Class Note 1989
I can’t believe I am writing my first Alumni Magazine column, taking over from Jennifer Avellino, who has been our incredible class secretary for more than 15 years! I hope that I live up to her great performance, and look forward to writing about as many of you as possible during the next five years.
Mid-September we had our first Class Officers Weekend in Hanover with Antonia Rutigliano Nedder in her new role as class president! The crisp fall air was a welcome change for me, and it was great to see the freshman ’18s on campus.
In reaching out to fellow classmates for our reunion attendance calls and emails, I got some great updates from some of our fellow ’89s. Reunion is always a great time to get back in touch with old roommates, so I was glad to hear from Harry Bernieri as well. Harry has been teaching at Poly Prep in Brooklyn, his alma mater, since graduation. The school threw him a party for his 25th year back in June. At reunion I bumped into Craig Morton and David Irwin. Craig is still the pastor of the Wellspring Worship Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Dave is working at Fiserv in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and has been there for 12 years with his wife and two kids, Henry (11) and Lucy (9). I also caught up with Phil Singh, who is now at Kellogg’s in Battle Creek, Michigan.
Lisa Colby Crawford wasn’t able to make reunion, as she was busy celebrating her 10-year wedding anniversary with a long weekend of golf and sun—congratulations! Lisa is still living on the North Shore of Boston with her husband, Tom, and children Malcolm, 8, and Cate, 5. Joon Hin Ooi also wrote that he hasn’t been able to go to reunion since graduation. Joon moved back to Asia from New York in the mid 1990s and spent some time in Hong Kong before settling in Singapore, which is now his adopted home. If you make it out there, Joon can be reached at joonhin@yahoo.com.
Pat Giersch is a history professor at Wellesley College, specializing in China and inner Asia. Pat and his son were up in Hanover this past winter for a ski race. Kyoungho Kim Koh emailed a few months ago and has been keeping busy: By day she handles operations work at Novartis and in the evenings she is following her passion, having begun her massage practice. It has been about 15 years since Kim started to use her Korean name of Kyoungho.
Kate Saunders Grove told me about a great ’89 run-in: She brought her older daughter, Anna (16) to a college admissions orientation session at Dartmouth run by our own Dan Parish in the fall. It was great!
Sonya Ooten Frisina has a very cool new venture called the Original Bex—they are DC Comics-licensed graphic add-ons that you can put on your sneakers or even in hair braids! Perfect for kids and the kid in you as well. Check them out on Instagram with the hash tag #theoriginalbex.
So that’s my first column. I want to hear from as many of you as possible as you roam around the girdled earth, either on your own, with your family or with other classmates. Wishing you and your families a wonderful holiday season and happy new year!
—Ned Ward, 2104 Graham Ave., #B, Redondo Beach, CA 90278; ned@nedorama.com
