1963

Jack Watts is a consummate preservationist of life and of property. As a professional, he specializes in fire safety, a rare disci pline acquired when he left Dartmouth in the middle of his junior year to work in the insurance industry. On his own time Jack preserves barns, which are rapidly vanishing from our rural landscape. He earned a B.S. in fire-protection neering from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. in industrial engineering from the University of Massachusetts. In Middlebury, Vt., Jack set up the not-for-profit Fire Safety Institute, which advises and provides research to fire-safety groups in the U.S., Canada, and United Kingdom. He is also editor of Fire Technology, published by the National Fire Protection Association. Recently Jack and Judy, a Middlebury College librarian, purchased an 18th-century farm which they are restoring with a Vermont grant. Son Judson lives in Pittsfield, Mass., and daughter Alexis is a senior at Carlton College.

Also into restoration is Alex Ghiselin, a Northampton, Mass., home builder. He lives in a 1914 cottage with a garden and southern view on the Mill River. Joe's restaurant from the sixties is still going strong, Alex says. Still "dingy yellow with great pizza."

Beginning with his Peace Corps mission in Chile right after Dartmouth, Sam Cabot has given significant time to public service. Most recently he was elected to the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts board of directors. He also serves as campaign chair for the United Way and was active as a volunteer at our class 30th Reunion. Sam is president and CEO of Samuel Cabot Inc., a 118-year-old family company in Manchester, Mass. They make stains, coatings, and surface-preparation products for wood surfaces.

Higher education is Jim Linksz's interest, specifically Bucks County Community College in Pennsylvania, where he is president. Jim wants to expand the college. He's eyeing the Naval Air Warfare Center, which is closing. He's also trying to expand Bucks County's partnership with LaSalle University.

Boston developer Dick Friedman, whose summer estate hosted the Clintons of Washington, D.C., has joined the Wampanoag Indian tribe's effort to build a casino in New Bedford. In his first casino project, Dick will serve as "master developer" for Carnival Hotels & Casinos, a Miami company.

Steve Frank has resigned as president and chief operating officer of the Florida Power & Light Co., a position he has held since 1990. Ed McCabe has become a counsel to the Boston law firm Perkins, Smith & Cohen.

A year ago IBM was on the edge of doom. Cutting expenses and boosting mainframe sales, CEO Lou Gerstner has led the company to its first full-year profit since 1990, $3 billion. And to top it off, he repealed the company's age-old dress code, permitting employees to dress informally and wear colored shirts.

Launny Steffens, head of brokerage at Merrill Lynch & Co., was a strong candidate for the position of president of the company, which has been filled by David H. Komansky.

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