www.andover.edu/intouch attempt to climb into the Gelb observatory, our class became nomadic; a central core ended up dancing with the ’09ers. Here, Christine Yu let me know that our class may be awful at math, but we know important things like Taylor Swift’s age. Similarly, I teased Sharyn Lie for never contributing to the notes. “My life isn’t an open book!” she responded, and we left it at that. Soon, it was time to return to Stimson (en route, Emily and I tried to get better vantage points for viewing the nearly full moon), and one of my final memories of the evening is of sitting beside John Gruener, who had worn our graduation T-shirt earlier in the day. I still feel like I designed that shirt... Sunday morning, the remaining crew divvied up the leftover drinks and food, with Jess Lunt getting the bulk of the goodies to bring back to New York. Tim Moore offered to drive me all the way back to New Bedford, Mass., where we ate burritos before splitting up. On the way south, I was lucky to meet Tim’s wife and child in Wakefield, Mass. And that’s about it. I know I didn’t get to everyone, and I’m sorry. Even so, I’m at our word limit! Until next time!
1995 Lon Haber P.O. Box 4501 Rollingbay WA 98061 323-620-1675 lon@lonhaber.com Margot van Bers Streeter +44 077 393 77700 margotstreeter@gmail.com
There are opening lines, and then there are opening lines. No pressure, kids, but Benjamin Cathcart’s submission began: “Howdy! Earthquakes and sunshine; winter never showed up this year—good for filming!” (That’s pretty profound. Take it in slowly.) When not composing modified haikus for his appreciative class secretaries, Ben is working on “a big-time commercial every week or so” and “hoping to make everyone’s commercial breaks that much more exciting.” He also misses everyone from our class—which, given how often we hear that line from you guys, suggests we’ll be having one hell of a reunion next year. Victoria Chen Tucker has been living in Shanghai for the past six years, which, she writes, has had two unexpected consequences: first, that her kids (Avery, Maya, and Jackson) “have far surpassed [her] Mandarin abilities,” and second, that they’re “all United Airlines MileagePlus Premier members from all the flying back and forth, which we find very amusing.” Last year, she joined Conchius, a firm that runs leadership development workshops and coaching for multinationals in China; July will find her back in the U.S. for a
reunion with Brenna Haysom, Abby Davis Lord, and Alexis Curreri Madison. A “happy and healthy” Rafael Kalichstein writes that when not working, he and his husband are already talking about PA for their daughter— who is now in third grade. On the work front, FORM, Rafi’s design practice, has been building “a spectacular and unique events space in Sonoma” that includes a kitchen staffed by a celebrity chef. Anyone thinking of throwing a party in California? Give him a ring! Meredith Crume Sterling has jumped to Dallas after 15 years in NYC to become VP of corporate communications and public relations for Neiman Marcus. In the meantime, her husband is “working on selling a travel-adventure-cooking TV show and creating a French fry empire” and her children Veva and Murphy are “loving all things Texas.” Any Dallas-based PA alums out there? Mimi would love to be in touch. Yup Lee wrote that he regularly attends alumni events in Seoul, Korea, and saw John Lee and his family in May. The rest of his message we’ll relay in his own words, because it’s simply that awesome. He writes, “I got married in 2011 to a beautiful woman, winner of the Miss Korea pageant in 2007. ... We just had our first kid in March. So far so good, as she looks exactly like her mother.” If anyone is heading to Korea, he’d love to say hello. Great news on the job front for Thomas Chapman Wing, who landed a tenure-track assistant professorship at the College of Staten Island this spring. What does that mean? Well, for starters, that he’s moving to New York—and, he says, that he’s battling a “heaping helping of survivor’s guilt” as most of his friends in academia are “still struggling to catch their big break.” Congratulations, Chapman—both for your success and for the grace with which you wear it. Melissa Weste Gaydon has been living on the central coast of New South Wales, Australia, for the past 15 years and recently expanded her cupcake business, Kiss My Cupcake, from a weekend market stall into two full storefront bakeries. Lately she’s been working six days a week, starting at 5 a.m.—in addition to keeping an eye on her four “gorgeous girls,” the eldest of whom just started high school. “Feeling a tad old now,” she wrote, and we have to admit that as we read her news we suddenly felt a bit rickety ourselves—a kid in high school?! Frank Georges is “still struggling in the PhD trenches” but is “going to finish no matter how long it takes.” In the meantime, he’s teaching econometrics at Northeastern, and, having fully recovered from a scare with Lyme disease last year, he’s “now resumed running road races.” When not diving in Grand Cayman or hitting up Jazz Fest in NOLA, Monica Duda is living in Seattle and, after many years in NYC and LA, loving the change. Work-wise, she’s in-house counsel at Microsoft—and having a ball. Finally, Gibby Greenway sent us a note he requested be printed in its entirety—or not at
all. So here it is, despite this month’s savage word limit of 900: “I’ve resigned as head agent of our class, as the school has transitioned into a more programmed and analytically driven approach to alumni relations and fundraising. Colin Bradley will take over as our sole class agent. My sincere thanks go to the many of you who have contributed (at any level) and helped raise the bar for our class over the past decade. We’ve drastically improved our class participation levels and total dollar amount, but there is certainly room for improvement. I’m sorry that the past reunions and communications have not been what I wanted them to be, but they will change moving forward. Please help Colin, our class, and the school by increasing participation, which, on even the smallest gift level, is most valuable! It’s also very important to me personally that we all recognize the key role that Andover plays in our lives and that we continue to actively support future students. Please get in touch if you’re ever in Venice, California! See you at the 20th!” Here’s to your happiness and health, friends. Onward and upward!
1996 John Swansburg 349 Adelphi St., Apt. 2 Brooklyn NY 11238 john.swansburg@aya.yale.edu
Do you know the parable of the speckled ax? In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin tells the story of a man who wants his entire ax to shine with the brightness of its sharpened edge. The local smith agrees to do the work, on the condition that the man turns the grinding stone. It’s difficult work, and the man soon reconsiders his whim. Keep turning, says the smith. But the man has had his fill of the grindstone. “I think I like a speckled ax best,” he replies, and takes his tool home. Franklin offers the story by way of explaining his own struggle with a difficult project, namely his effort to achieve moral perfection through the practice of 13 virtues. When the going got tough, “something that pretended to be Reason” suggested to him that maybe this whole moral perfection thing was a bit much. After all, “a perfect Character might be attended with the Inconvenience of being envied and hated,” he writes; it might be perceived as “a kind of Foppery in Morals.” In other words, a speckled ax is best. Or is it? At first glance, Franklin seems to be counseling against such lofty enterprises, but the real lesson is that it is far too easy to convince yourself to abandon good work when that work proves challenging. It is not reason, but “something that pretended to be Reason,” that lures Franklin from his project—he’s describing what we’d today call rationalization. In the end, Franklin reports that he “never arrived at the Perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining,” but neither did he give up his Andover | Fall 2014
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