Dartmouth Class of 1986

30 years ago many of us were hearing “yes, you have been accepted Early Decision to Dartmouth”.  And without disparaging any one of you, most of us with the same credentials would hear a big “No!” today.  What is in question is “how many of us would have worked harder, to be at or near the top of our class, as today’s Dartmouth recipients of the “yes” require.

In case you are parenting your first teenager, I happily invite any ’86 to a phone seminar I do on the modern college admissions process.  If you don;t want to hear me, you can e-mail and I’ll shoot you some articles.  And there’s decent stuff at www.ivybound.net and you need to contact me at all!.

We begin in the Southeast.   Nancy Wallace is an appellate lawyer in Tallahassee, FL.  Her daughter Carla is 8 months away from being a full-fledged pharmacist.  Nancy spends much of her non-lawyering time “chasing around my 7 year old son and 4 year old grandson.”

Malcolm McIver helped the ‘86 crew alumni/ae raise $45,000 to buy new, coaching launch boats for the freshman women’s and men’s squads.  The “Class of 1986″ boats are “wakeless”, meaning they don’t produce the waves that send nearby crew boats to tip or take on water.  This will allow crew coaches to yell at young ‘shmen from up close.

Virginia Rhoads writes “My husband John McConnell and I returned from the Amazon jungle in Ecuador where we, along with a group of our clients, experience living on nature’s timing, breathing oxygen-rich clean air, and learning to listen to our hearts from an indigenous tribe – the Achuar – custodians of the rainforest.”

Mary Frances Sabo is an attorney with three children.  She writes from Albany NY “I make my world better by being active in my youngest child’s elementary school. Last week I organized a fall festival with crafts, a bounce house games and a bake sale. The focus was on creating a fun time for the community and not raising money so we kept the prices pretty low.”

Paul Shippee reports that  Kai Wesley Shippee, born in May, is doing great.  “He has a big toothless smile and likes to go jogging with me and his mother in our new baby jogger (yes, we 86′s should keep in shape!)”  Paul is in Japan, working as Country Manager for Life Fitness Japan (equipment supplier to commercial fitness clubs, universities, medical clinics, and hotels).  “My wife Mitsu and I are avid triathletes; she’s gone to the world championships twice as a competitor.  I get back to New Hampshire and Maine a couple of times each year where we spend time at our lake house.”

Krista Corr, has been an FBI agent in Boston since 1989, helping keep New Englanders safe.  She is just as passionate about keeping New Englanders in touch, via a six-member cooking club, and it’s worth sharing: “We meet monthly at one of our homes for dinner.  The month’s host is responsible for cooking the main course and any sides.  Another makes the appetizer and a third makes the dessert. The other three each bring a bottle of wine.  The big rule is that you cannot cook something that you have ever made before, so we all act as guinea pigs for each other.  Each provides the recipes the other members.  Thus far, I have filled two large notebooks with “keeper” recipes!”  As Mini Reunion Chair, Krista would especially like to hear of your setting up a cooking club (or dining-out club) with classmates.  “I’ll be counting it as a mini-reunion!”

My mini-reunion was with L.J. Briggs, who practices internal medicine in Farmington CT.  He and his wife host a fishing festival for kids each July.  He is another triathlete, whose exploits in triathlon training and competing scare me.  I am convinced that I if I try, I will drown on the first leg.   (One of his fish-fest girls will scoop me up in her netting).

But I will improve my land speed.  I purchased from Matthew Weatherley-White a consumer “Restwise”, the world’s first non-invasive fatigue monitoring system.  Matthew designed it to help athletes optimize results from their exercise.  He writes “the Dartmouth Peak Performance Center became the first collegiate client of my “hobby” business.  Most of our clients are professional teams, individual elite athletes, and national sports federations. Since student-athletes face relentless pressure to perform in the classroom and on the field, we believe that an academic environment is ideal for Restwise. DP2 proved our thesis.  Even more importantly, we finally had a baby. Took a while, but Larken is dedicated to melting her father’s cold heart.”

Christina Porshe wrote about her “solar system”: My son and I hosted 11 random visitors for the 21st Annual Washington Metro area solar tour Oct 1-2.  Our presentation was augmented with more sustainable landscaping.  Solar tour is an open house outreach event for who are committed to advocating solar and sustainable energy applications in their living space.

These outreach efforts seek to serve as a force multiplier encouraging neighbors  to query and explore these applications in their own home.  Some of us have modest systems;  others are net-zero.  I inserted applications during the last stages of a renovation.  I also applied for a competitive demonstration grant to subsidize the cost of the solar system.   My solar system is on the 2nd floor roof but can be viewed from the 3rd floor deck and I also exhibit passive solar design in the 3rd floor bathroom.  In my case I also feature LED lighting, insulation, energy efficient glass , dual split systems for heat and cooling,  rubber gaskets, insulation, glass infused wood, and  loc voc  paint.   This was a new concept for my contractor so I felt I was at a rodeo  pulling him down by the horns to turn in the direction and still avoid an excessive additional cost increase.  During these events the idea is to connect and explain what the homeowner did what’s feasible, the impact, lessons learned, etc.

Happy Holidays.