2004 - Dartmouth Alumni

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November 2004
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President: Kenneth F. Hall, 7 Lord William Penn Drive, Morristown NJ 07960-3214,
phone 973.539.6045, e-mail [email protected]
Vice President: Morris C. "Rocky" Whitaker, 8433 Golden Oak Court, Charlotte NC 28216-1692,
Vice President: Christopher S. Pfaff, 7 Briar Lane, Glencoe IL 60022-1801,
Treasurer: Kirk B. Hinman, 6402 Karlen Road, Rome NY 13440-7452,
Secretary: J. Rick S ample, Retreat Farm, 1137 Manakin Road, Manakin Sabot VA 23103-2801,
Newsletter Editor: Richard L. Ranger Jr., P.O. Box 2088, Valdez AK 99686-2088,
Webmaster: Angus W. Scott-Fleming, 6902 East Soyaluna, Tucson AZ 85715-3341,
Alumni Council: Sedrick A. Tydus, 114 Greenbank Avenue, Piedmont CA 94611-4336,
Class Website: http://www.dartmouth.org/classes/74/
Send YOUR changes, stories and reflections to: [email protected]
From Your Editor
My thoughts echo and they swell
From Tolstoy to Tinkerbell
Down from Berkeley to Carmel
-- Paul Simon "Cloudy"
Road trip. Two words that once possessed magic appeal. It might have been lunch hour at old Line 3 at Thayer on
a grey winter Wednesday. You'd pulled an all-nighter to complete a paper or a take home. There might be ten
days until the next academic deadline on your calendar. An empty weekend loomed ahead like a cloud bank. And
November 2004 Newsletter Page 1
someone you knew said he was planning a road trip. There are moments in life when nothing beckons like the open
road.
The end of summer was approaching, and our son Owen would be returning to start his junior year at Pepperdine in
Malibu, California. None of the half dozen or so Alaska-based Pepperdine undergraduates was available to share
driving duties with Owen. Though we had first moved to Alaska in 1991, and had traveled in and out of the state
over the years since (including when we lived in Long Beach) I had never driven what up here we simply call The
Highway. Our son had. He needed a co-pilot. He and I could benefit from some time together. I negotiated the
time off with my boss.
The distance should be written out in full. Three thousand, four hundred and fifty-six miles from Valdez to my
folks' place in Dana Point, California. Five days. Owen has a Dartmouth green 1997 Volvo 850 GLT with 136,000
miles on the odometer. The tires were new. The McPherson struts could stand replacing. The original leather
upholstery is well cracked and the car's interior has the vague smell of a just opened steamer trunk in your late
aunt's attic. The left rear door must be closed from the outside. One door handle is broken. On the plus side, the
engine was more or less rebuilt last summer, and it has a still fine factory installed sound system with a six-CD
changer. Tupac at three quarter power can make the windows bounce. I have experienced this. Old leather and all,
the seats fit like gloves. The AC works. At cruising speed the car runs smoothly, and it can pull out and pass trucks
on the interstate just like in the TV commercials where they say "Professional driver. Closed course." Owen is
carrying four points on his license from doing a speed on the Santa Monica freeway that I should not discuss in
print.
Thus it should not surprise you that two guys packing for a five day road trip spent as much time selecting music as
they did packing everything else — or so we were accused by Catherine. From a musical programming standpoint,
the trip could not have been better. Dad, the morning person, selected the first six CDs. Owen, the afternoon and
evening driver, selected the second six. Twelve CDs and fourteen hours, give or take, was a standard day. Our
tastes overlap in the genres of Jazz, Latin, R&B and (surprisingly — he was so introduced by a Woodberry Forest
roommate) classic 60's-70's Rock. They diverge at Classical (Dad) and Hip-Hop (Owen), but we shook hands on
the principle of "driver's choice".
Sunday morning, August 22, we got underway at 0815, with Dad's selection of some serious uptempo music to
launch us on our transcontinental journey, including "Keystone 3" by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Juan
Luis Guerra's "Ni Es Lo Mismo, Ni Es Igual", Santana's "Caravanserai", and disc 2 of the Bob Dylan 30 th
Anniversary Concert. Not so fast. We were only as far as 12 Mile, where the Richardson Highway turns left to
head up Keystone Canyon, sunlight shafts coming through the clouds, a breeze in the birches, the Jazz Messengers
blowing -- when we passed Tony Pirotta's black Valdez PD Explorer parked at the Twelve Mile turnout, with the
Volvo's speedometer and Tony's radar gun agreeing on 78 mph, give or take the margin of error. In a town of
4000 we know our cops by name, and they recognize our vehicles by sight. Tony thought he'd bagged Owen, and
was surprised to see me behind the wheel when we pulled over. He let me off with a warning and, chastened, we
continued on our way.
In the metaphysics of travel there are journeys that take a traveler beyond the mere transit from point A to point B;
they take the traveler across the world. Ocean transits must be like that. The Trans-Siberian Railway must be like
that. Our interstate highways across the Great Plains once felt like that. The Alaska Highway is like that. Consider
this. On Day One, we passed through Glennallen, Gakona, Chistochina, Tok, Beaver Creek, Burwash Landing,
Haines Junction, Whitehorse, and spent the night in Teslin. Of these, only Whitehorse has a population in the five
figures (25,000), and only Glennallen and Haines Junction edge into four figures, Haines Junction only in the
summer. Another factoid. The Yukon Territory has 186, 661 square miles (considerably larger than California's
156,000), and a population of about 33, 000, 75% of whom live in one city, Whitehorse. We had dinner in
Whitehorse, and drove 109 miles farther to Teslin as a pale late summer evening settled over an unfolding
landscape of low mountains, black spruce and birch. Over that distance at that hour we counted only eight vehicles
and as many caribou at one point in the shadows just off the road's edge.
In the North, the skies are clearer (or at least were for us once we escaped downwind of Alaska's raging forest
fires). At northern latitudes the long angle of the sun's light presents a tableau of supersaturated colors, as if God
created the world half an f-stop down. The distances of the North exist on a scale that is difficult to photograph.
Travelers stop their RVs in the roadside pullouts, shut off the engine, let the silence of the vast boreal spaces
envelop them, and take pictures. Back home weeks later they show the developed prints to friends, four-by-six
prints with tiny mountains serrating the horizon, tiny black spruce trees diminishing to the parallax, and find
themselves struggling to convey the vastness they experienced. The gift of the North is that in the moment of time
when the engine is off and the wind is all around you, the dome of the sky is moving overhead and the planet is
moving under it — in that moment of time it is possible to believe you are the first to behold the scene before you.
The miles roll on and on. The bugs plaster themselves onto the windshield and ossify in layers on the lead edges of
your vehicle. Wildlife does not abound (the North is hard country) but we had some memorable wildlife
observations. On day two of our trip we saw caribou, bison, moose, bighorn sheep, bear, beaver and whitetail deer.
The Highway wanders in and out of the valleys of the great rivers from the annals of the first explorers and fur
traders. The Yukon. The Liard. The Peace. The Fraser. Others roll magically off the tongue. Dezadeash.
Takhini. Alsek. Donjek. Buckinghorse. The scenery, always grand, is at intervals beyond sublime. Near
Northway, Alaska, you look southwest across dark forests and the ox-bows of the upper Chisana River toward the
glaciated Nutzotin and Wrangell Ranges, mountains so luminous as if to suggest that they, and not the sun, give off
light. At Muncho Lake in northern BC, Tertiary limestone has been deformed into mountain ridges from which the
region's frequent rains erode massive alluvial boulder fields, to which wild sheep come in numbers to lick the salts.
Northwest of Fort Nelson the Highway climbs and then skirts around the fantail of a long ridge called Steamboat
Mountain. Passing clouds trail curtains of shadow across the forested Muskwa valley stretching below and beyond
the rampart of the northern Rockies appears as if it is the edge of the rest of the world. There were moments
motoring through such beauty when Dad was driving that we had to listen to Copland or Sibelius — just as there
were moments in the afternoons with Owen at the wheel and the Volvo's horses at full gallop when we had to listen
to "Bomba 2000" by Hermanos Rosario (don't ask — just buy it), or his Morpheus compilation, an unlabeled CD
across which is scrawled "Cali Rap Mix".
There are few places to stop, but some are keepers. In Haines Junction, a block or two off the Highway, the Village
Bakery nestles among birch trees. The smells of rising bread and "bear paw" cinnamon rolls and fresh brewed
coffee drift from the bakery's windows out over the picnic tables on its broad deck, where Steller's jays strut for
crumbs, yellow jackets buzz near the trash cans, and the birch leaves flutter in the afternoon light like Tibetan
prayer flags. Whitehorse's Klondike Rib and Salmon BBQ serves family style on long plank tables, and its herbbaked arctic char is about the best fish I've ever enjoyed in a restaurant. The Deli in Fort Nelson serves improbably
large sandwiches for the price, and the cold pickles snap like you just bought them in Flatbush.
In Central BC the drive takes you through the lumber mill towns of Prince George, Quesnel, Williams Lake, 100
Mile House and Cache Creek. We'd stopped at a visitor information centre in Quesnel, I think it was, and the girl
at the counter noticed the Argentine soccer jersey Owen was wearing (soccer jerseys are great drive wear, by the
way). Turned out she had spent a year of study in Buenos Aires like Owen. Though of East Indian heritage, she
spoke with the Canadian accent of a minor league hockey coach, and the two of them compared notes on their
Argentine adventures. In the difficult time we inhabit, moments like that offer fragmentary hope that a smaller
world could be something other than simply more dangerous.
Driving south from Alaska was in one sense a metaphor in reverse. Instead of traveling farther and farther into the
unknown, we drove from wilderness gradually toward civilization. Our journey took us from the silences of the
North on Day One to an evening rush hour SigAlert on the 210 Freeway in Pasadena the smoggy afternoon of Day
Five. More vehicles were stacked bumper to bumper in our immediate field of vision than are likely registered in
the whole of the Yukon. Our journey took us from a town where we know the names of our policemen to a
metropolitan area where many people do not know the names of their neighbors.
Owen is 21, and it is not likely that I shall have many more opportunities for five days of companionship with him.
We had time to share conversations and silences together and the opportunity to do so while traversing a
considerable portion of our continent. Those pleasures are mine as a father to remember. The Highway we traveled
beckons for you and for your discoveries.
News from and about Classmates
This just in. In yesterday's mail came this letter from Patricia Fisher, Dartmouth's Director of Alumni Leadership:
"On behalf of the officers of the Dartmouth Alumni Council, it is my pleasure to announce that Jack Edward
Thomas '74 will receive the prestigious Dartmouth Alumni Award on Friday, December 3 in Hanover. This is a
richly deserved honor and we are pleased that he has been selected. The Dartmouth College Alumni Award is
presented annually to five alumni who graduated at least twenty-five years ago and who have demonstrated
extraordinary service to Dartmouth and civic organizations in addition to career accomplishment". Jack's service to
our class and to Dartmouth have been exemplary, and his leadership and contributions of time and talent and heart
in St. Louis are well-recognized there. Thank you, Jack, and heartiest congratulations!
Facing the usual drought of green cards or e-mail as autumn got underway, I decided that it might be a good idea to
check in on Florida classmates. Floridians had a bad several weeks from the end of August through September
with no less than four hurricanes ravaging the state, and it seemed to make sense to call people out of the blue to
see how they were doing. I did not succeed in reaching all of our 17 or so Florida '74's, but had some enjoyable
conversations with several of our classmates. If I missed anyone, please feel free to write — and that goes for any of
you who live in states NOT threatened by hurricanes, too!
One of the first Florida classmates whom I contacted was Tripp Heard, who lives on the Atlantic Coast in Boca
Raton, a city visited by both Frances and Jeanne. Tripp said that a town to the north of them called Stewart took the
direct hit, but he and his family were without power for two sustained periods following each hurricane. Tripp is
among the handful of members of the Class of 1974 to have served in the military; in fact his Dartmouth experience
was bracketed by military service. Tripp transferred to Dartmouth after a freshman year at the U.S. Naval Academy
(Gerald Knezek, from the U.S. Air Force Academy, was our other service academy sophomore transfer student).
He also has the distinction of being among the handful of '74's with Carolina roots (the only other that springs to
mind is Ernie Page) hailing from the highlands of western North Carolina on the Chattooga River, near where
Deliverance was filmed. Following Dartmouth, Tripp re-enlisted in the Navy, went through nuclear power school,
and drove submarines for six years. He applied for submarines toward the tail end of-the long Hyman Rickover era
(the outsize personality who dominated the submarine program, and under whom former President Carter served)
and says he served with a number of his USNA classmates.
Back ashore in civilian life, Tripp attended medical school at the University of North Carolina, and did residencies
in cardiology at Johns Hopkins and internal medicine at Duke. Having spent much of his return to civilian life on
call, he determined as he puts it "that life was too short", pursued a fellowship in nuclear medicine at the University
of Michigan. He now practices in an emerging medical imaging technology called positron tomography, mainly
used in cancer diagnosis, an imaging approach that depicts metabolism rather than anatomy. Tripp's clinical
practice also includes cardiac CT MR. Tripp and his wife have three sons, 15, 13 and 10, and have taken advantage
of the State of Florida's trailblazing pre-paid tuition program, which, when combined with the honors programs
available at the state's universities, offers families a fine education at substantial savings. I had to ask Tripp if
given his Navy background and proximity to the ocean, he and his family were boaters (sorry, but Catherine and I
were devoted Miami Vice fans back during our TV-watching days). Perhaps having spent several years under the
water, Tripp now prefers to be well above it, and has a half interest in an airplane, which he says puts weekend
snorkeling and diving in the Bahamas in delightfully easy reach. He's an enthusiastic booster of the South Florida
lifestyle and encouraged me to give Florida a closer look.
HEARD, M. E. "Tripp" (Lauren) 19203 Black Mangrove Court, Boca Raton FL 33498-4836 (h) 561.487.6872 (email) [email protected]
Abdo Yazgi may be the first true Florida retiree in our class, and freely confesses to being "retired and doing
nothing in particular". Abdo had spent a number of years in New York with Continental Can as a staff attorney and
later as a corporate officer. A few years ago, Continental Can offered a great package, and Abdo and Linda pulled
up stakes and moved back to their North Florida home country. Abdo and Linda were at the 30 th this summer, and
he stays in regular touch with his Sigma Nu buddies.
YAZGI, Abdo (Linda) 1277 Beach Ave., Atlantic Beach FL 32233-5729 (t) 904.246.3829
Leonard Schulte says if you really want to know about living through a hurricane, talk to Mike McKinley, a '73
who is an attorney in Punta Gorda. But Leonard's being excessively modest. If you want to know about insurance
and hurricanes, you should talk to him. Originally from New Jersey, Leonard journeyed to Gainesville to attend law
school after Dartmouth. Upon receiving his JD from the University of Florida, Leonard certainly had the
opportunity to return to New Jersey, but acknowledges the difficult choice — Florida or New Jersey? New Jersey or
Florida? — didn't keep him up late pondering too many nights. He went to Tallahassee to work, where he wound up
serving on various legislative staff positions for 25 years, mostly for the house Insurance Committee, becoming the
Florida legislature's "hurricane guy" (in New Jersey, I guess, he could have become the legislature's vending
machine and linen service guy).
Today Leonard is a lobbyist in Tallahassee for insurance companies, but he speaks with justifiable pride at the path
that took him there — as one of the craftsmen behind the state of Florida's public reinsurance fund for hurricane
casualty claims. "After Andrew", he says, "We learned the private reinsurance industry could not handle billions of
dollars in payout and be there tomorrow to reinsure". Before this fall's catastrophic hurricanes, those with expertise
on the meteorological side of the house forecasted a big season, with climate trends indicating a return to a 20's30's active storm cycle during the hurricane season. It's small consolation to those in the paths of blockbuster
tropical storms that they're all part of God's plan for global heat exchange. Leonard told me: "We're expecting a
special legislative session and will expect action around size of deductibles. From insurers' standpoint, the big
issue will be provision for state reinsurance, with a state multi-billion dollar fund backing up the insurers, with
insurers paying actuarially determined premiums. The state's fund has the ability to levy percentage assessments on
insurance policies. Coming into this season the fund had $6 billion in cash, with ability to borrow another $9
billion." Hopefully suffering Floridians take some solace in the fact that with lessons learned form Andrew there
are more resources available today for the long recovery and rebuilding ahead.
Leonard describes himself as a "happy single guy", and pursues an avocation in photography "in a city that thinks
of itself as a small town" and offers a lot of subjects to capture in images. He must get out of town time to time,
because he e-mailed me a couple of striking photos from one of those white sand Panhandle beaches at Cape San
Blas. Leonard also quips that he enjoys surviving as the lone Gator in an otherwise all-FSU law office.
SCHULTE, Leonard E., Apartment E-50, 2750 Old St. Augustine Road, Tallahassee FL 32301-6224 (h)
850.942.6360 (w) 850.513.3380 (e-mail) [email protected]
Tom and Kathy Eggleston, who live in the Fort Lauderdale area, did not receive a straight on hit from any of the
hurricanes, but boarded up, stocked up and hunkered down without electric power for a couple of days. The
Egglestons moved to Florida in 1998 after having lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan for several years. In Grand
Rapids, Tom had held executive positions with Amway, then had developed an on line automobile sales business in
1996 that he and his partners had sold to AutoNation. Tom describes his true passion as arising from a search for
remedies for a child's disability that opened doors not just to healing but to opportunity.
Their son had been taking piano lessons in second grade, and his piano teacher was using a device called an
interactive metronome to improve his pupils' sense of timing and rhythm. The device used sensors on the pupils'
hands and feet and employed three dimensional sounds that improved in tonal quality as the pupil's timing
improved. After their son had taken piano lessons for several months, Tom and Kathy noticed improvements not
only in his piano abilities, but in his physical coordination. Tom researched the device and invested in it,
recognizing its potential medical applications. The interactive metronome helps develop a user's pre-frontal cortex,
the portion of the brain that processes planning, sequencing and timing and controls balance, gait and speech.
Today the device has moved well beyond the top of piano teachers' pianos. The interactive metronome is now used
in over 3000 hospitals and clinics, has been the subject of five major studies for its applicability to address the
effects of pediatric cognitive disorders. It is now under careful consideration as a device to improve the timing, gait
and balance of adult sufferers from central nervous system disorders. The Michael J. Fox foundation recently
completed a major evaluation of the suitability of the device for those with Parkinson's disease. In the past couple
of years researchers have looked at use of the device to improve the timing of the non-disabled. Notre Dame's
athletic department now uses the device to improve the reaction skills of athletes, and Syracuse has just started
using the device with its lacrosse players. The U.S. Navy is considering its applicability for refining the timing and
reaction capabilities of naval aviators. Tom's company has recently engineered a consumer version that can run off
a PC.
Tom and Kathy, who is a pediatrician by training, somehow find time to manage a busy household of four children.
Oldest son Jim is a 12th grader now looking ahead to college. Jack, who is in 10 th grade, is a golfer and lacrosse
player (Tom reports lacrosse is booming in Florida), while 8 th grader Tommy's sport of choice is football. Annie,
their youngest, flourishes in the glory of being the sister of three doting older brothers. Tom asked me to send his
best to Dave Highmark and Billy Raynor.
EGGLESTON, Thomas W. (Kathy) 3075 Old Still Lane, Weston FL 33331-3029 (h) 954.385.1833 (w)
954.385.4665 (e-mail) [email protected]
Another ex-Ripley Hall Floridian (Tampa area) is Steve Furber, whom I last recall seeing at the 20 th Reunion.
Steve describes that as a mid-life crisis and a couple of careers ago. Back then Steve was in the Boston area, but
there came a day when it was time to load up the boat and sail south along the Intercoastal Waterway, a journey that
took Steve progressively deeper into both latitude and boating, leading him first to the Bahamas, and ultimately to a
gig as a dive photographer in Belize. That job came to an end when the dive boat in question wound up as a
hurricane casualty deep in a Belize mangrove.
At about this point when his skipper-cum-dive photographer job was (as Joe Hazelwood might say) "hard
aground", Steve received a call from a friend from Boston who had purchased a Florida real estate project involving
a gated community with golf course. He needed someone with a financial and construction background to help
with the due diligence. Steve returned stateside to Florida, stayed on for a few years, then looked around for
another project and found one in Tampa area. With reference to the recent hurricane season, Steve confesses
"Since I'm a developer, with four projects going, I took a bit of a beating" (Steve's own residential construction
company is self-insured). His firm is a small Tampa area regional builder in expansion mode, with meat and
potatoes being $400K custom homes, but now moving into construction of first time homes and town homes.
