Class Note 1984
This month a word from classmate Dani Klein Modisett,who recently ventured back to Dartmouth from L.A. Dani is working on a new book for Random House, Laughter: Party of Two, on long-term marriage and humor, using the latter to keep the former happy.
“Sitting in my hotel watching SNL, remembering the Rachel Dratch era, who I just sat with on a panel, wasted. Not in the way I used to be 29 years ago, from dancing and drinking too much pink punch. Nope. I’m in Hanover lying on fancy sheets at the chic 6th South Street tonight, eating chunks of a cookie the size of my head, decompressing from an unexpectedly moving 24 hours. I was lucky enough to be invited back to celebrate the 40th anniversary of women at Dartmouth. Not surprisingly there’s an intimidating amount of high-quality estrogen here. What I didn’t anticipate is that I’d care so much. Sure I played the ‘You need more women at this college’ card in my alumni interview, but I had no idea that being part of early coeducation at Dartmouth would have the historical significance it did. Hearing women from 40 years of classes talk about their lives on campus and after, it’s hard not to feel proud. Not only of Kemeny for his courage, but for the moxie of all of us who chose to buck tradition and go party, I mean pursue advanced study, with the good old boys.
“Class of ’84s on panels included Leah Daughtry and Mara Rudman talking politics, Karen Francis-DeGolla with tech talk, professor of surgery Kathryn Zug on healingand Kim Ogden covering reinvention. I and three others talked of the joys and perils of show biz.
“More ’84s there included Lisen Stromberg, with two of her three children, one of whom is a class of ’16. ‘What serendipity to be visiting Dartmouth,’ she said, ‘on a college tour with my daughter the same weekend my alma mater was celebrating its 40th anniversary of coeducation.’
“Anjali (Hulyalkar) Chu was there with her son, class of ’15. Her take: ‘Our classmates have accomplished so much since graduation.’
“Wendee Hunsinger-Lunt told me she is ‘working hard for my consulting clients and moving forward toward the next phase of my life.’ Kate Hotchkiss Taylor had an interesting reaction to the weekend: ‘Friday evening, looking around the room at a majority of women really struck me—the first time I have ever experienced that at a Dartmouth function. It really felt good. Comfortable.’
“She’s right, even though the thought hadn’t entered my mind. I have never found gender to affect my comfort level somewhere—a possible positive byproduct of the inequitable male presence back in the day that many women commented on. Certainly there was a calm to the weekend, what with the absence of late-night drunken flirting. But it’s not like men weren’t there. Professor Don Pease put forth an enthusiastic rant/question about the need for a liberal arts education to the MacArthur ‘genius’ grant panelists. Reminded me why everyone loves this guy. He’s as impassioned and charismatic as ever, and other than a bit more ruddiness to his skin, looks exactly the same. Mara Rudman also had an unexpectedly great time and told me Viva Hardig just bought a home in Hanover from Rudman’s favorite professor, Charles McLane. She and fellow panelist Leah Daughtry caught up with Lucia Jackson over lunch at Baker Library, where apparently you can now eat at the King Arthur Cafe!”
—Derek Chow and Jan Gordon, 770 Union Av., Boulder, CO 80304; (303) 448-1580; janandderek @comcast.net
