learned to be more patient at times, but also to decipher what I prioritize and don’t have patience for.” Josh Vogel:“I am kinder, more thoughtful, more patient, more understanding. When I was young I didn’t understand the importance of showing people that I value them. I wasn’t intentionally insensitive, just oblivious. Now, in middle age, it seems I think about others all day long, whether at home with my family, at work with patients and staff or even in social settings. I have learned the value of showing others how important they are to me. I can’t say how much of that is from medical training, being a parent, being married, and how much comes from just growing up and learning from experience. In any event, it has made my life much richer and I feel like I’m a better person for it.” Ted Whittemore: “I am a lot more liberal, both in terms of my political outlook and compassion for others. I am more patient and a slightly better listener (always been tough for me).” Kyrie Robinson: “I think I’m kinder now than I was in college; more likely to show empathy and also more willing to be vulnerable. And I think it comes from a dawning realization that everyone has issues, everyone has some tragedy or difficult situation they’ve had to deal with. Our individual circumstances may feel unique, may be a unique combination, but the general themes are part of humanity.” Phil Privatera: “I think I have become more cynical and less inquisitive, but more tolerant and charitable.” Monte Baier: “I believe that I have become more agreeable since graduation. The big change for me is likely the result of being a cancer survivor. Eleven years ago I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. At the time I had a 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son and I remember laughing with them about looking for Daddy’s hair after the chemotherapy had destroyed it. My wife never let me get down after the diagnosis. The experience made it clear to me that understanding others is more important than being right, as life is short.” Marcus Weiss: “While my fundamental energy has not changed (I still heap on loads and fail to chill enough), I have become more grounded. At Dartmouth I thought I just had a lot to do because it was college. Fast forward 27 years and I’ve come to realize, nope, it’s just me!”

—Rob Crawford, 101 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA, 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

This month I asked ’90s, “In what way(s) do you think your personality has changed since college?” I received so many responses, it will take two columns to share them. Here is Part One: David Rosenberg:“I am far more conscientious and detail-oriented (i.e., anal retentive) than I was in college. I also have become less blindly trusting and am now a ‘trust but verify’ type of person. The rose-colored glasses I once wore have been removed. Overall, I am far more ‘curmudgeony’ than I was in college. In short, I have become my father.” Chris (Kirkmire) Mazzolla: “I personally think some aspects of personality are innate—introvert, extrovert, optimist, pessimist, etc.—but I think that through time the strongest aspects of personality can be tempered by time and life. By now life has kicked us all around in one way or another. There is not a person in our class who has not suffered in some way during these last 27 years, whether it be through illness, death of a loved one, divorce, discrimination, alienation, depression—the list goes on. I think those life events mute the hard edges of one’s personality—in general for good. For example, I have always been a pretty sunny, outgoing, optimistic person and for the most part I still am. But the ebb and flow of life has quieted my spirit and made me much more introspective and empathetic than I was as a young adult. I’m calmer, more thoughtful and less selfish. I’d say I’m kinder. My sweet husband, Rich Mazzola, is still the calm, steady, kind person he has always been. In that way, he has not changed. I suppose the combination of our personalities is what has helped us to weather life together for 30 years.” Scott Facher: “Rob, since I think only you are able to come up with such an inspired question, I’ll answer in a heartfelt way (yes, being a man who leads with his heart may be the biggest way I have not changed since college). Given that in the late 1980s several of my closest friends called me ‘narcolapper’ as a pun on a narcoleptic whose ‘rap’ was marked by repeated brushing upon the arm of whichever woman I desired, now that I am an almost-49-year-old single father of 11-year-old twin boys, I must confess my narcolapping has largely shifted to falling asleep with iPhone in hand while logged onto a dating website.” Carol Ann Ling: “I’ve become much less concerned and serious about the societal trappings of success and of social judgment and I have come to appreciate and embrace enjoying my own life by reminding myself that I make the ultimate choice about how I perceive my life is going and going to be tomorrow. In other words, f**k what other people say or think or judge about me; I’m the master of my own destiny.” Hallie Brooks:“I think I am more outgoing, assertive and grateful. After being somewhat introverted in high school, a degree of success on the riding and crew teams gave me a confidence I previously lacked. Since Dartmouth I have become a stronger and more self-assured person. At the same time, maturity has made me more grateful for the experiences I’ve had and the kind and wonderful people (and animals) in my life, past and present. Never forget to say thank you.” Mary Es (Anderson) Beaver:“I think that I have become more thoughtful and introspective, but I still love to laugh and have fun and groove to the music and I take joy in seeing others doing the same!”

—Rob Crawford, 101 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA, 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

This month I asked ’90s, “What’s the most important thing you have learned over the last year or two and how did you learn it?” The first response is from a friend of all of ours who has asked to remain anonymous. I know that you will be including our friend and her husband in your prayers, as have I since receiving her email on October 28. Anonymous: “Until this year I was living a dream, loving everything about my life. It fell apart this summerwhen my husband did. He had a mental breakdown that I’m still struggling to havediagnosed. Unable to tolerate human contact or even animal contact, and feeling that ourhouse is the root of all evil, he moved out two months ago. I used to think that if one got a great education and made the best possible choice of spouse, career, city, house and so on, one would be set for life. I thought nothing would interfere with what I had so carefully arranged and I thought I would be happy forever. I now realize how foolish I was to imagine that I could control my future to that extent. His decisions have sparked a major financial crisis and I’m walking people’s dogs to make ends meet. While walking I think a lot about my fancy education and what I was supposed to do with it. I often feel like a failure because I don’t have the slightest idea how to earn good money. But my education did give me an indispensable tool—the ability to look at a vast amount ofdata (his behavior, our 26 years together and my ocean of feelings) and to interpret the material from many angles. This enables me to keep thinking of ways to find the answers we need.” Ted Whittemore: “I lost my mom on August 31, at age 81, due to complications from a ‘routine’ knee replacement surgery. I learned two obvious lessons: First, losing a parent is a terrible thing, and second, there are no ‘routine’ surgeries for folks in their 80s. I also learned that having a child at Dartmouth makes me really, really proud! (Paige is a freshman, class of 2020).” Geoff Coco: “I realize this sounds like a fortune cookie tweet, but it’s still true: If you think you have met the other person halfway, you are probably off by 90 percent.” David Sherwood: “Time gets increasingly scarce as we get older and so we must make every effort to get the most out of it. With a 10th-, ninth- and sixth-grader, I realize that we will have only three more Thanksgivings, three more winter breaks, three more spring breaks, etc., with all of our boys under the same roof. When the boys were in elementary school it seemed as though these events stretched beyond our horizons; now they are clearly finite. Make them matter.” Amit Malhotra: “During the past couple of years I’ve learned a lot about the college application process from applicants’ points of view. We’ve had two daughters head out in consecutive years. My takeaways: Boy, do we set these kids up good! ‘Hey, can you figure out how to come up with a list of 10 schools from the thousands out there? And start articulating your path through life for them? And bare your grades, your scores and your innermost thoughts for unseen reviewers? And compete with your dearest friends? And—even though nothing in the past 18 years has come close to preparing you for the idea of handling significant amounts of money—start thinking about how you would manage potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt?’ After successful conclusions both times—thanks far more to our daughters than to us—the one piece of advice I would impart to others going through this is: The world is going to be tough enough on these young ones, so as parents, spend all of your available energy building up their confidence.” Laurin Grollman: “A glass of wine while preparing to host Thanksgiving dinner is good for my marriage. And every problem has a solution.”

—Rob Crawford, 101 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA, 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com; Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com

Twenty-fifth reunion redux! For those of us fortunate enough to have married Dartmouth ’91s (or ’86s!), it was the second year in a row for us under the tents in Hanover. Karen Pike, myself, Dave Voss, Rob Harris, Jake Reynolds, Laura Martin, Beth LaFortune Gies, Jay Davis and Sandy Yusen all made it back. The ’91s did a pretty good job (having Jake Tapper and Shonda Rhimes on stage with President Hanlon didn’t hurt!) but my kids all agreed Second Hand Jam pushed our reunion over the top!

If you missed it, Eric Fanning was confirmed and installed as U.S. Secretary of the Army in June. In his installation speech, Eric said: “We must continue to open up opportunity for those who meet standards that were previously denied the opportunity to serve. By leveraging diversity and creating an inclusive environment in which all are valued, we engender opportunities to be part of the greatest mission there is: defending our nation’s security.” Peter Pasi, Jay Matson ’91, Susan Luria ’89, Meg Sommerfield, Jennifer Avellino, and Jane Varner Malhotra were all in attendance.

