1979

The Friday afternoon flight from Philly to Hartford was packed, but it was my best hope for getting home in time for my son's hockey practice. At the gate I realized that I was destined for a middle seat. The unexpected pleasure was that next to me sat classmate and beer pong aficionado, Steve Franklin. Franks was recovering the previous evening's obligatory "rage" for General Re clients. Unlike most of us working stiffs, it seems Franks needs his weekends dry out. Franks is firmly entrenched in suburban Hartford life; executive by day for General Re and youth hockey coach by night and weekends for his seven-year-old son.

When Franks and I were in Philly, we did not run into the new vice president for programs at the William Penn Foundation, Helen Davis Pritcher. Helen was recently promoted from being the foundation's senior program officer for the natural environment. Working there for the past 14 years, Helen has been involved in all the foundation's grant-making areas, with an emphasis on the arts and the natural environment.

Also on the fast track is RichardPender, promoted to senior vice president for Sentinal Advisors Cos. in Montpelier, Vt. Richard leads the team that manages the Sentinal common stock and balanced funds, trying to out-perform the S&P 500, the Beardstown Ladies Investor Group, and trained monkeys.

Orthopedic surgeon Cherie Holmes left her two offices in three hospitals in Washington, D.C., to put knees, ankles, wrists, and hips back together at the Hitchcock Clinic and Cheshire Medical Center in Keene, N.H. After the urban traumas of shootings, stab wounds, and so forth that Cherie treated in D.C., she reports things in Keene are a little calmer. "It does get active around here in the summer, tourists and all," she says. "And in the fall you've got hunting injuries...and the spring can be busy with jogging accidents."

For those of you who only read the Class Notes in the Alumni Mag, and not the Who's Who of alums, my freshman

trip bunkie Scott Blackmun has been named general counsel for the U.S. Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs, Colo. I'm not entirely sure what such a studly position actually does, but I'm certain that he could likely set you up with complementary tickets to a preliminary curling match.

While some of us are nearly faced with teenage children with driver's licenses, it's refreshing to hear of classmates that are just embarking on blissful married life. Tom Ewing shot me an e-mail to report that, after getting engaged at Winter Carnival this year, he wed Deanna Kathleen Raih at Hahvahd this past September. After Dartmouth Tom did graduate work at the Hahvahd School of Design, which prepared him for a career in banking in Boston. Then he was off to Opryland, where a career in country music never materialized, and he settled for an M.B.A. from Vanderbilt. Tom is currently back in Medford, Mass., and is the chief financial officer at Van Stry Design (pretty good job tying all that education back together). Tom also provided a lengthy resume of his bride, Deanna's, accomplishments, but we'll just let Cornell print it in their alumni magazine.

Have a happy and healthy New Year. E-mail Jeffrey or me at the addresses below. NOW!

7 Griffin St., Simsbury, CT 06070; (860) 651-0085 (h), (800) 982-6810 (w), (F) (203) 949-5670 (fax); ; 765 Teresita Blvd., San Francisco, CA 94127; (415) 337-7737 (h);

Regina Barecca '79 on thesocio-economics of education, p. 28