He and his wife and daughter had been sailing in British Virgins, and diving on the HMS Rhone, setting for movie
The Deep, when they came ashore to grab cold ones in a small dockside bar and saw Charles bearing down on
Tampa on the TV news. Coming back from Fort Lauderdale on 1-75 they passed Port Charlotte, which got nailed by
Ivan, Steve observing that 90 percent of roofs were covered in blue tarp — most of them homes built prior to
Hurricane Andrew (1993) when Florida residential building standards were changed. Steve says that with this
season's storms in his area over 25% of houses built in past few years have suffered some sort of water
damage; because Florida experienced had four hurricanes in a row, water tables rose in many areas and some
homes took damage from below. Steve's own home that has been under construction is about 12 feet above water
line — a consequence if his dream of being on water with own boat dock, in one of the last waterfront communities
to be built, Mira Bay. Steve says "They're saying a one degree change in the Atlantic put us into a cycle where
we'll see hurricanes like this for about 10 years". Steve volunteers to serve as the '74 on the spot reporter for next
season's hurricanes — but strongly recommends to '74's contemplating life in Florida to equip their homes with
metal or lexan shutters.
FURBER, Stephen H. (Trisia) 220 Lookout Dr., Apollo Beach FL 33572-2665 (w) 813.681.8419 (e-mail)
[email protected]
The 1974 Freshman Book listed former '74 tennis stalwart Jim Myers as a Floridian, but he explains that was a
consequence of his parents' move to the state from suburban Philadelphia after he graduated from high school. But
he grew fond of the state during trimester breaks and summer vacations, and returned to Florida after graduating
from Dartmouth to attend law school at the University of Florida where he received both a J.D. and an LLM in tax
law. He also met his wife Becky there while she was enrolled in graduate studies after graduation from UVA.
Classmate Fritz Mann was also enrolled in law school at Gainesville during the same period. Jim's career has
taken him from law to estate planning and financial portfolio management with the Palm Beach office of Bessemer
Trust. Jim and Becky's oldest son Jay (20) is at Elon College in North Carolina, and their son Scott, a high school
senior, hopes to play intercollegiate tennis next year like his dad. Jim notes that youth athletics today requires so
much more specialization than was the case when we were kids, and that it's getting very difficult to play at the
intercollegiate level if one is a generalist. Jim himself still plays tennis, mixed in with a lot of golf.
I asked Jim if he and his family were boaters, with the Intercoastal just down the street and the Gulf Stream a
barrier island away. He explained that they'd become fond of cruise travel, which he says is a great way to see
portions of the world on a "survey" basis, to discover destinations worth returning to — if one can handle being part
of a "cast of thousands". While friends of theirs have spoken of the virtues of smaller cruise ships, Jim says that he
and Becky have found larger ships to be just the ticket if the whole family is going along — and parents and progeny
have separate staterooms to accommodate what can be quite different bedtime hours. Last summer the Myers
family took a cruise through the western Mediterranean, and Jim and I found ourselves in ready agreement that
Barcelona is one pf the best destination cities either of us has visited.
MYERS, James L. (Becky) 1249 Breakers West Boulevard, West Palm Beach FL 33411-1881 (h) 561.795.7701
(w) 561.655.4030
Our final Floridian for this issue of the Newsletter is Tom Short, who lives in the Fort Lauderdale area. Tom's and
Caryn's children are grown, but are all in South Florida. Tom and Caryn have more than filled their empty nest
with large dogs: a 75 pound pit bull, a 150 lb bull mastiff, a Bernese mountain dog, and a borzoi. The newly
adopted "baby" of this family of canine livestock is an Irish wolfhound, already topping 70 pounds at nine weeks. I
am willing to bet that this is some sort of record for the Class of 1974. In Tom's case it could be argued that
language took him to Florida. He had been a Spanish major at Dartmouth, then enlisted in the Air Force, spending
six years and ultimately winding up as a navigator in F4s. After leaving the Air Force, Tom, now married to Caryn,
returned to his home state of Arizona to obtain a Masters' in International Management at Thunderbird. He spent 16
years with Citibank in locations as diverse as Buenos Aires and Sioux Falls, but claims his Spanish still shows the
Italianate inflection of his three years in BA.
The Shorts have been in Florida 10 years, originally transferring there in connection with an assignment in
Citibank's Latin America Credit Card and Branch Banking unit. Still in Florida, Tom left Citibank to spend a few
years with the international division of Hershey Foods. For last four years Tom has worked with private company
called HBO Latin America — a joint venture between HBO, TimeWarner, Sony Pictures, Disney and an individual
owner from Venezuela. Tom observes that it is rather interesting to have industry competitors as owners of the
firm one works for. HBO Latin America operates as a platform with each equity owner company having one or
more channels on the cable system in which HBO Latin America purchases a stake. Tom says: "Depending on
which partner or which channel we may take a greater or lesser role, assisting in getting their channels broadcast in
Latin America. HBO Latin America offers a large portfolio of channels including A&E, History Channel, and a
number of kids' channels. Interestingly, a trend toward Latin American program content is just emerging. Tom's
company recently produced its first independent crime drama miniseries aimed at the Latin America market. He
says the series was highly acclaimed by critics in the company's markets, but the proof will be whether the
investment triggers more cable subscribers in a market that traditionally favors telenovelas as opposed to closed end
drama. Tom's job with HBO Latin America makes him a regular at the security checkpoint at Miami International.
The company began in Caracas and still has more than 500 employees in Venezuela, but also has offices in Sao
Paulo, Buenos Aires and Mexico City. There are 75 people in the corporate office and technical facility in Fort
Lauderdale. With all of Tom's background from south of the border, I asked if he had a favorite destination. He
responded quickly that notwithstanding the obvious security issues, his favorite city is Bogota for its beauty, its
people and its cultural heritage, and if not Bogota, then Buenos Aires. In any event, if you find yourself channelsurfing on a hotel TV somewhere in Latin America over the next few years, chances are you'll find a program
Tom's company has had a hand in creating. But don't expect subtitles!
SHORT, Thomas W. (Caryn) 20513 S.W. 52nd Manor, Fort Lauderdale FL 33332-1596 (h) 954.252.1643 (w)
I wasn't able to catch up with each of our Floridians. Neal Rakov and his wife came to reunion — and Neal
responded to a newsletter music query some months ago citing "Getz/Gilberto" as a "can't miss" romantic CD.
Neal, I share your fondness for that recording, and meant to compliment your tastes at our reunion. My bad. Our
other Florida classmates include:
BARCELO, Bruce E. (Anne) 1625 River Oaks Road, Jacksonville FL 32207-4121 (h) 904.396.9841
BEAVEN, David L. (Michele) 1763 Main Street, # 216, Dunedin FL 34698
BLANCHARD, Donald E. "Doc" (Patricia) 1621 Parrish Place, Jacksonville FL 32205-9249 (h) 904.381.9021
BRAITHWAITE, David M. (Victoria) 508 Highway 98 E, # 202, Destin FL 32541-7335 (h) 850.650.9793 (e-mail)
[email protected]
KINGSBURY, Dwight L., 1506 Nugent Dr., Tallahassee FL 32301-2728 (h) 850.402.1645
MANN, Fiederick R. "Fritz" (Alicia) Apartment 101, 940 Spring Park Street, Celebration FL 34747-4466 (w)
O'NEIL, James E., 13808 Sierra Court, Clermont FL 34711-8025
RAKOV, Neal E.M.D. (Cathy Lorraine) 177 Indian Mound Trail, Tavernier FL 33070-2140 (h) 305.852.3447 (w)
RUFFETT, Andrew J. Ph.D. (Susan) 11869 Curlew Way, Jacksonville FL 32223-1939 (h) 904.262.4092
SANBORN, Bruce C. (Thea) 3480 Poinciana Avenue, Miami FL 33133 (h) 305.446.9333 (e-mail)
[email protected]
ZWECKER, Warren S. (Karen) 756 Harbour Isle Way, West Palm Beach FL 33410-3232 (w) 561.744.0002 (email) [email protected]
If one of these guys is a long lost dorm mate, lab partner, or partying buddy, why not give him a call?
Dan O'Haire sent along another of his "Danletters", the irregular journals of life in the Dan and Jeanne household
in Arvada, Colorado. Dan composed his first Danletter for Lower 48 friends while working at a North Slope field
exploration camp on Flaxman Island in 1977. He has continued to work as a substitute math and physics teacher in
suburban Denver but is finding jobs scarcer and scarcer. Jeanne has been accepted by the ministry council for
ordination in the United Church of Christ, and will be ordained the weekend before Thanksgiving. Dan notes that
she was working on her ordination paper at the same time he was working on his unpublished science fiction novel.
He observes that writing is a difficult process, and that he tackled the challenge of a rough draft by simply bulling
through and getting something down on paper. "This summer I managed to write every morning that I was not
teaching up until our vacation started in late July. There were mornings when I would get up at 5 a.m. to face the
old cathode ray tube and think 'Did I really write this crap?' but once you get past that pain it really does get better
in the rewrite and nobody ever sees the—bad stuff'. Dan, you're describing a newsletter editor!
Dan and Jeanne keep up with their mountaineering, and although this summer passed without a hoped for gemhunting expedition, they did bike Colorado's new Mineral Belt Bike Trail near Leadville, which Dan strongly
recommends for mountain biking enthusiasts. He's still working on his Fourteener list. "Doug Howe and I went to
the Sangre de Christo Mountains in southern Colorado. We hiked on a jeep trail and on up to the Colony Lakes
above timberline where, in the pouring rain, we set up the tent as it was getting dark. I used my drenched t-shirt to
sop up the puddles inside the tent. We were really having fun then! In the morning we attempted 14,165' Kit
Carson Peak, but were turned back by threatening skies as we gained the ridge on the back side. Next time we'll
attempt the standard route from the other side. We got back to camp just in time for more heavy rain. Great cracks
of thunder put the fear of God into us. The next morning we went up the 14,197' Crestone Needle. The
metamorphosed conglomerate gave good hand holds. We sununited before noon and spent only ten minutes on top
making it back to camp as more heavy rain started up. We congratulated ourselves on bagging the peak and for not
being up there for the lightning. Two days late a solo climber was on the ridge connecting to Crestone Peak at four
in the afternoon and was killed by lightning."
O'HAIRE, Daniel P. (Jeanne Updike) 4388 South Kalispell Circle, Aurora CO 80015-4430 (h) 303.693.2935 (email) [email protected]
Jerry Dollar sent an e-mail following the arrival of the August Newsletter in his mail box:
"Dear Rick, Many thanks for the excellent write-up of the 30th Reunion. I'm very sorry I was unable to attend.
Sounds like a great success.
"I did have two very pleasant visits to Dartmouth over the past year, both related to my son Tom's college search. In
the fall I was able to look up my old mentor John Rassias and we had a lovely chat with him up in Dartmouth Hall.
And in the spring Tom went to accepted students' weekend and I enjoyed picking him up on the last day. (He ended
up choosing Princeton, which made me a bit sad...but Princeton is where I did my grad work and it's a great school
too. He was lucky to have such a great choice, and now I'm hoping one of my daughters will pick Dartmouth).
"I know I haven't written in a long time, so there is lots of news, which I will abbreviate. I am still on the faculty of
Siena College, outside of Albany, and (amazingly) I am about to begin my 25th year there. But I have also been
extremely fortunate to have received two Fulbright Senior Scholar grants over the past 6 years. In 1998-99 we lived
in Turku, Finland and had an absolutely fabulous year in this beautiful and friendly country--living up at 60 degrees
north (which is where I believe you too live). And twice we went way up north--above the Arctic Circle in Finnish
Lapland (wonderful country up there). We traveled pretty extensively in northern Europe, and also went to Spain
and France. In 2002-03 we lived in Leon, Spain--just 25 miles from the beautiful Cantabrian Mountains, where we
frequently hiked and skied. Another wonderful year, and the three kids all came back fluent in Spanish.
The big news of this year is that we are about to adopt a 4-year-old Ethiopian orphan named Hana. My wife Susan
has been following the AIDS-orphan crisis very closely and felt strongly that we should do something significant to
help. I agreed, so just as Tom leaves the nest to go to college he will replaced by another (much smaller) kid. Our
two girls (Emily, 12, and Clara, almost 10) are extremely excited about getting a new sister. Wish us luck. Many
thanks again for the excellent and eloquent newsletters. Hope to see you one of these years, Jerry".
Jerry, you and Susan and your children have our prayers and best wishes as you welcome Hana into your family.
May your lives be blessed by Hana's presence in your home as I'm sure your love is now blessing her. Hope to see
you at the 35th ! And let us know the next time you and Susan and family spend time near the Cantabrian
Mountains. Catherine and I would agree that those mountains, and northern Spain and especially its coast, are
among the true secret treasures of Europe.
DOLLAR, John G. "Jerry" (Susan Poisson) 314 North Lake Avenue, Troy NY 12180-6569 (h) 518.271.6003 (w)
Paul Nelson sent along this brief note on a Green Card: "I am still in Kansas City, recently promoted to professor,
Department of Surgery, University of Missouri, Kansas City, and Chairman, Department of Surgery, St. Luke's
Hospital." Congratulations, Paul!
NELSON, Paul W. M.D. 5509 Mission Drive, Mission Hills KS 66208 (h) 513.671.8158 (e-mail)
[email protected]
That's it. Blessings to you and to those you love this season . . .
Postscript: the Dartmouth Admissions Office sent around information on the incoming Class of 2008, and how they
match up with the other classes now enrolled at Dartmouth. The question of contemporary college admissions is
worth a whole newsletter (or long conversation over the beverages of one's choice) by itself. In the meantime, the
information below shows that "by the numbers" the current population of students at Dartmouth is made up of
some singularly talented individuals. How many of us could have competed with our children? Check it out:
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
Comparative Profile of Recent First Year Classes
2005
2006
2007
Applied
9,720
10,193
11,855
11,734
Admitted
2,220
2,090
2,155
2,143
Matriculating
1,135
1,068
1,077
1,094
2007
Zpigi
1,077
1,094
Class of:
ENROLLED
2006
Class of:
2005
1.
Total
1,135
Male
573
50.5%
534
50.0%
534 49.6%
543 49.6%
Female
562
49.5%
534
50.0%
543 50.4%
551 50.4%
135 23.6%
160 28.2%
1,068
School Rank (% of those
2.
3.
ranked)
Valedictorians
156
24.4%
156
27.5%
Salutatorians
52
8.1%
59
10.4%
Top 10%
Number with
Rank
552
86.4%
494
87.1%
55
9.6%
46
8.1%
477 83.5%
505 88.9%
639
567
571
568
702
702
706
713
713
713
711
720
710
710
710
730
720
720
720
730
CEEB Results
SAT Verbal
Mean
SAT Math
Mean
SAT Verbal
Median
SAT Math
Median
4.
Legacies
108
5.
Scholarship
Recipients
441 38.9%
Office of Admissions and
Financial Aid
9.5%
102
9.6%
499 46.7%
85
7.9%
486 45.5%
104
9.5%
483 44.1%
KMF 5/20/2004
30th Reunion Issue - August 2004
President: Kenneth F. Hall, 7 Lord William Penn Drive, Morristown NJ 07960-3214,
Vice President: Morris C. "Rocky" Whitaker, 8433 Golden Oak Court, Charlotte NC 28216-1692,
phone 704.398.2064, e-mail
[email protected]
Vice President: Christopher S. Pfaff, 7 Briar Lane, Glencoe IL 60022-1801,
Treasurer: Kirk B. Hinman, 6402 Karlen Road, Rome NY 13440-7452,
Secretary: J. Rick Sample, Retreat Farm, 1137 Manakin Road, Manakin Sabot VA 23103-2801,
Newsletter Editor: Richard L. Ranger Jr., P.O. Box 2088, Valdez AK 99686-2088,
Webmaster: Angus W. Scott-Fleming, 6902 East Soyaluna, Tucson AZ 85715-3341,
Alumni Council: Sedrick A. Tydus, 114 Greenbank Avenue, Piedmont CA 94611-4336,
phone 510.420.1558, e-mail sedrick [email protected]
Class Website: http://www.dartmouth.org/classes/74/
Send YOUR changes, stories and reflections to: [email protected]
Class of 1974 30th Reunion
On the subject of Reunion housing:
"This spring, I opened the mail to receive something I would have dearly wished for thirty years ago —
an invitation to spend the night at North Mass."
— Paul Klaas, speaking at the Reunion dinner on Baker Lawn.
Some things remain as you remember them. In the light of a summer evening, when the sun has wandered well to the
west, the long, cool shadows still float on the campus. There is still a drifting beauty where the twilight streams.
On the far side of the Green the porch signboard at the Hop read "Welcome Classes of '74 & '79". Reading those
numbers in the evening light of a different millennium, where all the years (at least so far) begin with zero, the years
they recalled seemed like a long time ago. Our children are now students. In the '74 Reunion tent there was this
strapping, good looking guy who will enter Dartmouth as a freshman this fall. Flashback. That's Ken Marable! No,
wait, wait. The guy next to him, with the glasses and the beer. THAT's Ken Marable. This other guy is his son
Jonathan (even better looking than Ken, because he's got Joan's genes, too).You rub your fingers through your thinning
hair and think, "how could so much time have passed?"
There are moments when it seems so much time has not passed. People should not look as good on the shady side ofifty as Doug Lind does. Then you're in the Reunion tent, looking at Doug hold the Reunion events schedule out a
arm's length to squint at it and make sense of it, and the spell is broken
Thirty years later we drink more bottled water and less beer. Aches come from hikes up Moosilauke instead o
hangovers. There are more hugs than there used to be. The Reunion tent is thinning at midnight, and emptying at on
a.m. A new feature of Reunions is that "last call" is enforced by the Campus Police. A single bed in a non-air
-conditioned dorm room now seems pretty Spartan. An all-you-can-eat breakfast at Thayer still packs a wallop, but t
the delight of those of us too long in exile from New England, the syrup in the hot tray behind the pancakes still come
from actual trees
Some things have changed. A person can get lost looking for his class Reunion dinner in the maze that has sprung fro
the ground between the Hop and the old College Museum. Mercifully, someone found a dark corner back in thee behind the Hood Museum to stick the assortment of steel girders called "X-Delta," the sculpture, I guess, that on
e decorated Sanborn Lawn. There are keyless entry locks for the dorms now (they thoughtfully changed the entry co
e for our visit to a conveniently mnemonic "1974"). The children walking purposefully around campus are student
The old guys, the alums in the pastel golf shirts? Um, that would be u
. Some of us are between careers. Some are doing what we love. HaveTom Reilly tell you about working as
a coordinating producer for ESPN's "College Game Night." Have Jimmy Miller talk to you enthusiastically abo
t lobbying on K Street, for heaven's sake (Jim could bring enthusiasm to anything, even "Subpart `G' of Section 102
f Article XVII," which I'm sure is why he's a successful lawyer-lobbyist, but steer the subject to women's lacrosse
o really get him going!). Some of us are between marriages. Some of us showed up with our original sweethearts.
A couple showed up with new sweethearts. Bill Dunbar showed up with his brother Dave. Don't laugh; with Bill
n Saskatoon and Bill in New York, brotherly reunions at one or the other's class reunion are becoming a tradition. Bru
e Jordan showed up with Hugh Grimmett, having wheedled and jawboned Hugh into joining him for the early arrival
' Moosilauke overnight. The Herb Hopkins clan showed up with the family dog, and nearly returned home wi
h another— a St. Bernard puppy on whose adoption the Hopkins children insisted upon meeting the puppy in his "F
r Sale" box on Main Street. Herb wishes to thank the classmate who informed his wife Toni about the industrial-lev
1 cleanup effort required when one keeps an adult St. Bernar
. There were enough kids to validate that our class still remained in need of a child§ program. Dave and Karen v
n Loesecke's boy showed up in a Johnny Damon Red Sox shirt, and Bill and Cheryl Perrell's boy showed up in a Bar
y Bonds Giants shirt, and they immediately began friendly woofing at each other. Some of the kids are students — that i
, Dartmouth students. Ken and Joan Marable were taking the opportunity that Reunion provided to reconnect wi
h daughter Kimberly, a rising '05 senior. Kimberly will hate me for this, but I remember her from our 20th as a skin
y young lady in glasses who hung out with my son,(also skinny at the time). Now she's a poised and lovely woman wi
h a great voice, as she demonstrated singing along with the Aires at the Friday night dinner concert they provided for u
The Aires by the way, were led by a talented young man who said during one of the breaks between numbers: "
y mom wanted me to tell you guys that she's sorry she couldn't be here — she's Jody Hill Simpson." Jody, your s
n Peter '05 is carrying on the Hill-Simpson musical tradition in fine style. The Aires, led by Peter, sang the usua
s including the Ivy Football Medley, but perhaps the most enjoyable was their send-up a capella love ballad, offered
o Rocky Whitaker's daughter Manya '05. Those at Rocky's table allege that he was very carefully writing down the
r name
2
"And we don't take American Express""— Chris Nicholson
and Mary Donovan sort it all out for new arrivals on
Thursday.
