1981
It's near midnight here in balmy Santa Monica, and I've been writing and meeting and casting for some 15 hours now. I'm finally done. Done with the bad jokes, the bad ideas, the really bad actors. Beautiful and as dumb as wood. I'm going home. Going to bed. Watching Nightline. No, wait, my Dartmouth column's due. I am so pleased.
Someone. Anyone. Take this space. Glenn Havlicek reports that one of our classmates has made a pledge in the amount of $290,000 toward our class reunion goal of $1 million. The gift was anonymous. Hmmm. Rich, generous and no ego. No one I know.
Allen Smith is the medical director of Tufts' Medicare HMO product Secure Horizons, the largest such plan in New England. He was an internist and practiced primary care for 10 years before taking the post with Tufts. Allen's married to Denise DuChainey Holyoke '82. They have four kids. Allen stays in touch with fellow '81 Gamma Delts Dennis Ryan, Sean Bersell Jon Cohen and Brian Mooney All coming to reunion, right?
Amanda Anderson was appointed as a full professor at Johns Hopkins. A Ph.D. in English from Cornell, Amanda specializes in 19th-century British literature, critical theory and feminist theory. She is the author of Tainted Souls and Painted Faces: The Rhetoric ofFallenness in Victorian Literature. Oddly enough, the book was dedicated to Batman. Her husband and classmate, Allen Hance, has left academe (a recovering philosophy professor) to pursue a master's in environmental policy at the University of Michigan. Allen was just awarded a Sea Grant Fellowship to work in Congress on environmental issues relating to the Upper Mississippi. They're currently living in Baltimore with their 6-year-old Jackson. Jackson is way into Batman. Ahhh.
Also going to John Hopkins is Ben Van Voorhees. Ben is taking a fellowship in internal medicine to study issues of quality and equity in health-care finance and organization. He and his wife, Donica have a baby girl, Kara Grace. Ben Van Voorhees is the former Ben Van Voorhis. Both of them will be coming to reunion.
Dave Focardi—you wrote me eons ago after my plea for news, and I just found your letter. Thank you, and I'm sorry. Dave lives in Moab, Utah, where he's a river guide for Sheri Griffith Expeditions. His wife, Jennifer Weidensee, is a seasonal ranger in Grand Gulch. And every day is Casual Friday. He's also been working as an oil well site geologist in the winter on and off for the last 18 years. Dave's in his 10th year of brewing his own beer and recently started a homebrewing club in Moab. He and Jennifer have a dog with arthritis. Both are big skiers and cyclists. Dave Focardi sounds like a wonderful guy. I hope he comes to reunion and says hello to me.
Marc Belton an M.B.A. from Wharton and the president of new ventures at General Mills, was named to the board of directors of Navistar International. The press release from Navistar that Dartmouth picked up off the wires says that Marc is active in Minneapolis community affairs. He sounds rich. Seems generous. And I didn't really know him. Hmmm. I don't know how to convince you people to come to reunion. Concerts, symposiums, picnics, women's events, New England in June? How about this possible exchange? A friend asks, "So how was your 20th reunion from college? Must've been interesting." And you say, "I didn't go." That seems sad to me. Isn't it getting a little late in the day to be scared? To not make the bold choice. Go. Just shut up about it and go.
1047 Lincoln Blvd., Apt. 10, Santa Monica, CA 90403; sgodchaux@aol.com 4807 Dover Road, Bethesda, MD 20816-1772; (301) 652-8129 (w); aoakes@ mrsh.org
81 June 16-18
Keith Hammonds '81 on the Net, p. 16
Amanda Anderson dedicated her new book to Batman. STEPHEN GODCHAUX '81
