Class Note 2005

Happy holidays everyone, hope all is well. I skipped the fall submission, so there is quite a bit to catch everyone up on.

First, the class of 2005 unfortunately lost two beloved members of our class, Luke Gilroy and Joe Rago, this summer.

Luke Gilroy passed away on June 24 after a lengthy battle with cancer. For those who did not know him, Luke graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa and was an Academic All-Ivy rower while at Dartmouth. He joined Fidelity’s fixed income division post-graduation, where he worked for eight years and became one of the youngest research analysts in the division’s history. Luke received his M.P.P. from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Public Policy in 2016 and hoped to pursue a path in public policy. Luke is survived by his wife, Meredith, parents, family and friends. A website, thelukelegacy.org, has been created in his memory and his family and friends encourage all who knew him to visit the site and share their remembrances of Luke.

Joe Rago passed away on July 20. While at Dartmouth Joe was a proud member of Phi Delta Alpha and served as editor of The Dartmouth Review. Post-Dartmouth Joe began his career as an intern for The Wall Street Journal in 2005 and became an editorial board member in less than 10 years. Considered a prolific journalist and generational talent, Joe covered a wide range of topics, becoming best known for his expertise on healthcare reform. His exceptional work in journalism would go on to earn him a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing in 2011. The Dartmouth family and world of journalism will miss Joe, and his gift of writing, dearly. We will keep the class informed on the many gatherings and tributes planned in Joe’s memory.

In happier news, there were several weddings to report on the last several months. Adam Cohen married Ryan in May. Pete Simpson married Alice Dickinson, also in May. Lastly, Brian Zurhellen rounded out the month of May, marrying Elizabeth. In June Parker Lewis married Allison in Big Sky, Montana. Rob Freiman married Ashley Slobodkin in July. Lastly, Vanessa Green married husband, Keith, in Nantucket, Massachusetts, in August. All weddings were attended by too many classmates and other Dartmouth alums to name.

We also had some new additions to the ’05 family these past few months. Tim Sullivan and wife Kim (Rosensteel), along with daughter Hannah (2), welcomed Mary Erin Sullivan to their family in March. Lucas Nikkel and wife Julie recently welcomed a daughter, Maren, to their family. Lucas also completed his orthopedic surgery residency at the University of Rochester and this summer moved to Durham, North Carolina, where he will be completing a fellowship in hip and knee replacement at Duke University.

Anne Marbarger and husband Scott welcomed daughter Quinn in June. Ben Grinnell and wife Courtney welcomed a second son, Oliver, in June shortly thereafter. Ollie waited a little over a month to be joined by future teammate Leo White, son of Adam White and his wife, Erin. Steve Daley and wife Leah weren’t too far behind in the month of August with their third child, a girl, Linden Johanna. Julia (Hildreth) Pothen and husband Randy also welcomed a third child, daughter Priya, to their family in August. Congratulations to all the new and repeat parents!

Finally, Elisabeth (Kreter) McKibben wrote in to let us know she moved to Dallas in June for one year with her husband, Max, and their three small humans, Cordelia (5), Daphne (3), and Reeve (1). Max will be completing his final year of urologic training and Elisabeth will continue to work in biotech.

—Matt Nicholson, 79 Potomac Ave., SE, #345, Washington, DC 20003; mtnicholson3@gmail.com