Dartmouth Class of 1986

For the first time in a while, we have no direct international input. For the July/August column, I’d like to publish exclusively international updates. For now, we’ll begin in New York City:  Holly Webber’s comedy Pratfalls, which won the 2008 Playwrights First Award, will play at the Abingdon Theatre, opening April 27 (see groundupproductions.org). Holly writes: “It’s a play about falling down, set on a rooftop in Brooklyn, with a middle-aged comedian as its central character. My three-year-old son Wogene Jesse Webber, adopted in Ethiopia in 2010, is already a true New Yorker, who loves eating bagels, hailing cabs and hanging out in Central Park.  He also has the soul of a performer, and when he heard about my show, he said, ‘Why not I be in your play?’ and started doing pratfalls. I told him maybe the next one.”  And stay off of roofs.

From New York’s capital, Albany, Mary Frances Sabo is now adding to her lawyering and mothering with a service project at a soup kitchen for the homeless for the local Dartmouth club.   She adds: “I took two of my kids to a Dartmouth/RPI hockey game in Troy near my home. I wasn’t sure what to expect as I only went to one hockey game in Hanover. It was a lot of fun. We were outnumbered so sat with the family of one of the players, Nick Walsh ‘12.”

Virginia Rhoads is an ex-investment banker and now a personal fulfillment guide for a firm she and her husband started, the Jempe Center (www.jempecenter.com).  She writes from Washington state “We’ll be leading our inaugural two-week trip to Chilean Patagonia this coming November for a select group of our life/leadership development clients.  I am feeling fortunate to partner with my husband in our business.”

Melinda Lopez visited Cuba in November on a trip combining volunteerism with research for her play, Becoming Cuba, set during the Cuban War of Independence.   “Closer to home, I’ve helped found ‘Munroe Saturday Nights’, a performance venue bringing high quality performance, play readings and poetry slams  to metro-west Boston.   I went snowboarding at the Dartmouth Skiway– why did I never go during school? It’s great! Visited campus, and there was no snow!  Too weird to see brown grass on the Green in late February.”

Christina Porshe and her son engaged in an auspicious mother-son bonding: “My son and I both enrolled in Brazilian jujitsu last fall. I took a break for Christmas and after many plaintive entreaties I re-enrolled this past month and my chin is looking a little rough. I still am not ready to complete a cartwheel, but I executed my first effective take down last week (it was not against my son) before I was vanquished.” Her son is 5.
Maybe Christina’s son will some day impress Genevieve, the 6-year-old daughter of Sarah Wauters and husband Steve.  Sarah writes from Santa Monica, California: “My career has been a constant adventure, working after law school as a corporate transaction attorney and then as an entertainment attorney at MGM, Polygram and then on my own.  I used the freedom of sole practice to produce films, but eventually I launched my dream career of photojournalist and photo-artist.  I shot on assignment all over the country for publications such as The Washington Post, Wired Magazine,Teen People and Elle.  However, once my 40s loomed, I thought about having a family and staying home long enough to do so!   I signed on with a renewable energy company, Sun Light & Power, which designs and builds solar power and solar hot water systems for businesses.  I started at the bottom (yikes!), but now head its southern California office.”

Andy Gora is in Las Vegas, in a non-gaming related occupation.  And Natalie Wilensky is in the DC area, the mother of now 2 year old Jacob Saul.

Mark Greenstein writes: “For the first time in 11 years, I am NOT in Aspen this March.  Low snow.  Trying somewhere in the northwest instead.   (Not Alaska; not yet.)”

Werner Tillinger is medically retired from corporate banking.  He writes from Santa Fe, New Mexico “I worked as a corporate VP for a Canadian bank in San Francisco.  I moved to Santa Fe to avail myself of a quieter, less stressful life pace.  I love it here.”  Werner is very active in Santa Fe’s Unitarian Universalist Congregation.  His sermon on tolerance, addiction, Dr. Seuss, fitting in and our Dartmouth Reunion is at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2XBzE1OyFk&list=PL57130BC42612A751&feature=mh_lolz .  Yes, this YouTube mention is a first for this column; my criteria for mention are:1) engaging in the first 90 seconds, and 2) related to Dartmouth.

Mark Greenstein (for Davida Sherman Dinerman)

Click here to see the Newsletter from December 2011.

Articles include:

• In Pursuit of Excellence — 1986 = 2011 Class of the Year
• Presidential Range
• News & Notes
• ’86 Rowers Give Back
• Class of ’86 Compassion Committee
• Beth Robinson Takes Her Place of VT Highest Court
• “Cleveland Rocks”
• Reflections on Reunion

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.