In advance of the reunion, a number of our classmates have written to class agent Gene O’Neill this year to update him on their lives . Gene has distilled those notes into the following report:
This from Kevin Commins: “I’ve moved back to my home town of Middlebury, well, New Haven, which is close to my home town of Middlebury, after 32 years in Los Angeles with my husband of 35 years, Ed Rybka. I’m still a screenwriter, mainly of movies for television, but the internet makes it possible to do it in a place I want to live. I’ve written a lot for the Hallmark Channel, but also for Animal Planet, Discovery, History Channel and Lifetime, among others. I’ve become very active in local theater, both acting and directing, and have started work on a couple of plays. I’ve also cowritten a independent film screenplay, “Dream House,” with fellow Middlebury alumnus David Lally.” Kevin warns all that downtown Middlebury has major construction going on and that might be a consideration for town visits during Reunion.
This from Anne LeBourgeois: “In a nutshell, husband, Robert Grieves (Hamilton ’76) and I have been living in Hong Kong since 2008, and founded our strategic communications firm, Hamilton Advisors, in 2009. We also worked and lived here with our two girls for five years in the 1990’s, and in Beijing, pre-children, for three years in the mid-eighties, pursuing careers in corporate banking and PR/corporate communications. In between times we have lived in Connecticut and worked in NYC, and still have our house in New Canaan, CT. FYI, daughter Alex graduated Midd in ’09. Tory graduated Hamilton in ’12. “
From Nancy Herter: “My news is that I retired from teaching after 35 years at Middlesex School and am thoroughly enjoying retirement. I now have plenty of time for travel, tennis, skiing, gardening and hanging out with our 6 grandchildren. My husband Ned and I are very lucky that all of our children and grand kiddies live nearby.”
From Tony Pagliarulo: “Looking forward to our time in the hood.”
From Jonathan Philips: “Looking forward to re-onion. Will be accompanied by wife and possibly by 1 or 2 of 4 sons. Karma being what it is I was telling my 101 year old dad about his ‘connection’ with Bernie Sanders (other than both of them being old Jewish socialists); that is that he had stayed at the Boricious household in Katonah NY about 45 years ago..just as your message arrived. [I mentioned to Jon that Terry Boricious had been featured in the NYT the week I wrote Philips.] Will have to get a copy of NYT. Great to hear from you. Looking forward to learning all about the last few decades..and thanks for finding me!”
From James Sterngold: “I recently seized an opportunity to switch careers and am thrilled with how much fun it is to be trying a new direction, particularly at this age. After 35 years as a journalist — most of that with The New York Times, both in the U.S. and in Asia — I have been since last fall Senior Advisor to the Chancellor of The City University of New York. CUNY is a huge, interesting university system — the third largest in the country — and so it is involved with just about every major policy issue in higher education, from immigration and inequality to student debt. I work with the Chancellor, J.B. Milliken, and the rest of the senior staff on policy issues and his communications. I write his speeches, Op-Eds and the like. It’s a fascinating time to be deeply involved in public higher education policy and a lot of fun to be learning so much new stuff. And CUNY’s mission — it is one of the most affordable major universities in the country and has always been particularly open to immigrants, minorities and underrepresented groups — makes it a great place to work. Dogs, young as well as old, can indeed learn new tricks.”
From Charlotte Landon: “My husband Robert (Colgate ’72) and I live in Savannah, Georgia. I retired from teaching in 2009 and we moved south from northern New York. My link to Savannah was created right after my birth in 1954 when my father, a navigator during the Korean War, was stationed at Hunter Airfare Base here. Returning was indeed a homecoming for me. I am a tour guide and adore sharing my passion and love for this beautiful city’s architecture and history (and food!) with visitors. We share our 1925 Spanish bungalow with two cats and three chickens. Additionally, Robert and I have a family summer home in North Ferrisburg on Lake Champlain. My daughter (University of New Hampshire ’04) lives and works in Burlington. It is wonderful to be able to maintain a northern network and have a way to escape the sultry Savannah summers to Vermont. I am fortunate to be able to connect with several Middlebury friends on a pretty regular basis: Lisa Bent Chace who travels back and forth between homes in New Hampshire and South Carolina, and Patty Forbes Gray and Gary Gray who own a summer home down the road from ours in Vermont. I hope classmates will contact me if they are ever in Savannah!”
From Brian Holtan: “I’ll definitely be attending our 40th reunion – looking forward to seeing everybody again! I still get together for mini-reunions with old Midd friends (since freshmen at Allen Hall!) Chris & Sally Barron, Bill Schiffman, Scott Pitz, Roger Prince, Harry Blackman, Tanice Fitzpatrick ‘78, & Mary Kirkpatrick ’78, most of whom will also be attending our reunion.And I still ski regularly at Mad River Glen, where my wife Annika is a trustee & chair of the capital campaign (in case anybody wants to contribute to a worthy cause). We’re loving our active life as empty nesters now that our sons Peter & Todd are in CO living the ski bum dream. Off season I enjoy mountain biking the VT single track with my friends & competing in inline speed skating endurance races around the country.”
I got handwritten notes from Dave Treitel, Tony Parks, who invited me to his Prescott home for a place to stay in my travels, and Jeff Wieand, who lives in Massachusetts and claims to be a bud of the furtive Pedro Sanchez, M.D. I got a note from Delia Walch who was encouraging Kathy Parlin and Becky Ikehara to come back to the College for the weekend.
And then there is Peter Ord who writes each quarter century from Juneau, Alaska. He sent me the “news to the family” letter and brocaded the outside with Midd commentary. “We’re still chasing the same lifestyle – winter months in town, and summer’s warmer, longer daylight months at Couverden. Commercial fishing for Dungeness crab and halibut May through November still pays the bills and being a seasonal income we do our best to ‘make hay while the sun shines’. Winter gives us a chance to flirt with retirement.” Peter and his wife Mary have three children, Nathan, Annika and Bekka who seem to share their parents’ love of northern climes and the outdoors even after college. (Fireplaces and their building were a large part of the family newsletter). Pete closed saying, “if you have hills to climb or rivers to float, keep us in mind.”
Gene O’Neill
Midd76 