on February 23rd, which would have been our brother Ben’s 49th birthday, so we celebrated him in great style with the Boss!” Steven Petrovic and his wife Jamie still live near Ashland, Oregon. Steve has been teaching analytical and general chemistry for 17 years at Southern Oregon University, and Jamie has been teaching writing and literature courses at SOU as well. Steve writes, “The love of our lives is our darling daughter Sophia, who turned five the day after Christmas. She’s an avid reader, and she dearly loves chapter books and Calvin and Hobbes!” Steve’s family visited Cleveland last September for a week and a half. Their visit included University Circle, the “beautiful” addition to the Cleveland Art Museum, the Geauga County Fair and the Cleveland Aquarium in the Flats. Steve’s brother Marc is in his second year as Chair of the Cleveland Institute of Art Glass Department, and he gave them a tour of CIA. “A great time was had by all!” Scott Snavely sent his update just under the wire as he was busy with tax season. Justin, his second child, is graduating from Strongsville in May. He will be joining his older sister Taylor at Tri-C while he takes his core classes. He then wants to transfer to an art school for computer-generated imagery and other classes. He wants to go into video game design or artwork. Sarah (17), their youngest, is a junior at Strongsville and is getting her driving training. In December Scott and his wife Teri will celebrate their 20th anniversary, and Scott is looking forward to “20+ more”. Scott notes, “Soon all the kids will be in college, and it will become a very quiet house and a HUGE adjustment period.” Scott’s brother Jeff ’79 is also dealing with kids getting older and is “enjoying” running his two girls to dance gigs and color guard practices. Scott’s mom still plays for weddings and piano gigs all the time. She just finished four plays, one for the Hawken middle school, right in the same chapel that many of us sat in during 7th and 8th grade. Mark Hontas and his wife Laura continue to run a meeting and event planning business. Last summer, their kids joined them on a work trip through London, Paris, Rome, Florence and Venice and saw the fun side of how their mom and dad earn a living. Their daughter Elise recently participated in her 8th grade trip to Washington DC, which included a visit to Williamsburg, VA. Mark mentions having very fond memories of our 7th grade trip to Williamsburg. Their son Cole is a sophomore, and for spring break the family visited Arizona State and UA to get the college process started while Cole considers pursuing either football or lacrosse. Mark mentions
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visiting Greg Turocy, Martin Schulz and Rick Johnson and corresponding with Ted Esselstyn, Peter Henkel, Mike Jaffe and John Collis ’80. “The common denominator, all are well and so are their families.” Mark’s cousin’s son, Peter Hontas, committed to Case and will be playing football under the leadership of Derek Slesh ’84. “Another good reason to return home for a visit.” Mark concludes, “It was great to hear that the Hawken swimmers did well and that the girls won big again...I too am still swimming and love every minute of it.”
Mark, Laura, Elise & Cole Hontas Nancy Hastings is “livin’ the dream” in Denver where her two daughters, ages 10 and 14. She notes, “Most remarkably my 14 year old still thinks I’m cool - or better put - still recognizes how cool I am!” Nancy designs kitchens and sells residential real estate. “The design thing comes in handy when helping a buyer see what a house ‘can be’. My 10-year old says my super power is that I can see through walls. That’s pretty cool right? I think I need tall red boots and a cape!” With the risk of sounding incredibly boring, Gena and I still live in the same house in Shaker Heights that we purchased 20 years ago! Our son Russell ‘13 is a junior at Yale and has a dual major in History and Film Studies. Russell wants to pursue a career in film. Our older daughter Mara is a freshman at Northwestern and is premed. Our younger daughter Allison ‘18 is a sophomore at Hawken and is constantly busy. Chinese is one of her favorite subjects, and she went on a school trip to China this May. Gena is still actively involved in a variety of volunteer activities. Similarly, I am an active member of the board of the Jewish Family Services Association of Cleveland. I have also been playing some indoor soccer, where I regularly see Dan White, and I periodically have lunch with Don Anthony, who is still busy doing medical research. After spending the last two years assisting technology startups and working in venture capital, I have decided to get my hands dirty again by joining a local software company named Turning Technologies. They are best known for selling clickers, which allow teachers to survey students. Our
daughter Mara recently bought one (with her parents’ money). I, of course, thanked her for contributing to her dad’s employment. Thank you again for writing. Have a happy and healthy 2016!