Reunion Chair and new Class President Ken Hall speaking at dinner
Saturday night, Reunion weekend.
Ken Hall and the Reunion Committee did a terrific job in planning our weekend, and in graciously and nimbly dealing
with our class' propensity to show up for Reunion without necessarily having made a reservation (or, what might be
termed the "There's a keg on at Phi Der school of thought). The Thursday night of our Reunion weekend the
Reunion Committee had arranged for dinner at the Rowing Club, a great new restaurant that has opened in part of what
used to be the Co-Op's space (the Co-Op is still there, just smaller). Ken and Chris Nicholson had to call to coax the
restaurant into shoehorning in a few extra classmates, but the evening was worth it, with dinner.in a more intimate
venue than customary, and entertainment by a fine Vermont-based bluegrass band. For Catherine and me, dinner was a
chance to get to know Mary Donovan's husband John Cole, along with Dave Marston (Dave, you've still got to
share your insights and experiences from record collecting), Steve Chase, Charlie Post, and Paul and Marie-Aline
Davis.
That's the way our 30th was. Old friends and new friends. Old combinations of people and new combinations of
people. A comfortable, casual schedule, with lots of options. Great music. A campus as beautiful as you remember,
dorm rooms as Spartan and showers as small as you remember. Coffee, dining and shopping options that you probably
don't remember, but that you may be reminded about when your VISA statement arrives, if you attended Reunion. If
you were there — and we had a number of first time attendees for the 30th — you had an enjoyable weekend and returned
home with old friendships renewed, and some new friendships you didn't have before. If you weren't there, or
couldn't make it, you were missed. Trust me.
30th Reunion Attendees
A partial list of attendees would include: Tom Allen (Overland Park, KS), Steve and Kristin Allison (Concord MA),
John and Gretchen Barbor (Indiana, PA), Bruce Barcelo (Jacksonville, FL). Jeff and Gaylen Baxter (Atlanta, GA),
Buck and Pam Becker and various younger Beckers (Norwich, VT), Peter and Ruth Blodgett (Thetford, VT), Bob
Bluestein (Arlington, MA), Jerry and Eleanor Bowe (from Birmingham, UK or Hampstead, NH — it depends), Chuck
Bralver (Westport, CT), Rich Brown (Carmel, IN), Tony and Pat Caliendo (Thornton, CO), Ken Canfield (Atlanta,
GA), Don and Lisa Kim Casey (Cincinnati, OH), Steve Chase (Calais, VT), Bob Clymer (Katonah, NY), Peter
Conway (Cleveland Heights, OH), Jeff Corelitz and fiancEe Terri Thompson (Annapolis, MD), Jim and Joan Craig
(Miller Place, NY), Dave Cranshaw (Atlanta, GA), Paul and Marie-Aline Davis and family (Westford, MA), Steve and
Martha Dietz and family (Brooklyn, NY), Mary Donovan, her husband John Cole, and their son Noah (Macon, GA),
Paul and April Dixon, and Josiah and Hadassah (a delight to finally meet April, from their new home in Waterford,
ONT), Mike "Drat" Draznik (Cincinnati, OH), Bill Dunbar (Saskatoon, SASK), Judge Ralph "Corky" Eannace and
3
wife Laura (Utica, NY), John "Melon" and Lynn Elsenhans (from around the world with Shell, and now Houston),
Rick and Mary Escherich (Bronxville NY), Simon Etzel (Madison, CT), Gary and Anne Fahrenbach (Wilmette, IL),
Russ and Jacqueline Fehr (Sacramento, CA), John and Alison Fisher (Westport, CT), Dudley and Charlotte Flanders
(Fort Smith, AR), Phil Franklin (Lake Forest, IL), Walt and Margery Freed (North Clarendon, VT), Carlton and Susan
Frost (Ridgewood, NJ), Tim Geisse (Chagrin Falls, OH), Hugh Grimmett (Canton, MI), Jep and Mary Gruman (all the
way from Singapore, claiming the distance prize once again), Tom and Karen Guidi (Danvers, MA), Ken Hall
(Morristown, NJ), Bill and Diane Hart and family (Wilmette, IL), Bill Hansen and his wife Wendy Howes (Croton-onHudson, NY), Kirk and Linda Hinman (Rome, NY), Peter and Lynn Holden (Landing, NJ), Rex Holsapple (Mt.
Vernon, ME), Herb and Tony Hopkins and family (Moorestown, NJ), Kevin and Jana Hunt (St. Louis, MO), Robert
Ibelle (Hanover, NH), Bruce Jordan (Evergreen, CO), Paul Klan s (Golden Valley, MN), Rick and Cynthia Klupchak
(Dunwoody, GA), Gary and Carol Kraemer (Newton, NJ), Doug Lind (San Anselmo, CA), Tom and Jane Ludlow
(Dresher, PA), Paul and Valli Lukeman (Dublin, OH), Ken and Joan Marable (Brooklyn, NY), Rob and Heather
Marcincin and family (Bethlehem, PA), David Marston (Manchester, NH), Scott Mason (Chappaqua, NY), Steve and
Reggie McCormack (Duxbury, MA), Lex McCusker (Mountain Lakes, NJ), Rob McKernan (Alexandria, VA), Phil
Meyer (Edmond, OK), Bruce and Jan Miller (Sherman Oaks, CA), Jim and Nancy Miller (Alexandria, VA), Chris
Nicholson (Washington, DC), Mike and Ellie Pancoe and family (Bangor, ME), Doug and Annick Peabody (New York,
NY), Chris and Sara Pfaff (Lake Forest, IL), Charlie Post (Lilburn, GA), Art and Leslie Post (Wayne, PA), Neal and
Cathy Rakov (Tavernier, FL), Rick and Catherine Ranger (Valdez, AK), Mark and Barbara Ransom (Columbus, OH),
Tom "Reils" Reilly (Cheshire, CT), Bob Rooke (Morristown, NJ), Mitch Sadar (Norristown, PA), John and Celia
Sample (Manakin VA), Jeff Scott (Boxboro, MA), Mike and Lizabette Shedlosky (Austin, TX), Doug and Betsy
Shufelt (Darien, CT), Jeff Simpson (Old Lyme, CT), Dick Spellman (Kennesaw, GA), Phil and Linda Stebbins
(Londonderry, NH), Jeff Stewart (Atlanta, GA), Jim "Porkroll" Taylor and his wife Gale (Merrimack, NH), Jack
Thomas (St. Louis, MO), Duncan Todd (Lexington, MA) , David and Karen Von Loesecke and their children
(Hingham, MA), Whit and Patrice Wall (Richmond, VA), John Ward (Washington, DC), Mike Wargo (Bay Village,
OH), Fred and Maureen Wean (Portland, OR), Nat and Silence Weeks (Arvada, CO), Kim Wehrenberg (Naperville,
IL), Andy and Geri Wexler (Pacific Palisades, CA), Rocky Whitaker (Charlotte, NC), Bob and Kathleen Whelan
(Wayland, MA), Steve and Patrice Whiting (Scarborough, ME), Chris Wiley (Hanover, NH), Owen and Jennifer
Williams and their family (Wilton, CT), Bruce and Alice Williamson (Glencoe, IL), Rick and Jill Woolworth
(Greenwich, CT), Abdo and Linda Yazgi (Atlantic Beach, FL). I'm sure I probably missed someone, but there you
have it. It was a great group of people to spend time with.
Thanks and Recognitions
The Reunion Committee to thank includes Steve Bell, Peter Blodgett (whose local knowledge and vendor/supplier
connections proved invaluable — if you ate or drank during the Reunion you have Peter and his organizing talents to
thank!), Greg Hannah, Bruce Jordan, the tireless Chris Nicholson who seemed to be fixing each problem before it
materialized, and Candace Valiunas.
The Class of 1974 also pulled off another surprise this Reunion by coming within an ace of setting a new participation
record for a 30 year class. At the 25th we had set a record for giving for a 25 year class. Jack Thomas and Bob
Whelan co-chaired the class Alumni Fund campaign and worked with a team that included Chris Pfaff, Bruce Miller,
Steve Dietz, Phil Franklin, Steve McCormack, Ellis Rowe, Rocky Whitaker, Jep Gruman, Greg Pulls, Ken
Wachtel, Bob Molinari, Kirk Hinman, John Elsenhans, Bill Carpenter, Pierre Ellis, Chris Gates, Doug Peabody,
Doug Shufelt, Chuck Bralver, Bruce Stewart, Rick Sample, Ed Muller and Rick Woolworth. Steve McCormack
and Doug Shufelt came up with the idea of the "Boston Challenge." The challenge, issued to classmates clustered in
various metropolitan areas, was to see which regional contingent could organize the largest mini-Reunion event (and
incidentally solicit pledges). The only area to respond to the challenge was Metro D.C. Despite valiant efforts by Jim
and Nancy Miller, Chris Nicholson and Rick Sample, Hub classmates prevailed, and the result, shown in the photo,
is that Rick Sample had to wear a Red Sox cap in honor of the occasion. I'm still trying to figure out whether if Bill
Saupe and I take on the Boston Challenge in five years we can get all those Bostonians to wear Anchorage Aces
hockey sweaters!
4
Dick Spellman, Bill Perrell, Art Post, and Jep Gruman in the
Reunion Tent at lunch on Friday.
Kappa Sig's delegation: Canfield; Holden; Bowe; Wall; Draz;
Freed; Williamson; Allen; Pfaff; Shufelt. Sigma Nu in back
setting up for their group photo.
Buck Becker and Mike Draznik share a story in the Reunion Tent.
Some of Cactus Jack Curtis's "squatty bodies" return: Kim
Wehrenberg, Mike Wargo and Ken Marable show some old form,
as it were.
Another feature of the class Alumni Fund campaign was the Fraternity Challenge, which followed similar logic, but
had even more success. The championship was a dead heat between Sigma Nu and Kappa Sig (see photo of
assembled Kappa Sig members), but Doug and Steve want to be sure that all the fraternity coordinators are recognized
for their efforts. Here's the list:
Alpha Chi Alpha
Frank Doorley ([email protected] )
Alpha Delta
John D. Kovacik ([email protected])
Alpha Theta/Theta Chi
Chris Baldwin ([email protected] )
Beta Theta Pi
Dave Danielson ([email protected])
Bones Gate
Bob Nuffort ([email protected] )
Kappa Sigma
Bruce Williamson ([email protected] )
Delta Psi Delta
Bruce Sanborn ([email protected])
Gamma Delta Chi—Noel Thompson ([email protected] )
Heorot
John Melon Elsenhans ([email protected] )
Kappa Kappa Kappa
Jake Lamond ([email protected] )
Panarchy
Jim Burke ([email protected] )
Phi Delta Alpha
Tim Gilchrist ([email protected] )
Phi Tau
Charlie Post ([email protected])
Pi Lambda Phi
Jim Riehl (jriehll @aol.com )
5
Psi Upsilon
Jeff Scott ([email protected] );t Dick Spellman ([email protected] )
SAE
Tom Guidi ([email protected])
Sigma Nu
Joe Barnes ([email protected] )
Sigma Phi Epsilon
Glenn Burdick ([email protected])
The Tabard
Tom Ludlow ([email protected] )
Theta Delta Chi
Tom Csatari ([email protected])
Zeta Psi—Tom Reilly ([email protected])
Friday night's Aires concert, Jody Hill Simpson's son Peter
leads finale joined by singing alums Bob Rooke; Charlie Post;
Rick Sample, Jill Woolworth; Doug Shufelt and Kimberly
Marable.
Bob Whelan, Jack Thomas, Chris Pfaff and Rocky Whitaker present
the Class of '74's check to President Jim Wright. A flurry of phone
calls and arm twists ended just in time.
As Saturday lunch in the Bema approached, with College President Jim Wright slated to meet with the class after lunch
to accept a check, the Alumni Fund crew were buttonholing classmates who were strolling down on Main Street for
their morning latte. Others were manning their cell phones to chase down absent classmates across the continent to
secure pledges. No one was safe, In the end, with Jim Wright approaching in the distance, the last arms twisted and the
last pledges pledged, the committee had my wife Catherine write the amount on the big 3' x 5' replica check and made
the presentation to President Wright on the Bema stage, brows mopped and breathing steadily. The last minute, near
record-breaking push is also becoming a Class of 1974 tradition.
Mother tradition continued Sunday morning, the class Memorial Service at Rollins Chapel, led again by Paul Dixon.
Since our last gathering, a few more names have been added to the list of friends to remember. Paul also co-led a
Saturday morning Christian fellowship along with Campus Crusade chaplain Kent Dahlberg, a small gathering that
changed venues almost as much as the apostle Paul (the original), staying just steps ahead of various scheduled
Reunion events. Art Post, Jep Gruman, Chuck Bralver and some others organized a morning row on the
Connecticut, and everyone survived – not counting Art, who keeps a shell or two in hidden corners around Philly, rows
regularly, and looks it. Golf was played, and everyone except Peter Holden had to lie a little about their score. Tom
Allen took on any comers on the tennis court. Catherine and I joined Sara Pfaff and Gerry Bowe for the recreational
bike ride Friday morning. Please note: if you're going to recreate with Gerry or Sara, wear your spandex shorts. Sara
does things like the Minneapolis-Chicago AIDS Ride, and Gerry rides with a group of cyclists in England. "All for
fun," Gerry insists, as Catherine and I labor along, gasping behind the two of them on our rented bicycles, the teacolored Connecticut River drifting past us on our right.
By the way, a tip of the hat to Ken and the Reunion Committee for the selection of musicians we enjoyed over the
course of the weekend. Earlier I noted the bluegrass trio who played at the Rowing Club, who were more than good
enough to set Georgia John Cole's foot a-tapping. The Boston ensemble calling itself Soul City who performed at the
football field on Friday night were exceptional – even if the Hanover P.D. had to join in the action about 10:00 pm and
rearrange the band's loudspeaker system to face away from the Lebanon Street homeowners. Soul City's horn line was
worth of Tower of Power, and they played a version of Archie Bell and the Drells' "Tighten Up" that brought a roar
from the '74s on the dance floor (it is not certain that the younger classes have a clue who Archie Bell and the Drells
are). Saturday at the Bema our lunch entertainment was provided by folksinger Stephen Mystrup, who was at least as
6
good as Livingston Taylor. And the Dartmouth Aires deserve a second mention as well. This group not only sings the
old Paul Zeller arrangements, they sing some fine pop a capella too. After their performance they quite naturally
offered some of their cds for sale. Their recording "Black Tie Affaire," featuring covers of songs by Coldplay,
Ozomatli, U2 and Queen among others has won awards, and is currently in the player in our Volvo.
New Class Officer Corps
With a little behind-the-scenes negotiating and pleading, we appear to have organized ourselves a cadre of class officers
for the next five years. Rocky Whitaker came closer than he desired to being re-elected class President by
acclamation (the enthusiasm, or lack thereof, for serving in a class leadership position among our fellow classmates is
such that a casual observer might think everyone in our Freshman Book was named William Tecumseh Sherman).
Thanks to the gracious willingness to serve on the part of Ken Hall, Rocky has been spared a third term as class
president, and is happily serving as co-Vice President with Chris Pfaff. Rick Sample has stepped up to the plate to
volunteer as Class Secretary. The new class officers are:
President
Vice President
Vice President
Treasurer
Secretary
Alumni Councilor
Class Agent
Newsletter Editor
Webmaster
Ken Hall
Rocky Whitaker
Chris Pfaff
Kirk Hinman
Rick Sample
Sedrick Tydus
Search process underway. This could be you.
Your Humble Servant
Angus Scott-Fleming
Graduation Reflections
In my case, the week of our 30th Reunion had started the previous weekend with my goddaughter Katie Stebbins'
graduation with the Class of 2004. Katie's graduation provided an opportunity for a great get-together with her dad,
and our classmate, Phil Stebbins and his wife Linda, who live in Londonderry. Phil and Linda moved to Londonderry
a little under two years ago from Taunton, Massachusetts, with Phil choosing to join a family practice at a Nashua-area
hospital. Then, as is becoming the case so frequently in medicine these days, the partnership that had drawn him north
went topsy-turvy, and now Phil has the opportunity and challenge of building a new practice, connected to the same
hospital, but starting somewhat from scratch. I'm one of those who fmd it difficult to follow the ins and outs of the
business side of medicine that has likely been vexing any of you who have "M.D." after your names. I don't envy you.
A hurricane has swept through the profession of medicine, and I sense that little in your medical school experience
prepared you to navigate through the downed palm trees and power lines that was once a way of life so many aspired to
and strove toward. Phil's oldest son, Geoff, a graduate of NYU, is in metro L.A. pursuing a screenwriting career,
which means he has a day job and a night job, and squeezes in writing when he can. Katie is spending the summer as a
counselor at a theatre camp in Skowhegan, Maine, and will begin a year-long fellowship in September with the
costume department of the Folger Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C. Daughter Amy is a rising sophomore at
Harvard, and pursuing her vocal gifts with a music coach in Boston on the side. Daughter Rebecca is entering 10th
grade at Choate-Rosemary Hall. Linda's three sons span the globe from Illinois to Italy (Air Force), and daughter Katie
lives with them in Londonderry.
STEBBINS, Philip C. M.D. (Linda) 24 King Arthur Drive, Londonderry NH 03053 (h) 603.434.3511 (e-mail)
[email protected]
We had a delightful weekend together that included not only graduation but the physical move of Katie Stebbins'
worldly possessions out of Gile Hall, an experience made all the more interesting since Katie had spent the weekend of
graduation doing everything else but preparing to pack up and leave Dartmouth. I am in my goddaughter's debt, as I
am confident the experience of schlepping disorderly piles of her belongings from the third floor of Gile to waiting
vehicles below prepares me for the graduation afternoon, two years hence, when we face the task of extracting our son
Owen from his college, Pepperdine. As I am sure those of you who have attended Dartmouth graduations of your
7
children or your friends' children can attest, the swirl of emotions that particular June Sunday makes for a day I will
always treasure.
A present day Dartmouth graduation drives home the recognition that not only have we moved beyond the day of our
graduation, Dartmouth has moved beyond where we found it thirty years ago.
Today, in a way that was not true when we were undergraduates, the world
comes to Dartmouth. A young woman who was among the first twenty or so
graduates in the Class of '04 unfurled a Dominican flag as she headed down
from the graduation stage. The valedictorian was from Bulgaria — as was the
valedictorian the year before, it turns out. Another young woman processed
through graduation in full Hopi ceremonial regalia. Surnames like Abreu,
Acheampomaa, Choi, Czarnawaska, Zeynep Oz, and Singh are sprinkled
throughout the list of Candidates for the Degree of Bachelor Arts. The
surnames from the graduate schools are more varied still. I met a fellow from
Brooklyn, in Hanover to attend the graduation of his niece, the first in her
Dominican-Puerto Rican extended family to receive a college degree. Her
whole clan was there. You will see the photo I took of the gentleman in a golf
cap standing next to the gentleman in the haji hat, two dads who followed
different trails to that June day on the Hanover plain. The prevailing ideology
of academia refers to all this by the label we know as "diversity" but, like all
labels, it fails to encompass the transformation that is happening not only at
Dartmouth, but elsewhere. I prefer to see what is happening as the encounter
between Dartmouth and the world. It is a world made smaller by the links of commerce and communications and the
capabilities of our weapons, and a world still large enough to hold in its shadows the ignorance, the fears and the
hatreds of the many tongues represented that afternoon on the Green in front of Baker. I hope that Dartmouth becomes
a place where links of friendship, curiosity and learning are formed across barriers of language, culture and experience,
a beacon in a world where too many of all cultures would prefer to embrace the verities of ignorance rather than the
risks of the unknown. That is a hope, not a certainty. What is fact is that Dartmouth has become a place where the
opportunity of life-changing and perhaps world-changing encounter can be found. From Hanover to Sofia, from Sofia
to Santo Domingo, from Santo Domingo to Singapore. Round the girdled and troubled earth.