Kyle Timothy Blood was married to his partner, Dean, on May 20 in a small ceremony on Muldrew Lake in Gravenhurst, Ontario. Todd Eagle flew up for the day to be his best man. After 25 years of life in N.Y.C. (which included professional stints at Forbes, Country Living, Martha Stewart Living and, for the last 15 years, operating his own interior-design firm, Kyle Timothy Home), he is now “retiring from New York” and relocating to Muskoka Lakes, Ontario, to start a “new, exciting chapter with the love of my life and our two puppies.”

From Kyle: “Many people have asked, ‘What are you going to do?’ The answer is an intrinsic one: I know full well that, in large part owing to both life and academic lessons learned at Dartmouth, I can do anything, anywhere. I also believe that our class is extremely unique in our individualistic views of the world, as we all take our own paths. So, ’90s, if you head to Muskoka, let me know!”

Rich and Chrissy (Kirkmire) Mazzola are off to a new adventure in the Bay Area and would love to connect with any ’90s living nearby or passing through. They will be living in Ross, California. Rich will be the athletic director at College Prep in Oakland and Chrissy is head of the Branson School.

Susan Hirt writes from Budapest, where she’s visiting Julie Tomasz: “Those who know Julie know she is passionate about her Hungarian roots, and she showed me a great time around the sights. Julie lived here for several years after graduation and she is coming back to help her boys sharpen their Hungarian. I’m taking some months of a radical sabbatical before finding my next job. I’m hoping to catch up with people, including ’90s, I don’t get to see much living in Nebraska. Max, Julie’s son, wore his Dan and Whit’s shirt as we walked around the parliament building one day. Bringing a little bit of Hanover with us around the city.”

Finally, congratulations to my cousin and co-class secretary Robert Crawford, who started as the director of external affairs at the Roxbury Latin School near Boston in July. He will also teach ninth-grade English and be the eighth-grade baseball coach. I envy any and all of the boys who will have “Mr. Crawford” in the classroom or on the baseball diamond (his two sons, Robert Jr. and Benjamin, attend Roxbury Latin).

—Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com; Rob Crawford, 101 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA, 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com

Professor Rassias passed away last December at the age of 90. Like many of you I experienced first-hand the joys of early morning drill (in my case, during the basketball season) and had an amazing experience on a language study abroad (LSA) in Granada, Spain. I asked the class for memories of Professor Rassias or his method and got some great responses.

Apparently, Professor Rassias, besides loving nicknames, was a bit of a Star Wars fan. Roth Herrlinger wrote, “On the first day of Rassias’ ‘Greek Drama in French Literature’ in my senior year we all went around introducing ourselves. ‘Roth,’ I said. ‘Darth?’ he asked. ‘Um…Roth,’ I said again. ‘Darth Vader, it’s good to have you here!’ he proclaimed. For the next 20 years he greeted me with a huge ‘Darth!’ every time he saw me. After graduation I taught Russian language drill during the summer. An alumnus offered to hire me to use the Rassias Method to teach ‘real estate investor fluency.’ I went to John to ask permission to use his method and he said, ‘That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, but if anyone could do it, you could. You’ll probably be back in a month. Now go.’ The best shove out of the nest anyone has ever given me.”

Sarah Stearns shared a great dramatic memory: “One day Rassias arrived in class sucking on a cough drop. He told us that he had an awful cold. The lesson was about a character that coughed so hard his teeth flew out. Rassias acted this out; coughing dramatically, until out of his mouth flew some small white particles. Teeth? No! It was chalk! He’d kept it in his mouth the entire lesson just for that moment!”

Dave Sherwood: “I will never forget the 60 Minutes piece where Rassias, holding an egg, asks, ‘Qu’est-ce que c’est?’ The student is slow? ‘C’est un oeuf!’ Rassias barks, and then cracks the egg on the student’s head. My LSA in Blois, France, was one of my best experiences at Dartmouth. I got the chance to bond with terrific classmates, bike around the Loire Valley and master hackysack in public squares—and speak French.”

Mark Schiffman wrote a wonderful tribute on the class Facebook page: “I really don’t think Professor Rassias ever came close to understanding the depth of appreciation people had for him or the number of lives he directly impacted. That reach is truly mind-boggling in these days of connection through mass media and social media when you consider that these were almost all direct one-to-one contacts sealed with a hug.”

Cat Shrier: “My experience with the Rassias Method came while studying Mandarin Chinese. I struggled with the written language but my basic understanding of the spoken word will always remain, thanks to a wonderful teaching assistant. Each rapid-fire response was rewarded with enthusiastic praise (Hao Ji-la!). I will never forget how to count to seven, having learned a children’s song!”

Deborah Green-LaRoche writes in with some big news! She joined the Tufts Medical Center’s neurology department as a neurointensivist and director of clinical research a little more than a year ago and she and her husband of five years, Stephen, were blessed with a baby boy, Nicholas Francis LaRoche, just before Christmas.

Congratulations are also in order to Chrissy Kirkmire-Mazzola, just named head of the Branson School, a private day school in Marin County, California. Chrissy and Rich are very excited to get back to California to be in closer proximity to so many of their Bay Area Dartmouth pals. A great step forward for her!

—Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com; Rob Crawford, 47 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; robertlcrawford@yahoo.com

With the holidays upon us, I asked for your most memorable Dartmouth holiday experience.

Martin Stephan and Robin Plager Lapre wrote in separately with complementary memories. It was Thanksgiving our senior year, 1989. Martin wrote, “I was staying in Hanover and someone called me (woke me up, though it was probably mid-morning!) to say that Robin had been in an accident on the way home. I went to get her at a Vermont State Police barracks off of Route 91. She was, thankfully, unhurt, though her red Jeep was somehow dented on all four corners.” Robin continued the story in her email, “I managed to crash my jeep into the guard rail on I-91 about 90 miles south of Hanover in icy conditions. Martin drove down to where I was stranded, picked me up and brought me back to Hanover. We had EBA’s turkey sandwiches together for Thanksgiving. I will never forget that act of kindness.”

Rob Uhrig: “Returning from Virginia our junior year I got stuck in a pretty good snowstorm at the Manchester Airport. Eric Browne tried to pick me up but was thwarted by the drifts (even being from Maine). As the airport was closing I found a cab that would consider a one-way fare to Hanover. I only had $90 and the fare ended up being almost exactly that. I felt terrible for not being able to give more of a tip but will always remember the silence of the vacant, snow-swept freeways at 2 a.m.”

Edward Callaway: “I spent Thanksgiving of freshman year with Tim Guy’s boisterous, Irish Catholic family in Dover, New Hampshire. I was welcomed warmly and dinner was an educational and cultural experience that this Tennessee boy will never forget. Our senior year I returned early to Dartmouth after Christmas and joined a DOC trip that skied in to Stoddard Cabin in the College Grant for New Year’s Eve. We pulled sleds with all our gear, including guitars, mandolins, bouzoukis and banjos. What a memorable night of music and moose jaws!”

Julie Urda: “During my freshman year I bought holly berry and balsam candles and burned them in my room. Freshman fall was such a magical time with wonderful memories that come flooding back to this day whenever I smell holly berry and balsam around the holidays.”

Sue Domchek: “Anyone remember the overnight trip on the Vermonter down the eastern seaboard? The combination of a bunch of college students taking an overnight train and a ‘grandfathered’ drinking age of 18 (which I missed by a few months—not that it seemed to matter) was interesting, to say the least. I think quite a number of parents were a little surprised at the state of their offspring when they arrived home.”

Liz (Allen) Edgar: “A midnight, post-Thanksgiving train ride. I boarded just north of New York and quickly found a car full of Dartmouth people. There was an amazing sense of camaraderie and ‘homecoming’ even as we were leaving our families behind. It didn’t even matter that the heavy snow meant we got in about three hours late.”

Carolyn Choi: “Going home with Erika de Papp for Thanksgiving senior year. I think Amy Fulwyler was with us too. We spent all of vacation coloring maps for our geography class. I think I misunderstood the assignment.”

Gerrit Bradley: “Thanksgiving 1988 in Granada, Spain (language study abroad). Due to some regular pre-class sangria tasting our professor shifted our class from after lunch to first thing in the morning. Therefore, we were apprehensive about the toasts after a Thanksgiving meal of chicken, green beans and rice at her apartment. All went well, however.”

Greg Goldberg: “Great memories of spending several Thanksgivings and school breaks with both Rob Grossberg in Hartsdale, New York, and Adam Lichstein in Scarsdale, New York!”

—Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com; Rob Crawford, 47 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; robertlcrawford@yahoo.com

In June our class spent a magical weekend in Hanover under the white tents. There was music, there were toasts, there was sushi on Baker lawn and there were many, many wide-eyed children. We remembered classmates lost and explored a still recognizable but transformed Hanover Plain. Our class gift exceeded expectations and Meg Sommerfeld, our reunion chair, was the understated master of ceremonies. Dartmouth cast its spell on us again and on the next generation.

