Class Note 1973
Summer!
“Greenways: Coming Home,” Dartmouth’s 40th anniversary celebration of coeducation, was well attended, and you are encouraged to look at the event website for photos and summary information. With Jan Seidler Ramirez and Kate Stith-Cabranes among the presenters, and Donna Bascom, Karen Fagin White, Marie Shaffer and your scribe in attendance, plus former exchange students Barbara Cox and Sarah Kahn, we made a strong contingent.
Jan is founding chief curator and director of collections for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City, scheduled to open in 2014. The museum will tell the story of September 11 through the lens of September 12, emphasizing the remarkable generosity, caring and sharing manifested. Jan is an expert on the former World Trade Center site, having previously served as vice president and museum director of the New York Historical Society, developing its series of exhibitions, public programs and collection acquisition efforts focused on the broad historical context of the attacks. Jan noted all the memorial artifacts have to be tested for health and safety reasons.
Kate continues to hold the position of Lafayette S. Foster Professor of Law at Yale Law School, where she teaches and writes on criminal law and constitutional law. She is involved in numerous professional organizations and community activities. A book she wrote with her husband on the federal sentencing guidelines received an American Bar Association award and a law review article she co-wrote on sentencing reform politics was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in the text of an opinion striking down some federal criminal sentencing guidelines.
Donna operates a part-time solo law practice focusing on motion picture finance, production and distribution. Passionate about reproductive rights, in 2003 Donna founded One Voice to Save Choice, an interfaith coalition to defend reproductive choice, consisting of 40 faith-based organizations. In 2011 she was elected chair of the board of directors of NARAL Pro-Choice NY. Also active with the Red Cross, Donna worked in a shelter during Hurricane Sandy and on emergency communications afterward for those severely impacted. In her spare time she has taken up Zumba and, with her husband, is working on lowering her golf handicap.
Karen continues to practice law at Cohen Pollock Merlin & Small in Atlanta. Her practice focuses on bankruptcy and insolvency law and creditors’ rights, as well as general commercial litigation. She has been president and chair and currently is a director of the Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute. She is a trustee of the International Women’s Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation–Georgia Network and lectures regularly on bankruptcy issues.
Marie retired from consulting and resides on a sustainable farm in Pittsford, New Hampshire, where she restored the 18th-century home and delights in horseback riding, taking ballet lessons, making bread from scratch using flour from King Arthur’s in Vermont and otherwise leading a quintessential New England life.
Unfortunately, Rich Crimma, a much-beloved Rensselaer County, New York, pediatrician, died from lung cancer in December. An obituary is at dartmouthalumnimagazine.com.
—Val Armento, 227 Sylvan Ave., San Mateo, CA 94403; val.armento@alum.dartmouth.org