One of those things I suppose I should know as Newsletter Editor — and don't — is how many '74 sons and daughters
graduated this June, along with my goddaughter Katie Stebbins. I know of at least one, Anne Hunt '04, daughter of
Kevin and Jana Hunt '74. We met up at the Class barbecue dinner in the courtyard behind the Hop and the Hood
Museum. Her dad and I were about to bore our wives and Kevin's daughters with tall tales of Kevin's and my
marathon drives as undergraduates on Highway 401 between Detroit and Hanover when Anne and I discovered a
common love of Spain. She's much more knowledgeable, having spent a term abroad in Madrid as a Dickey fellow at
the National Library of Spain. There she read original 16th and 17th Century manuscripts to research her senior honors
thesis on the 1554 Spanish classic Lazarillo de Tormes. As an article in Dartmouth Life describes, Anne's thesis
explores the use of food imagery in Lazarillo to provide sympathy for the protagonist's difficulties with the Spanish
Inquisition. Anne's pursuit of her thesis subject led her to an academic conference in Texas called "Food Representation
in Literature, Film and the Other Arts." She submitted an abstract that the conference organizers assumed was from a
professor somewhere, and this in turn led her to be the first undergraduate to present a paper at the conference. Perhaps
because we were waiting for the food line to begin back at the '74 Class Barbecue, Anne and I (and Catherine, too)
found ourselves sharing our respective and fond memories of Spanish cuisine, late dining hours, and the simple
culinary pleasures of such Madrilefio phenomena as "museos del jamon." Anne is back to Spain late this summer, if
my facts are correct, for a year's fellowship, I think this time in Sevilla, one of the most sensually delightful cities
we've ever visited, and home to the best tapas bars, best sherry bodegas, and best gazpacho in all Spain. Not a bad
culinary choice for the daughter of a guy who was stuck with vodka and black bread on his Dartmouth trimester
abroad!
HUNT. Kevin J. (Jana) 13347 Kings Glen, St. Louis MO 63131-1022, (h) 314.275.8621 (w) 314.877.7990 (e-mail)
[email protected]
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News from and about Classmates
Tom and Karen Harrison are building their own bridge across the generations. Tom wrote: "Karen and I won't be
`empty nesters' for at least ten years, but we do have our first grandchild, from oldest son Tom (`the fifth') and his wife
Christie. Thomas S. Harrison the Sixth was born April 2, 2004. Mom and baby are both healthy, and grandson Tom is
growing stronger every day." He'll need that strength, Tom, to carry around all those Roman numerals!
Congratulations!
HARRISON, Thomas S. IV (Karen), 15011 S. Forsythe Rd, Oregon City OR 97045 (h) 503.657.0425 (f) 877.691.0535
(e-mail) [email protected]
You never know where you'll come upon a Class of 1974 author. Last Tuesday I was ovemighting at an Anchorage
hotel the night before a thy-long meeting. This particular hotel offers magazines in the guest rooms. One of them had
a picture of Cybill Shepherd on the cover. Since I've already confessed this to Catherine, I can confess this to you;
Cybill Shepherd is one of those celebrities that I invariably fmd myself reading about in check-out lines (I'll bet we
each have one or more "check-out line celebrities" about whom we'd rather not admit). I don't even fmd Shepherd all
that attractive, but in celebrity terms she's outrageous with a satisfactory frequency to make reading about what she's
up to next a diversion. But I digress. I pick up this magazine, start the article, then turn back to the cover to confirm
what magazine I'm reading. It turns out to be AARP Magazine. I finish the article about Shepherd, and flip through the
magazine to see what other articles they may offer — comparo-tests between electric tricycles, for instance. I find a
familiar face staring at me from a photo on one of the pages. Quick cut to the by-line. It's Keith Bellows. Some
magazine readers and browsers may know Keith as the Editor-in-chief of National Geographic Traveler. Keith's
article was a first person account appearing in a sidebar in a longer article about the experience of divorce after 50. His
article is a swift, sharply-written account of the trajectory of a particular marriage, from first meeting through romance
to troubles, negotiation, confrontation, decision and aftermath. One of those short pieces that leaves you in quiet
reflection. In my too-infrequent sampling of National Geographic Traveler, I've come to appreciate that Keith can do
more with fewer words than most writers with whom I'm familiar. Divorce after 50 is one of those milestones that
haunts the shadowed places of life, not a milestone commonly acknowledged in the "Give a Rouse" page of the
Dartmouth Alumni Magazine. Thank you, Keith, for telling a true story. Trouble is, the recognition hit me that the
other milestone to note that night was that we're now of an age to have a classmate's article appear in AARP Magazine.
Chew on that.
BELLOWS, Keith A. (Melina) 256 Eighth St. S.E., Washington DC 20003-2107 (h) 202.543.3792 (w) 202.857.7088
If you're finding yourself a little bummed after that story, here's one from which you might derive some vicarious
vigor. Once again, it involves the surprise appearance of a '74 classmate in a magazine. Through my brother-in-law
Jack Roberts, a climber, guide and author of Colorado Ice, I have a gift subscription to Alpinist, a glossy new climbing
journal. Catherine and I live among mountains, although most of our athletic pursuits are horizontal rather than vertical
— wait, wait, let me restate that — they don't involve climbing. Jack and my sister Pam live in Boulder, Colorado,
which, along with Seattle and Berkeley is one of the three great communities of climbers. Classmate Budge Gierke
lives in Bettendorf, Iowa, which is not. Here's his letter to the editor from the most recent Alpinist:
"OK. Best job I've ever had was as a cook in Aspen. Skied all day, went to work at 4 p.m., made decent
money. Clint Eastwood came in the kitchen once, just after the Eiger Sanction came out. Lived in
Telluride for a while. Sun Valley. Yosemite. BC. Boulder, too.
"Now I'm fifty-one and living in Iowa. Offered each of my three kids a car if they promised not to go to
college. No takers. The oldest went to Bowdoin in Maine and spent her junior year not far from Chilean
Patagonia. The other two are at CU-Boulder.
"Closest indoor wall is at a state U about an hour away from here. Last time there I got 'way schooled.'
Everything was 'sweet.' Mentioned that I had two kids in Boulder and then was asked if I'd ever
climbed in any of the gyms there.
"This all came to mind for some reason the other day while I was looking down at a cop looking up at
me near the top of a perfect hand crack.
"It split the backside of a parking ramp. We were about twenty-five feet apart, it was near dark, and I
was trying to decide if I could top out and move on quickly enough to avoid having to explain anything
to him. Or to the old lady, for that matter.
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"Just then, as Marshall Dillon turned to look at a growling dog rounding the corner, he stumbled a bit
and dropped his flashlight. Bingo. I slapped the top. The alpenglow was, uh, subdued, but the descent
was trouble-free.
"Sweet."
Great story, Budge. Sweet.
GIERKE, Glen E. "Budge" (Sarah) 1116 14th St., Bettendorf IA 527224202 (h) 563.359.4522 (w) 563.322.1725 (email) [email protected]
In Bert Hubinger's case, I didn't stumble across one of his published poems in a literary journal; he sent me a green
card. But the subject of the green card was getting into print. Bert asked whether I might be able to prompt the
Dartmouth Alumni Magazine to mention his new volume of poetry "Sea Drums and Other Poems." He is very
thankful to have had the encouragement — and purchases — from classmates William Slattery, Robert Lande and John
Eckels, among others, since "Sea Drums" was mentioned in the Newsletter a couple of issues ago. Bert's card
prompted me not only to send an e-mail to the DAM books editor, but to give Bert a call. I'm not sure we've ever
spoken, but we had an enjoyable conversation. Bert and his wife Shelley Kosisky live not far from Annapolis in
Arnold, Maryland, a few country roads from the Baltimore-Annapolis Turnpike, and not far from some great hole-inthe-wall crab shacks along Chesapeake Bay where the Magothy and Severn Rivers join. Shelley is a clinical child
psychology whose practice serves their area. Bert teaches writing as a visiting instructor at several college and
community college campuses in Maryland. His articles on subjects of history and travel are published in various
magazines, and he has some longer pieces in the works. Like many who love Chesapeake Bay, Bert has a love of
sailing, and used to teach sailing in fact. Marine ecology is also one of his interests — an obvious interest in the
Chesapeake region where the efforts of many have been devoted to restoring our nation's greatest estuarine habitat. A
passion for the subject comes easily to Bert, who hails originally from the Florida Keys, and who has written on the
subject of the need to protect fragile coral reefs. I offered the opinion that a Florida heritage must be helpful in
enabling a person to endure humid Maryland summers; Bert responded that "coming from Florida, I thought I knew
about heat, until I came to Maryland". So, all you Maryland-D.C. area — the Brits are right. It really is a hardship post!
Sea Drums and Other Poems (Eastwind/Rosebud) may be found on your favorite booksellers' websites (I know; I've
checked), so there are really no excuses not to add some poetry to your beach reading. Great to talk with you Bert!
HUBINGER, Bert J. (Shelley Kosisky) 1327 Farley Court, Arnold MD 21012-2817 (h) 410.626.7304 (e-mail)
[email protected]
The last magazine encounter with a classmate took place in the more familiar pages of the Dartmouth Alumni
Magazine's May/June issue. In that issue classmate Paul Gross shares a well-written personal history of the
confrontations over coeducation titled "Mixed Company: In the Turbulent early days of Coeducation, Men Welcomed
Women at their own Risk." The article comes with a photo of Russell Sage, bedecked in "No Coeds" banners. Paul's
reminiscences take the reader back to a time of sharp division of feelings and beliefs about the identity of Dartmouth.
Here are Paul's closing paragraphs:
"When I graduated on a sunny spring day, my feelings of loss were tempered by relief at leaving behind
a neighbor who sneered and called me a faggot every time he saw me. As I took a last look at the Green,
at Baker Library and Robinson hall, I thought about how much had changed since that winter afternoon
when I had set out to show that women belonged in Russell Sage. As I prepared to depart my college, I
no longer felt that I belonged. In spite of friends, deeply etched memories and an unwavering
attachment to the simple magnificence of this campus, I left wondering whether my sense of belonging
would ever return.
"Today I am raising two young daughters. Should they decide to visit Dartmouth as applicants, I know
they won't be greeted by signs that say "Keep Co-Hogs Out!" After 30 years of coeducation, attitudes
have changed.
"It would please me if the kind of incident I experienced would be unthinkable today. I hope the
Dartmouth community has become more inviting to outsiders, more curious about the unfamiliar, and
that newcomers, however different, feel tolerated and embraced.
"It would please me if one day, standing before Russell Sage, I could look up at the window that once
bore a woman's fist and say with pride and certainty: Yes I do belong here — and always did."
GROSS, Paul R. M.D. , 28 Albert Place, New Rochelle NY 10801-2304, (h) 914.235.2425 (w) 914.328.7586
10
I commend Paul's article to those who may not have read it, and, Paul, I thank you for it. Some closing thoughts as this
post-reunion newsletter gets readied for transmittal, mailing to you. The divisions of the early seventies over the issue
of coeducation were real, and mirrored greater divisions in American society of the time, the consequences of which
continue to work themselves out in our culture and out polity. It is possible to celebrate and to affirm a community of
Dartmouth that now includes women, and at the same time to affirm the place for single-sex education as an option. In
the case of the Rangers, it was a choice we made in deciding to send our son to all-male Woodberry Forest School (read
Boys Themselves: A Return to Single-Sex Education, by Michael Ruhiman), a decision he and we affirm in his case —
though he equally affirms his present college experience at emphatically co-ed Pepperdine. The participation, example,
and leadership of the women of '74 has been all out of proportion to their number, and they have not only graced our
community, they have materially strengthened and shaped its ongoing experience as an alumni body. Today the '74
community includes the wives of the many and the husbands of a few. It shares pride in the achievements of its sons
and daughters, and the pride in the daughters of Dartmouth experienced by '74s today would have been unrecognizable
to some in the Russell Sage dorm debates Paul remembers — though it's possible he and others might have predicted it.
In the environs of the '74 Reunion tent, you would have found a bumper sticker that read "Re-Defeat Bush," and you
would have found a classmate encouraging you to read How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life (by Dartmouth graduate
Peter Robinson '79). Viewed through one lens, our class is a collection of people who have in common that they were
selected for admission to a New England college, but who are divisible by race (and
later by gender), divisible by politics, by worldview, divisible by faith or its lack, by
career, by marital status, or by sexual preference. Red or Blue, Republican or
Democrat, Red Sox or Yankees, Fox or CNN, Bud or Miller or microbrew or
neither, thank you. Part of the granularity of life is that our relationships must
necessarily transcend shores of belief, taste and preference, if our lives and our
enterprises are to function. Part of the irony and challenge of life is that our
friendships often follow. Thirty-four years ago, Dartmouth confronted incoming
freshmen with the fact that achievement and potential came in a variety of forms
and that the universe of ideas was larger than any one freshman's individual
experience. Some of the lessons we learned came with rough edges and left a few
bruises. But one of the other legacies of that time was the network of friendships
that took shape as we each sought to fmd our place in the complex thing they called
the Dartmouth experience. Many of those friendships endure, and the happy
discovery of nearly all who have returned for a reunion is that new friendships can
be formed and are always forming.
To Paul and to others whose pathways, schedules — or whose unanswered questions
— may not have allowed them to attend our reunion this June: yes, you belong here.
You always did.
George T Plowman '22
Blessings,
11
Dartmouth College
BLUNT ALUMNI CENTER
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE 03755-3590
litow.
YOUR CLASS
NEWSLETTER
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DARTMOUTH COLLEGE CLASS OF 1974
PRESIDENT
Morris C. "Rocky" Whitaker, 6433, Golden Oak Ct., Charlotte NC (704) 535-7137, [email protected]
VICE PRESIDENT
Christopher W. Wiley, MD, 9 Balch St., Hanover, NH 03755 (603) 643-6873
SECRETARY
Norman Brown, 8613 Dicks Place, Philadelphia, PA 19153, (215) 365-4948, [email protected]
TREASURER
Kirk B. Hinman, 6402 Karlen Rd., Rome, NY 13440, (315) 337-4080, [email protected]
HEAD AGENT
Christoper S. Ptaff, 7 Briar Lane, Glencoe, IL 0022-1801 (847) 835-2471, [email protected]
NEWSLETTER EDITOR
Richard L. Ranger, P.O. Box 2088, Valdez, AK 99686 (907) 835-5451, [email protected]
WEBMASTER
Angus W. Scott-Fleming, 6902 E. Soyaluna, Tucson, AZ 85715 (520) 546-0927, [email protected]
********** The 30th (Can You Believe It?) Reunion, June 17 20, 2004 **"******
-
Hello 74's! Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and those you love. Ken Hall, our
resourceful 30th Reunion Chair and our Reunion Committee have been hard at work to prepare an exciting
Reunion with as full a range of activities as we've ever had.
Our 30th will take place on Thursday, June 17 through Sunday, June 20, 2004, in Hanover. This allows us to plan 3
full days of events, allows more than an extra day to catch up with old friends and to make new ones — and,
believe me, one of the singular experiences of our reunions has been the discovery of new friendships from among
classmates you hardly knew! If at all possible, plan on coming Thursday, though the Reunion Committee strongly
encourages an earlier arrival Wednesday for those intending to make the Moosilauke trip which is organized by the
College and not a part of the reunion fee.
Our dorm lodgings this time will be in Middle Mass, the most hotel-like of the dorms used for reunions (I think
it's safe to share with a group of fifty-something friends that most of us are at the point in life where standing in
line in the bathroom at the end of the hall has lost its novelty). Middle Mass is also a very short walk to meals at
Thayer, an advantage former Mass Hall denizens treasure from certain Sunday mornings during their
undergraduate tenures. It is also just an extra hop to Main Street, to stock up on your Dartmouth gear for the next
five year cycle, or to hang out on the corners, stoops and benches for lattes with friends. Book early to assure the
best accommodations.
In short order our class website at http://www.dartmouth.org/classes/74 will have periodic Reunion information
updates. You'll be able to use the site to make inquiries, and to view photos and other information from our days at
Dartmouth. If you're sitting on yellowing copies of the Daily Dartmouth, or old photos, dorm, fraternity or
organization newsletters, or other keepsakes of the September 1970 to June 1974 period, you're invited to send them to
Angus Scott-Fleming at 6902 E. Soyaluna, Tucson AZ 85715, or from your computer and scanner to
angusfa,geoapps.com . Please note: Angus does not welcome unlaundered rugby shirts as memorabilia.
If you have ideas, thoughts, or recommendations you're invited to contact members of the Reunion Committee,
whose e-mail addresses are given below. They would especially welcome volunteers to serve as local/regional
coordinators. Even if you don't want to volunteer for a formal role, you're strongly encouraged to call your old friends
— even and especially those with whom you might not have spoken in a while — to see if they're planning to attend and
to encourage them to do so. The 30th Reunion can mark a high point in attendance, so it is perhaps the best opportunity
to see large numbers of classmates. I suspect this is because for many of us the 30th hits that time band in our lives
between the challenge to the family budget of schlepping large numbers of kids to the places we go (though there is
usually a pretty stout budget challenge if this the time of their college years), and the period in life when June is
devoted to attending graduations and weddings. I know I've written before how from my own experience and from
observing the experience of others that a dominant experience from our past reunions is how new friendships are
established — often across categories and clique lines you might dimly recall, but that no longer exist.
In terms of activities, and most importantly in terms of people, there will be something for everyone. Ken and the
Reunion Committee are planning this to be more like a vacation than a reunion, in light of the multiple
entertainments planned and the great schedule of events for children of all ages (see the enclosed samples of the
programs for kids).
A word, too, for spouses and significant others, especially of classmates who may not have attended before. The first
reunion Catherine and I attended was the 74's Tenth, in 1984. We were living in Vancouver, B.C. at the time, I was
looking at a company reorganization and a layoff (a preview of coming attractions, as it were), and for Catherine, the
selling features of accompanying me to Hanover were that we were going to be back East anyway visiting family and
interviewing at a grad school, and a trip to Hanover filled in a weekend during our stay. I suspect Catherine envisioned
a couple of days spent wheeling then-toddler Owen around Hanover in a stroller while her husband spent time with a
bunch of people she did not know. She did not anticipate being welcomed into a community, nor the enjoyment of
conversations she had and the friendships formed. She missed the 20th to attend the 20th of her high school in
Rochester, New York, while Owen and I came to Hanover alone. Her perspective on her weekend in Rochester was
that she would have had much more fun in Hanover, and made it a point not to miss our 25th.
Catherine has attended three of her Duke Reunions, and has both commented and written e-mails to the Duke Alumni
Affairs office that they would be advised to send representatives to Hanover to learn how reunions ought to be done.
She feels at home in our class tent with or without me. So, if you're a spouse or significant other of an addressee for
this newsletter, please allow me to offer three reasons why you will enjoy coming: 1) you will satisfy your curiosity
about this particular epoch in your spouse's life; 2) it is as drop-dead beautiful a college campus as any that exists, and
upper New England if you haven't seen it is one of our nation's scenic treasures; and 3) you will soon find yourself
among friends, not strangers. It's highly likely that you'll have as good a time as your spouse, and for your own
reasons.
As for kids, well our son Owen has been to three reunions. At the first (our 10th) he was at his most portable, but
doesn't remember much. At his second (our 20th), he and I had a great father-son experience driving between Hanover
and our East Coast base with Catherine's family in Rochester, a great hike up Moosilauke together, and other than that I
hardly saw him — the kid's program being such a draw and so entertaining. And useful to me as a single-dad-for-theweekend. When the witching hour struck for the children's events, he was wiped, and contentedly went to bed in our
dorm room so that I could hang with everyone at the tent (we were at Ripley-Woodward-Smith that year). As a
2
teenager at the 25th he disappeared with one of Mike and Anne Draznik's boys, and a couple of other '74 sons,
patrolling (or was it `trolling'?) at the various teenage activities, staying up late and adventuring. The College offered a
camp environment with a happy medium for him and for the other teens between independence and a few necessary
guard rails that made the weekend a great experience.
Be sure to take a look at the enclosed Reunion Letter from the Reunion Committee, the tentative schedule for events
for children and teens. There will be plenty to keep them occupied, if not necessarily fully fed (teenage boys, that is —
you may find you'll have to reach into your wallet once or twice to send them down to Main Street for supplemental
chow).
Here are the Reunion Committee e-mail addresses. Once again, feel welcome to contact any of them with questions,
ideas, or — especially — interest in volunteering.
Steve Bell ([email protected] )
Peter Blodgett ([email protected] )
Ken Hall, Chair ([email protected]; Ofc: 212-294-6651)
Greg Hannah ([email protected])
Bruce Jordan ([email protected])
Chris Nicholson, Treasurer ([email protected] )
Candace Valiunas ([email protected] )
See you in June
Meanwhile Chris Pfaff has recruited a strong Reunion Giving Committee to assist with nudging us in the direction of
generosity toward Dear Old Dartmouth. He's done an admirable job — all the more admirable since he's also recruited
two other guys, Bob Whelan and Jack Thomas, to serve as co-chairman so he doesn't have to. Here's Chris' note:
"The Reunion Giving Committee has had several conference calls and is now embarking on our solicitations. Doug
Shufelt and Steve McCormack have agreed to co-chair a subcommittee that will focus on overall class participation,
while the main committee is charged with securing leadership gifts of $2500 or greater. We have not formally set a
class goal yet and will probably do so early next year. I am excited about the breadth of the committee and their
willingness to contact fellow classmates.