I asked our classmates for their favorite 25th reunion memory. Kevin Roon: “Sharing small but important things we did for each other that turned out to mean a lot 25 years later.” Jane Varner Malhotra: “Reminiscing under the tent with crazy, dear old friends. My belly is still aching from laughter.” Dana Weintraub: “Sharing Dartmouth with family, reconnecting with old friends, making new friends, hanging on the Green, Second Hand Jam, pickup soccer, cherished memories of those no longer with us.” Rebecca Baggett: “Seeing old friends and meeting new ones. And working with Meg Sommerfeld and the rest of the reunion committee!” Ed Whittemore: “I assume many have said Second Hand Jam, and they would be right. My favorite parts were my son’s reaction to the whole thing (the tent, other kids and the Lou’s and EBAs food), a Friday afternoon round of golf with seven Alpha Delta buddies and tent time.” Hallie Brooks: “Reconnecting with the College, the beautiful campus and outdoors, friends old and new, reunion row and Second Hand Jam!” Jen Gittes Taplin: “The joyful energy was palpable! Dartmouth will simply always be a beloved home to all of us who lived and learned there.” Sarah (Jacobson) Lennon: “Coming onto campus and remembering one of the reasons why I loved being at Dartmouth in the first place—the beautiful environment. Walking to the river Friday night and feeling at peace (as well as excited to see everyone). Spending some time sitting by Occom Pond and just listening to nature.Also listening to the Aires Sunday morning singing the alma mater, arms around each other and feeling surprised at the tears in my eyes but relieved that I wasn’t the only one.” Julie Urda: “Second Hand Jam’s wonderfully long set where for two hours we all got to be 21 again (bootleg recording on class Facebook page!).” Clayton Gates: “Playing Ultimate on the Green and singing Dartmouth songs with other Glee Club alumni on the steps of Dartmouth Hall.” John Aronsohn: “Reconnecting with old friends feeling like only hours had passed instead of years and seeing our kids love the College every bit as much as I did at my father’s 25th.” Marcus Jacob Weiss: “Heartbroken I could not attend, I found a Post-It on my car window yesterday: ‘Wah-hoo-wah Give a Rouse.’ Coincidence? Maybe. Consolation? Definitely!” Laurin Grollman: “Feeling the Dartmouth spirit in so many warm, friendly people and the fresh New Hampshire air. Wish it had been longer!” Cheryl L. Shepard: “We’re finally at a stage that, instead of asking what you’re doing, people asked how you’re doing. We’re ready and able to connect at a more personal, deeper level again and it’s easy to remember why Dartmouth and Dartmouth people are so special.” Mary-Es Beaver: “I loved all of it—seeing so many friends, the river, the laughs, the Jam-ing, the dancing, being at college again.” Meg Sommerfeld: “Everything!”

—Rob Crawford, 47 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; robertlcrawford@yahoo.com; Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com

This month I asked ’90s: “How did your freshman roommate(s) or freshman hallway or freshman dorm affect the path of your next three years at Dartmouth?” I received many responses, enough for three columns! Here’s the first installment. Andy J. Williams Affleck: “My freshman dorm did not affect my path forward at Dartmouth so much as it affected my look backward. My father was in the class of 1953 but died when I was only a baby so I never knew him. One day I found myself in Blunt and I noticed a shelf where they had freshman books going way back. So I pulled out my father’s book and looked him up. John M. Williams III lived in 107 Mid Mass. The same room I lived in. That connection has always meant so much to me. Alas, if my own child were to attend Dartmouth, he wouldn’t get the same room. It was turned into a lounge.” David Clark: “I realized that I needed a single the next three years.” Jennifer Gittes (Taplin): “North Mass was all female in 1986. I met some of my closest friends freshman year in that dorm, and several of those friendships have lasted over long distances ever since. I felt a sense of belonging, comfort, mutual respect and understanding among those women, and that sense of belonging lasted throughout our four years in Hanover. My freshman roommate, Wendy Heisterkamp, was kind, considerate and nonjudgmental. Her enthusiasm for art, exercise and unconventional ways of thinking and looking at life were contagious and mind expanding. Claire Talwalker, who now teaches at Berkeley, was keenly aware of the injustices of neocolonialism and underdevelopment and helped me to better understand them, too. Wendy Whitcomb was, and still is, in love with all things French. She was reading Victor Hugo and taught me how to count in French (well, to 10). Maria Deknatel introduced me to Isabel Allende, who has turned out to be one of my favorite authors. Elise Saks was organized, cheerful and always happy to help. It’s no wonder she became a teacher and then a doctor. These women made me love where I was and feel confident about navigating the road ahead.” Koko Hogan: “Two words: Jack Lunch.” Lauren Kehoe: “I was in McLean in the River Cluster my freshman year. Except for Sophomore Summer I stayed in the River all four years and I loved it. I had tons of cluster friends, lost 25 pounds freshman year doing all that walking and learned to play pool on the table in the basement of (I think) French.” Tony Dowling: “Mark Underhill changed my life. I shaved my head and donned a saffron robe.” Amit Malhotra: “Other freshmen who lived in Smith Hall with me included Joe Gerakos, David Boals, Sharif Mahdavian, Brendan Mullaly, Jun Ono, Eugene Park, Peter Pasi and Brian Gold. Pretty much all of us rushed the same fraternity (Gamma Delt) and spent the next three years as brothers.” Scott Facher: “I’ll try to wax poetic. By taking a left at the top of the stairs on the second floor of Streeter I uncover the two upper chambers of my heart: Brad Drazen lived with me in the left atrium and Dan Offit, Paul Simpson and my ‘Thunder Road’ buddy Rob Crawford lived (and still live) in the right chamber. With Dr. Jonathan Sollinger downstairs I knew so well that I’d never go into cardiac arrest. So I begged Jono to live with me in the Motor Lodge sophomore year and we had Dan Offit and Chris Colasanti down the hall.”


—Rob Crawford, 47 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; robertlcrawford@yahoo.com; Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com 


Back in the late 1980s we didn’t take nearly as many photos or videos as we do now. With this in mind, I asked ’90s, “What moment, event, place, group or memory from your years at Dartmouth do you not have a photo or video of, but wish you did?” Pamela Chandran suggested that a better question would have been, “Because of which college moments are you eternally grateful that there were no digital cameras or phones around to record them?” (Well put, Pamela.) Jay Davis: “The moment that 30 ’90s stood, holding hands, in Long Island Sound, having paddled 210 miles downstream from Ledyard.” Lauren Kehoe: “I wish that I had a picture of me bowling at Astrobowl in West Lebanon [New Hampshire], but I think everyone was too drunk to remember a camera, and I was the designated driver, so I had bigger concerns.” Jane Varner Malhotra: “What happened to all the ‘party rug’ pictures from the fourth floor of Hitchcock freshman year, Jason Kable?” Sue Domchek: “I wish that I had pictures from a cross-country ski trip that a bunch of us took into one of the DOC cabins. I can’t remember exactly who was there, although I know for sure that the group included Chuck Drake and Barbara Harper (both now gone—hard to believe). I am reasonably sure that Josh Blum, Jeff Hanissian, Dan Posner and Becky Thomas were there, as well. It was cold. So cold that Barbara’s contact lens solution froze (and from my materials engineering class, I can tell you that is really cold). We ate dinner with our gloves on, did pull-ups and jump squats to stay warm, slept huddled in a pile and skied out the next day to cars with dead batteries. Crazy but wonderful! Crystal clear skies, stars everywhere, quiet in the woods.” Becca Michaels Kornet: “Roth Herrlinger asking for donations outside Thayer to pay his fine after being caught rushing the stands at the football game.” Mark Sternman: “I wish I had photos of all of the Democratic presidential candidates who came to campus prior to the 1988 presidential primary. I recall seeing Bruce Babbitt, Michael Dukakis, Richard Gephardt and Gary Hart. That campaign greatly affected my career and continues to draw attention today, as evidenced by Matt Bai’s recent book, All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid, which in part delves into a key press conference that took place at the Hanover Inn.” Scott Reed: “Having graduated with a major in German, I wish I had one photo or video of foreign language drill sessions. Whenever possible I would conduct my early morning drill sessions outside on the Reed Hall lawn. Ausgezeichnet, baby.” Jennifer Merriman: “That’s an easy one—all the hikes, runs and DOC trips I did during peak leaf season in New Hampshire and Vermont. Franconia, Kinsmans, Armington Lake and River Road in Norwich all stand out. It was all so beautiful.” Greg Waldbaum: “I wish I had a video of the road trip Marc Kramer and I took via motorcycle Sophomore Summer to Middlebury. It was a scene right out of Fonda and Hopper’s American classic Easy Rider.” Lucinda Welch: “More pics from freshman trips (it rained and I think my film got ruined) and of friends doing all the awesome outdoors-in-splendor-of-beautiful-New Hampshire activities that we did. Also I wish I had photos of the freshman bonfire, making a 90 on the football field at halftime, Winter Carnival events and videos of Decibelles performances. And, I must admit, there are moments that I’m glad were not captured on film.”


