1981

I have been watching Olympic women's ice hockey these past few days and yelped "Hoorah!" when I saw the U.S. women beat Canada, 3-1, for the gold medal. I watched because I enjoy ice hockey, but I also watched because of the many connections: Colleen Coyne was at Tabor when I taught there, Gretchen Ulion and Sarah Teuting did our alma mater proud, and I married someone who also played at Dartmouth, long before some of the current U.S. players could walk, let alone skate.

I thought, then, that we should salute not only the people who helped start Dartmouth's program people like Ted Wingate '77, Lucinda Fernald '79, Lea Boiling '78, Bob Ceplikas '78, and Mark "Lou" Panella '78 but also the '81s who played: Sue McLaughlin Jangro, JaniceEllis, Claudia Sarnoff, Holly Eaton, BetsyField, Caroline Rudd, and the many others that I've forgotten. All of these people, in some manner, are progenitors of that goldmedal squad.

Helen Hemminger cut through water in its liquid form when at Dartmouth, and Maine's governor, Angus King '66, recently appointed her to the Interagency Task Force on Homelessness, a group that will provide recommendations to King and Maine's legislature on how best to provide shelter and housing services to the homeless with mental illness and substance abuse problems. Since 1991 Helen has been director of the Tedford Shelter, located in Brunswick, Maine; last year Tedford provided emergency shelter to 72 families and 372 single adults.

Congrats to Jeff Tepper who was selected as Valdosta State University's 1997-8 Regents' Distinguished Professor for Teaching and Learning. Located in Valdosta, Ga., VSU's Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning selects four people each year for this honor, one from each of the university's four colleges; Jeff, a professor of physics/astronomy/geosciences, comes from the college of arts and sciences. Mark Frawley this past fall directed a production of Working that garnered fine reviews, much like the reviews that musical got when Mark, Mark Lotito,Jody Awad, and other classmates performed it at Dartmouth some 18 years ago. Part of a group called 4th Wall Musical Theater, Mark and fellow thespians will perform a series of "smaller musicals" at N.J.'s Morristown Beard School, as part of a residency there, even teaching a few master classes when time permits.

Lastly, Williamstown, Vt., has a new public library: Tim Guiles just opened one in the basement of the Williamstown Lutheran Church, with shelves made by Tim, curtains made by a friend, and books gathered from all over. But the library is much more than just bestsellers. Students get tutored there in math, piano, trombone, guitar, and voice. Tim will even help put a home business on one of the computers.

His new community venture evolved out of his work at Johns Hopkins, where he got a master's degree in human geography.

"I was studying sustainability issues, and a lot of what I came up with was the need for a nurturing community," Tim commented, "and I see the small public library in Vermont as being an excellent vehicle...a way for people to come together and nurture each other."

So far 22 people have paid the $6.50 annual membership fee, but making money is not the object. "I guess I like to shake the bushes in my anarchist way to say you don't have to be big and have a lot of funding to do this," continued Tim. "I'm hoping this can be a positive influence on the community." (E-mail Tim at if you can donate books, time, or anything else to his venture.)

Near the year's beginning Pat Berry had daughter number three, Catharine Vaughan Heisler, and no doubt one of these three will be a puckster, given husband Mitch's passion for the NY Rangers. And whether you get it from Tim's community library or your local lenders, read Cold Mountain. There's been much hype surrounding this first novel, but it deserves it.

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