1978

My sincere thanks to our classmates who have sent me news. I hope many others will follow their example! Steve Ceurvorst writes: "My wife, Brenda, and I are loving being parents to our four kids (ages 16 through 10). All of the kids are good students, decent athletes and fine musicians (i.e. they take after their mother). I can honestly say that we appreciate how lucky we are. On the business front, I left Mellon Financial after a very long time and started a funds management business with a partner (Craig Shallcross '71). We just finished closing our second fund and things are going pretty well. The only catch is that I commute to Wall Street a few days a week from western Pennsylvania. Sort of like my own weekly version of Green Acres, but hey, I grew up in lowa."

Meanwhile, at least two '78s have spent time recently in Iraq. Joe Bishop reported that for five months he worked on a single Pratt & Whitney gas turbine in Bayji, about 150 miles north of Baghdad. "The plant only generated about 20 megawatts, which is less than 1 percent of Iraq's needs, but it did make a difference At the 25th reunion I had had a short conversation with Burke Whitman, who had of course already been in Iraq with the military. When I told him I fixed power plants, he quickly came back with, "You want to go to Iraq?" It dawned on me that when a Marine officer says something like that, he might mean it."

Jim Bullion: "Well, I never thought that, once again, I'd be sending you New Years greetings from Iraq, but here I am in Baghdad, listening to the gunfire in the distance as the people celebrate (I hope) the advent of what we all hope will be a better year. I came back to Iraq about three weeks ago and am assigned to the Multinational Security Transition Command (www.mnstci.iraq. centcom.mil), which is responsible for rebuilding the Iraqi military and police forces."

Now donning my Alumni Council representative hat, I encourage all ofyou to read the executive summaries of our semiannual meetings. You can access them at: http://alumni.dartmouth. edu/leadership/council/council_meetings.html. Every council meeting is packed with presentations by and discussions with faculty members, the administration and members of the board of trustees. A highlight of the most recent meeting was a report by Thomas Cormen, director of the Dartmouth Writing Program and professor of computer sciences, on the Colleges efforts to improve students' writing skills.

Finally, in March President Bush chose congressman Rob Portman to be U.S. trade representative, saying the Ohio Republican has shown a deep dedication to free and fair trade. "As an Ohioan, Rob knows firsthand that millions of American jobs depend on exports, including one in every five factory jobs," Bush said in nominating Portman to be the administration's top salesman for free-trade agreements around the world.

Ricki Fairley-Brown encourages BADA classmates to attend the BADA reunion May 27-30 in Hanover, which will include a tribute to all of the black alums of the 1940s and 1950s who are close to celebrating their 50th reunions. "My dad, Richard Fairley'ss, is happily celebrating his 50th this year with his '07 granddaughter (my daughter), Amanda, cheering him on." Other events include a luncheon with Dr. Julianne Malveaux, the establishment of mentoring program to help guide students during and after their time at Dartmouth and a worship service with a gospel choir. People can register on the BADA Web site: www. dartmouth.org/affiliated/bada.

That's all for this issue. Please write.

Box 4115, Jackson, WY 83001;maggiehunt@gmail.com