—Rob Crawford, 101 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com; Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com


What’s the best book you have read since our Dartmouth graduation in 1990 (Part II)? Kristin Jacobson: “Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis DeBernieres, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and Personal History by Katharine Graham.” Greg Goldberg: “Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather.” Julie Urda: “Three books by Barbara Kingsolver: High Tide in Tucson made me appreciate and pursue better writing; The Poisonwood Bible opened my eyes to the social, economic and political struggles in the world; and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle moved me to change my consumption habits to be more sustainable.” Karen Behling: “The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson. About North Korea, Pulitzer Prize-winner for fiction, a great story well told.” David Sherwood: “A Guide to the SQL Standard by Christopher J. Date. An obtuse primer on relational databases, it made little sense to me my first pass through it, but my boss tossed it to me on our way to meet a new client and said, ‘This is going to be important to you on this project,’ and so it was. It helped define the next decade of my life.” Richard Morris: “A Confederacy of Dunces, which had me laughing out loud in public places like no other book. I live in Brooklyn with my wife, Jessica, and 11-year old twins Charlie and Henry. To my pleasure, they both love baseball (and have more potential than I did) and I’ve enjoyed coaching their teams since their early years.” Ramzi Nemo: “The Work of Nations by Robert Reich ’68.” Kyle Davis: “The Benjamin Weaver series of books by David Liss chronicles the exploits of Weaver, a former champion pugilist in 18th-century London and Ashkenazi Jew.” Sandy (Morton) Niles: “Life of Pi by Yann Martel, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay by Michael Chabon.” Brad Drazen: “Dark Harbor by David Hosp.” Felicia Hwang Bishop: “Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. I am now an injury-free, avid runner. I’ve started running competitively on the track and it’s become a really enjoyable facet of my life.” Mary (Bachman) DeSilva: “In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak.” Lauren Beiley: “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, recommended to me by Karen Euler.” Jonathan Sullivan: “Getting Things Done by David Allen.” Matt Nadler: “Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, with A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess a close second. I am living in Chester, New Jersey, with my wife, Susan Klein, and our 5-year-old son. I work for Verizon and am responsible for long-term planning for all video products across our portfolio. Sue is a practicing vet, specializing in mobile ultrasound and internal medicine.” Scott Schorer: “William Manchester’s Last Lion series about Winston Churchill. Churchill is one of the few remaining examples of that great person who was able to transcend every obstacle and achieve great things for humanity.” Todd Eckler: “Disrupting Class by Clayton Christensen. It talks about how integrating technology with traditional teaching can have a profound impact on learning.”


Other class news: David Lewis: “I live in Phoenix, Arizona, with my wife, Leslie, and our four kids, practicing mergers and acquisitions and securities law at DLA Piper. I’m happy to report that my oldest daughter, Alexa, will be starting at Dartmouth this fall as a member of the class of 2018!” Bernadine Wu: “I live in New Jersey with my two kids and run an ecommerce consulting firm, FitForCommerce.” Nick Stanham: “Very happy here in Miami with my wife, Mariu, raising our four children. I see Tom Parker often and recently played a foursome with Tom, Lance Geller and Harris Siskind.”


—Rob Crawford, 47 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; robertlcrawford@yahoo.com; Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com


Congratulations to Ernie Young, who married Erin Blondel on September 21, with Andrew Latimer and Derrick Olsen in attendance. Ernie is currently teaching constitutional law at Duke Law School in Durham, North Carolina. 
David Rosenberg wrote in with some great memories of Winter Carnival our freshman year. “Maybe it was the abundant snow and icy cold temperatures that resulted in amazing ice sculptures (including the Bacchus we built in front of Topliff). Maybe it was the incredible poster depicting a beautiful masked coed in a Dartmouth sweatshirt with an infectious smile ready for Mardi Gras (theme was ‘Blizzard on Bourbon Street’). Maybe it was the fact that it was my first Winter Carnival and I still possessed the wide-eyed amazement and excitement of a child on Christmas morning. Maybe it was because we could still order kegs and they would be delivered to our dorm. Or maybe it was the free EBA’s chicken sandwich that was kindly bestowed on me after the restaurant had closed (I was knocking over and over on the locked door). Somehow that first one remains as my all-time favorite.” He’s now married to Anne, whom he met during sophomore summer, and they have two children—Elizabeth (a junior at William and Mary) and Charlotte (a sophomore in high school). 
Meg Sommerfeld sent an update from the Alumni Council meeting last weekend, when she was joined by fellow ’90s Michael Lisi and Kim Buresh. Both Michael and Kim are active with their alumni clubs back home, Michael in San Francisco and Kim in Los Angeles. Fellow ’90 Julie Urda was also in Hanover just for fun. Julie is a professor of management at Rhode Island College and drove up for the weekend.
Meg continues: “After the Alumni Council meetings were over Julie and I headed over to the stadium to watch Dartmouth defeat Columbia 56-0. Neither of us had been back for a football game in awhile and we had a blast cheering on the team—joined by an especially enthusiastic bunch behind us complete with green hair!—and singing the alma mater together at the end of the game to celebrate the team’s victory. We ran into President Hanlon walking back from the game and said hello—he was very friendly and stopped to chat for a moment with us. I hear that in addition to all of his duties leading the College, he is teaching a calculus class and started the day of his official inauguration on campus by teaching his 8:45 section of ‘Math 11.’ ”
The Alumni Council also had the pleasure of hearing from our classmate and economics professor at Dartmouth Bruce Sacerdote. He moderated a panel of current students taking some “experiential learning” classes taking them outside of the classroom and into the Upper Valley community, where they are studying, researching, and interacting with residents, nonprofit organizations, businesses and government. For those who are interested, you can see some of their work at www.40towns.com. Apparently someone told Meg that “students thinks that Professor Sacerdote is the man!” You can read more about what he’s has been up to on www.dartbeat.com. 
Important 25th reunion news (yes, it’s coming in 2015)! The reunion team had its first planning call and anyone interested in helping should contact Meg at meg.sommerfeld@comcast.net. 
Finally, congratulations to Jonathan Weatherly, who finished his first marathon in Chicago in 2:46. His daughter Madison is also a top runner in high school and potential Dartmouth class of 2019!
—Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com; Rob Crawford, 47 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; robertlcrawford@yahoo.com 



“What’s one interest that was sparked at Dartmouth that has become a core part of your life?” Lacking content for our Class Notes column, I e-mailed this question to all ’90s and now I have so much material that I plan to share highlights in this column and the next one.


Interest in a specific human being was the most common response. “That’s easy,” writes David Owen. “My wife, Edie Josephson Owen ’92.” Likewise, Peter Harvey’s response is Anna Cathcart! Peter wrote to me from Lenk, Switzerland, where he and Anna run Winter Term, a 12-week academic and character-building program for seventh- and eighth-graders from around the world. Jay Davis’ interest in his wife, Julie Sanders Davis ’91, also began at Dartmouth, “which led to the addition of core elements Katie ’25 and Andrew ’28, who do everything they can to make sure I maintain balance between home life and my work in Dartmouth’s education department and Tucker Foundation.” 


Liz Allen Edgar writes, “James Edgar—met him in Chaucer class and thought he was a bit too full of himself. Now we’ve got two kids, matching jobs and 22 years of history.” Lynne Cohen Koreman also found true love at Dartmouth: “My interest in my husband, Rob Koreman ’92, was followed closely by mix-ins from the Hop. A day rarely goes by when ice cream isn’t a part of my life.” Lynne recently opened a marketing consultancy (www.koremanconsulting.com). She and Rob live with their 12 year-old daughter Samantha in south Florida. 


Todd Eckler and Kristen (Politica) Eckler cite each other as enduring interests. “I also developed an interest in education and teaching,” writes Kristen. And Todd adds that hearing a speech by Lou Gerstner ’63 (the then-chairman of RJR Nabisco) in the late 1980s sparked his interest in improving inner-city public schools.


