1980

Twenty-seven years since the fall of 1976, when we started college. Some of us are already grandparents! Bifocals, orthotics, surgery, gray hair, no hair, hair in all the wrong places. The youngest of us is 45 years old. Twice our age is 90. We are middle-aged.Time to follow our bliss.

Since returning to New York City, Stuart Bell has worked with teams of people in his company to deliver holiday meal packages to shut-ins located in the Gramercy Park area. Most recently Stuart joined the board of Chances for Children, whose sister charity in Europe is actively supported by Sarah, the Duchess of York. Programs include mobile HIV awareness education centers, sponsored in coordination with Montefiore Medical Center, to reach high-risk teenagers. Chances for Children is also supporting Green Chimneys, which provides transitional housing for runaway teens. For more information, go to www.chancesforchildren.org.

Immigration lawyer George Lester has always most enjoyed pro bono work helping people seek political asylum in the United States. Since 1997 he as served on the board of the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project (PAIR Project), a Boston nonprofit that coordinates pro bono representation of asylum seekers among Boston area law firms. George has also enjoyed serving as an elected member of the planning board in his town of Medfield, Massachusetts, since 1995.

Among other organizations, Jim Puiia served on the board of the Portland (Maine) Stage Company, a local professional theater group. Serving with him was Mike Lepage, husband of classmate Meg Coughlin Lepage. Jim had great fun behind the scenes of a professional theater, watching a production evolve from an idea to a performance. Jim now sits on the board of his daughters local swim club, the Westbrook Seals, a big time commitment. But Jims daughter, Anna, who aspires to be a member of the Dartmouth class of'12, loves swimming, and he gladly gives his time and effort.

After Dartmouth Omar Khan spent fo uryears working for UNICEF Pakistan and later, the Asia Foundation, for whom he produced videos to educate Pakistan's elected representatives in democratic procedures. Omar now lives in San Francisco, and although a businessman by day, he serves on the board of a mission preschool he helped to rescue financially. Omar also runs a Web site, www.harappa.com, that raises substantial funds each year to support the Wisconsin-Havard excavations at the ancient city of Harappa in Pakistan.

Christina Thompson has never had a for-profit job yet, and her bank account shows it. She is the editor of Harvard Review, a wonderful job, always interesting, relatively unstructured, creative and independent. The Review, published by Houghton Library at Harvard University, carries short stories, poetry, essays, drama and book reviews.

Gerry Murray is the pastor of a small Frenchnational Catholic parish in Manhattan where he as been since july 1998. Gerry's church serves the spiritual needs of French-speaking parishioners from all over the New York area. Gerry deals with everyone from French bankers here for a few years to new immigrants from west Africa.

Last year Leigh Limbach Johnson was president ofher community's school foundation, raising $707,000 to support two local public schools, K-8. Nationally, California ranks towards the bottom in per-pupil spending, so most school districts have foundations to supplement their budgets. The foundation Leigh works with raises about 7 percent of the operating budget for the two schools. The funds go toward small classes, quality teachers and a comprehensive curriculum. Leigh has also worked on successful bond and parcel tax campaigns for the school district to raise $24 million for capital expenditures and $8OO,OOO per year for the operating budget.

P.O. Box 9848, Savannah, GA 31412;(912) 236-2061; (912) 236-4936 (fax); wherring@huntermaclean.com; 138Lake Road, Fiskdale, MA 01518; (508) 347-2341;carolwillard@charter.net