1977

The first signs of fall: Chris Jenny sent a photo of his sons, Alex 3, and Christopher 1, decked in D sweatshirts. Why a sign of fall? Chris is president of Friends of Dartmouth Football, and he brings the boys to seven or eight games each year. Chris says they love the games. Having taken our daughter Kaethe to a few Stanford games at roughly the same age, we remember mosdy chasing her around the top of the stadium (really a two-safety prevent defense to stop "over the top"), and little of the games themselves.

Jan Malcolm brightened our August with a visit. We sampled lunch at the ever-present Peter Christian's, then later dinner at PC's owner Murray Washburn's new restaurant, Cafe Buon Gustaio (where the Bull's Eye and, more recently, Rafael's Cucina used to be). Highly recommended (and no, we get no kickback) reative recipes and entrees from $6 to $20. We're going to do travel and restaurant writing for our next careers.

Anyway, this is about Jan, who's still in Minneapolis working in the HMO management field, but has just changed to a new job and company: VP of public policy and development at Group Health, Inc. She gets to address the social (and moral, ethical, and economic) problems of delivering health care systems to an aging population, principally by designing creative solutions to these problems. We wish she could bring some of her expertise here to the Upper Valley, where the lack of competition (the downside of less-urban living) leaves Ma Hitchcock holding all the cards (as well as bonds to pay off on the new hospital). Linda Markin also hosted Jan farther north, at her home in Hardwick, Vt. Jan was bemused by Linda's insistence on driving an hour to find a place to bike ride, while the Hardwick terrain (northeast of Montpelier) seemed just fine. Ah, greener grass.

An article sent by Bernie Sudikoff '53 about son Jeff Sudikoff gives interesting insight into taking a start-up company public. (IDB Communications Group supplies satellite communications services.) Jeff made the May cover of Inc Magazine, talking about "Going Public: The Dark Side of the Dream. Five CEOs on the fears your advisers won't talk about." The key to his success was a combination of basic research and cagey marketing. He sat in on other presentations, and watched buyers' reactions (favorable or unfavorable), which helped frame his presentation. He also pitched it carefully, and instead of giving all the financial numbers verbatim, engaged and teased the audience to calculate things for themselves. There's far more to it, of course, but word limits here mean we can't give it to you verbatim. Check it out for yourselves!

News is as light as the winds in this year's Chicago-to-Mackinac sailboat race. (Pop quiz: how do the Michiganders pronounce "Mackinac"?) We trust your summer vacations have kept you from writing. Time, then, to start the next phase of your crosstraining, and exercise those muscles and tendons in the dominant forearm. Bo knows correspondence. Just do it.

P.O. Box 861, Norwich, VT 05055