Class Note 1984

I recently received an e-mail from one of my best Dartmouth friends and it read, “Turning 50 next year! This is it—our big excuse to go on a big trip and really relax! I have a friend with a beautiful little home in the quaint village of Panicale, Italy—in Tuscany.”


Fifty years old! Seems like a lot until I think about my grandmothers, both of whom are still alive and kicking (98 and 102)! It occurs to me that I’ve only lived half of my life so far.


So what better way to ring in the next 50 years than with a big party at an Italian villa with my best Dartmouth girls! Amy Worden Smith, who sent the e-mail, made her way from working in Silicon Valley upon graduation to the great Northeast, where she’s been slugging it through Maine winters and basking in glorious lake house summers since 1991 with husband Nate ’81 and kids Allie (22), Emily ’12 and Jake (17). There she is a computer user interface design expert and consultant and abides by the 80/20 rule (must be having fun 80 percent of the time, otherwise time to find a new job)! In her spare free moments she runs the crew team ragged, a club whose enrollment has doubled since she started it in 2007 with daughter Emily. Amy’s view on turning 50? “I feel so lucky to have family and friends who are always willing to be fished for fun!” (Let the fishing begin!)


Flying to Italy will also be Amy Eisenberg Folbe, who has been working hard to help couples reach amicable divorces in Michigan since 1998. As a partner at Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn, she once helped an 80-year-old couple call it quits—can you say material for Saturday Night Live? There she holds down her own happy marriage with husband Jack and kids Aaron (18), Elana ’15, Jonah (16) and Aidan (14). On turning 50, Amy says, “Instead of doting on my new wrinkles and inability to get carded no matter how hard I try, I am looking forward to a year of celebrating this milestone with friends and family every chance I get.” 


Also, from the Midwest Susan Lidstone Theiss will hop on a plane out of Chicago to meet us abroad. After an illustrious legal career and years teaching high school history, she has taken over full-time management of a great project—her four children! (I always said that a fourth would have put me over the edge, hence Derek’s vasectomy!) Susan and husband Paul are almost out of the woods with Peter ’12, Katie (19), Will (17) and David (12). On turning 50, Susan says, “I’d like to write a novel, open a knitting shop and breed soft-coated wheaten terriers.” I’ll take one potty-trained, non-shedding pup, please! 


And last, but not least, Robyn Fishman Kerner will have the shortest flight from New York City, where she settled after being freaked out by the 1994 California earthquake. Since graduation she has segued from Stanford Business School to entertainment marketing for Universal in L.A. to the Muppets in New York. Now living in Westchester County, where she holds down an all-male fort—husband Lou, kids Max (13), Cole (10) and Jack (8)—she has bravely served six years on the school board. On turning 50, Robyn remarks, “I thought when I was 50 I would be settled and looking back. Instead I am looking forward—what to do next and how to make a difference.”


Here’s hoping that the entire class of 1984 goes big at its 50th! 


—Jan Gordon and Derek Chow, 132 Wildcat Lane, Boulder, CO 80304; (303) 448-1580; janandderek @comcast.net