Class Note 1978

With just minor arm-twisting, class VP Barbara Dau Southwell provided the following in mid April: “In an effort to knock off a priority on my bucket list, I’m spending a month in the remote Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. The monument is part of the Colorado Plateau, a geologic area distinguished by yellow, red, orange and grey-green sandstone canyons and cliffs of awesome beauty that I have explored during the last two decades, most often with Mindy Kassen, who taught me my wilderness skills. Days are filled with canyoneering (technical down-climbing) through the slot canyons that make this area famous, slickrock hiking and searching for traces of the Anasazi Indians who once lived here.


“Due to my serious addiction to indoor plumbIng, camping out has been minimized; most nights I return to a rented—and renovated!—Mormon settler home in Escalante. Settlers are gone, but evidence of modern polygamy practice abounds. This disturbing and intriguing fact is offset by the availability of margaritas, not a given in this part of the world. Best of all may be the experience of living off the grid, although I am not sure my kids and husband would concur.”


And from Cleveland.com: Former National City Bank chief Peter Raskind will guide the Cleveland, Ohio, school district while it searches for a new leader. Pete volunteered to work for just $1. He did the same thing while serving as interim chief of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority from December 2009 through May of last year. “Priority No. 1 is to do our very best to assure high-quality educational opportunities for Cleveland’s kids,” he said in an interview. Raskind, who joined National City in 2000, after 17 years with U.S. Bancorp in Minneapolis, was named chief executive officer of National City in July 2007, added the title of chairman five months later and served until the bank was sold to PNC Financial Services Group at the end of 2008. 


Do check out the new and improved class website, www.dartmouth.org/classes/78. It has better pictures and great stuff about all the class mini-reunions this winter. And while you are there take a moment to verify/add your email address to the online listing so you will continue to get up-to-the minute news about everything ’78.


Speaking of mini-reunions, looks like the dedication of the 1978 Life Sciences Building will be the weekend of November 5, which is also a home football game (Cornell is the victim). Mark it on your calendars and let’s see how many of us can get there.


Oh, if you didn’t see it last time, please make a note of my new email address, davidthov@gmail.com. Clever readers will also note a new snail mail address with this issue. 


—Dave Hov, 6742 Towne Lane Road, McLean, VA 22101; (571) 643-8040; davidthov@gmail.com