1974

A new front-runner has emerged to claim the title of longest married classmate. Greg Griffin and his wife, Debbie, were married in March 1973. They met in 1969 as YMCA day camp counselors. Greg graduated in August 1973 and then worked for a year as a hospital orderly in Wilmington, Delaware, before attending Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. After medical training and practice in the Air Force, at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia and at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, Greg and Debbie returned to Wilmington in 1992. Today Greg practices pediatric hematology/ oncology at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children. He is also working on a masters degree in biomedical informatics. Debbie attended the University of Delaware and completed her undergraduate degree at UC Davis. She earned an M.F.A. from the California College of Art in Oakland. She was a grade- school art teacher for a number of years and now teaches private art students. Greg and Debbie have two children, Lauren (30) and Daniel (29).

Recently the folks in Hanover forwarded to me How Mohammed Saved Miss Liberty by M.S. Holm, a book they had received from the publisher. It turns out that M.S. Holm is the pen name of Mark Sayles. Mark has lived for the past 30 years in Mexico, where he has been "roughnecking, working on a fishing boat, field collecting, raising cattle, teaching and writing." He also built a house and a school in a mango orchard to home- school his three children. In Mexico the mothers maiden name follows the surname, and Mark's mothers maiden name is Holm, thus M.S. Holm. This is Marks second young adult fiction book. According to Mark it drew inspiration from his anger "when a Muslim American friend and his family living in Ohio were terrorized shortly after 9/11. Marks friends adolescent son "experienced the anti-Muslim hysteria and discrimination described in the book. Marks first book, The Arborist, "was inspired by a newspaper report of an 11-year-old boy who gathered donations—in Mexico—and then sent them to the Salvation Army office in Dallas" to aid homeless victims of Hurricane Katrina. Mark's third book is due out in February. It is an unconventional cookbook of traditional Mexican cuisine with "recipes for the financially stressed, the economically depressed and those just hungry for a good laugh."

John Elsenhans and his wife, Lynn, have traded Houston for Philadelphia, a very walkable city with lots of good restaurants, decent sports teams and historical significance." In August Lynn joined Sunoco in Philadelphia as CEO and president after a distinguished career at Royal Dutch Shell. Lynn, a Harvard M.8.A., is the first woman to lead a major energy company. John and Lynn met at Rice University while Lynn was an undergraduate and John was earning his M.B.A. John has also enjoyed a career in the energy business, including serving as CFO of Pogo Producing Cos., an international oil and natural gas exploration and production company. In October John and Lynn connected with old friends Herb Hopkins and his wife, Toni, for the Dartmouth-Penn football game. Don't forget our 35th reunion June 15-18!

Retreat Farm, 1137 ManahinRoad, Manakin Sabot, VA 23103; samplejr@msn.com