stay connected... I put a call into Ned Moulton. Actually, it was more of a solicitation, as I was trying to recruit him to participate in writing this very column. As with term limits for congressmen, I believe rotation in representative government and class note authorship is a healthy and invigorating dynamic—and I had the perfect incumbent for him to replace: me! “No [expletive] way, Quilly” was his unhesitant response. He was otherwise well, still financing small and midsize companies, living in LA, and like many of us, watching his kids grow up faster than expected. Well, we’re out of space, old friends. That will have to do for now. Be well.
1983 Andrew L. Bab 170 East 83rd St., Apt. 6F New York NY 10028 212-909-6323 albab@debevoise.com
Well, with everyone turning 50 this year, it seems many of you are a bit distracted and must have forgotten to send me news. So this column will be relatively short. But I do want to underscore that if we lived in base 12 like the Babylonians or base 16 like our computers, we’d only be 42 or 32, respectively. And turning 42 or 32 is really no excuse for not writing to tell me and your classmates about what’s exciting in your lives! (For the English majors, base 12 is just like base 10...if you happen to have two extra fingers.) Amy Kellogg, writing from the maternity wing in London awaiting the then-imminent birth of Princess Charlotte, recommends that we don’t avoid acknowledging the half-century mark but rather embrace it, as she did early this January. It was Laura Culbert Knowles-Cutler who helped her celebrate by organizing a very British high-tea party in London with a few girlfriends. Jeff Koffman also celebrated his 50th recently, with a week of festivities down in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Michael Posternak, Gilberto Maymi, Arturo Valldejuly, and Dan Fujii ’82 were all in attendance. Jeff ’s son, Cameron, is heading to Yale this year, and he and his 14-year-old sister, Julia, both gave touching tributes. Jeff lives in NYC and runs a company called H2O Airlines, which provides water jet packs that allow users to fly above, glide, and dive into water. Cool! Gilberto, a lawyer, and Arturo, a financial advisor, both live in Puerto Rico and would welcome any Andover classmates who find themselves in that part of the world. Michael, a psychiatrist, lives in Sharon, Mass., and has a 12-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son. How many of you are becoming empty-nesters? Jason Bernhard writes that Adèle ’14 plays on the Columbia squash team and that Helen and Alex ’19 are off to college and Andover, respectively, in the fall, so he and wife Ashley will be all alone in
94
Andover | Fall 2015
their Brooklyn apartment. Jason says his deferred dream of becoming an English teacher might finally be fulfilled! Cindy Slattery, who is chief financial officer of Holy Cross Family Ministries, a Catholic nonprofit organization, reports that her older daughter, Elizabeth, is a senior at Fairfield University and has an internship at NBC Sports. Madeline, a dancer, and Kevin, a hockey player, are both in high school, but, as Cindy says, “The empty nest is quickly sneaking up on us.” Jeff Rossman’s daughter Thea ’15 is heading off to college. At the University of Virginia, Jeff is teaching European history and the history of genocide, while his wife, Lena, teaches first grade in the Albermarle County school system. Frederick “Fritz” Reichenbach ruefully tells me that his wife read his Andover report cards to their children (one an Andover alum, another an Andover student). Apparently this completely obliterated any standing Fritz might have had to offer advice to them. Fritz is an avid supporter of Andover events, such as the Chicago “new admits” welcome party held at the end of May. Finally, Sungjun Hwang wants to know what’s going on with Samaritan House mates David Yang, Ken Morton, Fritz Reichenbach (see above!), Patrick Powdermaker, Jeff Story, and Tiffany Cobb. See, your classmates really do want to hear about you! Sungjun is practicing ophthalmology in Rochester, N.Y., where he lives with his wife and three children. OK, until next time. I’ll sign off by reminding everyone to send me news for the next column and to let me know if you are in the New York area and would like to join our monthly gettogethers in the city. You can always reach me at albab@debevoise.com.
1984 Alexandra Gillespie 52 Amelia St. Toronto ON M4E 1X1 Canada acoonpie@gmail.com William P. Seeley Department of Philosophy 73/75 Campus Ave. Bates College Lewiston ME 04240 wseeley@bates.edu Adam Simha 84 Rice St. Cambridge MA 02140-1819 617-967-3869 adam@mksdesign.com
The first hint of lazy summer humidity is upon us in Maine today. Adam Simha, Alex Gillespie, and I [Bill Seeley] come to you this time around with some sad news. Christine Kim wrote to let us know that Rosemary Casey-Toumbas passed
away unexpectedly in April. She is survived by her husband, Vasilios, and children, Angelica Rose and George William ’17 (currently enrolled at Andover). Rosemary, raised in Winchester, Mass., was the eighth of nine children. At PA, Rosemary was a scholar and athlete, excelling in soccer, lacrosse, Ancient Greek, Latin, French, vocal performance, and the theatre arts. Christine writes, “In our dorm of student reps and athletes, Rosemary extended herself to me as a fellow lover of music and the arts. It was through our shared passion for classical, pop, and standards that we connected and became close friends. I marveled at her natural, untrained singing voice and recall how she devotedly pursued vocal studies with [vocal instructor] Beda Lorenco during our time at Andover. Rosemary possessed a singular quality of simply being who she was, not trying to ‘fit in.’ I think I often felt out of place at PA and thus was drawn to her happy conviction [and] strength of character. She lived life deeply and well, without pretense and with a generous heart, especially for those around her who were experiencing difficulty or life challenges. Those of us who knew her will always remember her beaming and dimpled smile, musical laugh, and extraordinary generosity of spirit. Rosemary was a true friend, and I will miss her greatly.” We will miss her too. Betsy Biern, Phoebe Brown, Susan O’Brien Lyons, Torrance York, and I gathered on campus in May for the spring Alumni Council meeting. All are thriving! Betsy has just finished a two-year stint as a PA alumni trustee. Susan writes that her excuse for missing our 30th Reunion last year is that she and her family were in Brazil for the World Cup. She reports that all is well in Chicago. Susan graduated from the University of Chicago’s master’s of liberal arts degree program last August. Her thesis was titled “The MBA Degree: Feminism’s Final Frontier” (which she says fits the “me-search/ research” category of a lot of academic work—with a typographic wink, literally). Her children are thriving. Nathaniel, now 16, is away at (another) boarding school, and Grace, 13, is in the 8th grade at the Lycée Français de Chicago, where Susan and her husband, Doug, have been very involved over the years. In an odd twist of fate, Susan tells me that the Lycée recently relocated to a new building built on the former site of Ravenswood Hospital, where my grandfather spent his entire medical career (from 1939 to 1979). Liz Lee Hood reports that she is pursuing a doctorate degree in religion at Harvard, focusing on Islamic devotional life, literature, and spiritual ethics. She’s assisting the dean of the Divinity School in launching the Religions and the Practice of Peace Initiative, which explores how people have drawn on religious and spiritual resources to promote well-being, justice, and peace across differences and the attendant implications for leadership, conflict transformation, and efforts to solve global problems. They hope to establish an endowed faculty chair and program to advance this understudied field, so vital for our human family and its future. She writes that she is