My co-secretary (and first cousin) Walter Palmer also identifies his wife, Sandra Kopanon ’91, as his most cherished Dartmouth interest. They now have three children: Sophie (12), Coalter (10) and Sarah (7). After a long career as a professional basketball player Walter founded a players association in Germany and is now director of a federation of about 30 European players associations. This interest began at Dartmouth when an NCAA officer met with the basketball team prior to its first practice. “I asked so many questions that Coach Cormier started to get anxious because he wanted to start practice.”


Ted Whittemore, Sara Mattis and Adam Bookbinder all report that their love of the great outdoors began at Dartmouth. Adam, a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston, writes, “After four years of $100 season passes and jumping on the Skiway bus after classes I was hooked. I’m now working on passing that feeling on to my kids.” And for Sara and her husband, Eric Roesch, “The natural, outdoor world of Dartmouth has become a refuge for us—a wonderful contrast to our busy Boston lives.”


Now a user experience consultant designing software for companies such as TiVo and Shutterfly, Kyrie Robinson says Dartmouth was where she first starting playing with computers. In addition, David Jorgensen introduced Kyrie to the Amaretto sour, her favorite cocktail. Today, she harvests her own lemons.


In other news we heard from Kevin Roon that he married his longtime partner Simon Yates on October 2-3. Attendees included Lisa (Porter) and Jason Kable, Kristen (Politica) and Todd Eckler, and Anjli Finessi, who came all the way from Curaçao. Kevin is finishing up his Ph.D. in linguistics at NYU, expecting to finish this coming May. 


Plenty more to share in my next column!


—Rob Crawford, 27 Roberts Road, Wellesley, MA 02481; robertlcrawford@yahoo.com; Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com


“What’s one interest that was sparked at Dartmouth that has become a core part of your life?” continued.


For Monica Davis it was rowing. “In the fall of 1989 the crew coaches were out on the Green recruiting. I told them, ‘I’m a senior,’ and they said, ‘That’s okay.’ ” For Laurin Grollman it was running. “I remember running Rip Road with my roommate Jane Bieneman when I was in good enough shape to keep up with her and by myself when I wasn’t.”


Ed Callaway developed deep interests in hockey and beer. Junior year he did the religion FSP in Edinburgh’s pubs and learned to skate on Occom Pond. Today he spends his weekends traveling with his son’s bantam hockey team and “hacking away in a men’s league.” Ed, a certified beer judge, has brewed several award-winning batches. 


At Dartmouth David Engler developed a physical fitness regimen that continues today. Now a pediatrician in Tennessee, which ranks 47th in the United States in overall health, David writes, “My Dartmouth experience inspired me to attempt to change the attitudes and lifestyles of my patients.”


Drew Jones writes, “What started at Dartmouth in the late 1980s was my calling to work as a crazy-ass advocate for the environment. It began with trash and now my focus is the climate.” Environmental activism also inspires Patty Webb. Last summer she built a dog waste composter in her back yard “so I don’t have to use plastic bags anymore!” And Susan Domchek reports, “I have a physical reaction when I see people throw out aluminum cans or paper instead of recycling.” Susan is a breast cancer oncologist at the University of Pennsylvania and has two children, David (11) and Matthew (6).


Tom Thompson: “I was determined to become a rich lawyer and proceed directly to politics. But my LSA in Blois, France, hooked me on Baudelaire and Rimbaud. I skipped law school, got a lit M.A. and an M.F.A. in poetry, and it’s been all poetry ever since. Two books out and a third on the way.”


Kathleen Heafey’s core interest is “being a citizen of the world.” Today she’s an adoptive parent of two Colombian kids (7 and 4) and fundraises for children who still wait in an orphanage in Bogota.


Carrie Tower Lott credits her art history FSP in Florence, Italy, with sparking a love of traveling outside the United States. “And my obsession with Italian food and cappuccino.”


Pamela Chandran: “Film! Film! Film!” Pamela, who earned a master’s in film from USC, became a devotee of film because of the Dartmouth Film Society. She has a 1-year-old son, Declan.


Marcus Weiss, who is a Blue Man in Las Vegas, writes, “I fell in love with Dartmouth’s drama department.” Eighteen months ago Marcus became a dad—his son Jacob “is our greatest treasure!”


Pianist Roth Herrlinger found his love of composing and performing at Dartmouth and Mark Sternman found his love of politics. “Young Democrats at Dartmouth gave me a front-row seat to the 1988 campaign, sparking my career.”


Julie Urda: “I took a class called ‘Psychology of Business’ because I heard it was taught by a Tuck professor. At the end I asked Professor Greenhalgh, “How do I get from where I am to where you are?” Twenty years later I am a professor of management at Rhode Island College.


Megan Hammond writes, “Dartmouth itself became a core interest in my life.” Megan, who helps run Dartmouth’s endowment, lives in Lyme, New Hampshire, with her husband and three daughters Cailie (6) and twins Anna and Maeve (1).


Timothy Kolk: “The rejection of conventional wisdom without evidence.”


—Rob Crawford, 27 Roberts Road, Wellesley, MA 02481; robertlcrawford@yahoo.com; Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com


The question for this issue’s column was: “What is your favorite Dartmouth sports (or Baker library) story?” As this is the July/August issue, allow me to share my favorite sports story from Sophomore Summer. That year Rob Summers, Ute Bowman Otley and myself formed an intramural three-on-three basketball team called Tall, Dark and Beautiful. We won the championship against some ’89 football players who threatened to crush us because they played football. Of course the game we were playing was basketball and, in basketball, the smart take from the strong. We won by posting Ute up against a linebacker and watching her go to work. You go, girl! Andy Affleck (Williams) had me going with this story: “I played Kazoo in Marching Band with my girlfriend Katie Davis. Early freshman year at the Dartmouth-U Penn game we did the Hawaii 5-0 dance with our arms around each other all cute and freshman “couply.” That night in my dorm I got a call from my high school girlfriend asking, “Who’s the girl?” That’s how I learned that (a) we had not, in fact, broken up like I had thought and (b) the game that day had been televised on SportsChannel for some reason.”


Do you have a story about rushing the field as a ’shman? I bet Roth Herrlinger can top it: “It’s the first Saturday of freshman year and I’m torn between wanting to rush the stands with the rest of my classmates and wanting to be in the half-time show with the Marching Band. Determined to do both I stand arm-in-arm with my classmates at the top of the opposing stand, then run down several paces in front of the class…straight into the hands of the Campus Po’. The next morning, in the spirit of all the great social movements of the time, I launch ’Shmen Aid on the steps of Thayer Dining Hall. I collect $400 in voluntary donations toward the fines of the 30 students who got caught, appear on the front page of The Dartmouth, launch my political career and don’t look back.” Great stuff. 


An anonymous alumnus wrote: “Crap, I wrote something interesting when it occurred to me that there might be a statute of limitations issue. It turns out the statute could cause me trouble since it is six years, but it appears that the clock stops if you aren’t in New Hampshire. So never mind. It was nothing dangerous, no one was injured or even embarrassed, it was just a benign prank, but given how overboard folks can get about things, I think I’ll leave it in the vault of history.” Chrissy (Kirkmire) Mazzola sent the following: “My best Baker story is easy: A year after we graduated Rich (Mazzola) flew me back east for Thanksgiving. When I arrived at the airport he had a limo waiting to go to Montreal for the weekend. We ended up at Dartmouth in the middle of the Green in the snow, and as Baker Tower struck midnight he got down on one knee, pulled out a ring and asked me to marry him. I said no, thanks. Just kidding! We have been married 18 years now and always make it back to that special spot with our kids when we are in the area.” To leave you with a bit of news, Angela C. McConney reports that she attended the Massachusetts Black Lawyers gala on April 22 with classmates Gwen Pointer and Kevin Hayden. Angela is the former president of the organization. Rob C. is up next time. Enjoy the summer!


—Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com; Rob Crawford, 27 Roberts Road, Wellesley, MA 02481; robertlcrawford@yahoo.com


Let’s start off with a birth announcement! Jen Gee Conway reports that the best thing that happened to her and her husband, Jim, during the summer of 2010 (or ever!) was the birth of their daughter Annabelle Rose on July 16. Jen and Jim live on Bainbridge Island, “just across the water” from Seattle, and Jen has her favorite job ever: mom!


While trolling for more summer news a moose story arrived in my inbox from Alaska. Since my boyhood in Maine I’ve loved a good moose yarn (and telling them too). It seems every few years, around the summer camp table, a new guest will bring up moose and the standards are dragged out for the re-telling. There’s the “moose charged the school bus” fabrication, the “van almost crashed into the rear end of a moose on 25A at midnight” story, the “brothers swimming with moose” story and the “moose running down the middle of a main street in Salt Lake City, Utah,” story. Kelin (Pickard) Colberg wrote in with a “moose chased my son down the street” story with a promise of more. A moose chased their 10-year-old son Elias while he was riding his bike with the family dog down a fairly busy Anchorage street. The dog ran into the street, the son kept on pedaling, the traffic stopped and eventually the moose stalked off into the Alaskan puckerbrush. A treasure Elias will tell (and, if my experience with moose stories holds true, build on) his whole life. Apparently, moose in Alaska are a more aggressive breed than here in the Northeast, where hunters use a lasso to lead giant moose back through the woods and up into the back of their pickups before shooting them (it’s either that or drag the carcass a long way)—really.


