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Fern Jones ’75 attended an Abbot tea on Saturday afternoon of Reunion Weekend.
Stephanie Curtis Harman (Woodside); investment advisor Anne Wakefield Atkinson and Paul Suslovic (Menlo Park); management consultant George Cogan (Atherton); and UC Berkeley energy research scholar Tony Nahas (Berkeley). Espied in Case Memorial Cage on Friday evening were Stephen Bache, an investment advisor in Portland, Ore., where his son rows on the heavyweight crew at Lewis & Clark College; teacher and fiction writer David Updike from Cambridge, Mass.; and start-up executive Tom Meredith, whose company in the Atlanta area uses mobile payments technology to enable free money transfer to any mobile phone worldwide. Other loyal alums spotted at the buffet dinner included Thomas Brush, a management professor at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., who attended with his wife, Whitney, and 7-year-old daughter, Sarah; Zareen Mirza from Cumberland Foreside, Maine; software executive Matt Finnie from Basking Ridge, N.J., whose daughter Hannah ’11 graduated from Emory in May; attorney Evans Huber and wife Elaine from Wayland, Mass.; lawyer Michael Boldt and wife Lisa from Millburn, N.J.; Andrew Craig (who enjoys paragliding) and wife Els Van Wingerden from Fredericksburg, Va.; and orthopedic hand surgeon and artist Craig Newland from Vancouver, Wash., who exhibited 50 of his works in oil at the Gelb Gallery in George Washington Hall during the weekend. Classmates later relocated to the well-equipped Adams Hall tent, where cocktails, conversations
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Andover | Fall 2015
and calypso music enlivened a long night. Many perused copies of The Phillipian from 1974–1975 and examined photos from the 1975 Pot Pourri. Recalling good times were Dennis Pratt, a former high-tech exec from Westwood, Mass.; Adrienne and Frank Skokan, who continues to act in community theatre in New Jersey; information services executive Peter Wyman from New Canaan, Conn.; star portfolio manager Lawrence Kemp from Greenwich, Conn.; and ageless Paul Murray, who has an important job at the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C. Possibly under the influence of Bud Light Lime and Diet Pepsi Wild Cherry (beverages stocked by the reunion committee!), sources claimed they saw the sun-kissed tresses of Donna Cameron, an attorney and owner of a world-class dressage training facility for horses in Medfield, Mass., billowing in the late-night breeze. On Saturday, we massed for the colorful alumni parade, led by the Clan MacPherson Pipes and Drums, from the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library to Cochran Chapel. John “Chip” Campbell made a sweaty appearance following a morning run; he’s an energy investor who divides his time between Tulsa, Okla., and Sorrento, Maine. Joining the march down the Elm Walk to loud and sustained cheers for the class were Charles Clark from Rockport, Mass.; attorney Tom Briggs from Fort Worth, Texas; financial advisor Fern Jones from NYC; and Susan Arnold, who works for the Appalachian Mountain Club in Strafford, N.H. Many classmates congratulated Lisa MacFarlane, former provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of New Hampshire, who was appointed principal of Exeter earlier this year. Speaking softly and carrying a big selfie stick, Andy Craig recorded the procession for posterity on his GoPro HERO camera. Check out the video on YouTube (https://youtu.be/mMPgejc966Y) and on the PA ’75 Facebook page to see if we look younger in HD resolution! At the Saturday cookout lunch in front of GW Hall, class ranks swelled with real estate investor Phil Welch from New Jersey; photographer Jennifer Bishop from Baltimore; Bill Bliss, a pastor from Bath, Maine; Richard Hersh, a psychiatrist in NYC; acclaimed jazz musician Arthur Kell from Brooklyn, N.Y.; Gordon Nelson from Concord, Mass.; Yogi Pappadopoulos from nearby Chelmsford, Mass.; and Rick Cotten from Austin, Texas. Later in the afternoon, Robert Thorndike from Scituate, Mass., delivered heartfelt remarks during the posthumous induction of his brother Theodore Thorndike ’70 into the Andover Athletics Hall of Honor. Saturday night’s event returned us to McKeen Hall on the former Abbot campus, where Cannon Labrie pulled in from Vershire, Vt., in time for the class picture on the front steps. Publishing executive Charles Miers from Bronxville, N.Y.; lawyer Joan Bozek from Old Lyme, Conn.; and businessman Steve Goldberg from Oceanside, N.Y., circulated while hors d’oeuvres were
passed and cocktails were mixed. At dinner, the spouses of Betsie Redman Bramhall (Robert) from Andover and Phil Hueber (Judy) from Chesterfield, N.H., were named “honorary classmates” for having attended all eight reunions, beginning in 1980. Shout-outs for traveling the farthest went to former diplomat Frank Lavin from Hong Kong, where he runs Export Now, a company dedicated to helping clients sell their products online in China, and management consultant and author T.W. Kang, who came from Tokyo with his wife, Yong-Jean Park. Neurologist Cathy Chapman from Newton, Mass.; PR professional Kate Rohrbach from Sausalito, Calif.; artist Tilly Woodward from Grinnell, Iowa; Ann Joyce Delano from Leverett, Mass.; Priscilla Perry Danforth from Marblehead, Mass.; Kathleen Quinn Sullivan, a nurse in Hanover, Mass.; and Pamela Yameen from Haverhill, Mass., all appeared to enjoy the festivities. Head class agent Bert Garry, an insurance executive in North Hampton, N.H., humorously thanked donors for the underwhelming 19 percent participation in the class gift, which totaled less than $200,000: “We were a very underestimated class, and we lived up to those expectations,” he said. New class president and 45th Reunion honcho Phil Hueber recalled the 18 classmates who have passed away, most recently Tony Sanders this past February. And then a much-appreciated reprise of 2010’s great “transgression confession” began, as a surprising mix of “all-pro” classmates took over the podium to describe questionable activities that could have jeopardized their graduations. Many of the hilarious stories touched on being buds, drinking Buds, and rolling buds— as well as the wonders of parietals (“I thought he was trying out for Cirque du Soleil, but it didn’t exist then,” recalled one participant). It remains unclear whether technology executive Kurt Silverman from Andover; physical therapist Wayne Darner from Fort Worth, Texas; and private equity manager George Kirchwey from Dallas admitted to anything untoward. Reminiscencing continued in the tent with horse veterinarian Michael Galvin from Mamaroneck, N.Y; Kimberly Miller Casazza from Avon, Conn.; Linda Bilkey Krainik, who works in health care in New Jersey; Mary-Jo O’Reilly Smith from Fairfield, Conn.; and Debbie Rogers Pratt from Middleboro, Mass. Also reported to be in attendance during the weekend were John Bishop from Portland, Ore., David Briggs, Peter Cohan, Daniel Darst, Tony Pucillo, and Richard Pietrafesa. If you missed this year’s gathering, please consider returning in 2020 to reaffirm old friendships and establish new ones. Anyone in or around NYC is invited to a get-together on Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. at Arthur Kell’s bar, Bar LunÀtico, 486 Halsey Street in Brooklyn. In the meantime, let Mari (marjoriewk@gmail.com) know what’s going on in your lives for the next class notes column. —Roger