1990
It is tough to start this column with sad news, but I must inform you of the passing this past January of our classmate Kimberly Lee Adamson from a lengthy battle with breast cancer. Our next column will share some thoughts on Kimberly’s life and legacy. Meanwhile, our deepest thoughts and prayers go out to Kimberly’s husband, Paul, and her loved ones.
On January 20 Jay Davis traveled to Washington, D.C., to witness history and share in our nation’s transition of power. I asked Jay, who works at Dartmouth in the education department and at the Tucker Foundation, to share some thoughts from President Obama’s inauguration. He writes, “Here are some images: flying to D.C. from an educational conference in Houston, sitting next to a woman taught freshman writing by Toni Morrison at a black college in Houston before joining the first group of African Americans to integrate the University of Texas in 1957 (where she was literally ignored by a professor when she went into his office hours her first semester). Sleeping on a couch in the office of my brother Kevin ’94 in the legislative counsel wing of the Senate building. Spending the better part of a day in physical contact with strangers (not my issue if that phrase reminds some of you of your college experience). Marveling over and over and over again at the pervasive and patient joy of a mass of humanity denied almost all comforts, a crowd of well over a million frozen, bladder-filled, purple-gate denied, human gridlocked people, not one of whom was arrested all day. Thrilling to the insistent (if not organized—these were mainly Democrats after all) sound of hundreds of thousands of people singing a fervent and vaguely unbelieving ‘Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye’ to the helicopter that circled the National Mall one last time before heading for a Texas-bound plane. Immersing in conversation with an Afghani man who emigrated during the Soviet invasion, then meeting his daughter who ‘goes to school in New Hampshire’ (an ’11 I immediately conscripted for the Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth program this summer). Watching strangers physically and figuratively embrace across race and class, starting conversations, sharing aspirations, admitting the anxiety that accompanied the acceptance of hope. Sitting with my mother that evening in front of TV, tears streaming ridiculously down our faces as Beyoncé sang to the First Couple. Standing in line for more than an hour (10 seconds usually pains me deeply) at 6:30 the next morning in a Baltimore-Washington International gift shop with 75 impossibly content people, stocking up on such necessities as Obama action dolls and mouse pads. Sitting on a Southwest plane next to three members of Sweet Honey in the Rock, on their way to Hanover to sing a concert resonant with transcendent harmonies. Thinking constantly of my 2-year old, who may very well go for many years without knowing that presidents are actually allowed to be white. Feeling a newfound patriotism that wore comfortably and still does.” What indelible memories for Jay to share with his wife, Julie (Sanders) ’91, and their children Andrew and Katie!
Shockingly, by the time you read this our 20th reunion will be celebrated a few months away on June 19-21. Please see our class Web site (www.dartmouth90.org) for links to the registration page or you can register directly at www. alumni.dartmouth.edu/reunions. We hope to see all of you there!
30 Elm St., #1, Charlestown, MA 02129; (781) 631-2646; levinrealtygroup@pobox.com; 1520 Asylum Ave., West Hartford, CT 06117; (860) 965-0956; brad.drazen@nbcuni.com
REUNION June 19-21