Ute Bowman Otley writes that the best thing her family did this summer was to take Oma (Ute’s mom) to her native land of Germany for her 65th birthday. Ute wrote, “The kids loved it, Brian and I loved it and my mom was in heaven!” While the Otleys were there the German soccer national team played in the semifinals of the World Cup in South Africa, “We sat in a Biergarten chanting ‘Auf Gehts Deutschland!’ in between blasts of the vuvuzelas (the ubiquitous horns blown in South African stadiums).” Ute reports that the mountains and lakes of Bavaria were beautiful and they are looking forward to a return trip for her mother’s 70th. 


Being an older athlete myself, I had personal appreciation for Christian Heinrich’s submission. He wrote in that his wife, Lisa Huff Heinrich ’92, captained the Western New York Rugby 7s team to a bronze medal in the Empire State Games. Lisa was the oldest player on her team by 10 years. 


Congratulations go out to Jonathan Sullivan, who has a new job as the director of electronic marketing at Learning Tree International. 


Finally, “in the true Dartmouth spirit of keeping traditions,” Daniel Mayland met up with Mike Lindgren in the Thousand Islands region of New York State for their annual sailing trip. Mike reports that he and Dan were joined this year by his partner, Melanie Maslow Lumia (Cornell ’86), and Dan’s wife and two children, Corinne Gilchrist Mayland ’93 and Kirsten and William. “The captain and crew of the good ship Anodyne enjoyed a brief if energetic sail that was truncated by a close call with some wandering thundershowers, a common seasonal hazard of the upper St. Lawrence River, and some fine grilled foods.” With that, the book is closed on the summer of 2010. 


—Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com; Rob Crawford, 27 Roberts Road, Wellesley, MA 02481; robertlcrawford @yahoo.com


This month I asked all ’90s, “Choose one—smell, taste or sound—and tell us about the one that comes to mind first when you think of Dartmouth.” Thanks for your excellent responses.


David Sherwood: “The crisp smell of cold while crossing the Green on a winter’s night.” Maria Deknatel: “Hearing the bells play “Dartmouth Undying” as I walk across the Green in early evening.” Anuj Gupta: “The extraordinary peace and silence after a heavy snowfall in Hanover.” Megan Hammond: “For me it’s the smell of pine—when we first went to the Bema, at Moosilauke and the Skiway, walking down toward Ledyard—the smell of pine everywhere! I love it.” Gary Katz: “Dry autumn leaves crunching underfoot. It’s corny, but it triggers the memory of Dartmouth every time!” Mike Lindgren: “For some reason, when I think of my sophomore summer I think of a Tom Petty bootleg that my friend Mark Zankel had. It was recorded at the Rathskeller in Boston sometime in 1977 or 1978. That tape, with its grimy swirl of hard rock, provided a backdrop to a marvelous summer of swimming, drinking beer, cruising around Hanover and hanging out.”


Jonathan Sullivan: “The way the air smells on a gray winter morning just before it’s going to snow. Living in Virginia for the past 20 years I don’t experience that smell very often. But once in a while, when the air is quiet and still, and there’s the smell of snow in the air—it takes me back to Dartmouth.” Bernadine Wu: “The smell of my nostrils and eyeballs freezing as I walk from Kappa Kappa Gama to, well, anywhere. The beautiful bright blue skies and sparkling white snow are deceptively cold yet invigorating.” Meg Sommerfeld: “The smell of piping hot Earl Grey tea in Sanborn, mix-ins at the Hop, lemon-poppyseed bread at Collis and ‘the crunch of feet on snow.’ ”


Steffen Nelson: “The soft crunching of twigs under running feet amidst the silence of the surrounding woods in Pine Park.” Amy Monbourquette: “The crunch of feet on snow.” Brad Drazen: “Who can forget her soft September sunsets? Her sparkling noons, the crunch of feet on snow?” Kerstin Stanley Clark: “I’m thinking of spring’s distant, pinging, shotgun sound of the ice breaking up on the Connecticut River. Hallie Brooks: “The sound of oars thunking in oarlocks when all are rowing together and the smell of mung.” David Clark: “I hear the sounds of the greatest minds in the world studying in Sanborn.”


Ute Bowman Otley: “The smell of wet pine trees on spring mornings.” MaryEs Anderson Beaver: “The sound of silence walking in the fresh fallen snow, the world around me quiet and peaceful. Also, George Winston’s ‘December’ on the albums in the music lab where you could truly get lost in the music.” Michelle Brownlee: “An EBA’s chicken sandwich. (I’m sure I won’t be the only person with that response.)” John McBride: “Fraternity mung (ewww), an EBA’s chicken sandwich, C&A pizza, Baker’s bells and late-night conversation with friends.” Shirley Menard: An EBA’s original chicken sandwich. I’ve never had anything like it since and I can’t find a Portuguese muffin anywhere!” Jessica Silver: “Collis orange-chocolate-chip bread. Yum.” Lou Mabley: “EBA’s spuds and the fries at the Hop, the Alpha Delta basement and the stylings of Rob Crawford singing Joe Jackson’s ‘Is She Really Going Out With Him?’ ”


And we conclude this column with a very sad farewell to George Cawman, who died unexpectedly of a pulmonary embolism on November 3. George, we will all miss you.


—Rob Crawford, 47 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; robertlcrawford@yahoo.com; Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com


I asked ’90s, “If you could bring your child(ren) to Dartmouth’s campus just one time for just 15 minutes, where on campus would you take him/her/them—and why?” My answer: Sanborn, the ’02 Room and Streeter. Here are half of your responses (the rest will be in the next issue): Michael Mauro: “To Baker lawn, the Geisel (Seuss) room, then Sanborn library to show the grandeur, wisdom, humility and civility of Dartmouth.” Barbara (Basia) Nikonorow: “On a snowy afternoon I would walk across campus from Baker Library, across the Green into the Hopkins Center.” Therese (Devlin) Brown: A run through Pine Park. I will always remember the soft bed of pine needles that covers this path through the woods along the Connecticut River. Beautiful.” Andra (Raudseps) Bowditch: “When they were babies, the Tower Room to show them proper napping. Now, down to the basement to ponder the Orozco murals.” Philip Privitera: “On the Green on Homecoming night when the alma mater is being sung and the bonfire is being lit. In that moment the heart and soul of Dartmouth comes to life.” Mark Sternman: “I’d chase my 7-year-old stepdaughter around the Green and show her where I spent most of my college years, Baker Library.” Meg Sommerfeld: “My favorite thing to do with my children at Dartmouth is to take them up to the Tower Room and sit in the big chairs and look out the windows overlooking the Green.” Bernadine Wu: “Definitely the bonfire. I was back for Homecoming last year for the first time since graduating. The delight in my 8- and 11-year-olds’ eyes and the awesomeness of the spectacle can’t be beat.” Kathy Heafey: “We’d start at the Hop to rub Warner Bentley’s nose, then hoof it across campus to the Choates! Sentimental favorites.” Paul Haffner: “Easier to say where I would not take them—Bones Gate basement. Tried that at 20th reunion and they are still scarred from the experience!” Andy Affleck: “My 13-year-old son is into the arts so I would take him through the new visual studies building and the Hood and Hop. In fact, we did that this spring and he loved them.” Rich Byron: “The Tower Room should be featured in a documentary film called Exactly What a College Library Should Look Like.” Mary Es (Anderson) Beaver: “I would take them to the Green in June because that is what life between work is all about, to the river on an inner tube in July because that is what summer is all about, to Sanborn at tea time when it is snowing out because that is what quiet comfort is all about, and to the stacks at night when quiet intellect blooms.” Julie Clugage: “I would take my daughters to the Tower Room to share with them the highest quality napping experience of my life to date.” Julie’s husband, Richard Hardegree: “It would not be South Mass. Our 8-year-old is still traumatized by her stay there during reunions. She described it as ‘stinky’ and vividly remembers ‘boogers on the walls.’ That would definitely rule out the Alpha Chi Alpha basement. So I’m going with the great outdoors—the Dartmouth Skiway and the docks on the river.” Sebastian De Atucha: “The Bema/Bartlett Tower (especially if you can get up the tower) and Ledyard.” David Clark: “Sanborn. The atmosphere in Sanborn is symbolic of the climate that Dartmouth represents, relaxing yet stimulating.” Lauren Kehoe: “I would take my imaginary child to tea at Sanborn to show him or her that reading actual books can still be beautiful, elegant and civilized, with cookies.”


