class notes
her life, adding to that glow. Now on to the rest of the class. Sharyn Gewanter Collinson writes: “I can’t believe this year will mark 23 years of living south of the MasonDixon line. While I am firmly planted here in Annapolis MD, I still call NE home and cheer for the Celtics, Red Sox, and Patriots. Starting to think about high school for our son Teddy (13). Hard to imagine sending our only child to prep school. Not ready to be an empty nester.” Bill Pusey is in Portland ME, where he is in his 4th year with Promontory Interfinancial Network as an account manager working with banks across NE. His wife is a recruiter for a firm in Portland. Older son Liam is in the NH National Guard and is a junior at UNH. Younger son Colm graduates from Cheverus this spring and is looking at colleges around NE. Both play lacrosse for their schools. Juan Rachadell has been living in Lagos, a town in south Portugal, for 9 years with his wife and 3 children. His oldest is in medical school. Juan is a surgeon working in a medium-sized community hospital in Portimao. “After all these years, not a week goes by without my having a thought about NMH. It definitely left a deep mark. Crossley rules.” Good to hear from Ben Boschen on the West Coast. Ben lives in Irvine CA with wife Aimee and their children—Madeleine (11) and William (7). “I get out to surf and play golf and go to a Chargers’ game once in a while, but that is the extent of the excitement. We did go to New Zealand earlier this year, which was a lot of fun.” And from another West Coast alumna: Phoebe Cameron writes, “I’ve been riding my horse Bliss and playing with the rest of my animal family.” Phoebe has traveled for work this year to NYC, San Antonio, Houston, and Seattle. Carleen Loveday and husband Mohit Verma announce the birth of their son Soren in 4/11. Daughter Viveca was born in 2/09. Traci Adams Mitchell and her husband and son welcomed Julia last fall. It was wonderful to get a good long note from Larry Mercado. “I’m not one to really follow the class news, but from time to time I do read them, and smile every time I read something cool about someone I knew. NMH will forever be a part of who I am. I am still in touch with Darrell Johnson
Mary Batty ’84 with Macy and Sam.
’85. Darrell and I were fortunate enough to go see Bryan Callen ’85 perform his comedy in NYC a year or so ago. I’d love to hear some news of my other friends from Hillside, like Emanuel Betz ’85, Scott Thayer ’85, Sherif Anis ’85, and Clif Gray ’85, to name a few.” Larry earned a bachelor’s in cognitive science from Vassar and has spent the last 20+ years in finance, doing everything from operations, trading, IT, and consulting. He works for Virtusa, providing financial services consulting to companies in NY. Larry has been married for almost 8 years and has a daughter, Cristina (6). They live in Queens NY. David Bartley was elected to represent Ward 3 on the Holyoke MA city council for a 2-year term. Laura Vantine’s son Noah enrolled for 8th grade at Cardigan Mountain School this year. CMS is where Laura got started as a teacher in the summer of ’88, so she’s thrilled to have a reason to return to NH. Noah plays goalie in their hockey program and hopes to sail in the spring. Daughter Abby loves 7th grade in the Lexington (MA) public schools. She takes piano, is learning how to ski, and is gearing up for a 2nd year on the middle school track team, her real passion. Laura is in her 4th year as coordinator of academic support at Winsor School in Boston. “Although commuting feels a bit like a Mario Kart race, I love leaving campus at the end of the day. Life is full and good, and I am happy to have landed right where I am.” A Christmas letter from Margaret White Bellefuil brought news of her life and family in Seattle. Margaret and husband Steve have 2 kids, Tam (9) and Jin Ah (6). Margaret is in her 17th year at the zoo and still loves her work. Just before the holidays, I had coffee with Rich Gross in NYC. Rich and wife Jennifer have a busy schedule with Rich’s travel and the activities of 4 children. Annie Petersen Keller lives in Palo Alto with her 2 children and is making her gorgeous jewelry. I cherish the necklace I was given by classmates at our 20th reunion. Check out her website at decampjewelry.com. Chris Nagle spent Christmas with family in San Miguel, Mexico. Chris and I are in touch regularly and are lucky enough to be able to catch up in person on the Cape or at NMH. I catch up by phone with Mary Batty and Julie Greaney from time to
Sarah Prescott ’84 and Marggie Slichter ’84 win pies.
time. I was happy to see Mary on campus this June for reunion. Her dad, Bill Batty ’59, was celebrated with a retirement toast and roast. Mary, husband Tim Linberg ’91, and their kids Macy and Sam were on hand for the event. The Oct blizzard dampened the plans of several classmates who intended to come to campus. Adam Berlew, Rich Gross, Chris Nagle, Eliza Edwards Burden, Olga Beach Lassalle, and Eleanor Hager Temelini had planned to come to NMH for
homecoming weekend but were unable to due to the storm. We hope to try again in 10/12, so watch for a save-the-date late summer and make plans to attend. Sarah Prescott and I “ran” into one another at the Pie Race in Nov. Sarah was the first alum to finish (men and women), 1st master’s woman to finish, and 3rd woman overall. She beat young men’s pie time, too. I squeaked in mere seconds under master women’s pie time (45 min). Needless to say, it felt great to win a pie and to be part of a long-standing NMH tradition. Anyone care to join us next year? Facebook has been a wonderful way to keep up with our NMH classmates, contemporaries, and former faculty. If you are not on Facebook, why not give it a try? And if you are, please join the Northfield Mount Hermon Class of 1984 page. Finally, from yours truly—I am newly divorced but doing well. Working at NMH is wonderful and the community is supportive and close-knit. This Christmas it was terrific to have my 3 kids together. We met in CT for 2 days and enjoyed the simple pleasures of time together, good food, and lots of laughs. With Olivia ’11 in college in FL and Mike ’10 working full-time in NYC, those moments are precious few. Youngest Diana ’12 made the move from NMH to the local community college and is getting a jump-start on college. I managed to sneak in another trip to NM this fall. Four other chaperones and I took some of the local 4-H girls to a working cattle ranch for 4 days of riding, roping, barrel racing, and cow work. The highlight for me was chasing a longhorn bull along a creek. I did some sailing in ME and to Nantucket and the Vineyard last summer and look forward to more next summer. My work takes me all over the country to visit with alumni/ae of all ages. It is particularly fun to see classmates at events, so check out the NMH website (www.nmhschool.org/alumni) and join me
Carleen Loveday ’84 and her family.
spring 2012 I class notes I 89