Andover Magazine: Winter 2017 Class Notes

Page 20

stay connected...

www.andover.edu/intouch

1986

1987

Kathleen Campbell DiPaolo 2516 Vista Drive Newport Beach CA 92663 949-689-3314 (cell) 949-209-2043 (fax) Kathleen@kathleendipaolodesigns.com

30th REUNION June 9–11, 2017

Caroline Langston Jarboe 3124 63rd Ave. Cheverly MD 20785 301-322-4241 (home) 301-379-6572 (cell) caroline_jarboe@yahoo.com

Hello, class. I have some sad news to share. Juan Mario Laserna passed away on July 24, 2016. Juan’s wife, my old roommate Christine Balling, wrote a beautiful tribute that I want to share. “Juan Mario and I met formally for the ‘first’ time at our 20th Reunion. We struck up a long conversation. (He told me that, while we were at Andover, he had gone to all my harp concerts and swim meets. I thought to myself: Yeah, sure, but regardless...el tipo got game.) “After the reunion, as I had been a co-organizer, I emailed Juan Mario to thank him for traveling so far. I let him know that I was living in New Hampshire, as I do now, and he wrote that he was soon to travel from Colombia to visit his sister in Cambridge. He asked if I might have time for lunch. Shortly thereafter, we had lunch in Portsmouth, NH. After lunch, we took a walk, and he confessed: ‘I lied. I didn’t fly up here to visit my sister. I just came here to have lunch with you. And so, if you are available during the rest of the week, let me know, because I don’t have any other plans.’ “We were married by Rev. Philip Zaeder on July 2, 2007. “After graduating from Andover, Juan Mario earned a BA in economics from Yale and an MBA from Stanford. He returned to Colombia to commit himself to a career in public service. “In the past decade, he served as a board member of Colombia’s central bank and a senator in the Colombian congress, and, at the time of his untimely death, he was the editor of the Colombian magazine Dinero. He received many honors throughout his career, including his being chosen as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Juan Mario was a Colombian patriot whose love of country endures in the hearts of those who knew him. That and the rest endure in the hearts of those who loved him. Paz en tu tumba, Juan Mario.” Thank you so much for writing this tribute! My heart aches for you, your family, and Juan Mario’s family. I will always remember his infectious smile. XO —Kath Campbell DiPaolo

70

Andover | Winter 2017

David Kopans 2 Princeton Road Arlington MA 02474-8238 781-646-4515 617-947-2454 (cell) dave@kopans.com

Do you have your reunion plans firmed up? I hope so! And if not, I hope what follows spurs you to action because it brings back great memories or gets you going so you can create new ones! So, without any further ado, let’s get to it! Tricia Paik is a much better writer than I am. So, in a second, I’ll share directly what she wrote. But first, in summary, Tricia continues her passion as a dynamic and accomplished advocate for the visual arts with her appointment as—big congrats!—the director of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum; she is also the author of “one of fall [2015]’s 10 best new coffee-table books” (per Bloomberg Pursuits), on Ellsworth Kelly’s entire career from the 1940s to today. Note: All that is me touting her, thanks to Google. Here is what she more modestly wrote: “The summary of all this, when I look back on my 25 years in the art world, is this: it all began at Andover. Taking art history with Diz Bensley ’43 was truly formative, as were visual studies with John McMurray and visits to the Addison. I actually wrote my first art history paper from a painting in storage at the Addison: The Red Cart by Stuart Davis. I remember our TA, Bonnie Garmisa, taking me into storage so I could study the work directly. I was so in awe. What incredible opportunities we were given at Andover. It still amazes me when I look back—that I went to a high school with its own museum and a curriculum so committed to the visual arts. Such experiences shaped me in unquantifiable ways. All right, that’s enough waxing nostalgic—just wanted to express my deep gratitude for my Andover days.” Rebecca Tversky wrote in with lots to share, which she summed up as follows, to make my life easy (do love that): “Reporting from stealth state, Delaware, Rebecca Tversky reports herself annoyingly fulfilled by a modest, stable, and devoted family, professional, and spiritual life, with disturbing hints of hippie-ism and unappreciated empathy.” I’ll add to this that she also finished up four years of service to Andover as a member of the Alumni Council, for which we should all be thankful. Toward that end, an encouragement to everyone reading this to stop and send her cosmic thanks for her service in “shifting the leadership approach a tiny bit toward paying homage to those who walk the path less traveled and contribute to society in less lucrative and resume-building ways.” Peter Schay hits us from the West Coast, where

