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BRANT WARD / THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
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A compelling Sunday profile in the June 5, 2011, San Francisco Chronicle featured B J Mi ller ’89, new executive director of the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco and a palliative care specialist at UCSF Medical Center. Miller suffered multiple, life-altering injuries in an accident during his sophomore year at Princeton University in November BJ Mi lle r ’89, whose left arm and two legs were 1990. He and a few friends amputated after an accident in 1990, is now a from his crew team had palliative care doctor in San Francisco. gotten together for a few drinks, he recalls. Around 3 a.m., they were walking to a convenience store when they decided to climb an electrified shuttle train parked on campus. “I jumped on top,” Miller told reporter Patricia Yollin. “I had a metal watch on and I was very close to the power source. The electricity just arced to the watch.” Nearly 11,000 volts of electricity charged through Miller’s body and he was transported by medical helicopter to a local burn unit. Doctors had to amputate his left arm below the elbow and both legs below the knees. These days, Miller is a dedicated doctor who works 70-80 hours a week. He is co-founder of the Tribute Tea Co. with SG roomie Justin Burke ’89 and is coming up on his first-year wedding anniversary to Jori Adler, 33, an associate television producer. Check out the full profile at www.sfgate.com. The distinguished career of Washington veteran Ri ch ar d Ke ssle r ’66, who now serves as minority staff director for the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was highlighted in the National Journal magazine’s June 18 edition. Kessler, the article notes, has served as staff director of five different committees or subcommittees during his 22 years on the Hill, and is now “known as a calming force as the minority staff director.” Kessler, a Ph.D.,
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served three years in the Army during the Vietnam War, and graduated from Colgate and from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. No stranger to travel as an Army brat, he continues to travel the world to work on government policy issues around the globe. Bo b by E d en b a ch ’90, who works as a manager of web design and development for NPG Nature Asia-Pacific, was in Japan in March while the country was rocked by the earthquake and tsunami that caused at least 10,000 deaths and billions of dollars in damage. Edenbach, a former Portsmouth, R.I., resident who now works at the firm’s Tokyo headquarters, recounted his experiences to the Newport Daily News in a front-page feature story about two weeks after the earthquake. He told the paper that the destruction and the frequent power failures caused by the event forced NPG Nature Asia-Pacific to move out of Tokyo temporarily. “For a while, it changed my life dramatically,” he said. “The company moved to Hiroshima because it was too difficult to work with all the blackouts, but we’ll be returning back home soon. Society is definitely getting back to normal, and there’s still news coming in from everywhere about the cleanup.” Despite the chaos, the Japanese people responded admirably, he said. “The people here, how they reacted was really impressive,” Edenbach told the paper. “I can’t help but think what it would be like back in the States, and the looting and everything you’d probably see in some parts of the country. Here, people are working to get everything back to normal as soon as possible, working with each other for the most part. It’s pretty amazing to see.” Naiad Inflatables, owned by Ste vi e Co n net t ’86 and his father Captain of Geronimo, Marine Science and English Teacher emeritus Steve Co n ne tt P’86, ’87, was in the news again this spring after the Portsmouth, R.I.-based boatbuilder began production on a fleet of boats for the Coast Guard that could be worth as much as $24 million.