to the spring, when we start going, on a near weekly basis, to the Mount Sunapee region in New Hampshire. Just celebrated my mother’s 83rd birthday and always look forward to my chance encounters with fellow Hopkins alums around town or wherever they might occur!”
1978
Andrea Boissevain hrc95ster@gmail.com
Hat in hand, I confess that I missed the deadline for last issue’s class notes. Our glorious class picture was posted, but no narrative! So let’s rewind and relive reunion! Reunion was fun and most of us missed the huge downpour, except for Kevin Maloney, who was none the worse for wear. He’s still with Wells Fargo and incredibly proud of his daughter, who is an optometrist with Warby Parker serving as Senior Clinical and Medical Affairs Manager. His son is married with a 3-year-old and is a manager at Big Y in Enfield, Connecticut. Kevin and his daughter are asked every year to volunteer with Robert Yudkin at the Dallas Rotary Club Service trip to Mexico for the Guerrero Eye Clinic. She already volunteered at six eye VOSH (Volunteer Optometric Services for Humanity) care clinics in Peru. Robert could not join us because he was at a family event in New Hampshire… so close, yet too far! More on his adventures later. Michael Ryan (former cardiologist turned vein specialist) and his wife, Hildegard (a pediatrician), flew in from Missouri for the event. Seriously, he flew the plane, himself. Mike has pursued a lifelong interest in flying to the point of becoming a commercial pilot so he can fly his vein specialty team to various clinics across the country—of course, this is in addition to having raised four children, ages ranging from teens to the twenties, and keeping up with their respective busy lives. Another doctor in the tent was Richard Bernstein, who apparently has operated on a couple of classmates! You need to check out
SPRING 2019
his wide-awake surgery postings. Reunion Committee member Steve Falcigno and wife Loredana joined the party—proud HOP parents of two grads who are both college graduated and launched into the real world. Reunion was so inspirational that now Steve, Jud Smith, and Rich get together every month or so for dinner! Burch Sise Valldejuli and her husband, Raul, joined us after having hosted the night-before gathering at mActivity, a gym, a retreat really for those who don’t need or want the loud noise, ubermirrored, judgment-filled environment of a “run-of-the-mill” gym (that Burchy co-owns and manages). She provided food and drink and wonderful conversation. We had great fun when Welmoed Bouhuys Sisson (hailing now from Fredericksburg, Maryland) and Jane Sikand Edelstein ’79, an honorary classmate, showed up at both events. Welmoed is the celebrated seamstress who provided our class with a brand new class banner. She worked with the development office to get measurements and designed it so we could actually see all of our names. Thanks, Welmoed! Also attending both events were Karen Monteith Flynn and Gina Carloni Hart. Honestly, they too look not a day over 18. Karen just graduated the last of her children from college. She is still with University of New Haven in its Financial Aid section, helping students pay for that college education. Gina continues to accomplish great things for her passion, the Boys and Girls Village in Orange, a volunteer organization her grandfather founded more than 75 years ago. Apparently it’s a family affair that involves husband Kevin Hart, son Connor and daughter Courtney, raising money at various events to support the services and facility for at-risk youth. Jud Smith also joined us at Burch’s place. He continues to make that Orange Hills Golf Course hum and maintains that incredible ear-to-ear smile of his. Another great smile among of us is that of Betsy Doyle. She drove down from Geneva, New York, where she works at the Canandaigua VA Medical Center.
She is very proud of her boys, Ben, Jake, and Nathan. Nathan recently got married, lives in San Diego, California, and is in the Navy. Andrea Isaacs (Reunion Committee member) and husband Angus McDonald Jr. arrived amidst the rain, joining us under the tent. Her business, Cloud Nine Catering in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, caters weddings at their “industrial chic” facility, a restored 19th century space known as the Lace Factory in Deep River Landing. Frankie Huckaby came all the way from Anniston, Alabama, to reunion. I had the pleasure of seeing him in Anniston in January and was thrilled that he had penciled the event in. He is at General Dynamics when he isn’t busy perfecting his BBQ rub for Phat Frankies, his impromptu BBQ venture. It was great having him back in the fray on the Hill. Duane and Allie Crisco rolled in, looking not a day older than they did on May 12, 1978—not sure they could make it because of the weather and other commitments, but they did. Mark Harrison and wife Theresa attended. Mark is still busy with Meyers, Harrison & Pia. Dave Keegan and wife arrived from Atlanta to join the group. They are doing a lot of golfing (they even met golfing!), I think they mentioned they were close to retirement? Jealous! Bill Miller, a.k.a. Milo, arrived before the rain. He hails from Oxford, Connecticut (my old hometown), where he runs Miller Investment (investment and financial planning services) with three grown (and launched) sons. We want to thank the reunion committee who pulled off yet another successful testimony to celebrating our aging process. We are not the fledgling 18-year-olds we were in 1978. We all have evolved, moved in various directions, and yet are connected by a strong bond of having spent formative years on the Hill. On other fronts, Bob DuCharme sent this note back in April and just missed the last edition: “While playing upright bass in the local minor league jazz scene since we moved to Charlottesville in 2003, I’ve written enough songs that I’ve recorded an
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