1989
I open this column with some sad news. Joseph Brodsky, who was both our commencement speaker and an honorary member of our class, died in January at age 55.
After decades of persecution in the Soviet Union that included being put twice into mental institutions and being sentenced to crush rocks near the Arctic Circle, Brodsky was exiled in the mid- 1970s and eventually came to live in the United States. He won a Nobel Prize for his work and was named U.S. poet laureate.
Although speaking at our graduation may not have been his crowning achievement, it's nice to think of Brodsky as an honorary member of our class. I'll never forget that speech, with its warning about how to combat post-graduate boredom.
As for news from classmates, I'm going to try to cram in as much as possible. Deanna and Christopher Bailey are living in Wiscasset, Maine, living and working on a community-owned farm and providing educational programs for students of all ages.
Kevin Braker is living in the Los Angeles area, where he had a recent encounter with an overzealous barber. He's been working in film production on such projects as Up Close and Personal, the Robert Redford-Michelle Pfeiffer flick. Kevin described his duties as "crisis management."
Jennifer Tyler is wrapping up her studies at the Tauber Manufacturing Institute in Michigan, where she hopes to earn a joint M.B.A. and master's in engineering. Other '89s pursuing advanced degrees include Michelle Mitchell Dauchy, who is in her second year at Kellogg business school in Evanston, Ill., and Kim Hall, who is studying biology and ecology at Michigan.
Antonia Rutigliano Nedder and JoeNedder have been married for well more than five years now, and they have a baby girl, Katharine, who is approaching her first birthday. Matt Ridenour has moved to Chicago, where he is working for Bain.
Jill Schoenberg works for UCLA in the employee relations department, handling everything from management problems to harassment complaints. She also is the district enrollment director for a large area in Los Angeles. Jill reports that BetsyHeafitz has a job setting up international trade shows in locations as diverse as Sao Paulo and Singapore.
Kris Holmes Lodde is married to Jochen Lodde, a German citizen whom she met at JFK airport. Kris was working at Lufthansa cargo, and Jochen works for a Swiss freight-forwarding company. They now live in Nashville, where I've heard it's pretty hard to get a good bratwurst.
Anita Hamilton reports that she has been living in the Haight, in San Francisco, for nearly four years. She is working as a features editor for a computer related online magazine and TV show called c/net. The TV show is on the USA channel, and the magazine can be reached at .
That's all I have room for at the moment. More news from Josh Adler,Andrew Pulrang, and others in my next column. Send your news to either my physical address or its electronic counterpart. The latter seems to get most of the action these days.
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