alumni Notes
Doug Blanchard ’97 marries Aide Vargas Flores in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Emily Payne ’98 in Vero Beach, Fla.
1997
Class Secretaries: Caroline Montgelas Elwell, 90 N. Ridge St., Rye Brook, NY 10573, caroline@ elwell.com; Jay F. Krehbiel, 505 S. County Line Rd., Hinsdale, IL 60521, jay.krehbiel@gmail.com; Head Class Agent: Charles W.B. Wardell IV, 370 Park Ave., Club Box 18, New York, NY 10022, charliewardell@aol.com
Starting with the exciting news of births and weddings, Jeff D’Amelia reports that he and wife Shawna welcomed daughter Madeleine Paige. (Congrats, Jeff and Shawna!) Jeff also saw Kris Bagdasarian when he was a groomsman at Kris’s wedding to Jenny Hwang over July 4th weekend. Jeff reports that the entire weekend was beautiful! Doug Blanchard married Aide Vargas Flores in June in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Doug also ran into Phil Miller at a mutual friend’s wedding last summer. (Congratulations on these exciting milestones, Jeff, Kris, and Doug!) Other classmates are packing up and moving. Justin Kreizel reports that he moved from Mexico to Santa Monica, Calif. He continues to work for his own co. and is happy to be back to “el norte.” Whitney 68 Taft Bulletin Fall 2009
Dayton Brunet moved to New Haven, Conn., while her husband attends business school at Yale. Whitney will work in Yale’s Development Office as the asst. dir. in reunion giving. They plan to also keep ties to Boston, so keep an eye out for them in both places! Also moving is Jon Stevenson, who graduated from law school and is moving to Boston to earn his LLM in taxation at BU’s School of Law. Blair Hedges was hired by Liongate Capital Management as head of operational due diligence. In exciting travel news, Eric Schoonmaker vacationed in Belize—he highly recommends the Mopan River Resort. Eric and his wife moved into their first house in Wauwatosa, Wis., and Eric has started his own law practice, which he says is a lot of work but worth it. Tim Roscoe spent some time in Latin America and particularly raves about his time in Peru. He continues to write and draws inspiration from his N. American travels across the U.S., from Des Moines to Kauai; however, he gladly lands at his home in LA after every travel experience and loves living there. Enjoying her time on the West Coast, Bibba Walke works and lives in SF. She attended a Taft Alumni dinner with Ben Pastor, Phil Miller, Lanse Davis and Whitney Moses Davis ’98. I, Caroline, got to spend some time at the beach with Brooke Hill Ooten and her two adorable sons, Harrison and Watts. I also had a wonderful dinner with Christie Johnson O’Keeffe and Laura Kreitler, who was visiting from Calif. for a long weekend. Take care and keep the news coming!
1998
Class Secretary: John D. Frechette, PO Box 702, Jackson, WY 83001, jdfrechette@gmail.com; Head Class Agent: Devin B. Weisleder, 2001 E. Grace St., Apt. 437, Richmond, VA 23223, devin_ weisleder@yahoo.com
Emily Payne writes, “I graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in 2003 and am now employed as one of 17 permanent crew members on a 315-foot private yacht owned by the CEO of a Fortune 500 co. From spring until the fall, the boat’s Mediterranean home port is Palma, Mallorca, Spain. From approximately Dec. to May we are in St. Maarten, Dutch West Indies. Although working the entire time when the owner is aboard, I have enjoyed cruising the islands of the Caribbean in the winter and cruising the Mediterranean, including the coast of Italy in the summer months. I have also done two Atlantic crossings.” Many Tafties were at the June wedding of Annie Stover to Evan Reece at the Ausable Club in
the Adirondacks. In attendance were: Lisa Dabney, Addie Strumolo, Shannon Murphy, Adrian Fadrhonc, Becky Belcher ’97, Molly Barefoot ’99, Ribby Goodfellow ’00, Brooks Comstock ’01, Jim Goodfellow ’96 and Anna Hastings (former faculty).
1999
Class Secretaries: Molly M. Barefoot, 140 Charles St., Apt. 2, Boston, MA 02114, mollybarefoot@ hotmail.com; Kate Bienen Furst, 421 Hudson St., Apt. 815, New York, NY 10014, kbfurst@gmail. com; Head Class Agent: Lindsay Tarasuk Aroesty, Taft School, 110 Woodbury Rd., Watertown, CT 06795, lindsaytarasuk@hotmail.com
Kate Bienen Furst and I, Molly Barefoot, love hearing from all of you—thanks for writing in! Sounds like everyone was busy enjoying the summer and seeing Tafties whenever possible. Kate had an awesome trip to Croatia in Aug. with her husband, Jake. Kenny Clark writes, “I finished graduate school at West Chester Univ. (in Pa.) and now have a master’s in exercise science. Still living in the Philadelphia area and working as a strength and conditioning coach for a private co., Summit Sports. I went to Chicago and visited with Brent Kozel ’98 and saw my first Cubs game at Wrigley Field.” Evan Nielsen writes that he was winding down a great two years living with Trevor Beaney in Brooklyn and had plans to return to Chicago. Mythri Jegathesan reports, “I’m doing anthropological fieldwork with tea estate communities in the Hill Country of Sri Lanka. I came back to the U.S. to see family and friends in April and May, and on a flight down to Charleston for a friend’s wedding, randomly sat next to Adair Ilyinsky, who was also on her way to a Charleston wedding!, Attended the 10th Reunion, too, which was great. I’ll most likely be back in the U.S. in the fall before heading back to Sri Lanka for a follow-up visit in the spring.” Brad D’Arco ran the NYC marathon on Nov. 1 in honor of his mother, Lucille, who passed away just over one year ago after a hardfought battle with cancer. Sabrina Idy began working at the Corcoran Group in residential real estate last spring. She joined the team of top NYC broker, Wendy J. Sarasohn, and loves her experience in both rentals and sales. Please feel free to contact her for any real estate questions or simply to touch base. Emily Townsend Prince saw Sabrina and Ned Smith at the Phish concert in Saratoga Springs in Aug.; the three of them and others had a great time catching up and enjoying the show.