alumni at large Katie, who is a junior looking at colleges. Donna found much has changed since 1985, and she can’t believe how fast the time has gone. Y Congratulations and best wishes for Debbie Neumann-Dubowsky, who wrote from Long Island where she works as a cardiologist in Huntington, N.Y. Debbie and her husband, Jay, are thrilled to announce two new additions—on Nov. 26 Debbie gave birth to beautiful boys named Evan Michael and Shaun Louis. Debbie hopes that their first sentence will be: Mom and Dad, we want to go to Colby! So, good luck Debbie and Jay; your trip to the Admissions Office is a few years off, but you’d better start saving now! Y Fortunately, Jim Gill is still out there living an adventurous life. He wrote from England where he enjoys living in the U.K. countryside 40 minutes outside London. Work has gone quite well for Jim. He has put together some good deals for his company, Vmware, and bought a house in 2006. Jim and his family went on a fantastic trip last summer to Essaouira, Morocco, and Marrakech. Essaouira has great food, beaches, culture, and it’s cheap too. Jim added that the Orson Welles version of Othello was filmed there, and a crumbling beachside fortress inspired Jimi Hendrix to write Castles Made of Sand under the influence of various substances. This year Jim’s family plans a trip to Sardinia to enjoy the most unspoiled blue-water beaches in the Mediterranean. Jim says he’s become a bit of a thespian—and that at our age the thrill of performing is a genuine replacement for the thrill of athletic competition. Jim recently bought a “green” minivan that gets 48 mpg. He thinks everyone would if faced with the $8 per gallon that he was paying in England. Y Linda Carroll Higgins is busy at home in Burlington, Vt., as mother to three children ages nine and under. After an intense 16-hour training program, Linda is now a pastoral care volunteer with the Spiritual Resource Center at Fletcher Allen Hospital. She volunteers on the cancer floor and calls it pretty intense. But given her own experiences, Linda knows she has a lot to offer patients, both in terms of experience and hope. On the travel and adventure front, Linda’s family skied at Mad River Glen every winter weekend. Her three kids are experienced tree skiers, and Linda wonders if her son Tommy is gunning for her position as her husband’s “favorite ski buddy.” After a few family 54 COLBY / SUMMER 2008
trips last summer, Linda kept busy serving as “swim team mom” carting kids to and from a.m. swim practices and meets. Linda says they are still reeling from an amazingly fun and busy Higgins family Thanksgiving in Atlanta. Y No mention of car trips up or down I-95 from Wendell Perkins, but he’s excited to announce that he now owns his own business, having recently completed a management buyout of his employer, Johnson Asset Management. The new firm, Optique Capital Management, a value equity boutique, opened new offices in Milwaukee in April 2008. The firm manages approximately $2 billion for institutions and high-net-worth individuals. Wendell lamented that his timing could have been better— buying an investment firm in a bear market—but he’s excited to own the business. —Gretchen Bean Bergill
86 Wedding bells! Grantland
Rice and Susannah Gordon tied the knot on St. John in December 2007. Grant’s Coburn dorm-mates from freshman year were both there: Wooden Boat Magazine editor Matt Murphy ’87 and Garden.com founder and CEO Clifford Sharples (who transferred to Carnegie Mellon before graduating). A fter the wedding, it was an intimate “Colby” sail to North Sound on Virgin Gorda on a 53-foot Swan—newlyweds Susannah and Grant, Matt and his sweetheart, Holly, and Cliff and his wife, Lisa. Friends to the Bitter End was the tag. When Grant isn’t honeymooning in the Virgin Islands, he spends his time as vice president for advancement at Claremont Graduate University. Y More wedding bells, it seems! On the weekend preceding Halloween 2007, an illustrious group of men gathered on Block Island to celebrate Tony Stiker’s upcoming nuptials: Bill Nicholas flew in from Los Angeles, Matt Hartley drove up from Philadelphia, Mark Gordon drove up from N YC with Josh Goldberg ’88, and the groom-to-be. Arriving from points north (Maine) were Adam Rosenbaum ’87 and Stew MacLehose; from the Boston area, Scott Lainer ’87, Don Jackson, and John Glass ’87. Peter Voskamp, who lives on the island, paid off the local authorities ahead of time. John D. Stephens ’87 joined in via Skype at his home in Slovenia. The gents all complimented one another on how little they had changed both in physical appearance and maturity level through the years. They plan
