ALUMNI NEWS
consultant. He is also trying his hand at writing a novel although he insists there is “no guarantee if [he will] ever actually finish it.” Suggested working title is Night of the Rhythmic Clappers. I love that Scott Smitherman said, “not sure if I sent you anything last year.” Considering I don’t think we have heard from Scott since the 90s, the safe bet is, “no, you did not.” But I was very happy to hear from him this year. His news is that he and his wife Sheila welcomed baby Sophia last year, which brings their total to four children including Gabriella (10), Zoe (8) and James (3). The family lives in Olympia, Washington, where Sheila practices neurosurgery and Scott practices internal medicine and serves as the CMIO of the Providence Medical Group. I hope we don’t have to wait until 2030 for Scott’s next update. Charlotte Gregory Sullivan asks the very pertinent question, “We all need to slow down, don’t we?” Reply from 103 classmates, “YES!” Her notable news is that her daughter Olivia is very excited to enter the sixth grade class at Kinkaid this fall. This is the 20th year that I have written our class update. Are you sick of me yet? I would like for you all to know that I played hooky from work today to write this one for you. Does that make me incredibly devoted to the task or a giant procrastinator? Maybe both? The job I skipped today is legal counsel at National Oilwell Varco, located at the intersection of Houston’s Chinatown and the Hood. It’s a great place to work, not so great for running lunchtime errands. Fun fact – my son Charlie turned one on May 16, and Chris Graf’s son Charlie turned nine on May 16. Great cheerleaders think alike. So that is it for now, and by the time there is another update published for our class we will have all faced 40 in a fearless manner. Well, except for maybe our youngest, Evy. She really is late to everything, isn’t she?
1995 Meredith Riddle Chastang Houston, Texas meredithchastang@gmail.com Mary Sommers Burger Pyne Houston, Texas marysommers@yahoo.com Our 20th reunion was absolutely incredible, thanks to our Reunion chairs, Meredith Riddle Chastang, Leisa Ladin Dillon and Robyn Lee Canterbury. It was a treat for me to work with them. For those of you unable to attend, here’s a brief overview…
We jumped in our Broncos and popped in a mix tape and had more fun than we ever did on top of the Y. Well not exactly, but on Saturday, April 25th, at the beautiful new home of Embry and Robyn Lee Canterbury, we started at 7 p.m. and lasted until the wee hours of the night, 2:30 a.m., to be exact. We had a DJ, Pappas’ delicious food and lots of fun mementos, including old field hockey and lacrosse sticks, pom-poms, megaphones, old jerseys, class of 95 t-shirts, mugs, old photo albums and all the yearbooks from our four years at Kinkaid! We even had a hashtag, #purpleandOLD. We had 59 classmates join in the fun – that’s a whopping 50% of our graduating class! It was so great to see so many of you, and meet your spouses. Also check out the June edition of Buzz Magazine. Our reunion will be featured! Here is some news from classmates who were unable to make the trip home for the reunion: Since 2013, Tim Okabayashi has been working for Schlumberger in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He has traveled throughout most of Southeast Asia for work. His wife Casey, daughter Cooper (3) and son Forrest (3 months) are enjoying their time there. Tim reports that they “have made some wonderful friends and found some hidden places to eat queso and tacos al pastor, so living conditions aren’t too rough over here. We made wonderful holiday trips within Malaysia and to Thailand, Singapore and Sri Lanka. If anyone has travel plans through this area please reach out. Looking forward to bringing Forrest to his home country of Texas for the first time in June for a visit.” Lindsey Tate and her sister Laurel ’92 will be opening a second location of their shoe store, Two Sole Sisters, in Denver. Lindsey has three furry babies (two dogs and a cat) and her fourth baby is a motorcycle. Good luck, Lindsey! On January 5, Ashley Browning Pfiester welcomed son, Benjamin “Ben” Hewitt Pfiester. His big brother Charlie (2 1/2) already enjoys stealing his toys and blankets. If that wasn’t enough, the Pfiesters decided to embark on a major remodel/house add-on starting this summer. Ashley continues to work as a literacy specialist at Trinity Episcopal School.
