haven’t lost their language skills—nor their love of fine wine. • Gina Laidlaw Berger of Princeton, NJ, is offering a different kind of international adventure. She asks anyone interested in missions in Honduras or the Dominican Republic to contact her. Gina works for Catholic Charities and has also been heavily involved with many kinds of Catholic service. • Barbara Dehn is more than a practicing nurse practitioner in Silicon Valley, with an office between Apple and Google! She is a well-known and frequently sought-after expert nurse who is a regular guest lecturer at Stanford; a health expert for CBS San Francisco; and a health blogger for her website, www.NurseBarb.com, The Huffington Post, and BlogHer. She married her Reservoir RA, John Alfano, and is in contact with classmates Stephen Smith, Margaret Braccio, Cathy Konicki MBA’85, Judy Byk Rich, Karen Joerger Avery, and Suzanne Lawrence Cain. • Richard “Dick” Knoth lives in Cleveland and DC, where he practices trial work in patent and trade secret cases as a senior partner at BakerHostetler. He delivers news of his family carrying on the BC tradition! Daughter Emma ’09 is now in law school, and son Chris is a BC junior playing lacrosse. Because son Patrick graduated from the school across the river, Dick cannot claim a BC trifecta! • Harold Regan also has a BC vs. Harvard family: daughter Glenna is a junior at BC, in the marching and pep bands, and son John graduated from Harvard. Harold reports “The schools aren’t comparable…BC is a more comfortable environment to me.… BC also has gone much more ‘upscale’ since we were there.” • Any other classmates creating a BC family legacy? Please write any and all class news you have to share with us.
Your participation matters.
1981
Correspondent: Alison Mitchell McKee amckee81@aol.com In May, Joe Harkins rejoined Cushman & Wakefield as an executive director based in the Midtown Manhattan office. Joe had been a managing director at Grubb & Ellis, where he was a member of the transaction services team and the New York market leader of the firm’s national tenant advisory group. Joe has been recognized for numerous achievements throughout his 30-year career in commercial real estate, including Broker of the Year, and in 2004, his representation of the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission’s relocation to the World Financial Center was a finalist nominee for the Real Estate Board of New York’s Deal of the Year. • Dan Arkins will not be happy with me for including him in my column again, but I thought you’d be interested in hearing that he was honored at a Red Sox game in July for his service to our country. Bob Shea and others were in attendance when Dan waved to the crowd as he was projected on the Jumbotron at Fenway Park. Pretty neat—and well deserved! • I had occasion this past year to reconnect with one of Bob’s other former roommates, Tom Byrne. In the category of small-world stories, Tom’s former high school friend and teammate is the headmaster of my children’s school here in Virginia. Tom is
TERESA “TESS” POSCH O’NEILL ’76, P’07
W
hen Tess O’Neill gets restless, she sets herself a professional challenge. The Connell School of Nursing graduate went on to earn her master’s, and later a doctorate, in nursing and then added teaching at Our Lady of Holy Cross College in New Orleans to her work as a neonatal ICU nurse. Most recently, she spent a year in Amman, Jordan, on a Fulbright grant teaching in the doctoral nursing program at the University of Jordan. “Each new challenge has renewed my passion for nursing,” says O’Neill. “I’ve been able to do so many interesting things in my career, and I credit BC for that.”
Tess O’Neill found Jordan beautiful and welcoming during her recent visit as a Fulbright scholar.
what is the secret to success?
what was your favorite bc class?
Believe in yourself, do your prep work, and be disciplined.
Senior year, the year of America’s Bicentennial, I took an elective called History of Boston that was fascinating.
what is your fondest bc memory? I have magical memories of singing in the University Chorale.
what is your next goal? I’d like to teach in other countries.
for more of our interview with teresa o’neill, visit www.bc.edu/alumniprofiles
president of Campus Bookstore Consulting, an independent bookstore-consulting firm based in Longmeadow. Tom married classmate Karen Brennan, who works with him as a project manager. Their client list includes a host of colleges and universities across the country, including our alma mater. • In January, I will take over the reins from Beth (Reiss) Barbagallo as chair of the Marketing and Communications Committee of the Council for Women of Boston College, a position that Beth has held for the past two years. Beth is VP of product information management for L’Oréal USA in New York City. Her son, Greg, graduated from BC last spring, and her daughter, Allie, began her sophomore year as an Eagle this fall. • Please email me with an update—we’d love to hear from you!
Your participation matters.
1982
Correspondent: Mary O’Brien maryobrien14@comcast.net Congratulations to attorney Dennis Waggoner, who was named to the 2012 Florida www.bc.edu/alumni
Super Lawyers and the 2012 Super Lawyers Business Edition. The Super Lawyers rating service rates outstanding lawyers who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The business edition showcases some of the key firms and attorneys who have received outstanding results for their corporate clients. • As for me, this past year I completed my first year at the Dr. William Henderson Inclusion School in Dorchester. My former school, the Louis Agassiz Elementary School, closed in June 2011, and my Agassiz colleagues and I ended up in different schools in the city. The Henderson is a wonderful school, much smaller than I am used to but closer to home, and the faculty is very dedicated to the children we work with. The new academic year will bring much change with the adoption of the Common Core State Standards, which will be implemented throughout most of the country, and Massachusetts’s new teacher evaluation system. I am happy I took some time in the summer to read, relax, and enjoy some volunteer time with the youth of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Dorchester as a chaperone on their annual weeklong camping trip in Bridgton, ME. We had a fun-filled