to make it an annual—as opposed to every-two-decades—event. Check out a photo on our class page. Y Great news from Suzanne Battit. Last fall she became the director of development for Partners In Health, what may be her “most rewarding and fulfilling position to date.” Partners In Health is a nonprofit based in Boston that partners with health organizations and health ministries in developing countries to bring quality healthcare to the very, very poor. It is the organization on which Tracy Kidder’s book Mountains Beyond Mountains is based. “I feel very lucky to be a part of it all,” she writes. Y Laurie Brown lives in Nobleboro, Maine, in an old Cape with some chickens and bees for pets. She is busy as an elementary teacher in Waldoboro. Having taken on third graders this year for the first time, she notes that “8-year-olds can be hysterical, especially if someone says the word ‘underwear.’” Laurie’s own kids are growing up: daughter Shelby is a freshman at Whittier College outside of Los Angeles and her sons are in high school at Lincoln Academy in Newcastle, Maine. They’re all budding musicians and Laurie credits freshman year roommate Cindy Lloyd Brogan, who played the cello and sang with the Colbyettes. “I had never seen or heard anything so beautiful in my life, so I vowed I would ‘make’ my kids learn to play!” says Laurie. Y Ted Wolff and Chris Engstrom got together for a beer in Boston in February. Having escaped wives and kids for the evening, they kept details top secret. Y Amy (Lumbard ’88) and Guy Holbrook along with their daughters, Sarah, 11, and Welles, 4, and their son, Guy “the 5th,” 7, went on a five-day whirlwind tour of Walt Disney World in November 2007 and ran into the Andy Peer family! Upon returning to Logan, Guy ran into classmate Peter Cooke in the parking garage. It’s a small world! Y Amy Barnes Hurley is busy at home with kids Kevin, 16, and Brenna, 12, and two golden retrievers. If that weren’t enough, she also has two home-based businesses, one with Arbonne International and the other with SendOutCards. Amy sees Jessica Flood Leitz often and they continue their annual November get-together with Robin Clisby Pelczar, Terry Appleton, and Lisa Foley. Y Speaking of Robin, she was promoted in January to human resources benefits officer at Meredith Village Savings Bank in Meredith,
N.H., the small, local community bank where she has worked since 1994. She began there as an assistant in human resources. Y Bill Yardley lives in Houston after moving from Needham, Mass., a year and a half ago. He’s working for Spectra Energy and says that, between the weekly travel and two kids (Annie, 12, and Turner, 10), he has little time for anything else! Y But he DID find time to write me and aren’t you glad he and everyone else did? Now, please do the same and send me some news! I love hearing from you all! —Henrietta “Hank” Yelle
87 As you read this, the Beijing
Olympics are about to start. So please watch and root for me in my two big events, the Hot Chocolate Lift and Marathon Nap. I hold world records in both. Now, on to the scuttlebutt. Ted Grevelis settled in Woodbury, Minn., as director of sales, North Central U.S., for IGT. Ted says, “I’ve traveled to lots of exotic places, like Pierre, S.D., Warroad, Minn., New Buffalo, Mich., and Council Bluffs, Iowa. I’ve done a lot of work with tribal casinos, and you could not ask for better clients.” Continuing on that theme, he also started Grevelis Racing Stable to expand his lifelong interest in thoroughbred and standardbred racing. “Maybe not the Triple Crown or Breeder’s Cup, but they sure are longer term goals!” Y In October Karen Czuchry Sallmann, her husband, Florian, and two kids, Selina, 5, and Sydney, 1, moved from Vienna, Austria, to Trieste, Italy. After only five months, Selina speaks fluent Italian. Says Karen, “It is really amazing how fast kids learn. After 11 years in Germany, it is a big adjustment for us all.” (Don’t be jealous, Ted. I’m sure Italy is a lot like Iowa.) Y Adding to Colby’s legendary coupling lore, Rick Huntress and Karen Welling got engaged in January. Said Rick, “I pulled out the ring on the chairlift at Mad River Glen. The first words out of her mouth were ‘Don’t drop it!’ I asked, ‘Is that a yes?’” It was. Y Liz Nordlie lives and works in Switzerland with her husband and two children. She’s General Mills’ marketing director for Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. (So, not much going on with her.) “It’s quite a change from Minnesota, to say the least, and a great experience for all of us. Work takes me to many countries and we travel as a family. The kids attend an international school, which brought