1980
Creature of habit, you have returned to this class column as a source for snappy patter and information about old friends. Welcome back! If you’re like me, you feel a sense of apprehension and familiarity as you fan the pages of the magazine from back to front until you reach this article. Indeed, there are scores of modern alternatives for keeping in touch with others, and nearly all offer more complete and timely information. But let’s face it: Sometimes you want to read your Kindle, sometimes you want to read a book. Facebook is one of the popular new alternatives for maintaining your Dartmouth social network. So far, I have resisted the call from classmates to start retailing myself on Facebook in exchange for access to their carefully crafted profiles but I suspect that it’s just a matter of time before I jump on the bandwagon. Facebook assimilation seems inevitable, resistance futile. After all, it’s been years since my last encounter with Chuck Wheelock, and Lanny Vickery tells me he’s out there. There’s also Twitter. My interest in sharing spontaneous observations with an admiring audience disappeared after watching Brad Brown ’82 whip out his BlackBerry to tap out enthusiastic “tweets” after each ski run during a trip to Tahoe in April. But if personal patterns hold true, I’ll be sharing each sappy sentiment with a tweet on Twitter as I open my gifts at Christmas. Stay tuned!
By identifying the people who constitute the degrees of separation between you and someone you want to meet, I appreciate the potential value of LinkedIn as a social networking tool but my usage has always been low.In
low.In April I accepted an invitation from Eric Pfeiffer to join the Dartmouth 1980 group he recently started. When I signed in I was surprised to see the names and professional profiles of more than 100 classmates who in turn are linked to tens of thousands of other successful professionals. In economic times like these leveraging classmate connections to find a path to a desirable client, company or position could pay huge dividends. A quick scan of Eric’s profile explains the rapid growth of the group: Eric has forged a successful career in marketing with Boston-area manufacturers and recently joined Hyde Tools as director of marketing. By scanning through the list of other group members, I found the inspiration to contact and reestablish first-tier relationships with Derek Felske in Milwaukee, Dave Osborn in Boston and Tom Chapin here in Philadelphia.
I also reached out to LinkedIn contact Brent Bilger, who proudly reports that son Ross will be joining his sister Chris ’11 at Dartmouth this fall. It was about this time eight years ago when I last saw Chris and Ross, both still preteens, at a 4th of July barbecue that Brent and Cami Crone Bilger hosted at their sprawling Los Altos Hills home. The tech bubble had burst, but we still gorged ourselves on Brent’s marinated tri-tip and great California wines. Brent is involved with a tech start-up; Cami continues to teach while consulting for the Ethics Institute in Santa Clara.
At this year’s annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons Dan Berry was elected to the board of directors and appointed to serve as vice president. These responsibilities are just the latest in a truly stellar career of achievement and leadership by Dr. Berry, who currently serves as professor of orthopedics at the Mayo Clinic’s College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota, and chairs the clinic’s department of orthopedic surgery. Dan’s Frampton hair may be gone, but the magic lives on.
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