1981

In keeping with the times, the class of '81 had requests for a recount, not from Florida, but from Massachusetts. It's my understanding that our newest fearless leader, Chip Bettencourt, has contested the election, certain that someone else must have received at least a vote or two. While his legal team is gathering, Chip has been busy with his transition team, not only taking over class leadership, but also running headlong into a new business venture. He describes his new company as a media company, bringing the Internet to elevators in Class A office buildings across the country. You can find them on the Web at www.captivate.com. Chip is the new director of operations, and he is opening offices around the country. Any Democrats looking for work?

I think I can knock a few people off your list, Chip. Patrick Meehan was appointed as vice president of the solutions architect group at In fo Ray, a provider of e-business solutions, based in Boston. He was previously a research director at Gartner Group, and prior to that, was a partner at DoubleSpace, an interactive design firm in New York.

Another local who doesn't need a job is Gordon Landis, who was named chief software architect at Ucentric Systems, up the road in Maynard, Massachusetts. Looking back over his previous positions, Gordon must have been working with Al Gore when he invented the Internet. Prior to his post at Ucentrics, he was an engineer leading the Java product group at Object Design, directing the Internet products division and Web-related development.

In the world of finance, Michael Moran joined Capitol Bancorp Limited as executive vice president of corporate development. In his new position he will head up acquisition strategies, putting to work his expertise as an equity analyst of Michigan financial institutions, which he developed in his previous job at Roney & Cos. Elsewhere in the financial world, Peter Ley was appointed as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Commonwealth Telephone Enterprises Inc. based in Dallas, Pennsylvania. This will make him responsible for the oversight of all corporate finance, financial analyses, capital market transactions and a few other things. These jobs sound so complicated, but I guess when you have an M.B.A. from Harvard, nothing is all that complicated.

As for someone with a job that I can understand, I'm excited to say that my last column, high in numbers of classmates mentioned but low on information, did provoke at least a couple of e-mail responses, one coming from the likes of Carl "Neutron" Baum. After finishing his pediatric emergency and medical toxicology training at Boston Childrens Hospital, he and his wife, Diane, an internist, went to Chicago. They worked at Northwestern for four years, but more importantly, produced offspring Eli and Sophie. As Carl put it, when their apartment became too small, they moved back to Connecticut to be closer to family. Carl is now working at Yale-New Haven Childrens Hospital. Healing kids. A little easier for my simple mind.

And finally, a little reminder that those 'Bis are everywhere. I was watching television a couple of weeks ago, on my fancy 13-inch TV. I happened upon a special on Lucille Ball, which was really interesting. More interesting, however, was what I discovered in the credits: The show was directed by our very own Pamela Mason Wagner. Great job, Pam! Keep practicing on those run-of-the-mill celebs, and perhaps some day you'll be able to do a documentary on someone really important, like Chip. That is, if he survives the recount. Wishing you all ahappy 2001!

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