ANNUAL REPORT SPRING SUMMER 2015 2015
Niels Jensen continues to enjoy the island life. Over the summer he is planning on exploring a bunch more of the outer islands with wife Kate and sons Erik (5) and Luke (2). Chris Jordan is a lawyer at Lieff Cabraser Heimann and Bernstein in San Francisco.
1996 Niels Jensen ‘95 with wife Kate and sons Erik (5) and Luke (2)
Katherine Howe has a new novel debuting this Fall. The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen will be coming out on September 15, 2015 from Penguin Books. I’ve just pre-ordered my copy on amazon. com! Next school year, Kate and her husband will be doing fellowships at Stanford. Kate writes, “If there are any West Coast Kinkaidians, I hope to get to see them.” Recently, Ryan Heine made the switch from law practice to sales and is the newly appointed Director of Business Development at Refined Systems, LLC – an audio visual and automation provider for residential and commercials building projects. He lives in Timbergrove with his two dogs, Sheba and Pippa, still searching for the right woman to make him an honest man. Robin Lewis Baker and her husband Brian welcomed George Herrick Baker on born February 11. George made his first airplane trip to come to Houston so Robin could attend our reunion. Big brother Hamilton is very proud of his new brother, and the Bakers continue to enjoy living in Washington, DC. Robin works in the admissions office at National Presbyterian School, a private school in the area. Jason Dillee and his wife Sally welcomed new daughter Margo Christy Dillee on April 21. She joins brothers, Jeb and Hayes, who are excited to have a little sister. Lesley Kadish is currently a Fellow with the Smithsonian and a visiting researcher at Georgetown University. In 2012-2013, Lesley was awarded a yearlong Fulbright Scholarship in Helsinki, Finland. Her project was titled “Evaluating the Impact of Design and Geospatial Technologies on History Museum Audiences”. Travis Winfrey and his family are doing well here in Saskatchewan (that’s western Canada, eh!), and enjoying small town life on the Canadian prairies, where his wife Thera grew up. Their daughter Abigail is five, and their son Seth is three. Travis is working for a Bible college where he takes care of financial matters. He sends “warm greetings to the class of ’95!”.
Erin Jones Brown Houston, Texas erinjonesbrown@gmail.com Emily Mitchell Covey Houston, Texas emily.covey@gmail.com Debbie Blumberg reports that baby girl number two is on the way, due in early September. They’re very excited! In addition to Debbie’s fulltime writing/editing job she’s also started freelancing a bit more lately, and is about to launch her own freelance website – deborahlynnblumberg.com. She would love to work with Kinkaid alums with writing/ editing/communications needs. Harris Brodsky is still living in Austin and working as an anesthesiologist. Jason Creech got married last October! Several Kinkaid guys made it out for the Big Day. (A photo was in the last issue of the Kinkaid magazine.) Danielle and Jason Creech are living in beautiful San Francisco and enjoying their newly married life together. Lauren DiPaolo is still living in the West Village (of NYC) just down the street from Anita Patil. She is now the Executive Director in Technology Risk at Morgan Stanley and enjoying it. She recently roadtripped out of the city with Anita, her husband and Nandita Sahni ’99 to visit Rohini Sahni and her family at their new home. They miss having Rohini as a neighbor in the West Village but are excited to BBQ in her backyard on weekends this summer. Canaan Factor spent most of the spring nursing Canaan’s (7) broken ankle and Baron’s (3) broken foot. He’s looking forward to a fun-filled summer! Kathryn Floyd is working at Milk Studios, in their digital creative agency as Editorial Director. She does creative consulting for all types of brands, from working with David Beckham to Intel + Opening Ceremony to Nike to the New York City Ballet. It certainly keeps her busy. She’s ready for the weather to get warm and stay warm and is hoping to make it to Austin this summer, as well as Tulum, New Orleans and London to see some fellow Texans. Betsy LaFuze Gill will be moving from State College, Pennsylvania, to Knoxville, Tennessee, in June along 57
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