"We are also trying to organize some pre-reunion get togethers around the holidays in several metro areas. Will keep
you posted as events are formally scheduled so that if feasible you can help to announce them via the newsletter.
Here's the list of committee members:
Jack Thomas, Co-Chair
Chris Pfaff
Bruce Miller
Steve Dietz
Phil Franklin
Steve McCormack
Ellis Rowe
Morris Whitaker
Jep Gruman
Greg Pulis
Ken Wachtel
Bob Molinari
Kirk Hinman
Bob Whelan, Co-Chair
John Elsenhans
Bill Carpenter
Pierre Ellis
Chris Gates
Doug Peabody
Doug Shufelt
Chuck Bralver
Bruce Stuart
Rick Sample
Ed Muller
Rick Woolworth
Many thanks to all of you for volunteering to lead us!
3
********** News from Your Classmates ********"
First, a correction from the last newsletter. Attentive readers will recall that the newsletter contained a message from
Jim Miller, in which he celebrated his retirement from lawyering and lobbying, to coach women's lacrosse at Johns
Hopkins. It was a great story, and certainly appealed to my fondness for second career makeover stories, and I
remember smiling happily for Jim as I typed it up. Well, one Saturday morning a few weeks ago, the phone rings, and
it's Jim, calling from D.C. (note, careful readers, not Baltimore). Turns out Jim was minding his own business one day
when HIS phone rang, and it was Owen Williams, calling to congratulate him on taking a mid-life plunge into a
coaching career. This came as a surprise to Jim, who was — and is — still so busily lawyering and lobbying that he had
not had time to read his newsletter, where he would have discovered — as lawyers put it — that a person or persons
unknown had planted a story with the Newsletter Editor about his career change. Said Newsletter editor, desperate for
copy as always, duly posted the story, and Jim had suddenly been given a promotion, so to speak.
Jim had Chris Gates on the phone when he called me, whether to serve as a witness, financial advisor, or second, it
was not clear. But, after many interruptions and diversions, what develops is that the story about Jim is not true, but
contains facts — or perhaps more accurately, some nouns and adjectives — that bear some relation events in Jim's life.
As Jim puts it, lacrosse has been a big part of the life of the Miller household, though not in ways that will lead readers
to someday find Jim on the sidelines in some ESPN2 telecast of the NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship.
Here is Jim in his own words, from a follow-up e-mail titled "Setting the Record Straight":
"Rick: Now that several classmates whom I have not seen in years have inquired about my retirement, I probably
should take this opportunity to set the record straight ° Johns Hopkins does not have a women's junior varsity lacrosse
team.' Our older daughter Caroline played four years of lacrosse
for the Blue Jays and can attest to that important fact [Jim said in the call that Caroline is now coaching Chris
Nicholson's daughter at National Cathedral School] .° I should also point out that retirement is not a wise option for a
father whose daughter has just enrolled at Princeton.' While our daughter Kathleen could have saved her parents
annual tuition by accepting any one of a number of lacrosse scholarships, we were more than happy to see her settle in
at Princeton where she will play for the current two time NCAA Champion Tigers.' The Big Green just missed out on
this one, but three of her teammates from°St. Stephens/St. Agnes School currently play lacrosse for Dartmouth.
"So make no mistake about it, I have not retired.° If law and lobbying were as portrayed on "K Street," I might have
contemplated retirement.° However, the practice is far different.° Business is booming and my fellow Republicans are
in power." My firm, Hunton & Williams, just celebrated its 100th anniversary.° On a personal basis, Nancy and I just
celebrated our 25th anniversary and are getting used to being empty nesters.' We both look forward to seeing our
classmates in Hanover for our 30th. Keep up the good work, Rick.° Best regards, Jim Miller"
Investigative journalists affiliated with this newsletter are pursuing a lead that the source of the recent falsehoods
printed about Jim may have originated from a person or persons unknown who frequent a certain bar and restaurant a
short distance from Fairbanks, Alaska. Until these leads are confirmed, my best advice to classmates would be to guard
your reputations. As Chris Gates put it during our call, for the time being the Class of '74 is sort of stuck with the level
of journalism it has!
MILLER, James F. (Nancy) 2201 Wilkinson Place, Alexandria VA 22306 (h) 703.768.6672 (e - mail)
[email protected]
Chris "Lance" Baldwin has thrown his hat in the ring as a possible 30th Reunion attendee. He sent a note from
Charlotte NC, which as been his base of operations for some years: "Hi Rick! Several changes in the last 12 months.
Took a wonderful hiking trip last August/September with my girlfriend hiking 110 miles across the Swiss Alps from
Chamonix, France to Zermatt, Switzerland on La Haute Route. Was a tad more strenuous than we expected, but
4
nevertheless was a fantastic journey. On the last hiking day as we rounded a corner and saw the Matterhorn for the first
time, I proposed. She actually accepted!! Plan to marry Mary Ellen aka "Missy" Weld January 24, 2004.
"Returned from our trip to close on our new home, a Charleston-style, wrap around porch beauty. Has more windows
in it than walls. Missy nicknamed her "The Lighthouse".
"Continue to be active managing money and providing financial advice.
Thinking of launching a hedge fund that leverages the investment principles
honed by 30 years in the market, so classmates are encouraged to send large
checks quickly. On the side, am active on the Board of Directors of three
outreach efforts focused on mental health and substance abuse, areas where I have
strong interest (and experience!).
"Staying in touch with Wayne 'Dude' Whitmore who with his wife Alice and
possibly daughter Samantha will make the wedding, Jeff Stewart, who just got
hitched in Atlanta after 50 years as a bachelor, and Jim Gardner, who resides in
Missoula MT. For our honeymoon, we're off to Aruba for some sun, snorkeling
and tennis. Then back to a more normal life when Missy owns and operates a
business that books speakers for conferences, etc, and I manage money and do
financial plans for friends .° We cycle spin daily to stay in shape.
"Hope all is well with you. I unfortunately missed the 25'h Reunion but will be
working hard to make the 30 11. Regards, Chris aka 'Lance' Baldwin"
BALDWIN, Christopher L. (Mary Ellen Weld) The Lighthouse in Charles Town, 654 Vendue Place, Charlotte NC
28226 (h) 704.366.3649 (cell) 704.650.8833 (e-mail) [email protected]
Fellow Alaskan BM Saupe is at least thinking about it. Had the chance to talk with Bill earlier in the fall, with the
alumni interviewing providing the reason for the call. Bill had done a stint al few years back as the District Enrollment
Director for Dartmouth for Alaska. We actually have a candidate for early decision here in Valdez, from Valdez High,
and I had been approached by the VHS college counselor about Dartmouth's process (the records show that I'm the
sole alum in town). Bill is still practicing corporate law in Anchorage, and his wife Pamela is still teaching English at
Anchorage's magnet high school for gifted kids, Steller High (where, if I'm recalling correctly, Trajan Langdon and
Jewel were once lab partners). Their older son Tyler is a freshman at University of Vermont. They have a freshman
trip program at UVM, too, and pretty much from that point on, Tyler has been in love with the home of the
Catamounts. Back when we were in Anchorage, my recollection was that the Saupe boys along with Bill were active
in the city's notable Junior Nordic program (Bill blew by me on the trails at Kincaid Park every now and again!), but
Tyler's a snowboarder now. Their younger son is a junior at Anchorage East. I'm sure the Saupes are a lot happier
with this winter in Anchorage than last, when I think Los Anchorage got about 12 inches of white stuff overall (makes
for a pretty dark winter solstice). Bill and Pamela have a lovely home in the delightfully named Stuckagain Heights
area, overlooking the city.
SAUPE, A. William (Pamela Dupuis) 9300 Atelier Dr., Anchorage AK 99507 (h) 907.337.3758 (w) 907.276.4331 (email) [email protected]
Bob Spitzfaden, who lives in Juneau, is another '74 Alaskan attorney with a son working and going to school in
Vermont. Bob came up to Alaska not long after law school to try it out, and has never left — an impressive tenure,
particularly for a denizen of Juneau, where winter rains can send people with the sunniest dispositions groping through
the medicine cabinet for anti-depressants. Bob stays in great if not quite collegiate track team shape, and keeps active
with the many outdoor opportunities in what we Alaskans call Southeast. Bob is uncertain about Reunion; his second
quarter schedule is driven by the uncertainties of a date for a major trial that looms in June.
5
SPITZFADEN, Robert S. (Tom Alario) 4627 Sawa Cir., Juneau AK 99801 (h) 907.789.2370 (w) 907.586.8110 (email) spitz@gclnet
Former Alaskan (now Coloradan) Dan O'Haire took note of my reference to a book he co-authored back in his Alaska
days, promising and then delivering on the promise to send me a copy of his "Danletter", a journal he sends to friends
and family. Dan has not lost any of his directness. As he puts it "The Danletter makes no effort to be politically
correct, just correct". Among the Danletter's factoids about life at Casa O'Haire are these:
Dan and friend Doug Howe climbed Colorado's Uncompaghre Peak over the past Fourth of July weekend, which
makes thirty-six of the fifty-something Fourteeners Dan has summited. Dan and Doug are also amateur gemstone
prospectors, searching for topaz south of Denver, and aquamarines, which are reputed to exist on the slopes of
Colorado's Mount Antero. The Danletter takes note of the restrictions that have been placed on Colorado Mountain
Club activities, as a result of concerns over legal liability. Dan has both guided and participated on CMC trips, which
among other things no longer allow swimming (swimming was seldom one of my activities when I ventured into
Colorado's high country, but then I'm not as venturesome as Dan). Dan says that he switched from teaching science to
math partly because of legal liability, when a school district for which he worked told him he would be liable for
students who ditched a science field trip.
Dan and Jeanne took an August trip to the North Sierras, during which Dan and Jeanne visited John Cleary in Reno.
From Cleary's they took a grand tour to Lassen Volcanic National Park, Lava Beds National Monument, Crater Lake,
the Oregon Coast, Redwoods National Park, wine country, Berkeley and San Francisco, enjoying Crater Lake and the
Oregon Coast the most. Dan describes Jeanne as his "kayak babe", in whose honor he has outfitted their double
Klepper sea kayak cushions and a footrest for Jeanne's comfort during paddling workouts on Denver area lakes [Note
to Dan, Catherine took note of this feature, since we also have a Klepper double]. Jeanne is heavily involved with the
area Visiting Nurse Association and with the Colorado Hospice Association, where she is on the education committee
and co-chairs the chaplains' peer group. Jeanne gave a presentation titled "Befriending Death: Help from Jesus and
Buddha" at the CHO fall conference in Vail. She continues to teach Reiki, the Healing Touch, to hospice workers, and
is continuing her ordination process with the United Church of Christ.
A portion of the Danletter was devoted to the household's non-road-trip vehicle, a 34 year old Volkswagen, referred to
as The Bug, and stories of its various mechanical ailments. One involved the expiry of the Bug's old eight track [Dan,
via what garage sales did you keep it supplied with replacement copies of "Fresh Cream" and "Jimi Hendrix: Smash
Hits"?], which Dan replaced with a CD player and new dashboard. For a while after installation the windshield wiper
was blowing fuses whenever Dan ran the wiper and the CD player at the same time. Dan eventually traced the problem
to The Bug's wiring, applying the principles of Zen and the Art of VW Maintenance. The Bug now has a fresh coat of
Rustoleum Regal Red applied with a brush, and Dan assures readers, it looks good from ten feet away [or in jpeg
format as well, Dan].
O'HAIRE, Daniel P. (Jeanne Updike) 4388 South Kalispell Cir., Aurora CO 80015 (h) 303.693.2935 (e - mail)
[email protected]
Mark Haley is among the '74's who are pursuing career transitions: "After 26 years I have left Brown & Haley to
seek new and challenging employment in other fields or with a larger company. I am currently the Interim Managing
Director of the Bellevue Art Museum, helping its board redefine the museum's mission and rebuild its board of
directors".
HALEY, Mark 2915 No. 29th St., Tacoma WA 98407 (h) 253.752.8865 (e-mail) markha1ey8865amsn.com
Peter Coutrakon is yet another classmate changing jobs: "Another new job (whew!). This makes four since 1997.
New employer is PNC Business Credit's Chicago office. JoAnne and I became empty nesters when our youngest went
to college in the fall. We sold our house in Lake Forest and bought a 100 year old brownstone in Chicago, just off Lake
6
Shore Dive and five blocks from Wrigley Field. We'll hope to see lotsa of Cubs games next summer. Doug Peabody,
John Fisher, Joe Barnes and I surprised 'Black Al' King at the surprise 25th anniversary party his daughter threw for
Sandie and him. Brother 'Black Rick' ('62) and 'Black Bob' ('66) and dad Gordon ('39) were also there. Al has a
beautiful family and a terrific house on a big lake." Peter, Catherine and I visited her sister and husband who live in
downtown Chicago, and for the first time, traveled north to the near north side to Senn High School, where Carl Mock
and I and other Tucker Foundation Chicago Interns worked. The transformation of the north side of Chicago is truly
astonishing. Hope you and Jo Anne continue to enjoy your new home – and I hope as long as Sammy is there and
Barry Bonds remains active in the NL you're not on the outfield side of Wrigley!
COUTRAKON, Peter (JoAnne) 648 W. Grace St., Chicago IL 60613 (h) 773.404.9174 (e-mail) [email protected]
Catherine Johnson squeezed in a short note between writing gigs: "Hi! I'm finishing a book on animals and autism,
written with Temple Grandin for Scribner's, and working on a memoir for Holt."
JOHNSON, Catherine, 47 Osceola Aveenue, Irvington NY 10533 (h) 914.591.1009 (e-mail) catherinej@optonline net
The Simpson and Valiunas families celebrated Thanksgiving in an unusual way – reversing the route of the Mayflower,
they broke bread together at the Valiunas home in London. Rick and Jody paid a call on Candace and Peter (as in
Simpson) as part of a trip to visit their son Peter, a junior at Dartmouth, who has been studying in Copenhagen.
VALIUNAS, Candace Ingals (Peter) 23 Jubilee Place, London SW3 3TD ENGLAND (e-mail)
[email protected]
SIMPSON, Johanna Hill (Richard) 71 Carlton St., Brookline MA 02446 (h) 617.738.7561 (w) 617.738.7561
[email protected]
***** Golden Oldies (or Musings on the Subject of Tunes in the Reunion Tent *****
"Who knows only his own generation remains always a child"
— inscription above entrance of library at University of Colorado
Milestones seem to be coming at us much more quickly these days. A few weeks ago, NPR's Morning Edition
awakened us with the cheerful news that Neil Young was 58 that day. Just yesterday, on NPR's Weekend Edition, host
Scott Simon remarked in connection with the observance of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of President John
F. Kennedy that only forty percent of the American population was alive on November 22, 1963. The Dartmouth
Athletic Department newsletter arrived in our mailbox, with a photo of Murry Bowden ' 71, being honored in Hanover
in recognition of his entry into the National College Football Hall of Fame. The guy in the photo does not look like the
guy who sat on the stage following Convocation with some other seniors to hold an informal talk with incoming
freshmen in September of 1970, nor the guy I remember charging off the field after each defensive series of that
historic (there's that word again) 1970 football season.
The human mind is capable of compressing time, and of preserving illusions, which is why when I look in the mirror
every morning, I still see hair on my head, and not in my ears.
Nevertheless, Reunion Chairman Ken Hall's mailings announce that we will be celebrating our 30th Reunion in June,
so the 30th it must be. In contemplation of that fact, I have just one question.
Does the fact that we graduated from college in the mid 70's mean that we are forever doomed to hear "Satisfaction" in
the reunion tent as long as we keep returning to Hanover?
Let me explain.
7
I have this sneaking suspicion that members of the class of 1974 have, on the whole, grown up since our days of facial
hair and bell bottoms. At least one classmate, Rick Shefchik, whose column "Go Ask Dad" appears each Wednesday
in the "Living" section of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, is a reliable chronicler of this phenomenon. The Rick Shefchik
who lived in 103 Massachusetts would not have devoted an op ed piece in the Daily Dartmouth to the proposition that
David Letterman ought to get serious, grow up, and many the woman who just had his baby, but such a column
recently appeared in the Pioneer Press with my old friend and Cube-'n-Smarts hiking buddy's by-line (and Rick, it was
a good column, but then I'm a Leno guy anyway).
Growing up doesn't mean that we have thrown all the things of youth over the side. The scattering of reunions
Catherine and I have attended leads to the following observation: no matter how comfy our Dockers, no matter how
large our debts or our assets, no matter how distant our hairlines, when we reconvene as classmates we default
immediately to the music of our teens and early twenties.
I can't be the only member of the class of 1974 with a copy of the 4-CD collection "Frank Sinatra: The Reprise
Collection". I can't be the only one who pops an opera into the car's CD changer before backing out of the driveway
for a long drive. And I'm sure I'm not the only classmate who brings his own discman to the gym so that he can drown
out the dreck that the young staff pumps out over the sound system, noise by indistinguishable tribes of male guitar
players, bellowing adenoidally in relentless 4/4 time.
Now, there is indeed some music from our youth that is for the ages. "Sgt. Pepper" of course, though the older I get, the
more I consider "Rubber Soul" to be the Fab Four's apogee. Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On", which for the
purposes of after dinner conversation I would offer as one of the ten most significant musical works of the 20th Century.
Joni Mitchell's "Court and Spark". Carole King's "Tapestry". Springsteen's "Born to Run". "The Spinners" (the first
one that Thom Bell produced; "I'll Be Around" is the most perfect AM song ever — unless it's Dionne Warwick's
version of "Walk on By").
Without question there are certain songs that are anthems of our undergraduate years. Based on my unscientific
recollection of what one heard when speakers were propped under dorm windows, facing out, whether on football
Saturday mornings in the fall, or Frisbee afternoons in the spring, at least some of the following tunes must be
imprinted on your cortex as they are on mine: "Southern Man"; "Can't You Hear Me Knocking"; "Layla"; "Blue
Skies"; "You Are the Sunshine of My Life", "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed", "Uncle John's Band"; "It's Too Late",
and, yes, "I Want to Take You Higher". Some memorable music there, to be sure. But, must it be so that our musical
identity must ever remain fixed in amber? At our 40th Reunion, will we be dancing jerkily on our artificial hips to some
Connecticut Valley bar band's rendition of "Summertime Blues"?
Well, probably. But what are you REALLY listening to, these days? If you're like me, you've passed through various
musical life stages since June of 1974, including (if you have children) at least one stage of "Let me make myself clear.
You are not to play that music in our house. Do you understand?" (Editor's note: that same parent spent one hazy
weekday morning this past summer cruising up the diamond lane of the 405 with his 20 year old son, listening to
Tupac's "To Live and Die in L.A." at 70% volume; son's choice — but somehow it fit the moment.)
So, what DO you listen to? By way of generating some dialogue, here are some musical categories submitted for your
nominations of tunes, performances or recordings. I can promise publication of your favorites in a future newsletter.
What I cannot promise is that our beloved sixties rocker classmates will yield control of the CD jukebox under the
Reunion Tent. So, if en route to Hanover next June you're driving in your car, and that man comes on the radio, telling
you more and more, about some useless information – you CAN change the station, confident in the assurance that at
some point during Reunion weekend, you WILL hear "Satisfaction".
Category One, Essential Reunion Tent Music: Anthems from our undergraduate years that I may have missed (see
songs and recordings mentioned above).
8
Category Two: When I Was Still a Rocker. Best rock and roll recordings released AFTER graduation. My
nominations:
"Off the Wall", Michael Jackson (1979). Disco as an art form. Yes, it's possible. Aided by the multi-talented Quincy
Jones, Michael showed it could be done. What a long, strange trip it's been since.
"Stop Making Sense", Talking Heads. (1984). Side one ranks with anything from our dorm room days.
"Joshua Tree", U2 (1987). Maybe the last great sixties-style album, from maybe the last group to believe that rock
music can matter.
Category Three: Party's at Our House. Tunes we put on to lively up ourselves, and our company.
"Bele Bele en la Habana", Chucho Valdes (1998). From the island that has had an influence on music all out of
proportion to its size, a recording that says "Habana's still hot".
"Freddie Freeloader", Jon Hendricks and Friends (1990). Great party background music, but keep it in the changer to
play loud when you're doing dishes after the guests leave.
"State Street Sweet", The Gerald Wilson Orchestra (1994). Swing is not dead. We heard Gerald Wilson at the Long
Beach Jazz Festival in 2000. Repeat: swing is not dead.
Category Four: Date Music. Come on; don't say you're past trying to be smooth — even if being smooth has been
aimed at the same person for a while. What are your choices when you want to select the ambience as carefully as the
wine? Here are mine.
