1980

1980

One evening this spring I walked back to my office after dinner. When I work late I change clothes at the office before going out. Ray Romano says you can tell the best year of a man’s life because he dresses that way for the rest of his life. I was dressed in a Dartmouth T-shirt and blue jeans, same as 1978.1 was headed north toward Reynolds Square, one of 24 squares in the historic district of Savannah, Georgia. Suddenly a young bearded man shouted at me, “You a hockey fan?” A little startled, I hollered my answer, “Yeah!” The dude enthusiastically called back, “Oh, yeah!”

1978-1982

Dartmouth is a hockey school. Coached by Bob Gaudet ’81, Dartmouth’s hockey team made it to the ECAC hockey semifinals in Lake Placid, New York, in March, but fell to top-seeded Quinnipiac. Bob has been the head coach at Dartmouth since 1997.

I fondly recall when Dartmouth hockey made it to the NCAA Final Four in 1980, losing to North Dakota, the eventual tournament winner. Ross Brownridge, Rick Drill-Mellum, Dennis Murphy, Don O’Brien, Barry Ryan and Rich Ryerson all played on the team that year. Barry won the Unsung Hero Award, Dennis won the Sportsman Award, and Ross, for the second year, won the MVP Award.

Carol Burns visited Savannah last December in conjunction with a work trip to nearby Fort Stewart, home to the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division. After many years as a lawyer with Bechtel, Carol now works for the consulting firm Archetype. Carol leads the opportunity development team and helps develop renewable energy projects in the Army Office of Energy Initiatives. Carol’s oldest daughter, Julia Duke, is in law school. Twins Anna and Maria are almost out of college. All three girls are periodically in and out of mamma’s house in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Husband Marc Brannock is a system engineer who works as a contractor for the federal government.

Jon Bye, with wife Susan, visited Savannah in March to combine business with pleasure. Susan has her own college counseling firm and wanted to tour the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Established in 1978, SCAD has more than 7,000 students at the Savannah campus, which includes some 67 buildings sprinkled throughout the historic district.

My wife, also Susan, and I met Jon and Susan for drinks on the roof of the Bohemian Hotel. Overlooking the Savannah River, we had a panoramic view east to the Atlantic Ocean and west to the port terminal, the fourth busiest container handling facility in the United States. Jon and Susan were grateful to be out of frozen Minneapolis, where Jon is a partner with the law firm of Lindquist & Vennum. A commercial litigator, Jon has been with his firm for more than 30 years.

Jon and Susan’s son, Alex, graduated from Whitman College in 2015. Alex has been selling ski shells at the ski store in Beaver Creek, Colorado, and skied more than a million vertical feet this past winter. Youth is not always wasted on the young.

Wade Herring, P.O. Box 9848, Savannah, GA 31412; (912)944-1639; wherring@huntermaclean. com; Rob Daisley, 3201 W. Knights Ave., Tampa, FL 33611; (813) 300-7954; robdaisley@me.com; Frank Fesnak, 242 River Road, Gladwyne, PA 19035; (610)581-8889; ffesnak@g7nail.c07n