1985
Spring is in the air in Houston. We survived the Super Bowl amazingly unscathed, and the media reports on our Texas hospitality have been mostly favorable. Now the rodeo is in town and Houston returns to its cowboy roots, at least for two weeks (my kids were SO adorable in their cowboy outfits!).
To the news. Karen Matjucha and husband Ippolit, DMS' 87, added Timothy John to their family on September 22. With three kids myself, I am certain that Timothys sister Katerina and brother Ippolit are being very sweet and loving to him and not even considering being mean because he is the baby and stealing all the attention (NOT!). I got to speak to Karen a few months ago and we had a great time catching up and talking about gourmet kitchens.
Talk about moving up in the world, John C. "Sean" Murphy is preparing to move from Maryland to Florida to assume his new job as the head of school at Palmer Trinity, a private Episcopal school. Chosen after an extensive national search, John is thrilled about his new opportunity. John believes that "the journey of the mind and the soul together constitutes the best education"—that is a great principal to live and work by in today's chaotic world. Congratulations to John and his family—wife Katarina and children Helen and Jacob.
And. now a word from one of our mystery classmates. Joyce Sackey-Acheampong sent a wonderful update on her activities. After grad- uating from DMS in 1989, she entered the in- ternal medicine residency program at Beth Israel Hospital (now Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) in Boston, where she served as a primary care chief resident and as a faculty of general medicine. Today Joyce is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. But that isn't the best part of the story. Joyce and her husband Kwaku are the founders of the Foundation for African Relief (FAR), a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the care of people with HIV/AIDS in Ghana and other parts of Africa. Together with their children—Nicole (8) and Kwaku (11)—the Acheampongs have helped establish a walk-in medical clinic for 180 patients in Ghana and have conducted physician-training workshops for Ghana medical personnel. Joyce says that herwork with FAR "gives me a deeper appreciation for what we have available in this country." Nothing more needs to be said.
By the time you read this column, a sister of one of my best friends (38, two kids) will probably have died from ovarian cancer. She received her Stage 3 diagnosis in October and by the end of February her liver and lymph nodes were affected. I would like to take this chance to promote an e-mail I established through my synagogue called "Breast Friends." For four years I have sent a monthly message reminding dozens of women every month to do whatever they can to protect themselves against breast cancer. Examples include eating healthier, self-exams (I believe in them, no matter what the latest reports say), annual gyn exams and annual mammograms now that we are all over 40. While it won't keep my friends sister from dying, adding some of my Dartmouth classmates to the list will at least help me create something positive out of something so negative. Ifyou are interested in joining this monthly memory jolt, please e-mail me at momandmore@earthlink.net (note the new e-mail address). Kiss your family and count your blessings.
14431 Warm Springs, Houston,TX 77035, momandmore(a)earthlmk.net;118 Ringwood Road, Rosemont, PA 19010;(610) 525-4541; slampong@aol.com;46 Quail Road, Greenwich, CT 06831; (203) 552-0070; Idahl@lonepinecapital.com