"Songs for Swingin' Lovers", Frank Sinatra (1956). If you're really smooth, this recording should go on at the start of
the evening. Besides, it's Sinatra, and you're American.
"Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown" (1954). Extraordinary symbiosis between vocalist and instrumentalist.
"Sings the Cole Porter Song Book", Ella Fitzgerald (1956). My personal favorite of the Granz/Fitzgerald "Song Book"
series; Cole Porter's lyrics are so literate they could constitute a course at Sanborn.
"John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman" (1963). We give this recording as an anniversary present to good friends. Two
musical geniuses unfurl their art. Put the kids to bed and curl up together. You might not listen to the whole thing.
Category Five: Personal Musical Discoveries. My category for music that blew me away at the time and place I first
heard it. This category covers the music you play late at night for good friends.
"Clube da Esquina", Milton Nascimento (1972), "Realce", Gilberto Gil (1979). My sister introduced me to Brazilian
music with these two recordings on her way back to college from my parents' home in Brazil in 1980, back when
Catherine and I lived in Tulsa. "Sit down", she said, "be quiet, and listen to this". To slightly paraphrase the translation
of one of the song titles on Milton's album, "Nada Sera Como Antes", after hearing this music, nothing would be as it
was.
"Shelly Manne & His Men at the Black Hawk" (1959) When I want to introduce friends to the intimacy of jazz, I play
"This Is Always" from volume 5 of this 5 CD set. On a good stereo system, it will reduce a room to silence.
"Bachata Rosa", Juan Luis Guerra y Grupo 4:40 (1990). Owen and I shopped for a few Dominican recordings prior to
his language study semester in Santo Domingo in 2002, and found Bachata Rosa on a Rough guide recommendation.
Note to single male classmates: Adalgisa Pantaleon's number is listed in the Santo Domingo phone directory.
"As Fadas de Estrano Nome", Milladoiro (1997). I believe in attempting to learn about a place through its music.
Galicia, in northwestern Spain, for my money, is one of the most beautiful places on the planet, and Milladoiro
performs the music of its soul.
Category Six: For the Desert Island. If the house is on fire, grab these recordings before fleeing to safety.
"Kind of Blue", Miles Davis (1959). It's almost a cliché to say that this is the greatest .077 recording ever. Listen. It's
not a cliché; it's just true.
"What's Going On", Marvin Gaye (1971). I had the privilege of being a volunteer on the air DJ on KSKA, Anchorage
on the 25th anniversary of the release of "What's Going On". I simply pushed "play".
"Concierto", Jim Hall (1975). For the title track alone, an incandescent progression of riffs on the composition by
Joaquin Rodrigo by guitarist Hall, with Paul Desmond, Chet Baker and Roland Hanna.
9
"Symphony No. 5 for Orchestra in E-Flat major" by Jean Sibelius. Larry Doyle introduced me to this extraordinary
piece of music on a spring drive into Gold Country in the Sierra foothills in 1980. Larry, thank you.
"Appalachian Spring (Suite)" by Aaron Copland. Come to think of it, Larry introduced me to Copland when we were
undergraduates. Playing the recording of the full suite is a Ranger family tradition on Thanksgiving mornings.
"Mass in B Minor", BWV 232, by Johann Sebastian Bach. OK, we're well outside the Reunion Tent here, but Bach's
"Gloria" from this mass is what they sing in heaven.
So what are your nominees? Send a green card or an e-mail to me (rrangerazci.net) with the music you think falls
under the categories of:
Category One, Essential Reunion Tent Music. (pre graduation)
Category Two: When I Was Still a Rocker. (post graduation)
Category Three: Party's at Our House.
Category Four: Date Music.
Category Five: Personal Musical Discoveries.
Category Six: For the Desert Island.
Your lists will be posted on the Reunion website, and we'll try make sure the CD player is loaded properly in June,
right after we load that copy of the Stones' "Out of Our Heads" and Sly and the Family Stone's "Stand!".
BOOM-chaka-laka.
Blessings.
10
SAMPLE CHILDREN'S PROGRAMS
11-12
12-13
JUNIOR PROGRAM - AGES 6-12
TEEN PROGRAM - AGES 13 and up
JUNIOR PROGRAM - AGES 6-12
Preliminary Schedule
Junior Tent Check In: Junior Tent on Tuck Mall (by Streeter Residence Hall)
Teen Program (Ages 13 & up): Tent in front of Streeter Residence Hall
Note: Activities listed are those highlighted for the timeframe. There will always be several choices available.
THURSDAY, JUNE 17
2-4:00 p.m.
2-4:00 p.m.
5:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
8:00 p.m.
10:00 p.m.
Junior Tent activities - games, sports, crafts;
Swimming at Karl Michael Pool
Dinner for Juniors — Thayer Hall
Junior Tent activities - games, sports, and crafts
Thursday Night videos - Streeter Lounge/Junior Tent
Junior Tent closes
FRIDAY, JUNE 18
8:00 a.m.
9-12:00 noon
10:00 a.m.
10:00 a.m.
10-11:30 a.m.
12:00 p.m.
1:00-4:00 p.m.
2-4:30 p.m.
2-4:00 p.m.
2:00 p.m.
5:00-6:00 p.m.
6:30 p.m.
Breakfast with parents
Junior Tent activities — games, sports, and crafts
What is cool and new in Bubble Making? Join our workshop and see.
*Children's Tour of the Montshire Museum of Natural Science
Lunch at Junior tent
Network gaming/web design: Starr Instructional; 274, Berry Library
Junior Tent activities — games, sports, and crafts
*Children's Tour of the Montshire Museum of Natural Science
B.J. Hickman, the Magician entertains
Class Dinners: Parents gather children and teens and proceed to individual Class
Headquarters to pick up dinner.
7:30 p.m.
8:30 p.m.
10:00 p.m.
Junior Tent Activities - games, sports, and crafts
Friday Night videos — Streeter Lounge Junior Tent
Junior Tent closes
* childrens fees are covered in program fee, adults should cover individual entrance fee
11
SATURDAY, JUNE 19
7:45 a.m.
9-12 noon
10-12 noon
10-12 noon
10-11:30 a.m.
10:00 a.m.
11:00 a.m.
12:00 p.m.
2-4:00 p.m.
2-4:00 p.m.
2-4:30 p.m.
4:00 — 5:00 p.m.
5:45 p.M.
7:00 — 8:00 p.m.
Barnum
8:15 p.m.
10:00 p.m.
Junior Tent activities — games, sports, and crafts.
Children's Tour of the Montshire Museum of Natural Science*
Network gaming/web design: Berry Center 61, Carlson Hall
Junior's Jewelry-making workshop
Montshire Museum of Natural Science-Optical Illusions Workshop-Junior tent
Parents gather children for picnic at Storrs Pond
Junior Tent activities — games, sports, and crafts.
Musical Performance by Wayne from Maine
Join in with the beloved Children's musician. He writes both the lyrics and the music
Dinner - Thayer Hall
Gary the Silent Clown: Come Clown around with Gary!
Gary the Silent Clown has trained clowns for many organizations including the
and Bailey Circus!
Saturday Night Videos — Streeter Lounge/Junior Tent
Junior Tent closes
* Childrens entrance fee covered, parents welcome at own expense.
TEEN PROGRAM AGES 13 and up
-
Teen Registration: Junior Tent on Tuck Mall (by Streeter Residence Hall)
Note: Activities listed are those highlighted for the timeframe. There will always be several choices available.
THURSDAY, JUNE 17
2-4:00 p.m.
2-4:00 p.m.
5:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
8:00 p.m.
10:00 p.m.
Games, sports, and crafts — near Junior tent
Dinner for Teens — Thayer Hall
Games, sports, and crafts — near Junior tent
Thursday Night videos - Streeter Lounge/Junior Tent
Teen Tent closes
FRIDAY, JUNE 18
8:00 a.m.
9-12:00 noon
9-12:00 noon
10-11:30 noon
12:00 p.m
1-4:00 p.m.
1:30-4:00 p.m.
2-4:00 p.m.
5:00-6:00 p.m.
6:30 p.m.
Breakfast with parent(s)
Taming the Connecticut River. Canoe paddling workshop
Network gaming/web design: Starr Instructional Room 274, Berry Library
Lunch - Junior Tent
Network gaming/web design: Starr Instructional; 274, Berry Library
Broom Ball or Organized sport and/or Campus Capture the Flag
B.J. Hickman, the Magician entertains and teaches tricks
Class Dinners: Parents gather children and teens and proceed to individual Class
Headquarters to pick up dinner.
12
8 —ball, pool-playing skills workshop - Collis Student Center game
Teens Jewelry-making workshop - Collis Commons
9:00 p.m.-12a.m. Open mike Karaoke Contest- Single and group prizes
Snacks, Pool Playing, video games, and films - Collis
7:30 -9:00 p.m.
SATURDAY, JUNE 19
7:45 a.m.
9:00 —12:00 Noon Taming the Connecticut - canoe paddling workshop and trip or crafts
Noon Network gaming/web design: Berry Center 61, Carlson Hall
10:00 —12:00
10-11:30 a.m.
12:00 p.m.
Lunch at Storrs Pond
Picnic
Party —Teens stay at Storrs : Volleyball skills workshop and tournament,
1:00 p.m.
swimming , music!
2-4:00 p.m.
Teen Dinner — Thayer Dining Hall
5:45 p.m.
Team Dodge Ball, 3 on 3 hoops tournament — Berry Center Courts
6:30 p.m.
Gary the Silent Clown: Come Clown around with Gary!
7:00 — 8:00 p.m.
Gary the Silent Clown has trained clowns for many organizations including the
Barnum and Bailey Circus!
Trick shots on a pool table - Collis Center game room
8:00 —9:00 p.m.
Pizza Party, Pool Playing, video games, & films,
9:00 - midnight
Open Mike Night- D.J. music, dancing - Collis Student Center
13
Dartmouth College
BLUNT ALUMNI CENTER
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE 03755 3590
-
14144,
4..
YOUR CLASS
NEWSLETTER
FIRST CLASS MAIL
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PERMIT #2
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
PRESIDENT
VICE PRESIDENT
SECRETARY
TREASURER
HEAD AGENT
NEWSLETTER EDITOR
WEBMASTER
April 2004
********** From Your Editor **********
Back several weeks ago, after returning life to something approaching normal after having been gone
for four weeks to Chile over Christmas and New Years', it dawned on me that it was high time to get a
newsletter out to you guys. It also dawned on me that the correspondence file was pretty thin, and that
I was going to have to solicit news to be able to obtain enough copy to fill a usual-length newsletter.
Somewhat in desperation, I e-mailed a number of classmates making a plea for news. In return I — or I
should say "we," since the responses appear in this and the preceding newsletter — received a treasure
trove of correspondence.
I think it's fair to say that the norm in our class (or any class, I suppose) is to defer sending a note to the
newsletter or the Alumni Magazine until some significant life event happens. In between major life
events, the context we inhabit, the context that helps shape us as we attempt to shape it, the context that
forms the fertile soil of our truest friendships, is ordinary life. I'm pleased to share this remarkable
journal of a week in the Upper Valley from Thetford neighbor Peter Blodgett, to whom I happily offer
the space in the newsletter that usually falls under the header "From Your Editor." Peter's journal
captures an element of the magic of Dartmouth that derives from its upper New England setting, along
with the rhythms of what we too casually call "ordinary life," rhythms that like the patterns on the
surface of a broad river reflect often deep and strong currents. Thank you, Peter, for sharing your
week, your thoughts, and the winter light of northern New England.
********** A Thetford Winter Journal **********
"In response to your request for news I woke up this morning and thought I would send you a
snapshot of seven days in my life to use as you wish to convey a bit about life in the Upper Valley
these days and how Dartmouth weaves in and about its environs.
Saturday, Feb. 21 51: Today is the funeral of my maternal grandmother Grace Geier who died in her
sleep at home at the age of 96 watched over by my mother who nursed her for the past twelve years.
My mother does not want to go to the cemetery but her neighbor Carol does and walks promptly to my
brother's car to be included. We are a motley bunch of 21 gathering in a light snowstorm to place
Grace's ashes in her family plot. The bagpiper hired for the occasion cancels for fear of damaging the
pipes due to the weather. My resourceful sister Sue brings a boom box and a CD so that Amazing
Grace skirls through the Pineknoll woods after the memories shared of the matriarch who did so much
for so many in our family and in our community.
My sister kneels to place Grace into the frozen ground and I hold her shoulders so she won't follow
Grace prematurely. We leave the quiet serenity of the cemetery for a more crowded family gathering
with my mother. Too many people in too small a space prompts me to flee to my writer's group
waiting at the library for an afternoon of mutual critique.
Five of the six in the group are working on novels while I struggle with a play exploring the 38-year
"marriage" of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. The hours flow and the camaraderie is soothing.
The evening meal is hosted by my father in honor of all four of his children being back together for the
funeral. My youngest sister Patience has flown in from Seattle and we share a meal of memories and
dreams.
Sunday Feb. 22nd: I spend the day preparing our home for a meeting of the Thetford Trust which is
exploring ways to build more community within our town and protect our senior 'living treasures'
from burdensome property taxes. Thetford abuts Norwich, which currently holds the distinction of
being the wealthiest town in Vermont due to its preponderance of dual income professional families
working at the College or the Medical Center. More and more property sales in Thetford are raising
the median value of property beyond the means of retired natives whose efforts for the past forty years
have created our town's distinctive and desirable culture. We spend the evening exploring nonprofit
status and projects including a local phonebook and a community-wide reading project for midSeptember featuring Jodi Picoult's novel, Second Glance, sharing Vermont's hidden history in the
Eugenics movement of the early thirties.
Monday Feb.23'': For my brother's birthday today most of the family gathers at the Skiway to spend a
morning skiing. My brother is now an instructor at the skiway along with Simon Mayer who has been
teaching there since 1962. My father is on alpine skis for the first time this year and so too is my sister
Patience but both have been x-c skiing all winter and have no difficulty sliding on the chairlift and
carving their way down the mountain.
Skiing felt amplified; following my brother, then my father, then my sister. Trying to copy their turns
and feel the hill as they did. Since we are all roughly the same height I felt that I was skiing with
mirrors projected before, behind, and beside me. The slopes were just groomed and we were early on
2
the hill so the conditions were perfect and the company was so familiar and we owe our love of the
sport to my father who was with us. My nephews were also skiing with us and the legacy of this sport
within our family was very vivid.
I was the first to leave and go to work opening the library and wrestling with two grant proposals due
by the end of the week. A book discussion group met this evening exploring Chaim Potok's The
Chosen. Ten folks wrestled with the portrayal of Jewish life in Brooklyn, NY, during the end of WWII
and the birth of Israel.
Tuesday, Feb.24th This morning I go to Hanover to explore the Dartmouth libraries for inter library
loan requests for my library patrons. In Feldberg I uncover "Napoleon's Buttons" which I'm guessing
explores chemistry's effects upon history similar to "Guns, Germs, and Steel." At Baker I discover on
the new book shelves "The World's Most Beautiful Libraries" and on the ninth floor of the stacks,
"The Complete Poems of Robert Graves" in three volumes. In the Carpenter Art Library I retrieve
volumes on Hiram Powers, a Vermont 19th century sculptor who moves to Florence and never returns
and a biography of Tamara de Lempicka, who was a leading artist of Art Deco in the thirties.
I join my mother for lunch and leave her the book on libraries as we juggle her computer to download
some digital photos and a new screen saver. She tells me she is so relieved that Grace died without
pain and fear. I encourage her to explore her new freedom and plan some adventures.
More work on the grant proposals until seven pm when I go to Norwich and meet my wife Ruth for
tango lessons. Our teacher is late and we practice ochos for an hour and then refine our efforts for
another hour. Argentine tango is a refined expression of passion and the man must always make the
woman look her best. While he is to control the dance she is the display and it is his fault if she missteps. As class winds down the teacher takes Ruth around the floor and I watch her display within his
elegant control and sigh, hoping that some year I can dance as well with my radiant red-haired woman.
A small group from class drives to the Canoe Club on Main Street in Hanover where our teacher
shares tales about his treks through Afghanistan and Iraq during six years after his tour of duty in the
German army. Ruth and he discuss ballet while I watch a neighbor play quiet blues guitar for the
whole club.
Wednesday Feb 25th: Finish the grant proposals and meet over the telephone with our Reunion
committee exploring musicians for the Saturday night dance, dinner on the Baker Library lawn, and
how many breakfast tickets will be needed each day.
The afternoon and evening are spent in the Peabody Library unpacking boxes of books onto new
rolling bookcases in Vermont's oldest library building. I listen to the children's program and their
storyteller while weeding old fiction from the forties and fifties. Renovations from the Freeman
Foundation have prepared a lovely room for small musical concerts and readings by local authors.
Thursday Feb. 26th: I play hookey today and go x-c skiing in Woodstock at the Billing Farm National
Park where there are miles of groomed trails on beautiful carriage roads through the property. Picnic
lunch in the sun is followed by down hill skiing at Suicide Six where local racers zoom through gates
and the rest of us bask in the sun on the chair and enjoy spring conditions on the slopes.
I join a pot-luck supper of fifteen gathered to explore Rudyard Kipling's Kim and Captains
Courageous. Our leader is a retired English professor from UVM and she leads us on. Good questions
were asked. Is Kipling a writer of the second tier? Hardly! Although most Americans read only the
Jungle Books and The Just So Stories, Rudyard was the first writer using the English language to be
3
awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. When he died in 1937 he was worth more than 3.5 million
pounds or $20 million of today's dollars, the vast majority of his wealth being royalties on the sales of
his writings. Not a bad way to face the depression of the thirties. At least twice he was asked to
become the poet laureate of England and he refused both times but was considered the poet
extraordinaire by folks like T. S. Eliot who wrote that Kipling's skill as a balladeer was beyond
compare.
Were the youngsters growing into men portrayed in both Kim and Captains Courageous symbols for
their countries? Yes! Was Kipling the first English author to describe the complexities of India to the
West? Yes! A curator for the Kipling house in Brattleboro joined us for dinner and brought several
never published photographs of Kipling with his children, including one of his beloved Josephine who
died when she was six which devastated both parents. His only son gets killed in WWI so only one
daughter survives and she never has children. The curator told us that he had visited Kipling's house in
England and it is a museum that draws 70,000 visitors a year.
We also spoke politics and Dean's campaign and of Primary Tuesday coming up. Driving home under
the stars I was composing a scene in my head between Sally Hemings and Martha Jefferson, his
daughter, where in Martha tries to hit Sally's son, Madison, for drawing on the walls of Monticello at
about four years old. Two women, a year apart in age, from completely different worlds inhabiting the
same four walls and both trying to raise families as single parents.
Friday, Feb.27th: A long day at the library catching up for yesterday, getting signatures on
grants from two different trustees and mailing originals and duplicates out before March 1St deadline.
Inviting storyteller to drag her husband to tango on Tuesdays when a new session starts next week.
Meet Ruth at the Nugget after her teaching and rehearsal schedule where we fail to snag tickets to The
Passion which seems sold out to Religion classes from Dartmouth. We settle for Dirty Dancing 2:
Havana Style and relax with popcorn and chocolate.
Sat. Feb 28th: Town Meeting Day. Tim meets me at the library to load up display tables and we set up
in the Academy Gym at 7:30. When the library table is done Tim and I help others move in their
materials and Town Meeting starts at 9 with a bagpiper leading in the girl scout color troop. High
School seniors lead us in the national anthem and a minister intones a prayer reminding us of our civic
tradition for the past 238 years and seeks the wisdom of all the ages gathered together this day to help
us decide wisely the actions before us.
Wrangling through various articles we get through the school meeting before a lunch next door
sponsored by the seniors for their trip to Spain with desserts from the National Honor Society. I try too
many desserts and nod off a bit during the discussions on the town budget with local road experts
noting discrepancies on line items and wondering who is using the town highway pickup to drive to
and from work? Town Meeting ends after three and everything gets picked up in the gym and returned
to the library before meeting Tim for a x-c ski on the Academy's 5km ski course. The sun is setting
and we ski happy to be outside on a mild day at the end of February.
I ski home when Ruth returns from leading ballet rehearsals all day. Together we sit in the hot tub on
the deck to watch the colors fade from the sky, eat a quick meal and walk to the Parish Player's
production of "Emma" by Howard Zinn portraying the life of Emma Goldman, an anarchist activist in
America who advocated women's rights and worker's rights (1890s-1917) but gets deported from the
US for denouncing the draft in WWI. We walk home by moonlight and I am weary of too much
sitting today.
