1981
1981
It’s never too late to set the record straight with your class secretaries. Jeffrey Bannon wrote-in with another “second-act” story for us, and he should have been included in the ’81s-in-show-business column in the July/August ’21 issue.
Jeff writes, “I double-maj ored in economics and drama and, having been the Hopkins Center student intern during my junior year, expected to go into arts management. But after perform- ing in a few shows, including playing the lead in Company in the fall of 1980,1 became an actor after college. I starred in several hit off-Broadway musicals (Forbidden Broadway, Forever Plaid, etc.) and played smaller roles on Broadway (Kiss of the Spider Woman, Show Boat, Les Mis).
“Then in my 40s I found my second career. I created atraining company, BusinessTalk Inc., that coaches attorneys and bankers in public speaking, networking, management skills, etc. I discovered that the best coaches had performing arts backgrounds. And I’ve managed to successfully run a company in which ex-actors coach businesspeople on how to better communicate. My strange double-major seems to have finally paid off!”
1979-1982
As actor-now-author Henry Winkler said, “If you listen to your inner voice, what you know instinctively, it will always lead you down the right path.”
Calvin Johnson seemingly found his path early and with certainty. He’s currently a professor of anesthesiology at CedarsSinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and you may remember that he was a basketball Academic All-America as an undergrad. Calvin was recently featured in an Academic All-America team article titled, “The Intentional and Inspirational Journey of Dr. Calvin Johnson.” Dartmouth then-head basketball coach Gary Walters said therein: “Calvin was as indefatigable in his scholarly interests as he was on the court. I’ll never forget that there was always one light on when we were traveling on the team bus....He took and has taken advantage of every opportunity presented to him.” Walters is director of athletics emeritus at Princeton, and the two stay in touch. For the record, Calvin’s also about to be inducted into his hometown Muskegon (Michigan) Sports Hall of Fame.
In other hometowns, Laura Ackerman Smoller. her sister, Dartmouth Preston H. Kelsey Professor of Religion Susan Ackerman ’80, and I were in the same Brownie troop back in Little Rock, Arkansas. Their mom led us (hi, Mrs. Ackerman) . Laura is currently chair of the department of history at the University of Rochester and author of the awesomely titled, The Saint and the Chopped Up-Baby: The Cult of Vincent Ferrer in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. She was recently named a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, the highest honor the academy bestows on American medievalists. Laura was also awarded a national Endowment for the Humanities fellowship to write her third book— tentatively titled, wouldn’t you know, Astrology and the Sibyls: Paths to Truth in Medieval and Early Modern Europe.
—Ann Jacobus Kordahl, P.O. Box 470443, San Francisco, CA 94147; ajkordahl@gmail.com; Emil Miskovsky. P.O. Box 2162, North Conway, NH03860; emilmiskovsky@gmail.com
Ann Jacobus Kordahl
