Class Note 1978
Our 60s are a time of transition—and it’s not always easy.
Amy Simon Berg writes to say “My husband Eric died in 2017 after several years of suffering with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). ALS is a cruel disease and if any classmate or a loved one has the disease and wants to contact me, please do.
“On the more positive side, I retired from DuPont after 38 years and live in Pennsylvania near Wilmington, Delaware (and active with Dartmouth Club of Delaware). My daughters and I are rebuilding our vacation home in New London, New Hampshire, and I plan to spend more time there. Last summer I chatted with Mike Morgan at the bakery that he and his wife run in New London. Jane (Kirrstetter) Ingram, Jill (Eilertsen) Rogers, and I skied together last January in Maine. Kathy Maher and I visited True North Ales, the brewpub that Jill and Gary ’77 Rogers started in Ipswich, Massachusetts. By the time this is published, I will have returned from a six-plus-week trip to Australia and New Zealand and will be making plans for my next adventure!”
Sharon Lee Cowan retired a few months ago as head of communication for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Europe and Central Asia. She and her 16-year-old daughter, Masha, have relocated from Budapest back to Rome, closer to husband/dad Andrea Vincenzi. A family jaunt to Paris in November featured drinks at the home of Anne Bagamery and husband Bob Marino, capped by the de rigueur visit to the class of 1978 balcony!
Dave Taylor reports that he is winding down as a cardiac anesthesiologist in Rochester, New York, where he lives with his wife, Linda. His thumbnail update: “Beat back prostate cancer. One son is a married Ph.D. physicist in Dresden, Germany, the other is a microelectronics engineer in Cambridge, Massachusetts.”
It is my sad duty to report the death of two classmates. John David Shaw died in Hanover on August 1, 2019, and Athena “Tina” Robinson Randolph (married to classmate Tommy Randolph) died in Florida on October 15. My deepest condolences to their friends and families. Look for remembrances of them on the class website.
Dave Hov and wife Shaun Smith, now both retired, made a deep dive into WW II this summer, touring the D-Day beaches with retired British Gen. Graham Hollins as their guide. Dave brought a lengthy list of places to visit. “He looked at my list, sucked in his breath, and said, ‘We are not going to do all of this.” Nonetheless, they managed to cram quite a bit in. Then they visited champagne country, where they crammed in some bubbly as well.
The trip reminded Dave that as a high school senior visiting Bordeaux, he came across some old German grenades on a windswept beach near a bunker. “I threw them against the side of the blockhouse to see what would happen.” Nothing—but honestly, dude, it is amazing you ever made it to Dartmouth!
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—Rick Beyer, 1305 S. Michigan Ave., #1104, Chicago, IL 60605; rickbeyer78@gmail.com