4
Rick, thanks for listening and the invitation to contribute. I look forward to your tales of Chile. Ruth
and I spent an afternoon in Punta Arenas before boarding ship for Antarctica. A former girlfriend lived
in Chile and delighted in calling me from the same time zone below the equator. I daydream of
spending winters skiing in Vermont and summers skiing in Chile. Would you consider adding it to
your retirement locations? Best wishes, Peter
BLODGETT, Peter (Ruth) P.O. Box 315, Thetford VT 05074-0315 (h) 802.785.2524 (e-mail)
[email protected]
********** 30th Reunion Update **********
Here's a note from Reunion Chair Ken Hall (hey! Is that Reunion envelope sitting on your kitchen
counter? Make your plans, fill it out, and send it in!):
Time is flying toward our 30th Reunion!!! In just 3 months, we'll be convening in Hanover to
celebrate, and we're hoping for a record turnout! Everyone working on the Reunion reports a very
strong interest in reaching out to those who may never have attended a class reunion or may not have
known or kept up with many classmates. Reunions aren't just for catching up with those you knew in
college. They are a great opportunity to get to know a very interesting group of folks! We all owe
something to our experiences at Dartmouth, and we all are members of the Dartmouth community,
stretching across our country and around the world.
Please check the class web site (www.dartmouth.org/classes/74) for the most current information about
Reunion. It is being updated regularly, and includes list of those planning or hoping to attend. It also
includes a printable copy of the remittance envelope for the Reunion fee, which should be mailed to
Chris Nicholson as indicated on the form. Also on the web site is a growing collection of photos from
our times at Dartmouth. If you have photos you'd like to contribute, or any questions whatsoever
about Reunion, please contact Ken Hall at [email protected] or 212-294-6651 (office). We hope you
will join the rest of your classmates at Reunion to renew your connection to Dartmouth ... and to have
some flat-out fun!
********** News from Classmates **********
Thirty years out of Dartmouth and over fifty years into the adventure of life, some of us are embarking
on second careers, and many more are considering the idea. Mark Haley sends along this dispatch
from the front, so to speak, describing his leap from leadership of a family business to leading a
turnaround for an art museum:
"Hi Rick, Here's the news from the Tacoma/Seattle axis: As you know, since mid-October I have been
the interim managing director of the closed (as of the end of Sept.) Bellevue Art Museum and can't
begin to explain adequately the amount of satisfaction, sweat and pure joy this task has given me. How
did I get here? I joined Brown & Haley in 1977 after a stint at Eli Lilly and getting my MBA at
Stanford [along with Rick Woolworth '74 and Brook McCann '72 who were in my class].
"Until July of this year I had been moving down a career path that was almost more duty than choice. I
was feeling stale and it was time for a change. I had been running Brown & Haley since 1984 and
taken the firm's major brand Almond Roca, from being a West Coast mass market brand to being
national brand as well as taking it into 36 foreign markets. But the bigger you grow any company but
particularly a family company the more you start hearing from all the shareholders (big family plus a
few outsiders, so we had 47 shareholders in all, only one other of whom worked in the firm). After
thinking about it for several years and talking long into the proverbial night with Nancy, I decided it
was time to try something new. And for the very first time in my life I really felt that I had the luxury
of looking up at the horizon and exploring the alternatives that life can offer. Until then I had marched
5
pretty lock-step from high school to Dartmouth to Stanford to the family company. After resigning at
the end of the fiscal year (June 30) I was really enjoying my first summer off since junior high school
when, out of the blue, I received a call from the former President of the board of the Museum who'd
app ntly been given my name by several people active in the Seattle arts scene with whom I'd
sere on many boards and who knew I was available.
"Takirig over a museum that had been forced to close in order to rethink its mission when it became
clear that what they were doing was not resonating with the community or the Museum's audience is
an interesting undertaking. This is an institution that opened to huge acclaim in January 2001. At
36,
square feet and a Stephen Holl design, it has a truly AMAZING potential to become a
brilli tly attractive polished gem in the world of West Coast Museums. I have to say I was a little
leery f taking the job on. It was not evident at the time that it would be easy to get this place back
open d I could just imagine the black mark on my professional reputation should I fail. But, in the
end, I kept coming back to the fact that in this life, one is almost NEVER given the opportunity to reinven a major cultural institution. That if we could be successful we would add immeasurably (and for
gener tions) to the quality of life here in the Northwestern corner of the US. It was an impossible
temp tion to pass up and whether it was ego or altruism or sheer ignorance, I accepted the challenge.
We h ye gone out to engage as many people as we could possibly fit into our schedule (450+) and
co
ed that we needed to get back to the roots of the Museum. We have adopted a new Vision and
Miss' n that has been resoundingly accepted by the community. We have put together an Artistic
Advi ory Council made up with members of the arts community who have national and international
repu tions. We have been busy working on rebuilding the board of trustees. We have completely
rethought the building and its layout so that it will now meet the needs of the new Mission and create
demand for use. We have curated our first show that will celebrate our re-opening on October 28,
2004 1 And most imp:A-cal-ay maybe, we have been sweating bullets to build a sustainable business
mod el1mand first year fmancial plan that has passed muster with some of the hardest headed business
leade in the region. I am now convinced we can make this duck fly. It is just a matter of selling the
vision to the right people. And I LOVE selling.
I have also been the national search manager (at no additional charge I should add) for my permanent
replatement as Executive Director (new title to better reflect the role) and I feel great that we currently
have 8 fantastically qualified candidates from around the country. We are now about to embark on the
most critical part of it all, to generate enough financial support to accomplish our goals. So far, so
good. We have even had mid-six figure support from people outside of the Northwest who believe
strongly in what we are trying to build.
How do I begin to describe the sense of accomplishment all of this has given me? Not sure I can. And
where do I go from here? Well, the national scientific research arm of the Australian government asked
me to submit a proposal to an RFP they sent out a month ago to do a commercialization strategy
review for them for some revolutionary intellectual property in grains. Who knows? In another month I
may be putting a team together to tackle that job. It would be exciting and fun. Beyond that, a close
friend of mine and I are looking at establishing a business that would be able to take advantage of my
25 years of sales and marketing contacts in food distribution around the world and his expertise in food
distr'bution logistics.
Stay tuned.
Mark
6
HALEY, Mark T. (Nancy) 2915 North 29th St., Tacoma WA 98407-6323 (h) 253.752.8865 (e-mail)
[email protected]
Dick Cates shares this news of the Cates family. He and Kim have joined the growing ranks of '74
empty-nesters, with their dairy farm in south central Wisconsin providing a pretty good sized nest!
Their son Eric will enter Dartmouth in a year after spending a "gap" year in competitive ski training in
Austria. This edited news from their Christmas letter describes a family with an array of interests and
gifts:
"Dick continues to teach several classes at the UW-Madison in the College of Agricultural and Life
Sciences, and operate our farm which provides grass-finished beef for many restaurants and
households. We stopped raising large numbers of cattle for the 'commodity' market last year, and this
was our final year custom-raising dairy heifers. We have initiated some new and exciting work on the
farm with the seeding of some native prairie as well as restoration of an oak savannah, the original
vegetation types on our farm. Dick received a Governor's appointment to the Wisconsin Board of
Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection in May, so the reduced farm operations allow him the
time for this new opportunity to be involved in state policy decision-making. He also volunteers as a
member of several community education and service groups (Lion Dick), as well as coach for our local
high school ski team. He also loves hosting groups on our farm. We've had kids from inner-city
Milwaukee work and stay overnight on our farm as well as visitors from Ireland and other far away
places. This past January, Dick had the opportunity to travel to the middle-eastern Islamic country of
Azerbaijan where he served as a grasslands/grazing consultant. And this fall he skied at Loveland
Basin in Colorado — only one run was open but he cranked out 61 runs over several days. He skied
61,000 feet vertical — pretty good for a 51-year-old.
"Kim is still working for U.S. Senator Herb Kohl and enjoys her job. It's a job that requires
researching a wide variety of topics as well as helping others with their problem And she gets to fill
in for the Senator when he's not available to attend events in her region. She does a lot of traveling
throughout the state — over 35,000 miles last year (she likes Wisconsin but not necessarily from the
inside of her car). Although she's not fond of the travel she has several perks (besides the nice people
she works with). She attended a staff retreat in DC last spring during cherry blossom time. (During
staff skit night Kim dressed up as a Milwaukee Bucks Energy Dancer and did a routine (including
cartwheels) in the LBJ room at the U.S. Capitol (OK maybe it's not a perk but it was her first and only
time dressing up as a `cheerleader').
"Our daughter Shannon is officially 21-years-old and is finally legal - to 'socialize' in the bars. She's
been attending Colorado State University in Ft Collins this semester but will be returning to UWMadison this January. She's majoring in retail marketing.
"Son Eric graduated from high school last spring and was accepted to Dartmouth. He's deferred
entrance until next fall as this year he's in Austria — with his cousin Boone and a friend — training with
an Austrian coach and ski racing in the Alps. Eric was the 2003 WI State HS Skiing Champ, and he's
hoping to make the Dartmouth ski team; hopefully this experience training and competing in Europe
will help — it's certainly different than training on our little bump of a hill in Wisconsin. To help pay
for this experience he worked on the farm last summer and spent a couple of weeks last June working
on a large ranch in New Mexico.
"Other things: We participated in the 13th annual River Rats canoe trip down the Lower Wisconsin
River/Mississippi River this summer, along with Gregg Kelley '74 and his wife Linda Grieme. We
also enjoyed a long weekend at the Cates cottage in northern Wisconsin — riding bikes, water skiing,
swimming, etc. We hosted our 5th and last Walk and Ride (WAR) for childhood cancer. It was a
beautiful fall day and we thank all of those who have helped us with this fundraising event. We hope
our efforts will help other children with cancer as others helped us with Peter. Although we've faced
7
many
cult times and we worry about the future of our world, we count our blessings and our
speci relationships."
Dick, ve Winters, Bernie Duenwald, Walter Freed and Danny Hozack are classmates who are or
who have been commercial farmers or ranchers, Danny and Dave having operated farm and livestock
operations, respectively, since graduation. That doesn't count any of you zucchini-growing gardeners
out there. I guess that makes us a typical Ivy League class — depending on someone else to set the
table!
CA , Richard L. Jr. (Kim) 5992 CTH T, Spring Green WI 53588 (h) 608.588.2836 (e-mail)
rlcate @mhtc.net
In fac , speaking of Bernie Duenwald, he and his wife Cindy join the small but growing ranks of '74s
who c look down the Thanksgiving dinner table at their own third generation:
"Rick Still residing in Virginia. Yes, Cindy and I are grandparents. Molly Genevieve was born to
Emily and James Coleman on Oct 6, 2003. Molly is doing great, and we're about wearing out our email s nding photos around. Our oldest, Ben, used the opportunity of a trip to New York and proposed
to S oh by the Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Plaza the week before Christmas. Shiloh said yes, and
we ark looking forward to their wedding in September in the Seattle area. Ben works for Merrill Lynch
in the Bellevue office as a Personal Financial Planner.
"We tentatively planning on attending the Reunion, but have not finalized plans at this date.
Proba ly ought to get on that.
"I'm currently in Las Vegas at a convention, first time I've been to Vegas since January of 1974 when
my Dad and I stopped here on our way to a backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon. I think that was
pretty close to thirty years ago. It looks a little different. Best regards, Bernie"
DUENWALD, Bernard A. (Cynthia) 724 Belmont Bay Dr., Woodbridge VA 22191 (h) 703.491.1047
(w) 2)2.326.0627 (e-mail) [email protected] , or [email protected]
Brig ollett writes with the latest from the Follett family, which, like ours, has recent experience with
inte ational calling card phone bills:
"Dear Rick, Minnesota is enjoying spring-like temperatures at the end of February: 50 degrees on
Leap-day, rain, lots of melting snow and ice-rink ponds. January was pretty chilly, though, which
preserved the Winter Carnival ice palace that adorned the site of the NHL all-star hockey game. March
usually brings a big snowstorm or two, so winter isn't over yet.
"The Follett family is doing well. My daughter Susan is a senior at Wheaton College (Illinois) and
spent the fall semester in Barcelona. She will graduate with a BA in Economics this May and plans to
spend her summer in Anchorage and next year in South America. Her dream job would link economic
development with Christian mission work in a Latin American country.
"Son Andrew is a sophomore at Wheaton and just finished another season of 'club' hockey. He is off to
Europe for three weeks in March as part of a semester of international business with the college. It is
nice to have both kids at the same school, within a 6-hour drive of our home in St. Paul.
My computer-telephony business, Kuflink Corp, has suffered for two years along with other
technology ventures, but 2004 is looking better, if not robust. Our ListCaller service
(www.ListCaller.com ) is fmally catching on, letting coaches and companies send urgent voice
messages to lists of phone numbers.
8
"I appreciated your recommendations for tunes and artists, and would certainly echo the importance of
Derek & the Dominoes, Eat a Peach, Abbey Road, Boston and your other memories of dorm days. The
few I would add to the "Favorites/Discoveries" categories would be as follows:
Peter Frampton, 'Frampton Comes Alive' (legendary live performance)
Pat Metheny Group, 'American Garage' (unique form of jazz guitar)
Liz Story, 'Solid Colors' (piano solos ala George Winston)
Dan Fogelberg/Tim Weisberg, 'Twin Sons of Different Mothers'
"Keep up the great work on the newsletters. I look forward to them and hope that my wife and I will
make it to Alaska one of these days; my son got to visit a couple of years ago, and my daughter may
drop in when she is there this summer."
FOLLETT, Brian L. (Mindy) 8118 Galway Rd., Woodbury MN 55125-2397 (h) 651.738.1502 (w)
Quick note from Matt Putnam just after the first of the year: "Rick, Still enjoying your newsletters.
Attended my first meeting ever of our local Dartmouth Club. It's amazing to me how similar the
experience is for all who went there – even now. Hope to see you at Reunion in June."
PUTNAM, Matthew D. MD (Ann) 5416 Stauder Cir., Edina MN 55436-1043 (h) 952.935.1902 (w)
Karen Jennings Lewis is also planning to attend our class Reunion in June: "Rick, Can't wait to see
all the guys at the Reunion. Will be there with my husband and want to make the film. I'll be going to
my Holyoke Reunion in May and ours in June, with John coming with me to Hanover."
LEWIS, Karen Jennings (John) 5818 S. Woodlawn, Chicago IL 60615 (h) 773.288.8025 (e-mail)
—.MP
[email protected]
Remember, 30th Reunion June 17-20, in Hanover. There's still time (though it's running out) to make
your reservations. See you there!
Blessings
9
Dartmouth College
BLUNT ALUMNI CENTER
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PRESIDENT
VICE PRESIDENT
SECRETARY
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HEAD AGENT
NEWSLETTER EDITOR
WEBMASTER
March 2004
**********
From Your Editor **********
Does your undergraduate major matter?
It hasn't happened often, but this Christmas I found a practical application for my undergraduate major
(English) and — incredibly enough — for the subject of my honors thesis, which was on John Steinbeck.
The opportunity came in a most unlikely location: in southern Chile, on the back road running north up
the east coast of the island of Chiloe from the fishing town of Dalcahue.
It was the Sunday after Christmas. Catherine, Owen and I and our luggage were shoehorned into a
rented Peugeot 304, a vehicle that could be described (in those immortal words of late night TV
commercials) as "not sold in any stores". At least, not in any auto malls near any of us here in North
America. Anyway, so it's Sunday morning, and we've got a flight to catch at 3:30 in the afternoon at
Puerto Montt Airport, back on the mainland, and according to the road maps in the Turistel guide, 120
or so kilometers of back roads, a 30 minute ferry, and 45 kilometers of fast roads between the ferry
landing and the airport. For the Rangers, we are remarkably organized, and leave our hotel in Castro
within 10 minutes of the (strongly) suggested ETD.
A quick 20 km from Castro to Dalcahue, a slow and careful drive through Sunday morning market
time in Dalcahue, to the north edge of town where the map shows the secondary road begins.
Understand, we'd already driven on some Chilean secondary roads (including on the island of Chiloe)
so we felt prepared, and — as they might say on CBS basketball coverage this time of year — there was
plenty of time on the clock. Round one turn, round another, past a little cut along the edge of a sheep
pasture, and suddenly the back road from Dalcahue to Tenaun has narrowed to a little wider than the
width of a dorm room hallway. I am driving in second gear, and weaving occasionally to avoid
mudholes or boulders. Still, there is no traffic, not even one of Chile's glacially slow tractors that prowl
the country's byways. We can go at our own pace, enjoying the pastoral peace of rural Chiloe, and the
vacuous greetings of grazing livestock on the far side of the fences that lined the road.
We crest a hill that overlooks the inland waters protected from the Pacific's wrath by the island of
Chiloe; a seascape that is kayak smooth, dotted here and there by the floats that mark oyster or mussel
nets, along with a set of salmon pens. We stop to take a couple of pictures, and get back in the little red
Peugeot, assuming that the road will now take us nearer the water. We didn't reckon with our
elevation.
You see, in Chile it appears that there is a principle of highway engineering and design that seems to
hold that the best way over a hill is, well, straight over it. Ten percent grades in that mountainous
country are as common as troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike, and steeper grades than those may be
found with only a minimum of exploration. We had not been exploring for very long, before our
country lane aimed us at the shoreline below with the directness of a Donald Rumsfeld sound bite.
Downshifting to first gear allowed all four tires of the Peugeot to maintain contact with the planet as
we made our descent, then midway down the lane passed through some poorly consolidated soils that
caused the Peugeot to sashay uncomfortably before regaining traction. At the bottom, we shuddered to
a stop not far from the coast, at the edge of a hamlet of weathered houses, shake shingled in Chilote
style.
On the other side of a fence, a farmer was casting feed before some chickens. I asked Owen to roll
down the window and ask what village we had come to. "Quequel", said the farmer. A quick look at
the Turistel map showed that Quequel was about a quarter inch past Dalcahue. We had a long way to
go, and little evidence that the road ahead would improve. Decision: return to Dalcahue, which meant
ascending the same hill we had just come down. I turned the Peugeot around, put it in first, and the
little red car ground its way noisily up the hill. Part way. We reversed slowly down the hill back to the
fence where the farmer watched us, feed bucket in hand.
It is at this point that I remembered what I had learned as an English major. More specifically, that in
The Grapes of Wrath, when the Joads go shopping for a beater Model A to take them west to
California, brother Al Joad speaks of the importance of a good reverse gear, if the chosen vehicle is to
be assured of conquering hills likely to be encountered between Sallisaw and the San Joaquin Valley.
"Get out of the car", I said to Catherine and Owen. "I'm backing up the hill". "You're what?"
Catherine responded. "I'm backing up. Don't argue. Let me try this." Catherine and Owen got out of
the car, looking at each other with bemusement. I turned it stern to the hill, set it in reverse, and with
somewhat more noise this time, drove the car painstakingly up the hill. The Peugeot sashayed once
again on that patch of rutted soil, but did not falter (though it whined a bit louder), and made it to the
top. Catherine and Owen trudged into view a few minutes later, like Sherpas on some mountaineering
special on the Discovery Channel.
We made our flight, because I remembered what I had learned as an English major at Dartmouth.
Dartmouth and our Dartmouth experience have been on my mind more than usual this past several
months, and it's not just the approach of our 30th Reunion. I suppose part of the urge to reflect has to
do with having a son in college, although his experience differs considerably from mine. His college
(Pepperdine), his major (Spanish), his ambitions (teaching and coaching) all differ considerably from
mine at a similar point in my life. He's spending his sophomore year in South America, which is
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something I did not consider. Still, those of you with children of your own in college may agree that
conversations with your son or daughter often lead to reflections about your own college experience.
This fall I interviewed a young lady from our town of Valdez, a crack Nordic skier (20th in Junior
Nationals), a musician, and aspiring doctor, who applied to Dartmouth early decision. In the cover
note I sent to the Admissions Office with the interview form I wrote that when Dartmouth elected to
admit women, it had accomplished and motivated students like this candidate in mind. She was
accepted, and she plans to attend. It was heartening to meet a young person who approached the
prospect of a Dartmouth experience with the excitement and the appetite for challenge that this student
from Valdez possesses.
Then again last month, I received a delightful e-mail from Katie Stebbins '04, daughter of classmate
Phil, and my goddaughter. Though life in separate parts of the continent have kept me only a distant
figure in Katie's life, I am grateful for the fact that we have stayed in touch, and still exchange notes, emails or IM messages a couple of times per year. She extended me an invitation to her graduation,
which occurs the weekend before our Reunion, and I checked the calendar, and accepted. Thirty years
to the weekend after our graduation I will attend the graduation of a talented young woman who is the
daughter of a guy I first met at Moosilauke, and a woman who was my Winter Carnival date to the
Modern Jazz Quartet concert Senior year.