he is the proud inventor of a freshly minted patent that—in layperson’s terms—lets one copy millions of files and folders super fast. Pete also reports getting to see Jason Fry from time to time. Pete said Fry continues to tear up the Star Wars literary world. Indeed, I loved reading the summary of the Mellitto. Totally cool blending of the feudal period of Japan with entomology. Intrigued? No less intriguing was the email from Jonathan Bush with not only a written description of a Jonathan Lutes sighting but also a picture of Lutes from a hike in Maine. Crazy, I know! However, I will tell you that the picture was terribly disappointing, given its Sasquatch-like quality. There was a tree branch in front of Lutes’s face. Was it really him or just an illusion? Perhaps both will join us at reunion, and the mystery will be solved! Mary Caulkins sent me a great picture from a recent yoga getaway weekend with PA pal Posy Stone. The picture of Posy was great—a terrific smile about to become a laugh, I am sure. Martin Valasek emailed me a great update from Montreal, where he litigates cross-border disputes (for and against private companies, and sometimes countries) outside the public court system. Some cases he has been in involved in are the $50 billion demise of the Yukos Oil Company in Russia and fighting Albania on behalf of a Canadian oil company. He also has a teenage daughter and two younger boys—to which I must raise the question as to which sort of arbitration environment provides better training for the other. Hmmm, Russia versus kids. That question aside, Marty asked about the goings-on with other residents of Adams South from our class—Kent Kendall, Jason Pechinski, Kim Dunn, and Alex Chandy—and those from the Class of   ’88 (Tim Alperen, etc.), to which he added “I got my kids a dartboard for the cottage this summer, and was reminded of being hosted by Timmy at his house in Revere during Thanksgiving in the fall of 1986 (I was only at Andover for that one year). It was a rainy weekend, as I recall, and we must have played darts almost every minute we weren’t eating!” Robin Koster-Carlyon continues to send great news from Down Under and reports a busy time on the farm this season, wonderfully resulting in a nomination by one of the Australia’s top chefs for the delicious Produce Awards (sponsored by food magazine delicious) for 2016. As a Victorian state winner in the “From the Earth” category, she advanced to the national competition. Results to be revealed on September 12—after this deadline, so you will have to go online for results. [Editor’s note: She won!] On other fronts and class years, Dave Mainen ’89 popped back up in New England, and we connected briefly thanks to the help of Doug D’Agata ’88. Still need to connect in more detail with Mainen but had a wonderful conversation with Doug, who is devoting significant time and energy to PA in the area of athletics as cochair of the Athletics Hall of

Honor committee, as well as general troubadour on campus in the spirit of Twisted Sister. Last, a warm hello to Melanie Shaw MacMillan (married to Brendan MacMillan ’85). Melanie is a Brown classmate of a bunch of us, and she told me she reads these notes. Plus, they are so much better than St. Paul’s!

1988 Terri Stroud 800 4th St. SW, Unit N418 Washington DC 20024 202-486-4189 terri.stroud@gmail.com Laura Cox 21 Merced Ave. San Anselmo CA 94960 415-302-7709 laurajeancox@gmail.com Matt Lavin 2221 46th St. NW Washington DC 20007 202-365-8593 mattlavindc@yahoo.com Heather Ross Zuzenak 12 Ginn Road Winchester MA 01890 781-874-1747 hrzuzenak@yahoo.com

My dearest classmates: It was a slow news cycle this go-round. Although no news is said to be good news, that rule does not apply when it comes to class notes. I fear part of the reason may be that some of you have new email addresses and aren’t receiving the requests for updates from us, your humble class secretaries. If you have a new-ish email, please send a note to the alumni records office at alumni-records@andover.edu so that we can keep the master list up-to-date. On to the news. Jill McElderry-Maxwell reports that she’s still an alpaca farmer in Maine, and in June she was honored to be elected president of the Suri Network, the North American breed association for suri alpacas. She writes, “We have an active association, and I’m proud to help move alpacas forward as a livestock breed. We have more than 50 here on the farm, as well as pigs, goats, burros, and an abundance of poultry. My son just started his freshman year at Hamilton College after graduating from the Maine School of Science and Mathematics this spring. Any Andover alumni traveling through Maine are welcome to stop in!” Nick Hofgren is living in London while fixing up a farm in Wiltshire. His new business, which he’s been building for a few years, is based in Guernsey. Work often takes him to the UAE and Germany. He’s also been traveling to Seville, Spain, the past few summers to get the nieces and nephews

