1978

Ralph S. Blanchard III, assistant actuary with Aetna Life and Casualty of Hartford, Conn., has become a fellow in the Casualty Actuarial Society, his professional association. The fellow designation, the highest award granted by the society, can only be achieved through successful completion of ten comprehensive insurance examinations.

Alan MacPhail announces the birth of his daughter Megan Ann on November 26, 1983. He and his family are moving to East Orleans, Mass., on Cape Cod.

Don Frankel recently started work at Arnold and Porter in Washington, D.C., after about six months of travel in the Middle East and Europe.

Valerie Jaffee has left AT&T for a more challenging position with the American subsidiary of L.M. Ericsson, an international telecommunications company. She travels 50 percent of the time in the United States and Canada. When she wrote me in March, she expected to take a cruise in the southwestern Caribbean later that month. She also expected to ski Mammoth with Sue Cohen during Sue's spring break from HBS (Harvard Business School? please explain your acronyms, people). Sue is not on my class.list, but apparently she was an exchange student from UCSD at Dartmouth, and was a '78 there.

Deep Throat writes that Valerie Steele has finished her Ph.D. in history at Yale as of June 1983. She spent the next six months in Bali. Moreover, Deep Throat claims that Valerie and Dartmouth history professor John Major (her husband) are expecting their first child in August. Valerie's book, Fashion and Eroticism, will apparently be published by Oxford University Press later this year. (Classmates, last time 1 got information from a Deep Throat, I at least knew the identity of my informant. This came in an anonymous note, signed Deep Throat, and postmarked New York. Please forgive me if it's untrue.)

Maryann P. Burke has been elected vice president of Liberty Mutual Insurance Com- pany at the firm's home office in Boston. She will continue to serve as director of corporate research and policy development for the com- pany, a position she has held since 1982. She joined Liberty Mutual in 1980. This is her third promotion. She got her M.S. in management from MIT. She and her husband, William '76, reside in Southborough, Mass.

Phil Peck was the men's assistant cross country coach for the U.S. Olympic team this winter.

Don Perkins has been instructing and directing courses at the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School. Many of these courses were designed for "educators or juvenile delinquents" (is this one group, Don?). He married Nancy Higbee in October 1982. They finally had their honeymoon in January 1984. Nancy is now studying nutrition at Berkeley, while Don works in the city (of Berkeley) at a "profit-making non-profit employment education program for youth and young adults."

Paul R. Conkling was married on March 10, 1984, to Marta Mann, in Freeport, Pa. She works as a nutritionist at Duke Hospital, and Paul will begin a fellowship there in hematology-oncology in about six months. Paul adds the supposedly helpful information that Zach Simmons was married in the past year. DETAILS, Paul, you've got to give details! You say you've kept in touch with this guy. You must at least know his wife's name!

Michael Day writes that he is currently teaching English at two universities in Kobe, Japan. He married in March 1984 and will return to the States in a year or two to pursue his Ph.D. and "render myself hopelessly unemployable." (Now, this person does not even give his OWN wife's name.)

Jason Kuschner married Andrea L. Haring at the All Souls Unitarian Church in Manhattan. She is an actress and visiting assistant professor in the drama department at Dartmouth College. She graduated from Smith College and was a founding member of Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, Mass. (Was Jason the fellow whom I saw sneaking down to do his laundry in the basement of Butterfield during the reunion, trying to pretend he was not part of our class? Someone sent in a Xerox (excuse me: photocopy) of a clipping that made this announcement. The clipping also says that Jason is an actor and choreographer now.)

Dave Hall writes that he and Jenny just had their first child, Elizabeth Ann Hall, " '06." John Lee, who will graduate in May 1984 from Penn with an M.F.A. in sculpture, is making a cradle. John was recently publicly announced a "genius" by a Penn faculty member, according to Dave. Since then, John has worn a plastic pencil shield in his breast pocket.

John C. Kesner is a navigator on a ship pictured on the front of a postcard which he sent me. Now, this postcard is in German, which I do not read, but I would guess from the setup that the name of the ship is the Zerstorer Hamburg. It is presently on its way to Lisbon. His address is Hunte Strasse 10, 2940 Wilhelmshaven, Bundesrepublik, Deutschland, telephone 04421-41649. He invites any '7Bs to look him up after June 13, when he'll be back in port. John signs himself Lt., U.S.N., which I guess means that he has not defected. This was, of course, my first thought when I saw this German postcard with a military ship on it.

Cris Gaut announces that his wife Donna and he had a son, Richard Charles, on March 5, 1984. They continue to live in London, England, where they have been since 1981. He is an economic analyst with Amoco Europe and West Africa. Prior to the birth, Donna was working as a legal assistant with Davis, Polk, and Wardwell. They expect to move back to the States next year "so that we can catch a few Dartmouth football games."

Mark it on your calendars! The class of 1978's sixth annual (give or take a couple) Cape Cod mini-reunion, scheduled for August 13. Look for details in your early-summer Dartmouth mail.

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