1977

Up at 6:00 a.m., headlong rush to class or work. Home late, a run or a couple of pops. The evening flies by, maybe the kid(s) won't quit crying. Rack and do it again in the morning. Days tumble one after another, monotony settles in like an Immelt column. Sound familiar? Tom Beach and Ann Schlesinger are two who have taken a different approach.

Tom writes: "I spent the past summer at the edge of the world. After nine previous summers as a backcountry ranger in Yellowstone, the National Park Service last year hired me to be among the first group of rangers to spend the entire summer in the field in several of the new national parks in the Brooks Range in Alaska. So for three months I lived in an eight-by-twelve plywood shack at the confluence of the Cutler and Noatak rivers, in the Noatak National Preserve, 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle. I was 'responsible' for over three million acres, an area the size of Connecticut, mostly mountains, rolling tundra plains, and prime mosquito breeding grounds. My Eskimo partner and I were the only non-transient people in the whole country. In our time there we encountered several dozen grizzly bears, hundreds of caribou, sundry moose, two wolves, and 69 people, mostly rugged types floating in kayaks down the Noatak River. We caught trout and salmon in the rivers, ate caribou and moose meat given to us by hunters, and I had the opportunity to sample local fare like 'mucktuck' boiled beluga whale blubber. Also ate lots of beans and swatted millions of mosquitoes. I did this on a leave of absence from my job with the California Public Utilities Commission, where I am now again tied to phone and desk."

From Ann Schlesinger, on her class dues notice, comes the following: "Sorry this is mangled it was brought to me out in the field in the cold and rain. I am an Army Medical Service Corps officer now stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Tex., waiting to go to Fort Rucker, Ala., in February or March for training as a helicopter pilot. After school there, nine months, I have no idea where I will be - probably in Korea or Germany. I finished three years at Fort Bragg, N.C., in October, during which I was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division and jumped out of airplanes as part of my job. I'm the only female jumpmaster in the entire Medical Service Corps and wear senior jump wings."

Returning to a world with which the rest of us can identify, we find Morgan Conrad, who writes: "I am trying to finish my Ph.D. in chemistry at U.C. Berkeley. Murphy's Law permitting, I should then become unemployed by the summer of 1983." Ben Phister journeyed overseas to escape Murph's grasp. Ben recently landed a job in Paris with Sirius Computers as a system engineer. He notes, "We got together with Dave Wilterdink this summer in Paris. We met his fiancee and were able to show off our nine-month-old daughter, Julie."

From Troy, N.Y., comes the following by Kevin Pettee: "I'm now attending R.P.i pursuing the M.S. degree in technical writing. My research involves advertising and marketing, sociology, computer science, writing and editing technical documentation, and analysis of communication structures. I am also production editor of the local Society for Technical Communication newsletter, serving the Upper Hudson Valley."

Judith Christison Ovington is mixing business and pleasure in Durham, N.C.: "I've now been self-employed for two and a half years and my business (Carolina Triangle Companies specializing in applications software for online systems) is doing well. Most of my clients are in New York or New Jersey, but I'm trying to work up some California business. My hobby, probably better described as an addiction, is windsurfing. My husband, Jeff, and I spent two weeks at the North Carolina beach in September. Sometimes we were windsurfing in the middle of a herd of dolphins. It was fantastic."

John Maney has also taken to the coast. He can be found basking in the rays of eastern Florida. Last May he presented a technical paper at an lEEE conference, and he was recently promoted to lead engineer at Harris. George Barnes is currently teaching English at the U. of Virginia. He is also working his way to a Ph.D.

Louis Frisina sends word that he married Jennifer Griffin, B.U. '81, last summer, and they honeymooned in the Virgin Islands. Another newsy item comes from Orville Lunking, who pens, "Still working for GM treasurer's office in New York in foreign exchange."

The silence has been broken in Boston as Bill Wedge writes: "I was married this past September to Ellen Cronin of Concord, Mass. I am an attorney and do tax work for Coopers and Lybrand." Joanne Clark is finishing up medical school at the Medical University of South Carolina: "I am now married to Steve Conroy, a yacht broker here in Charleston. I miss the New Hampshire fall, but you cannot beat the winter and spring here. We have a 30-foot Cheyolee sailboat and can sail ten out of 12 months.

Janice Lee Swain and Jay Swain currently reside in North Andover, Mass. Janice writes: "Jay is still teaching music at Phillips Academy (Andover) and writing his doctoral thesis in musicology at Harvard. He hopes to finish his Ph.D. this June. I'm practicing dentistry in East Boston and North Andover."

Finally, to inspire you folks to shake off the winter doldrums and stride into spring, here is a note from Leatrice Sikora Hayer: "Gave birth to our second child, this time a little girl, Elizabeth Jane, on October 9. She was six pounds even, and 18 and a half inches long. Started running again 11 days later. After 18 days of light training, I set a women's course record of 26 minutes and nine seconds over a 4.56-mile cross-country course - the MtHermon Pie Race. It is the oldest foot race in the country."

Up and at it, Paul Donovan. Keep writingfolks.

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