1962

Bob Sprafkin wrote recently with a quick news brief: "Recently I was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Central New York Psychological Association of Syracuse, New York." I picked up the phone and was able to catch up with Bob at his home in Baldwinsville, New York. After Dartmouth Bob was accepted at the University of Pennsylvania law school but after a relatively short stint there decided that he might like psychology better than the law. He earned a masters degree in psychology at Columbia and then a Ph.D. in counseling psychology at Ohio State. He taught psychology at the University of Syracuse for several years and then became a clinical psychologist at the Syracuse Veterans Administration Hospital (affiliated with SUNY Upstate Medical Center), from 1971 through 2001. In addition to his full time work at the VA Bob maintained a clinical practice that he has expanded since his retirement from the VA. I asked Bob if he had any plans to retire from his clinical work. "Not really, Richard, I enjoy what I do and expect to continue at it for the foreseeable future." Bob and his wife, Barbara, have three children. Jeffrey '87 resides in Shanghai, Neal (Trinity College) resides in Washington and Noah '92 resides in India. I asked Bob to comment on the concern he expressed in our 25-year reunion book that at Dartmouth "appreciation and respect (not just tolerance) for diversity is disappearing. I sense a growing homogeneity among students, which saddens me." We traded observations for awhile and then Bob and I agreed that things have changed since 1987.

We talked, all too briefly, with Jim Varnum at the October mini-reunion. You may have read recently that Jim, CEO of the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center of Lebanon, New Hampshire (formerly the Mary Hitchcock Medical Center of Hanover), for 2 8 years, has announced his intention to step down this coming spring. Jims vision and steady hand on the helm was instrumental in the expansion of the medical center, which has been a stunning success. Well done, Jim.

It was good to talk at length with Jim Haines on the phone recently. Jim majored in Spanish at Dartmouth and went on to Brown for a language master's/Ph.D. program. During his years in Providence Jim met and married Mamie, who earned her master's degree in urban studies. They moved to south central Pennsylvania, where Jim taught Spanish at Mercersburg Academy for three years. After a brief interlude in the world of finance Jim decided to continue his academic career. He earned a doctorate in English at the University of Pittsburgh.

Jim joined the faculty of Point Park Univer- sity in Pittsburgh, where he became a full profes- sor of English and Spanish Jim and Mamie have two sons. Jay graduated from Dartmouth in 1987 and took up a career in law. Tom graduated from Dartmouth in 1990 and is an acclaimed travel writer with the Boston Globe. In recent years Jim retired from academe. He and Mamie live in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, near the Ohio River just northwest of Pittsburgh.

11 Sunset Road, Salem, MA01970; (978)744-0655 (fax);rjhannah@massmed.org