the common room
keting, I recently accepted an offer to become a major gifts officer at Old Dominion University effective February 11, 2013,” Peter Lawrence wrote when we last heard from him. “It’s a wonderful up and coming university and I encourage classmates with high school juniors and/ or seniors to take a look at it: odu.edu. The steady paycheck and benefit package will be a nice change. I don’t know if there are too many, if any, Deerfield/ODU alums but contact me if you are one. I’d love to learn about your ODU experience. For classmates unaware, my beautiful bride and I moved to Cape Charles on Virginia’s Eastern Shore three years ago. We live in a place called Bay Creek. Check it out at baycreekresort.com. We have two spectacular golf courses along the Chesapeake Bay (Palmer and Nicklaus signatures courses), and it’s only five and a half hours from the Lincoln Tunnel. We’d love to have classmates stop by.” Matt Mattes checked in: “Two years ago, Chris Schenck and I started talking about how I might contribute to Knapp Schenck, his family’s insurance agency, and arguably the biggest, oldest, and best in Boston that you’ve never heard of, until now. It was founded in 1921 by Chris’ grandfather and it grew dramatically under the stewardship of Chris’ father, Garret ’50. It has thrived under the direction of Chris and his cousin, David Winship, since
74
Spring 2013
1987. Chris brought me on board in June to lead the new Personal Benefits Solutions division, which encompasses life, disability, and long-term care insurance along with financial, retirement and estate planning, and executive benefits. I’ll also help broaden the agency’s property and casualty reach south of Boston and beyond. We’re based in New England, but by no means are we limited to serving only the immediate area. In fact, we have clients in most states and are exploring international capabilities, too. So, if you have any questions in these areas, don’t hesitate to call.” Mark Rubin was recently appointed the inaugural director of the new pioneering Institute for Precision Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and New York Presbyterian Hospital. Mark is a renowned pathologist and prostate cancer expert who uses whole genomic sequencing to investigate DNA mutations that lead to disease, particularly prostrate cancer. He has authored over 275 peerreviewed publications, and holds multiple NCI-funded grants in prostate cancer genomics and biomarker development; he is a member of the World Health Organization Prostate Cancer Classification and the Prostate TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) Working Group. Mark serves as an ad hoc reviewer for many publications, including Nature and The New England
Journal of Medicine. He has also won numerous awards and prizes for his work. Brian Solik reports, “By God’s grace we survived Hurricane Sandy with no damage, although we are only 20 minutes from the Jersey Shore. The roller coaster in the ocean that all of you saw—my kids and I had ridden it many times. The Bible says that ‘heaven and earth will pass away . . .’ A year ago I celebrated my 50th by jumping into the ocean (in January!) right next to that pier. I am sure most of you are feeling the effects of aging, except for a couple of our classmates who somehow compete in triathlons (I haven’t figured out how they do that). I broke my leg in August playing ultimate frisbee, had surgery, and am slowly getting back to playing flag football and frisbee with teenagers. One of these days I’ll have to call it quits . . . but not yet.”
1981 Class Captains Robert G. Bannish Andrew M. Blau Leonard J. Buck Kurt F. Ostergaard John H. Sangmeister Boyden Society Captain Peter F. McLaughlin Bob Bannish writes: “I wanted to update the news and notes from the past year on two fronts: First, the good news. My wife Kati and I had our third child (boy #3) on January 12, 2012. His name is Dempsey Lew Bannish
and joins his brothers, Tate (six) and Decker (three). The sad news is that my brother Peter J. Bannish ’74 passed away unexpectedly on July 28, 2012, in Westfield, MA. He was a three-star athlete (football, basketball, and baseball) at Deerfield in his post-graduate year. He was the main reason I decided to attend Deerfield four years after his graduation. He went on to be a star baseball player at Harvard.” “I spoke with Andy Cohen this morning and Craig Slater and Andy Freedman ’76 last week,” Morris Housen reported when we last heard from him. “I spent an afternoon with Alex Navarro ’82 and his family a few months ago. He and I reminisced about our days in Plunkett and commented that our ‘class notes pages’ get farther away from the back of the magazine each time it arrives. I bought a house in Lexington, MA, last year that was built in 1797 and couldn’t help but wonder if the folks building the house got the news about the new school being built in Deerfield that year. The house is a project and an enjoyable one. I continue my work at the Erving Paper Mills trying to keep a 107-year-old paper mill relevant for its customers. The company barely survived the recession but is thriving now. Last year I was helping my 14-year-old son with his geometry proofs; Al Schell’s voice, manner and instruction came right to mind.”