—Rob Crawford, 47 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; robertlcrawford@yahoo.com; Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com 


Inspired by Conan O’Brien’s Commencement address, this month I asked ’90s: “If you were asked to give the Commencement address at Dartmouth, what would be your core message?” As expected, I received many excellent responses.


Laurin Grollman: “Perspective is key, don’t sweat the small stuff, be nice to everyone and do what makes you happy. It’s worked well for me so far!”


Paul Haffner: “Always remember that there are more horse’s asses in the world than there are horses.”


Alvino-Mario Fantini: “Explore the world. Follow your interests. Be intellectually curious. Do things with passion. And, above all, keep learning.”


Scott Facher: “Bold mistakes may ultimately define one’s artistry, character and humanity; to live one must court passion and take risks.”


Scott Mackle: “The most insightful part of O’Brien’s speech was at the opening, where he said, ‘Before I begin, I must point out that behind me sits a highly admired president of the United States and decorated war hero while I, a cable television talk show host, have been chosen to stand here and impart wisdom. I pray I never witness a more damning example of what is wrong with America today.’ Of course he was going for laughs with this comment, but there’s a great deal of truth in it.”


Mark Sternman: “Live the lessons Dartmouth taught: be kind; read deeply, widely and well; and enjoy nature in all seasons.”


Parker Karnan: “Know the difference between nice and kind. Know the difference between busy and productive. Know the difference between power and influence. Know the difference between successful and great.”


Rob Adams: “To whom much is given, much is expected. Yeah, yeah, the heavy graduation speaker message, but double the years on the spinning orb since June of 1990 provides quite the perspective, eh? The privilege of an adult life in the Upper Valley, to boot, helping employ a lot of folks who didn’t get to do what we did, while getting to watch firsthand the undergrad crowd on campus enjoy the perhaps at times intense but still surreal experience we all had, leaves one feeling pretty humbled by all of our good fortune. Hope you’ll holler if you pass through Hanover or want a great table (they’re all great, of course) at Simon Pearce” [where Rob is president].


Kyrie Robinson: “Don’t worry if you still don’t know what you want to be when you grow up. Just find something interesting to do and start living your life, even if you can’t imagine doing that thing for more than a few years. Be prepared to switch jobs as inspiration strikes and be prepared to grab interesting opportunities when they appear.”


Ali (Maud-Alison) Long: “I just completed a paper, ‘Promoting Sustainable Food Systems Through Impact Investing.’ It’s on the home-page of the foundation I run, where you can click to download it, www.thespringcreekfoundation.org.”


Robin Lapre: “It’s okay to stray from the beaten path when you are young.  You will look back at those days fondly, and it will supply great stories for your next job interview.”


Michael Lindgren: “Don’t eat the yellow snow.”


Matt Nadler: “Do what you love. You’ll be better at it and happy.”


And some classmate news: In March Adrian Owens competed for the U.S. ski-orienteering team at the world championships in Tanndalen, Sweden. He anchored the men’s relay team to 15th place, passing the Ukraine skier but not quite catching Japan.


Diane Mutti Burke, an associate professor of history at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, recently published her book, On Slavery’s Border: Missouri’s Small-Slaveholding Households, 1815-1865.


—Rob Crawford, 27 Roberts Road, Wellesley, MA 02481;robertlcrawford@yahoo.com; Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com


The Palmer family is battening down the hatches here in Rockport, Massachusetts, in preparation for Hurricane Irene and I hope all of you reading this column made it through the storm intact. 


The first social media newsgathering experiment for this DAM column was a success. Our class Facebook page is coming to life and I encourage all of you to join in. Thanks to all of those who did. 


Chrissy Kirkmire Mazzola writes in that after 20 wonderful years at the Thacher School in Ojai, California, she and her husband, Rich, have moved to Charlottesville, Virginia. They will both be working at St. Anne’s Belfield School, where she will be head of the upper school and Rich will be the middle school athletic director and will, as always, be coaching baseball. “We are excited that our kids Madeleine (15) and J.J. (11) will finally be going to the school where we work.” Chrissy and Rich encourage any Dartmouth folks coming through the area to get in touch!


Dawn Generals Patterson wrote in that her oldest daughter, Bianca, is now a senior at Dartmouth! “I’ve had such a great time visiting her and reliving my own Dartmouth experience—I hope other classmates have a chance to experience Dartmouth from their children’s eyes. It’s been priceless!”


Also on Facebook, Tony Jones, had a couple big announcements to pass on. “So far in 2010 I’ve completed my Ph.D. in theology at Princeton Theological Seminary (after eight years of dragging my feet) and in July I married Courtney Perry, a photojournalist from Texas who graciously relocated to Minnesota. I make my living by running a small business, consulting in the publishing world, blogging about religion, writing books and speaking. I’m sorry to have missed the 20th reunion, but I look forward to introducing Courtney to the wonders of Hanover at the next reunion.”


Mike Keller submitted his news by e-mail: “I am still knocking around Chicagoland working in IT consulting.” He saw his freshmen year French Hall roommate Marcus Weiss in Vegas this past year performing as a Blue Man at the Venetian. “What a trip. He was awesome!” commented Mike. He also attended his high school 25th reunion this past summer and is looking forward to our Dartmouth 25th coming up in a few years.


On a more somber note, in a couple of weeks we will also commemorate the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks and the passing of our classmate Chris “Dom” Colasanti. He was at work in the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald in the North Tower of the World Trade Center that bright morning. We miss you, Dom. 


One of my cherished childhood memories is that of my father sitting at the bottom of the stairs after my brothers and I had gone to bed singing folk songs on his guitar, including the classic, “Good night, Irene.” With that, Irene, good night—’til next column. Rob, you’re up!


—Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com; Rob Crawford, 27 Roberts Road, Wellesley, MA 02481; robertlcrawford @yahoo.com


I received almost 50 responses to my question, “In 10 words or less, what image or feeling immediately comes to mind when you hear the word ‘Dartmouth’?” Because of the volume of responses and because many people simply couldn’t stop at 10 words, I had enough material for two columns. Part deux is below. Cue the goosebumps.


Michael Lindgren: “The Green. Baker Tower. Wintry beauty.” Sandy Morton Niles: “Friends, laughter and stress, ski team, friendship, Anadama bread at Collis, the Orozco murals. Okay, that’s more than 10 words but you have no idea how many I wrote and deleted.” Meredith McIntosh Murphy: “Warmth of friendship on a cold, snow-filled evening.” Jay Davis: “Alma mater, employer, provider of my children’s mother—go green!” Stephanie Smart: “Walking across the Green. Freshman trips. Claflin Jewelry Studio.” David Sherwood: “Friendships cemented by crisp falls, late nights and great debates.” Jennifer Scott: “Walking across the Green in the fall.” Pam Behne Gentry: “The beauty of the campus on a fall afternoon.” Phil Privatera: “Home—even more than my real home—and EBA’s meat-lover’s pie!” Chris McCabe: “Beer!” Dan Posner: “Croquet on the frozen Connecticut one winter night with candlelit wickets.” Rebecca Baggett: “A sense of freedom and endless possibilities.” Steve Wydler: “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life. Ethan Guzman-Barron:“Beautiful campus, great times, even greater people.”


Sara Page: “This is more than 10 words, but that was your secret strategy and it worked! Life-long friends, racing on Mascoma Lake with the sailing team, many hours spent at the Skiway, my wedding at the Bema then walking across the Green with the bells tolling in Baker Tower! Life is great—my husband, Evan Roth, and I just celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary and we have three very active boys, Jackson (9), Anders (7) and Gareth (4). We live in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, just outside of Portland. I’m so grateful for my years at Dartmouth. As I hit my mid 40s and reflect on my experiences, decisions and the work that I do, everything stems from the values I cultivated at Dartmouth: belief, abundance, passion, vision, connection, adventure, fun and positivity.”


Susan MacLennan: “The image that immediately comes to mind is the exhilaration of racing down the Charles River last October in a Dartmouth alumni eight, with thousands of strangers cheering from the banks and bridges, simply because we were Dartmouth. I raced with eight other Dartmouth women (classes of ’11 through ’90—a 21-year age span!) in the Head of the Charles, representing Ever Green Boat Club, which is our new alumni rowing organization. While we didn’t win the race, we beat many old rivals and had a great time. Many of us met for the first time on the day of the race, yet we had a strong common bond simply by virtue of being women of Dartmouth. Representing the College again after all these years made me incredibly grateful for the opportunities that being part of the Dartmouth family has afforded me.”


