alumni at large Champion of the Underdog | J.R. Weaver-LaMountain ’89 J.R. Weaver-LaMountain ’89 works to help Rugby saved Weaver-LaMountain at Colby, rehabilitate people with brain injuries. When it he said. He began playing his junior year and comes to overcoming challenges, he’s a good was a New England All Star as a senior. Weaverperson to have on your side. LaMountain saw the team mature and become Born James Weaver, he was raised by his competitive and so wanted to ensure its upward grandparents in Atlanta while his young mother, momentum that he returned after graduation to Rose Weaver, attended college and went on to coach the men’s and women’s teams for one year. establish what would be a successful acting career. In 1997 a semi-pro football league formed in She visited him regularly, and at 11 he moved with Maine. Weaver-LaMountain stopped playing rugby her to Providence, R.I., where he enrolled at the and signed up. Unable to ignore the opportunity Moses Brown School. Summer camps and football to “exorcise some demons,” he played with the dominated his time outside the classroom. Central Maine Storm. “I was able to quench Although given many opportunities, still Weaver that thirst,” he said, noting that the team won felt like an the league underdog while championship growing up. As an three years in a African-American row. “For the most student from a big part that case is public school, he closed.” felt out of place Weaverin Moses Brown’s LaMountain has prep school stayed in central environment. At Maine and found home he had to his professional adjust to living niche. with a mother His first job whose career was was with Good blossoming. Will-Hinckley, a But Weaver’s residential school mother taught in Hinckley, him about respect Maine, where he and dignity, and at J.R. Wever-LaMountain at Champions. advocated for school eventually disadvantaged he identified his talents, he said. “I was a tough youth and guided them to jobs or college. He sell in the beginning,” he said. “My teachers really went on to KidsPeace National Centers of New worked hard to extract my strengths.” England where he worked on family preservation At summer camp he was dubbed “J.R.” because cases. “Here I [was] without children helping his pitching style resembled that of Houston people parent, but I learned from them,” he said. Astros’ pitcher J.R. Richard. Weaver altered his “I worked alongside them as a coach to help them last name in high school when his new stepfather stay together.” entered his life. “I asked him if I could take his last Weaver-LaMountain currently works for the name,” he said. “I admired him that much.” Maine Center for Integrated Rehab (MCIR), a Energized, Weaver-LaMountain tackled his final facility in Fairfield that rehabilitates people with two years at Moses Brown. He earned good grades brain injuries. As the marketing and community and was All-New England in football. He had relations coordinator, he tries to persuade doctors refined his strengths—and he headed for Colby. that MCIR is the best place for their patients. “I tell Weaver-LaMountain wanted to study [the clients’] stories in doctors’ offices or through government and play football at Colby but his plans the media,” he said. “They’re the ones doing didn’t quite work out. He left the football team the work. I just get to do the talking, and that’s his first year, he said, when a coach told him his incredibly gratifying.” running style didn’t fit with Colby’s offense. The Why stay in Waterville? decision haunted him for years. And after a few “Why not?” says Weaver-LaMountain, who internships he realized that his idea of becoming a savors the small-town connections, plays on a lawyer wasn’t a good fit. Throughout he struggled, rugby team, and works out at Champions Fitness he said, as a minority who couldn’t play the role of Club. And every year for his mother’s birthday he a prep school alumnus. sends Maine lobster. “For now, this is absolutely the best fit,” he said. “I’ve come full circle.” —Laura Meader
62 COLBY / FALL 2007
update on Colby 2007 from Economics Professor Michael Donihue ’79, who compared his undergraduate experiences to the current academic and social life atop Mayflower Hill. Of the 50 plus in attendance from the classes of ’78 to ’93, ’86 had the largest group: David Epstein, Cathy Woodward Gill, Phil and Lisa Woods Guarino, Arlene Kasarjian Soultanian, Lisa Rydin Lilliott, and Robin Venditti Stoll. Despite very unusual winter weather in Boston, most of the landscape that Dave Epstein had planted at the Allens’ the previous spring survived and was awaiting warm weather to bloom. Check out David’s new garden landscape venture at www.bloomscapes. com. Lawyers Cathy, Arlene, and Lisa were conspiring to charge by the hour for their participation in the event. Jay and Robin noted they are further away from each other on the political spectrum than they were 25 years ago. Evan and Sue were concerned that the wines might not have held up to the scrutiny of oenophile Fr. Paul Cote, who hooked them on wine-tasting as undergrads. ✹ If you haven’t fully realized just how long ago we were undergrads, listen to this tidbit. Brent and Jill Stasz Harris report that the Mary Low baby, Brad, graduated from college in May! He attended Sarah Lawrence College and concentrated on theater, film, and political science/ history. He hopes to pursue all three and perhaps head to grad school in a year or two. ✹ Bill Kules says, “After a decade of graduate school at the University of Maryland, College Park, I finished my Ph.D. in computer science and joined the faculty at the School of Library and Information Science at Catholic University.” ✹ Lisa Foley was promoted to senior director of the department of psychiatry at the Cambridge Health Alliance. In her new position she leads the department’s clinical, financial, and business operations as well as its strategic planning function—thank goodness she got that master’s of public administration from Suffolk. Sounds like she’ll be making use of it! ✹ Life is very busy with two children, notes Anne DuHaime Mainolfi. Her seventhgrade daughter is playing lacrosse and is on the school equestrian team. Her fourth-grade son is working toward his tae kwon do black belt and playing on the town’s travel soccer team. Anne has also been busy with volunteer activities including coaching lacrosse, training horses, and working for the