1984

So what's happening in Arkadelphia, Ark.? "Not much," according to Stephanie McHenry Downing, who has lived there for almost two years with her husband, Kyle, and three dogs. Stephanie works for Southern Ventures Inc., where she is an investment manager for the firm which provides seed capital to growing businesses in rural Arkansas. One of "her investments" includes a firm that periodically tests the radioactivity of people who work in the nuclear industry. Though small and expanding, for obvious reasons one hesitates to describe the com as "hot growth."

What do I hear from Harrisville, N.H.? Mainly that Jim Collins is still living in the one-room log cabin that he built on an island in a secluded lake, jim, who commutes to work on ice skates in the winter and a canoe the rest of the year, writes freelance for Yankee Magazine, is a contributing editor to the Alumni Magazine (you may recall his cover story on Daniel Webster), and spends his spare time skiing and restoring a farmhouse he purchased. I ran into Jim while in Hanover for Class Officers Weekend and he told me that Viva Hardigg was just admitted to Columbia School of Journalism and is teaching Italian in New York until she starts school this fall. DavidHooke is teaching history and social studies in the same public school he himself attended in Amherst, Mass., and has "trimmed his beard substantially." JimMoulton, "Jamie Vacinos" to those on his LSA trip, has been actively rowing in Australia and Italy. He is engaged to be married and plans to honeymoon in Tasmania.

Robert White is living in Denver, where he owns a computer software company aptly named The WniteStar Corporation. He attributes the success of the four-person firm to hard work and not to the economic courses he took at Dartmouth since he took none (though that in fact may have been to his benefit). He has organized the annual picnic for the local Dartmouth alumni association the past five years and "successfully avoided the presidency so far!" Robert writes that Doug Page and his wife, Patti, were married a year ago in British Columbia and have since added Owen William to their family and moved to Washington where Doug now works for Winn Development, which is a low-income housing developer/consultant.

Lee and Ford Allen adopted a baby girl, Chelsea Mabry, though the big news around the Allen household seems to be on Ford's head (or not on his head depending on how you look at it). As Lee writes, "The running joke, especially if you've seen Ford lately, is that his four-month-old, gorgeous, "Gerber-like" daughter has more hair than he does!" Lee explains, "Ford claims his wife, basset hound, mortgage, and daughter have all contributed to the rapid hair loss." With a letter signed "Hugs and Chugs," I was not surprised to learn from Lee that Chelsea sleeps with a pong paddle in her crib.

In closing, I have been asked to make an impassioned plea for class does. While a "plea" seems a bit dramatic, the facts are simple: subscriptions to the Alumni Magazine, class mailings, and class events all cost money. If you have not paid your dues someone else is paying for the magazine you are now reading and all the class mail you receive. Feeling guilty? Send your $15 dues check made out to "Class of 1984" to Leah Daughtry '84, 315 Blunt Alumni Center, Hanover, NH 03755. Till next we talk.

8 Wild Rose Court, Bloomfield, CT 06002