www.andover.edu/intouch
1975 Mari Wellin King 1884 Beans Bight Road N.E. Bainbridge Island WA 98110 206-842-1885 marjoriewk@gmail.com Roger L. Strong Jr. 6 Ridgeview Circle Armonk NY 10504 914-273-6710 strongjr@optonline.net Peter Wyman 963 Ponus Ridge Road New Canaan CT 06840 203-966-1074 peter.wyman@merrillcorp.com
The year 2014 has opened with wild swings in weather across the country and, thankfully, a whirlwind of news from many PA ’75s, some of whose names haven’t graced these pages in quite a few years. Paul Penniman has checked in from Washington, D.C., where he has totally immersed himself in running a nonprofit that provides tutoring and mentoring for very low-income students. He says he’s learning a lot from students and calls it a “lifechanging experience.” “What better way to shake off the midlife blues than to run off the side of a 3,000-foot mountain and fly thermals over a beautiful city (Santa Barbara, Calif.) suspended by a few Kevlar strings?” writes Andy Craig, who just earned his P-2 paragliding pilot’s license after 65 solo flights. Andy, who claims to have more than 30 boats behind the trees on his property, says that his other insane hobby is buying old boats, fixing them up, and reselling them—and that he “blames Charlie Clark” for turning him on to sailboats. Jody Harrison reports enjoying her “single life and quiet lifestyle” in Vermont, despite all the snow and cold; she also loves her job at a women’s boutique, Ruby Sparks, she recently opened alongside the Harrison Gallery, www.theharrisongallery.com, in Williamstown, Mass. In warmer weather, Grandma Jody (yes, her son Andy and his wife, Leah, had a baby, Liv) enjoys logging miles on her motorcycle. Her son Mike is coaching lacrosse at Williams College, her daughter Mari (yes, named after our beloved classmate!) is in Boston working for a startup Internet art company, Turning Art, and her daughter Julie is in Denver working for a high school as a dropout-prevention counselor. Yogi Pappas, now in Toronto working for a Canadian pension fund, traveled to Oregon last October to hunt and fish with John Bishop and John Kingery. Apparently they had a wonderful time, but regarding his Oregon-based classmates, Yogi lamented, “They were great hosts but not good enough fly-fishing instructors to let me actually get
a fish hooked. I think they just wanted to save the catches for themselves!” Out of the blue came the good word from Daniel Darst, who works at Neuberger Berman in NYC (not far from me at Merrill Corp.), that he had just signed a contract for Merrill Connect, a fulfillment-related service of ours. Small world! “Propelled by Jack Richards’s right, or perhaps left, foot, at the end of junior year some 42 years ago, I left Andover somewhat hurriedly,” writes Eric Bacon, Tabor Academy ’75, who recently attended Jack Richards’s memorial service. Eric also reports that about six years ago he wound up, much to his surprise, in the same men’s dinner club as Jack and really enjoyed their conversations “over many wonderful dinners.… We talked all about the turbulent period that turned the school inside out. It was so interesting to hear Jack’s perspective about what it was like to be dean of students during that time. Even though the term ‘fire hydrant’ was used to describe the dean’s life in the early ’70s, talking about it to him was more like hearing an athlete discuss a short stretch of losing seasons. Guess what—while we thought we were the ones learning, he was too!” David Briggs shared the happy news of his marriage in October to his partner of seven years, John McCormack, at the waterfall at the Loch and Ravine in Central Park, NYC. He also just completed his first season as supervising sound editor for the Sundance Channel series The Red Road, scheduled to air in February 2014. Now living in Jersey City, N.J., after moving from Harlem almost four years ago, Derrick Wallace recently celebrated his 34th year with BNY Mellon, where he loves his work in compliance training. Derrick also continues to enjoy serving as an Andover alumni rep, interviewing prospective students in NYC and working closely with PA admission staff. Chris Auguste ’76 and Derrick work with the Wadleigh Scholars Program, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2014, to identify students of color and assist them in applying to PA and other boarding schools. The word from Frank Lavin in Hong Kong is that Peter Cohan planned to bring his MBA class over from the U.S. to visit in January. Frank, who runs Export Now, which helps U.S. firms sell their products online in China, expected to speak to Peter’s class about the startup and development of Export Now and what he calls two of the biggest business trends in the world: the rise of e-commerce and the rise of the Chinese consumer. Like many of us, Rich Pietrafesa is still trying to get all of his kids through college, but he’s also been funding (and loving) a master’s program for himself at MIT in Cambridge; he’ll graduate in June and also celebrate his 35th Harvard reunion then. Rich is developing a couple of small hotels in the Northeast, serving on the National Ski Patrol, and spending time on Nantucket. Jay Finney, chief marketing officer at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., writes that the museum is well into a $500 million-plus
capital campaign (one of the largest such campaigns for a cultural institution in state history) to support increased endowment, facility enhancement, and programs. At the same time, Priscilla Perry Danforth, PEM’s director of exhibition planning, has helped bring extraordinary shows, from Turner and Calder to avant-garde Japanese fashion, to the Boston area. P2P Cash CEO Tom Meredith is excited about the growth of his young company, which he says will soon allow “release of prepaid minutes virtual currency: BitMinutes…better than Bitcoin! Stay tuned to this station.” Tom is even more excited about the fact that he recently passed with flying colors his one-year checkup after open heart surgery. Writing from a family vacation on Maui, Margot Kent Timbel said she planned to retire in February 2014 after working 35 years with two companies doing oil and gas exploration. She says she will first “decompress and then decide what captures my attention.” Back in October at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC, Andover hosted a wonderful celebration of the Peabody Museum, which is now a real gem and a much more integral part of PA than in our day. I was fortunate enough to enjoy the fine company of classmates Tony Pucillo, Mari Wellin King, Michael Boldt, and Michael Galvin over drinks and dinner in the famous “whale room.” Please stay in touch—Roger, Mari, and I greatly appreciate our connection with all of you! —Peter Wyman
1976 Ruben Alvero 7875 S. Wabash Court Centennial CO 80112 303-358-8739 ruben.alvero@ucdenver.edu Lisa Barlow 530 9th St. Brooklyn NY 11215-4206 lisabnyc@gmail.com
I begin this column with the very sad news that Pam Richards passed away unexpectedly last summer, just five weeks before her beloved dad, Jack Richards. Laura Richards ’74 writes, “Pam was a kind and generous sister, a great mother to Julia and Emily, an avid cyclist and kayaker, author of two cookbooks, and I still can’t imagine life without her in it.” Our hearts go out to Laura; her brothers, Chris ’81 and Tim ’81; her sister C.C. ’82; her mother, Wendy; Pam’s daughters; and the rest of the family. One day in Mr. Richards’s European history class serves as an example of the synergy that can happen between a great teacher and an exceptional student. Our midterms were being returned to us, and we had all done a passable job discussing the Prussians or the Hapsburgs, but one person had written so succinctly and eloquently that Mr. Richards mimeographed her bluebook for the rest of us to read. Andover | Spring 2014
95