Class Note 1988

I open with the sad news of another terrible loss for our class. Tom Pollard died in late October. Rick Hill, Lance High and John Olson are planning a service to remember Tom and honor his memory during our reunion this June. Rick shared that, “Tom was the best man in my wedding, and I’ve hunted with him in the Adirondacks, Quebec, Wisconsin and many other places. He has been a mischievous uncle to my daughters for the past 15 years. We miss him and we’ve cried a lot. Many Dartmouth ’88s remember Tom for his sense of humor, his willingness to lend you his motorcycle and his ability to really listen when you needed somebody to talk to. I hope our classmates will attend our 25th reunion and join Lance, John and me in paying our respects to Tom in Hanover in June.” Tom’s obituary is posted on our class website and memorial gifts can be made to the College he loved so well. 


I know I’m not alone in pondering life and loss—it’s the middle-age stage we’re in, I’m afraid. My best tonic of late is surrounding myself with purposeful people. This month’s mailbag contained some laudable examples. Katherine Dawes has worked at the EPA for 20 years and was recently honored for her “unprecedented emphasis on the importance of environmental evaluation.” The citation lauded Katherine for being “well known for her adeptness at cross-agency connections” and “unbelievably successful in developing evaluation capacity at the EPA.” Katherine and her husband, Barry Lucas, are raising two energetic children in Washington, D.C. Another hard-working classmate, John Scott, is also highly regarded in his profession. John was named president and CEO of Orient-Express Hotels, after serving the same role for Rosewood Hotels & Resorts. Julie (Clyma) DiRemigio made a career change last year. I asked her for an update: “I had been teaching high school math for the last 18 years, but in June 2011 left the teaching profession and started a home business that specializes in health and wellness products—all organic and eco-friendly. I’m very passionate about the products, and starting this business was an amazing way to keep a career but be able to dedicate much more time to my family (I have two kids, ages 5 and 7). So I’m extremely busy, but happily making my own hours. Looking forward to reunion this summer!” Kristin Zimmermann Miskavage is coordinating a successful mentoring program for urban middle-school students that was co-founded by her father, John C. Zimmermann ’53. The Jones-Zimmermann Academic Mentoring Program (J-Z AMP!) has boosted high school graduation rates to 85 percent for its urban participants during the past 10 years. Impressed by these outcomes, I asked Kristin for more information and she explained, “I’m a liaison among our current J-Z AMP! sites: Yale, Trinity College and Sacred Heart University. We’re hoping to expand the program to three more urban sites during the next five years. Ideally, we’d like to partner with a much larger foundation that could oversee implementation across the country. To that end, I’d be very interested to know of any classmates with connections to urban universities—we have a proven formula ready to roll.” Lest these impressive classmate accomplishments feel daunting rather than inspiring to you, I’ll close with a quote from E.B. White. I found this on a greeting card that I can’t seem to give away: “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”


Cheers.


—Jane (Grussing) Lonnquist, 4510 Drexel Ave., Edina, MN 55424; jjlonnquist@earthlink.net