I suppose it is the English major in me that still skulks around, though I have spent my adult life in the
oil industry among engineers and geoscientists (and, latterly, merchant mariners), but there are many
times when I fmd myself thinking that we are all characters in an unfolding story. We are not the
owners of our experiences so much as we are the stewards of them. For those of faith, there is a faith
basis for this assertion, but I believe that the truth of the assertion is something we find easy to accept
because it is something life teaches. The things that we value most — including Dartmouth, for those
that ascribe such value to Dartmouth — precede us, and will continue after us. Children teach this,
particularly when they approach adulthood, when their daydreams begin to take shape as ambitions, as
we watch as hope, opportunity, risk, and the possibility of disappointment and failure loom in the
shadows where two roads diverge in a wood — and neither the road taken nor the road not taken belong
to us.
Dartmouth provided me with an education that I still use, not only in terms of factoids scattered around
my cerebral cortex like old trunks in an attic (i.e. reverse gear usually has more torque). Dartmouth
introduced me to the unconquerable breadth of the thing we call knowledge, and if Dartmouth didn't
exactly bless me with humility, it led me to humility's garden gate. The syllabus is vast, and it expands
out where the galaxies recede from sight. There is so much to learn, and the time in which to learn so
very short. Ten week trimesters seem to pass by swiftly, as I seemed to discover every ninth week or
so. Life passes as swiftly. As the lyric puts it from one song no one nominated as a memory of our
college years: "we are but a moment's sunlight/fading in the grass".
Dartmouth blessed me with an appetite for learning — or perhaps it reinforced it. I don't know. But
without an appetite for learning, I would not have been able to work among engineers, and to fmd the
analytical approaches of my engineer colleagues of such interest and value. I would not have found
myself on an island called Chiloe this Chirstmas, because I would not have sought to experience a
place said to embrace the heart of Chilean culture, because I would not have thought to search for
something called Chilean culture in the first instance, because I would not have learned to learn about
the world in that way. That is a gift that came from immersion among people who possessed an
appetite for learning and for seeking discovery and challenge. I have had the privilege of meeting one
such person in the town where I live, and take joy and pride in the fact that she will travel from Valdez,
Alaska this fall to join a fellowship of people who share those attributes. I have had the privilege of
watching another person grow up, pursue her own Dartmouth experience, and will now watch as she
embraces the challenge of a career in the world of theatre.
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I have had the blessing of a vantage point to observe the experiences of others, and to discover
friendships with many of them, as they took the gifts they were born with or grew into, along with
those that were refined at a place called Dartmouth, and shared them with the people they encountered
in family, workplace and community the thirty years since June of 1974. I am looking forward to
hearing some of your stories this June in Hanover. In the meantime, here are some stories to share
until we meet in June . . .
********** News from Classmates **********
Charlie Post sent this reflection on the subject of music, in response to the last Newsletter:
Hey Rick, I enjoyed your piece on musical genres. Recently I got to see both Springsteen and Rod
Stewart in concert. An arena full of aging Boomers reliving our "glory days" when we were young
and invincible. It was wonderfully nostalgic and pathetic at the same time. Music seems to unleash
the dormant energy in our souls. Best of all, it's legal and you can do it while driving.
I have become a big fan of Afro-Carribean music over the past 20 or so years. When we lived in DC
there was a Saturday morning show featuring Afro pop music. I don't pretend to know the names of
the big groups, I just love the sound. It probably started with Paul Simon's "Graceland" album and
"Capetown Fringe" by Dollar Brand. What is it about this music that is so attractive? It's "real" or
"authentic" or "life affirming". How can you explain the power of a Bob Marley to connect with so
many millions of people, most of whom would be afraid to meet him on a dark street?
But my favorite musical style is central European, beer-drinking, polka music. That music bypasses
my higher level thought processes and connects directly with my cultural and ethnic heritage, hardwired deep into my cerebral cortex. It also brings back fond memories of my foreign study program in
Germany in 1972. Hello, Mike Kelley, remember rooming with me in Mainz?
The rest of my life currently revolves around work and the care and feeding of our two teenage boys,
ages 16 and 13. Their music sucks. Hope to see you in Hanover in June,
Charlie Post
Charlie, this is good. Bring a couple of polka CDs to the reunion tent, and we'll see if any of the
former German LSA students can still get down — or whatever they call it in Mainz!
POST, Charles C. (Ann) 1125 Parkview Way, Lilburn GA 30047 (h) 770.717.7388 (w) 770.879.3500
(e-mail) [email protected]
During our travels in Chile, we ran into a guy from Guatemala, where John Cleary travels regularly in
connection with his company's jade mining venture. It could have been Cleary, except he wasn't dusty
enough:
"Ranger: Not much new to report. We are pursuing the jade project with the objective of putting a
dimension stone quarry into production to mine the jade. If you know a company with $5m to start a
quarry & a stone cutting & polishing facility we would be grateful for the lead."
Saludos,
John Cleary
CLEARY, John (Elaine) Box 19727, Reno NV 89511 © 775.848.3794 (w) 775.852.4049 (e-mail)
[email protected]
Bruce Bilger plans to attend our Reunion, and checks in from Houston
"Our four boys are enjoying their teenage +1- years. Bruce is a third year student at University of
Virginia in its undergraduate business school. He expects to spend the summer working for Lazard
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Freres in NY. Michael is a second year at U'A. Both are in Kappa Sig and probably doing the same
things we did in the Phi Deft house a few (30) years ago. David is in 10th grade and Richard is in 5th
grade at St. John's School in Houston. All are active in sports and certainly keep us young. I can no
longer count on two hands and two feet the number of baseball and basketball teams I have coached.
Carole is active at school and playing ladies tennis, and somehow still looks like she did when we were
in college.
The Energy industry is still alive and kicking. I just finished representing Enterprise Products in its
$13 billion merger with GulfTerra Energy Partners in the mid-stream gas business. Before that I
helped Orion Refining Corporation sell its 185,000 BPD refinery to Valero for $500 million. Ig hard
to believe but I have now been at Vinson & Elkins for 26 years.
Look forward to seeing everyone at the Reunion in June."
BILGER, Bruce R. (Carole) 3632 Chevy Chase Dr., Houston TX 77019-3010 (h) 713.961.0060 Bruce
R. Bilger, Vinson & Elkins L.L.P., 2300 First City Tower, 1001 Fannin, Houston, TX 77002-6760 (w)
713-758-2614 (e-mail) [email protected]
As one of the former lead DJ s for Alpha Theta, Rick Shefchik was kind enough to respond to my plea
for newsletter news, and to add his thoughts to the discussion of music we listened to then, and the
music we listen to now:
Rick – We've had a more typical Minnesota winter this year, meaning that there's been at least a foot
of snow on the ground since shortly after Christmas. It's been great for skiers, but since I am showing
definite signs of leading the Class of '74 in most number of aching body parts (both knees, left
shoulder, and some mysterious upper back pain when I mis-hit an iron shot), I haven't taken advantage
of the slopes this winter.
Our daughter Claire has been enjoying the warmth of Tucson as a freshman at the University of
Arizona. As I write this, she is preparing to journey to New York City over her spring break to see one
of the final performances of Nathan Lane and Mathew Broderick in "The Producers." She says it's the
defining production of her generation; I had thought that was 'The Itchy and Scratchy Movie," but
now that she's in the theater program at Arizona, I'm learning a lot of things I didn't know before.
It's interesting how close you can now remain to your college student despite the distance separation.
When I was at Dartmouth, the 1500 miles between Hanover and Duluth, Minn., seemed like a vast
gulf that could only be physically crossed twice a year, plus the occasionally letters and phone calls
that provided a chance to feel maginally connected to your family and friends back home.
Now, with phone cards, cell phones, e-mail and the internet, we don't go more than a few days without
talking to our daughter, exchanging messages or helping with her matters of finance, room, board and
curriculum. When we haven't heard from her in a while, our 15-yeaiold son David is likely to say,
"Oh, I was chatting with her on-line for an hour last night. What do you want to know?"
We've definitely moved beyond the stages of raising children; now we're squarely into the young adult
years. Our son landed his first real job this month (he doesn't count caddying), making sandwiches at
Quiznos. I would have been happy had he not worked during his high school years, but he wants to
save for a car. His grades are fine, so as long as he's enjoying the work and not falling behind in
school, I guess he can decide how best to manage his time. I have to admit, I wish I had saved up some
cash by the time I started college — if nothing else, it would have helped my buy more albums at the
Listening Post.
Oddly enough, when David wants a new CD, it's likely to be something I might have bought back
then — Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and the Doors are among his favorites. He started learning the
5
guitar, and he's joined a band with some of his pals. They haven't quite got a complete song learned
yet, but since they practice at a friend's house rather than ours, I'm all for it.
You asked about music we would nominate in a variety of categories, and I find that, just as my son
seems drawn to the '60s and '70s, I'm almost more interested now in music from my own father's
era. The CDs I keep closest to the stereo these days are by Miles Davis and Frank Sinatra. I didn't
listen to either of them in college — in fact, I don't think I heard a Frank Sinatra song during my
entire four years in Hanover. Now, however, I would include "Kind of Blue" and a collection of the
best of Sinatra's work for Capitol in the '50s among my very few desert island discs. I grew up
listening to my dad play the trumpet; my son grew up listening to me play the guitar. I guess there's
some meaning in there somewhere.
Regarding the other categories you mentioned:
1.My personal essentials from our undergrad years include "Sittin' In" by Loggins and Messina,
"Gilded Palace of Sin" by the Hying Burrito Brothers, "For Everyman" by Jackson Browne, Joni
Mitchell's "For the Roses," "Give It Up" by Bonnie Raitt, "Desperado" by the Eagles and "California
Bloodlines" by John Stewart. There would be more, but these came to mind right away — I still get
pleasure from all of these albums.
2. Favorite Rock/Pop Tunes from Post-1974 — too many to narrow down, I suppose, but "Thunder
Road" by Springsteen and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears popped into my
head, for starters.
3. Favorite choices for party music — Ever since "Animal House" was released, "Shout" has been a
necessary component of any truly over-the-top party, though I don't recall ever hearing at Dartmouth.
Maybe I went to the wrong frat parties. I think "Pump It Up" by Elvis Costello and "Love Shack" by
the B-52s will get things going, too.
4. Personal Musical Discoveries — I would introduce my friends to Eddi Reader (especially her first
CD with Fairground Attraction, and her solo album called "Eddi Reader.") I also really like the
Jayhawks, a Minnesota roots-rock-country band that has almost made the bigtime for about ten years
now.
5. The desert island music has been covered — Miles and Frank (and a pitcher of martinis, or a nice
cabernet — is that asking too much?)
I'm sorry we won't be able to attend the reunion this June. I'll miss seeing you and our classmates. If,
at some point during the weekend, you find yourself down on the tent floor during the "little bit softer
now" section of "Shout," Barbara and I will be there writhing next to you in spirit. –Rick
SHEFCHIK, Richard S. (Barbara) 2031 Oak Glen Lane, Stillwater MN 55082-9643 (h)
651.439.6797 (w) 651.228.5577 (e-mail) [email protected]
Don Casey embarked on a new adventure on the far side (wait, wait — that's THIS side) of 50, with
marriage to Lisa Kim last year. Here's a long overdue note from our former (and very faithful) class
secretary, ghost written by his bride:
The year 2003 was a busy and landmark year both professionally and personally for Don Casey, most
recently of Cincinnati, Ohio. After well over a decade of bachelorhood, Don finally "tied the knot" on
a warm, sunny fall day, Saturday, October 11, 2003. Don and his bride Lisa Kim were married in a
beautiful, intimate and private setting, the Frank W. Howes Memorial Chapel, on Northwestern
University's Evanston, Illinois campus, followed by an elegant dinner party reception at the RitzCarlton Chicago. The reception was attended by 35 guests made up of immediate family, niece and
nephews and a very few close local friends, including Bruce and Alice Williamson and Chris and
6
Sara Pfaff. Bruce did a great job as Best Man. Don writes, "Thanks for being there for us and for the
memorable toast, Willie!" The couple honeymooned in Palm Beach, Florida following the wedding
and then relaxed on an extended honeymoon in December at the Four Seasons resort in Punta Mita,
Mexico, just north of Puerto Vallarta.
Since the last Dartmouth reunion, Don relocated to Cincinnati from Annapolis, Maryland in the
summer of 2001 to assume the role of chief medical officer of Catholic Healthcare Partners (CHP).
The largest non-for-profit health system in Ohio and one of the largest in the country, CHP consists of
more than 100 corporations that serve the health needs of people in five neighboring states. His role is
to align CHP's quality strategies and resources with business needs to achieve optimal clinical
outcomes and improved patient safety. "I miss having the opportunity to hang out with my former
Annapolis neighbor Jeff "Lingus" Corelitz, but Mike Draznik is right in my Cincinnati
neighborhood now. It's great to be back in the Midwest, my old stomping grounds more than a decade
ago," he said. Don and Lisa's hometown of Chicago is where the couple originally met.
Lisa is a communications executive who spent most of her career in various industries in Chicago.
Most recently, she served as Vice President of Corporate Communications for Cardinal Health in
Dublin, Ohio, overseeing the company's branding, advertising, media and public relations, events and
audio visual departments. She will focus her time now on continuing her interests closer to the greater
Cincinnati area. One of the highlights at Cardinal Health was the opportunity to work on a branding
and advertising project with Wayne "Dude" Whitmore's lovely wife Alice, an ad executive in New
York City. On a brief trip out East last summer, Don also had the opportunity to visit with Greenwich,
Connecticut's Rick and Jill Woolworth and their lovely girls.
One of the nice things about Don's relocation to Cincinnati is its close proximity to Chicago, where the
annual Charity Cup Golf Tournament is held. A brain child of Rick and Cate Waddell (Dartmouth
Class of '75) and Bruce and Alice Williamson, tournament goers also consist of BM and Diane Hart
and Chris and Sara Pfaff. Don had the good fortune of winning the tournament last year and with it,
came the opportunity to provide a generous donation to Misericordia North, on behalf of Lisa's
youngest sister, from the Charity Cup. Misericorida North in Chicago is a home for the mentally
disabled.
With the wedding, quite a bit of travel and holidays behind them, Don and Lisa look forward to a much
less eventful 2004 after quite a busy second half last year. In the meantime, Lisa is busy fixing up the
house and Don will continue to work on lowering his handicap this spring.
"We are excited and look forward to visiting again with all of our wonderful friends at the Dartmouth
reunion this summer, and we hope you'll come visit us if you're headed out this way" Don and Lisa
write.
CASEY, E. Donald (Donald E. Casey, Jr.) 565 Tusculum Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45226 (h) 513321-8744 (w) 513-639-2769 (cell) 513-673-9994 (e-mail) [email protected]
Chris Gates is another classmate willing to take a few chances after Fifty. Living in Manhattan, the
home of live theatre, proved too much of a temptation, and Chris has succumbed to the lure of the
footlights. Here's an e-mail that Chris sent to friends back in February:
Hi: I am appearing this month as Col. Pickering in a production ofMy Fair Lady. If you would like to
come see it, I would love to have you there.
The sponsoring organization is the Amateur Comedy Club. We are a private theatrical club here in
NYC and produce our plays only for our members and invited guests — not for the public. So, there
are no tickets to purchase, per se. (And no chage.) However seating is limited (100 per show) and
done on a first come, first served basis. All weekend performances are black tie (alas, no exceptions).
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If you choose to come, I would encourage you to consider coming at the beginning of the run — even
to a dress rehearsal next Monday, Feb. 9 or to the Preview, next Tuesday Feb. 10. While we are apt to
be working out the bugs in the show during those first few performances, I will probably have more
flexibility in getting you a seat. Later in the run it gets a little dicier and there will likely be a waiting
list. If you do reserve and have to cancel, please call the theater directly with the cancellation (212685-1032) so that they can give your seat to someone else.
Last time I was in Anchorage I checked the "Broadway" bins in the music store at Borders but, alas,
the original cast recording of My Fair Lady with Chris as Col. Pickering has yet to displace Rex
Harrison and Julie Andrews. It's also a damn shame Hirschfeld is dead. I'd have paid good money to
see how he would have drawn Chris for a program cover! Congratulations, Chris!
GATES, Christopher C., 525 E. 72nd St. #47B, New York NY 10021-9615 (h) 212.879.8094 (w)
To continue the theme of '74's with performing arts avocations, if members of our class survive our
misspent youth and find themselves capable of marching at Graduation at our 50th Reunion, Dave
Johnson can lead the way with his bagpipes:
"Rick, It's been awhile. Thought I would drop you a quick note. Back to working for myself, but
having a great time with a startup beef jerky company – Distinctive Brands, Inc. – which produces
Wild Ride Beef Jerky. This is a great product, all natural with no nitrites or MSG – and we can
produce a zero carb product for all you Lou Adkins fans. I'm also working in the gold and palladium
business, consulting to several natural resource companies on corporate development matters. Gold is
finally back!
My daughter Morgan, now 16, and I are also piping together as a father-daughter team at weddings and
other events. If we can get to Reunion, maybe we can wake up everyone. See you soon."
JOHNSON, David Stafford (Stephanie) 740 Gilpin St., Denver CO 80218-3634 (h) 303.394.3852 (w)
Catherine is envious. She knows we will never be in a position to donate enough money to Duke to be
'in a position to attend a Duke-Carolina game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, but now we are able to
enjoy vicariously the experience of a Dartmouth classmate who will have courtside privileges – our old
buddy Reils, Tom Reilly, who gets in the back door at Cameron and all sorts of other cool venues,
thanks to his ESPN press pass:
"Hey Ranger! You old dog you! It's been too long I know. Hope all is well with you. Things are
hummin' along here at ESPN. My primary job responsibilities have moved from my favorite sport,
pro football ("NFL Primetime") to yours, college hoops. I am now coordinating producer for "College
Gamenight" on ESPN, or sometimes ESPN2. Rece Davis hosts with Jay Bilas and Steve Lavin during
the week and a host of hosts mix it up with Brad Daugherty, Len Elmore and Digger Phelps on
weekends. We're going to do 3 hour shows Saturday, March 6 at "Krzyzewskiville" outside Cameron
Indoor for the Carolina game! Should be awesome! See you at Reunion, pal!"
Yo, Reils. Since that game featured Mike Patrick and Dick Vitale as broadcasters, shouldn't that have
been "Awesome, Baby!"?
REILLY, Thomas (Sue) 100 Meadowbrook Pl., Cheshire CT 06410-4348 (h) 203.250.1188 (w)
Bert Hubinger writes with a little frustration that the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine has yet to publish
the announcement that this past April he published a book of poems Sea Drums. He notes that he
seems to get little from Dartmouth except pleas for money. Bert's collection Sea Drums is available on
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Amazon, and I thought you'd be interested in the following brief reviews that Amazon posts for Bert's
poetry: from Mitzi Mabe, Professor of Writing, University of Maryland: "Hubinger's writing
provides a passport to the soul's richest ports; from Susan Rosen, author of Shore Words: "The
original and appealing voice in Sea Drums tempts the reader into a world of contrasts"; from Jacklyn
W. Potter, Director, Joaquin Miller Cabin Poetry Series: "Hubinger's savvy word choice and
admirable economy of words expand to a view of the 20th century". So, if your neighborhood
independent book shop doesn't feature the title, Sea Drums is only a click away.
HUBINGER, Bert J. (Dr. Shelley Ann Kosisky) 1327 Farley Court, Arnold MD 21012 (h)
Don and Lisa Casey's Cincinnati neighbor, Mike Draznik sent news the old fashioned way, via
Green Card (something you can do, too — it's pre-addressed):
Hi, Rick — Enjoying your epistles from the Arctic and can see that you've kept your passion for
writing and reading. Basically, I'm writing to send you my new home address and say hi to you and
fellow '74's. I'll keep my comments to my children: Oldest Katie graduated from Colby (Maine) in
2002 and is working in New York at a marketing firm and loves city life. Second, Bill, Dartmouth
'03, is working in San Diego and living with several other Theta Delts from Dartmouth. Youngest,
Gordy, is a freshman at Fairfield University in Connecticut. Not sure whether I'll be back for the 30th,
but will keep you posted. Had a nice visit with Pete Holden in early September at his place in New
Jersey on my return trip from Connecticut, and had dinner with Jeff Corelitz in October in D.C. while
there for the Marine Corps Marathon. Keep the faith!
DRAZNIK, Michael R. M.D., 3384 Aultview Ave., Cincinnati OH 45208 (h) 513.607.4158 (cell) (w)
513.579.0707 (E-mail) [email protected]
In a couple of weeks, you'll receive a second newsletter, with a special "guest editor" piece from
Peter Blodgett, and news from other classmates.
Remember, 30th Reunion June 17-20, in Hanover. See you there!
Blessings
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2004 - Dartmouth Alumni

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