Class Note 1992
Hearing from classmates who have lived outside the United States made me wonder: Does anyone beyond the Dartmouth community use “girdled” to describe the earth? Obsessive research reveals: not recently. In intra-D communication it’s used almost daily; elsewhere, almost never.
The alma mater verse (from the poem by Richard Hovey, class of 1885) dates to 1894. The earliest reference was probably when Shakespeare’s Puck bragged about his speed in A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “I’ll put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes.”
Maybe Kyle Huebner read Nellie Bly’s 1908 book, A Proposal to Girdle the Earth—he and his family have already visited a dozen countries during their trip around the world. To catch up with them visit globalteenadventures.com. I hope they got to see the art deco mural titled I’ll Put a Girdle Round About the Earth in Australia (okay, I’ll stop now).
Julia Hynes Shoff recently finished a two-year assignment in Switzerland at Merck’s international headquarters running a large global portfolio of older businesses. She and her family returned to their home in Philadelphia. She wrote, “Now that I think about it, the pervasive focus on the wider world at Dartmouth (languages, study abroad, the role of Dartmouth in educating future leaders to make an impact at a global scale) probably shaped a lot of my choices then and now. Then and now, love to travel, love being part of a massive global company with a global health mission, love my incredibly diverse set of coworkers in every time zone. I have a strong home base and affinity to where I grew up, but I hope it is accurate to call me a citizen of the world, too. I didn’t connect with any Dartmouth people there, although I did interview Swiss applicants for two seasons (mostly boarding school kids by FaceTime!).”
John Lynch wrote: “Language study at Dartmouth had me do a few more off terms than the average bear, so the travel bug started then. Work then led me to Europe, Russia, Central Asia, and Asia, off and on my whole career (never Latin America—odd). Settled in London in 2005—much easier jumping-off point—for work, but as the family grew we started to call London home. Many alums around London keep the connections—good friends spanning the ’89s to the ’92s. While my wife, Betsy, and I see ourselves as American, the kids have Irish, U.S., and (are soon likely to have) U.K. passports. So they are just confused on which county/nationality, but they are Londoners at heart. We do keep a few traditions and new events going to keep the connections: Father’s Day finale was watching The Princess Bride with my three kids. And then a week later I took Matt LeBlanc to see Metallica here in London.”
Jon Kohl wrote: “I’ve been mostly out of the country since graduating from Dartmouth. In 1993 I joined the U.S. Peace Corps in Costa Rica until 1995. I returned to the United States for my graduate degree at Yale Forestry. During that time I met my future wife, a Costa Rican. I moved back in 2006 and we have been here largely since. My 1991 biology foreign study program in Costa Rica really set me up for my Peace Corps service, which obviously led to my eventual marriage and having two kids born here, and now I am a dual citizen here and in the United States. There’s a ’91 here with whom I’m friends and a ’76 farther away. I now live outside of San Jose and welcome any ’92s coming my way, a long way from [my hometown] Foxboro, Massachusetts.”
—Kelly Shriver Kolln, 3900 Cottage Grove Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52403; (920) 306-2192; dartmouth92news@gmail.com