together in one place. A self-professed procrastinator, Caleb Hellerman decided it was finally time to send something in for class notes. Being a news producer, he didn’t disappoint, writing, “I left Georgia last November and moved with my family (wife, two sons, daughter in the middle) to Framingham, MA. Don’t forget the two dogs, the cat, and six chickens. It’s been 16 years since I lived north of the Mason-Dixon line so I thank the weather gods for being merciful this year. I’m looking forward to catching up with New Englanders and New Yorkers whom I haven’t seen in a long time. What else? I left CNN a little over a year and a half ago and launched my own production company (Curiosity Lane) to work on documentary films, and now I’m also covering science for the PBS NewsHour with correspondent Miles O’Brien. Any crazy ideas for on-air science experiments, send ’em my way.” Will do! Tim Griffin was recently made a Chevalier of France’s Order of Arts and Letters. Soon after Tim was awarded membership, Tony Rotundo visited him in NYC. Tony’s response: “Where’s the horse?” My response: Can you wear that beautiful medallion whenever you want? Because I would totally wear it on the subway and maybe to bed, too. That’s likely one of the many reasons I will never get one. Felicitations à vous, Tim! Tim is executive director and chief curator of The Kitchen, NYC’s oldest nonprofit performance and art space. He lives in the city with his family and invites any classmates wishing to visit The Kitchen simply to drop him a line. Back in Washington, DC, I went to a baseball game with my scribal colleague, Terri Stroud, who is still hard at work as counsel to the District of Columbia Board of Elections. The following week I went back for another game and got to spend time with Joe Proctor and his very smart (and very tall) 11-year-old son, Will. They were in town from London, visiting family in the NY and DC areas. Nationals Park truly is a magical place. On a sad note, our good friend and classmate Steve “Menni” Mencis passed away suddenly in August. Menni was one of the kindest, gentlest, and most humble souls I’ve ever met. I don’t think he ever had an enemy. For a few hazy summers in the ’80s, Menni, Todd French, and I were inseparable. We’d ride around in Menni’s open-top Jeep listening to James Taylor and Bob Marley, looking for whatever teenage trouble we could find. I’m still in shock over his death, and I know many of you are as well. Menni leaves behind a wife and six beautiful young children. Obviously, this is an incredibly difficult period for them, both emotionally and financially. I know that they would appreciate whatever help our class can give. To that end, a GoFundMe account has been set up to provide support. If you haven’t done so already, please go to www.gofundme.com/2kfarq4 and give whatever

you can, or go to gofundme.com and search for “Mencis family fund.” We’ve lost a number of classmates over the past 28 years. All of their deaths were tragic and all of them way too soon. The lesson I take from this is that our time for action in this world can be unexpectedly and unreasonably short. If there is a friend or someone on your mind from our class that you’ve been thinking about reaching out to and reconnecting with but just haven’t found the time, stop and try to find the time. You won’t ever regret it. —Matt Lavin

1989 Curtis Eames 978-994-9015 curtiseames111@gmail.com Gina Hoods 400 Chaney Road, Apt. 1024 Smyrna TN 37167 615-686-7025 ghoods@yahoo.com

As I type these notes, I am basking in the last days of summer. When my sparse words arrive on your doorstep, most of us will be trying to stay warm in the middle of winter, dreaming of sunshine from summers past and springs to come. Big ups to some of our classmates for being team awesome and answering my cries for updates for this edition. So here’s all the great information I have to share. We have several individuals in our class whose kids have started school on the Hill, including Alex Tibbetts, Rob Kinney, Jamie Tilghman, Mike Hearle, and Mike Megalli. (I know we may have others that are unnamed or choose not to mention info about their kids.) Welcome to the Andover family! Jenny Siler shared some cool news. For three years, she and her husband have been honing their barista skills at their coffee shop, Black Cat Coffee, located in Portland, ME. In addition, they recently launched a line of homemade honey ice cream called Little Bee. She has invited anybody from our class to stop by and enjoy their offerings. Jenny, my Southern blood is too thin to visit Maine till late spring. If y’all offer shipping, I am down for the cause, as both the coffee and the ice cream sound yummy! Congrats on two businesses. Curtis Eames just started teaching English at Prospect Hill Academy in Cambridge, MA, and is also helping his wife launch her new organic skincare/makeup line, Glamour Organics. If that isn’t enough, he is also adapting a memoir into a screenplay. The memoir centers around growing up in an Ohio orphanage in the 1950s. As for me, I decided to branch out of medicine and am now organizing conferences for physicians that focus on wellness. I was able to plan and Andover | Winter 2017

71


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
Andover Magazine: Winter 2017 Class Notes by Phillips Academy - Issuu