John Stouffer: “When I hear Dartmouth I think green, open spaces and cold winters with great snow sculptures all over campus. I also think about people who have become my best friends, such as Marc Fogelson and Mike Schwerin ’89. I think of the whole crew of ’90s who were in Bones Gate together and all the fun times we had raging and doing fun things such as playing bocce ball across campus. I play bocce ball now, but keep it to the sands of Manhattan Beach, California, where I live.”


—Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com; Rob Crawford, 27 Roberts Road, Wellesley, MA 02481; robertlcrawford @yahoo.com


Straight to the news: An enthusiastic report received from Gwen Pointer, now the director of corporate sponsorship and new business development for the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). BAM is America’s oldest performing arts center located in the heart of one of the world’s creative capitals, Brooklyn. Her job is to tell BAM’s story as a “home for adventurous artists, audiences and ideas with world-renowned programming in theater, film, music, dance, opera and literature.”


Rob Adams sends along a “Howzit” from Cape Town, South Africa. Rob joined Tommy Clark ’92 in helping to run Grassroot Soccer, a nonprofit working on youth development all over Africa with a primary focus on behavior change around HIV and AIDS. 


John Stouffer lives in Manhattan Beach, California, and works as director of PR for Fuel TV, a cable television network and part of Fox Sports Media Group. The network was rebranded to cover the Ultimate Fighting Championship, so he’s learning the difference between a “rear naked choke” and a “superman punch.” John is also recently engaged to Stacey Broadwell and will be married in March in the L.A. area. He sees classmates Marc Fogelson and George Becker at least once a year for a good snowboard/ski adventure. 


Sunil K. “Peter” Pasi and Hallie Lewis celebrated the birth of their daughter Sara Kamla Pasi on December 18. Peter reports that mother and baby are happy and healthy, not least due to the fact that their pediatrician is a Dartmouth ’95 named Alison Pease


Kyle Blood will be featured in the March issue of House Beautiful for the “Bath of the Month.” He designed a Moroccan bathroom for a client on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. 


William Boulware writes in that he has relocated to Chicago and is moving on from corporate law. He has taken the reins of a not-for-profit, the Preston Bradley Center, assumed an adjunct professor position at Chicago-Kent College of Law and is coaching freshman girls volleyball with Powerhouse Sports Academy. 


Sean Callan married Elizabeth Simmons on August 25, 2012, in Cincinnati, Ohio. In attendance were classmates Paul Haffner and wife Karri, Rob Harris and Tom Erwin. Sean and his wife are both practicing attorneys in Cincinnati; Paul is a licensed attorney who works at Great American Insurance Co.; Rob is a successful attorney and partner at Waller in Nashville, Tennessee; Tom is working as an executive recruiter and manufacturer’s rep in Cincinnati. 


Ute Bowman Utley took a group of high school students to Princeton Model Congress in D.C. and met up with former basketball teammates Jen Lowry, Allison Greene, Nancy Fitz ’89 and Tara Burke Vold ’93. Jen is living in Baltimore with her husband, Pete, and her precocious (and tall) daughter Bryn. Allison is working at the Pentagon and living nearby with her ultra-fit husband, Rob. The group hopes to gather in Hanover this March for their annual basketball reunion.


In December Ute’s Champlain Valley Union, Vermont, team scrimmaged Northfield Mt. Herman (coached by Nicole Hagar ’91) in Hanover. Karen Heinzmann witnessed the match. Karen teaches French at Thetford (Vermont) Academy. Afterward they watched Dartmouth play the University of Hartford and toured the new Leede Arena basketball suite. 


Jack Lunch, publisher of The Sheet in Mammoth Lakes, California, reports that his daughter Margaux was born on March 11, 2012. His newspaper will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2013. Chris Farrens and Gary Katz are heading Jack’s way for the Martin Luther King Day holiday, “Mammoth has the most snow of anyplace in the country right now so who needs fiscal cliffs when you can jump off snowy ones instead?” 


Over to cousin Rob.


—Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com; Rob Crawford, 47 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; robertlcrawford @yahoo.com


Greetings all from sunny Lima, Peru! I’m here attending a Sport for All conference hosted by the International Olympic Committee and the Peruvian Olympic Committee. It’s been fascinating, if a bit out of my union-organizing wheelhouse. Next week I’ll have the opportunity to visit Rob Adams in Cape Town, South Africa. Rob is the CEO of Grassroots Soccer, a program that uses soccer to teach life skills to young people to help prevent HIV and AIDS. I’ll be there as part of an ambassador program we’ve initiated with the NFL players union to help South African athletes come together to form player associations. 


Congratulations to Rob Cohenuram, who has been selected as one of Connecticut’s top doctors according to polling done by Connecticut Magazine. Rob is an oncologist and member of the Praxiair Cancer Center, Danbury Hospital and Diebold Family Cancer Center, New Milford Hospital. 


I heard from Andy Affleck, who manages the development team of Ozmott, an iPhone/Android app started by Andy and Joseph Walker ’91. They are also spinning up a new company to develop another app to be named later. In the evenings he acts, directs and produces productions with Swamp Meadow Community Theatre in Rhode Island. Andy also acts as our class Alumni Council representative and Facebook tsar (a working title).


On that note, I want to call everyone’s attention to our class Facebook page. There have been some very important posts recently. Chinua Achebe, who you may remember was the author of Things Fall Apart, our pre-Dartmouth summer reading, died this year at the age of 82. 


Meg Sommerfeld posted an eerie video from 1988. PBS correspondent John Merrow ’63 filmed a report from his 25th reunion. Many ’90s make cameos, including Meg and the Aires. If you’re on Facebook, please join the class of 1990 page to stay in touch. 


Your class officers have been busy getting organized for our own 25th reunion. A conference call, scheduled for April 19, was delayed in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing. While we are still counting the injured, we can only pray that no one from the Dartmouth family has been affected. Our thoughts go out to all the victims. Stay safe. 


—Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com; Rob Crawford, 47 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; robertlcrawford @yahoo.com


With the 2012 election behind us, it’s time to focus on “The road to 2015…” and our 25th reunion! As preparations are well under way and our class officers hard at work, this column is devoted to submissions from our class president, Tim Cleary, and treasurer, David Greenberg, respectively—with a few bits of news at the end. 


Tim reports that, “This year, our class had its largest contingent at Class Officers Weekend in quite a few years” with David Greenberg, Emily Hill, Dewey Winebrenner and Lucinda Welch joining him for the weekend. “It was great to get together to do some in-person planning and socializing (sad news: 5 Olde is no more).” They came away from the weekend with lots of ideas on how to reach out to the class and, they hope, increase participation including the extension of a social media presence through LinkedIn or Facebook or holding mini- and even micro-reunions around the country. Tim encourages any of you to contact him (or any of the class officers) with ideas for class activities that the class could support such as micro-reunion ideas or “really just about anything.” You can reach him at cleary90@gmail.com.


David “spent much of the weekend gathering ideas and best practices from Blunt and other class treasurers so the ramp up (to the reunion) will be as smooth as possible.” Apparently, the class finances are in good hands: “The weekend was a good opportunity to compare our class financial situation to other classes. I can say that our fiscal situation is stable and good. Our bank account is solid and dues collections are just a little short of average.” Echoing Tim, there may be some funding available for those class-oriented, “just about anything” ideas of yours! 


In personal news, David wrote that he traveled to Lake Tahoe, California, in August 2012 to compete in the National Summer Biathlon Championships. Summer biathlon is a combination of running and marksmanship, similar to the Olympic sport of cross-country skiing and marksmanship. He had a very good weekend and finished sixth, his highest finish yet. Unlike some of us, David reports that he “seems to be getting faster as I get older, which has me very fired up for next year.” 


The National Association of Urban Debate Leagues is a national movement to create policy-debate-oriented opportunities for at-risk, urban populations that is supported by many Dartmouth alumni, including our own Rob Harris, who is the chairman of the board of the league in Nashville, Tennsessee.


Finally, Dan Mayland’s spy thriller, The Colonel’s Mistake, was published by Thomas & Mercer (the mystery thriller imprint of Amazon Publishing) in August. It is the story of an ex-CIA station chief who—when he agrees to help an American spy in Azerbaijan—“finds himself in the middle of a ruthless espionage war involving China, Iran and the United States.” If you’re looking for something to read, check it out…on Amazon.


—Walter Palmer, 87 South St., Rockport, MA 01966; palmerwalter@mac.com; Rob Crawford, 47 Black Oak Road, Weston, MA 02493; crawdaddy37@gmail.com