1984
Wayne Lawrence wayne@weissmovers.com By the time you read this, the majority of us have already celebrated our 50th birthday …Happy Birthday! I hope all of you find yourselves healthy and happy. As they say, 50 is the new 30! Many thanks to those who were able to update the class with your news. It was truly a pleasure hearing from each of you. If you did not receive an email request from me, it means that Hawken does not have an updated email for you, so feel free to send it to me directly at wayne@weissmovers.com and I will pass along. We hope to hear from even more classmates next time. A special thanks to Laura Rosenfeld Barnes who was first to respond. Laura writes, “Thanks for your email. I’m taking your advice and replying straight away so as not to let another class news request slip away. Like you, I turned 50 in February. It was not nearly as traumatic as I feared. All is well with me. I’m still living in Ireland. It’s been 14 years so I’m quite at home here. My eldest son, Jake, is a Freshman at University of Pennsylvania and my middle son, Connor, is a freshman at Choate. Only my eleven year old step-son is home with me. I’m in no hurry to be a total empty nester! Life is busy. I’ve just launched a second art business and I’m loving every minute. Even the drudge work is fun. Anyone who is thinking of traveling to Europe should definitely add Dublin to their list of places. It’s a small, easy city to visit and a super hub to the rest of Europe. I’d even be happy to give tour!” Dana Buhl and I were able to exchange a few emails. I took a special interest in some of the work she is doing as we took a welcomed journey down memory lane. Dana updates us with “This last year has been full of growth and challenging myself personally to reach for my purpose. I suppose turning 50 will bring some of these deeper life questions about how to live as fully as possible into the forefront. In particular, I’ve been working with a multi-racial, multi-ethnic group of parents at my daughter’s school to design and facilitate monthly meetings for parents at our school and across the school district called Parents Talk Racial Equity. We’ve started small and are expanding our practice and vision together in a really
life-affirming way. This work, inspired by Courageous Conversations About Race, has motivated me to develop trainings geared primarily toward white folks to help us learn about our own racial identity and begin to address issues of race and racial equity. I’ve been inviting my white peers to look more closely at how US history and the legacy of social and economic policies have unequally benefited, and how we’ve internalized messages of privilege based on this system of inequity. Though this work has been brewing in me for decades, the rising national exposure and analysis of systemic and societal racism in the past few years has pushed me to find ways to “call people in” to this important work, and I am growing intellectually and spiritually as I continue the work”. Dana adds, “another personal area of growth for me is my physical well-being, thanks to the coaching of classmate, Dr. Traci Vernon Townsend. She’s inspired me to join her Facebook-based 21-day wellness challenges. I’m stronger and more fit than I’ve been in a while...and I love the daily contact with Traci! In addition to last May’s reunion, I’ve had a few other Hawken meet-ups. I visited with Chris King ’83 and Greg Green ’83 last summer. This year, I was honored to be part of Steve Phillips ‘82 launch team of Brown Is The New White , Steve’s NYT Bestseller about race, politics and the New American Majority! He visited Portland in early March on his book tour and we had a really great evening catching up. I’m very excited about what he’s up to on the national scene of politics! And then...coming up in June, I’ll get to visit Sara Mierke and Matt Young ‘83 in Johannesburg during my 50th birthday trip to South Africa and Lesotho with my daughter, now 10, and my husband, Bill. Of course, my brother, Kent Buhl ‘79 lives here in town, and I enjoyed lunch with him today, as a matter of fact! And Wayne, I know you’re not on Facebook, but I really enjoy the FB connections with so many wonderful Hawken folks. (And the FB offshoot of Words With Friends keeps me challenged by none other than your brother, Mike {Lawrence}, as well as Mindi Kogan Axner). It’s such a great tool of our generation for staying in touch.” Fran Bourne updates us with “turning 50 thing is a little hard to embrace. I told Wolfe in March, glad he is always a step and month ahead of me, paving the way. I am excited to say that I will be spending my actual birthday at my daughter’s 4th grade theater production of Rats, a version of the Pied Piper story, and a weekend of celebrating with family and friends close to home. Life has become very routine between my kids’ schedules and working full time at Splashlink, an