ALUMNI PROFILES
Melvin Lyon '52
Curious Behavior

Marjeanne Banks Vacco '62
Challenge Match

Karen Craft '77
No Place Like Home

Alicia M. Rodriguez-Connolly '78

Mary Schwalm '99
Down to the Wire

Kyle Garry '00

The news just keeps on coming, much of it from far away. Many thanks. . . . I heard from Hronn Rikhardsdottir, who was a classmate during our freshman year and roommate of Betsy Williams Stivers. Hronn now lives in her hometown of Akranes, Iceland, where she is married and has two daughters who are 15 and 7. She is an assistant principal in a school with roughly 500 students from 6 to 16. She also finds time to study for a master's degree in educational administration. Next semester she will begin her master's project, which is about feminine and masculine leadership styles. Betsy and Hronn are still in touch. . . . Brad Germain writes from his hometown of Attleboro, Mass., where he lives with his wife, Bev, and four kids: Ashley, 18, Shaelyn, 15, Rory, 12, and Charlotte, 10. Ashley joins the Colby Class of 2005 this fall! Brad thought the admissions process was tougher for Ashley than it was for him (probably because he'll be paying the bills!). The Germains have spent the past five summers in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont at a place called Quimby's, an old and storied family camp. It's 700 acres of peace and quiet that is much anticipated all year. Brad also makes a plug for books by classmates Jane Brox and Gerry Boyle, encouraging all who have not done so already to read them. I second that motion. . . . Helena Bonnell Gilman's latest news is that she recently transferred her job at Microsoft from Dubai, UAE, to Paris, France. She's there with her husband and two sons, ages 10 and 11, and is working at the corporate headquarters as corporate affairs manager, Europe, Middle East and Africa. Helena acknowledges that Monsieur Oudin's French classes are paying off after many years! The Gilmans feel that Paris is a great city and are enjoying the change. She offers to be of help to any classmate who is thinking of visiting. . . . A little news arrived about our fearless leader, class president Sandy Buck, via the Town Talk section of the Tri Town Transcript. Sandy has been elected to serve a three-year term on the board of directors for the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Roebuck is also the president of Horizon Foundations, Inc., an education-oriented foundation that makes grants in the fields of art, environment, history and leadership development. All this after 18 years teaching English and history at Shore Country Day School, Applewild School and Pingree School. . . . John Devine writes that after exploring many options following the demise of Beautyjungle.com, he has landed: he has found two Maryland corporations to make investments in his business plan to resurrect the distribution and fulfillment services that they offered at Beautyjungle. With any luck and a little time, whenever any of us buy our favorite beauty products (man, do I need some of those) at CVS, Brooks, K-Mart, bluelight.com, etc., those products will most likely have flowed through John's distribution network. John's titles are President, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer. He claims he may also take forklift driving lessons. . . . Doug Light received a third National Science Foundation grant to allow students to research red blood cell volume regulation. Doug is an associate professor of biology at Ripon College in Wisconsin. In their research, Doug and his students will study what kinds of substances cross cell membranes. Doug says, "the regulation of movement of substances across cell membranes is a fundamental aspect of cell physiology that needs to be worked out if we are to better understand how cells function normally and why they don't function properly during diseased states." . . . Lee Roberts has been named sales representative and shipping consultant at Unishippers, a Melbourne (Australia, needless to say)-based company. Lee will oversee sales in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River (Fla.) counties and quotes on any individual heavy and odd-shaped freight shipments by land, sea or air. He lives in Jensen Beach, Fla. . . . I received a newsy e-mail from long-lost (at least I think so) Bill Hough. He sends greetings from a cold and snowy (on March 1, 2001, anyway) Riga, Latvia, and Tallinn, Estonia. He has been active the past eight years in developing a law practice in these places and in Lithuania and Russia, where he opened a small office in St. Petersburg at the end of 2000. His firm represented the shareholders of Latvia's largest insurance group in their negotiations with respect to sale of the group to a Nordic financial conglomerate. While he misses the U.S., he finds his work very rewarding, and he says Estonia's coastline is evocative of Maine's. He invites anyone traveling to the Baltic states to contact him.  . . I have more news in the tank (please keep it coming), but I'll save it for next time. If you've written, please be patient, I'll get to you. Thanks. I hope you had a great summer!

--Robert S. Woodbury

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Hello again! By now everyone has been through graduations of some kind. Congratulations to all of the graduates of 2001! At my house we watched my oldest daughter, Kayleigh, go through eighth grade promotion. Anyone have any suggestions on how to deal with high school? I could sure use some. . . . Richard Uchida was recently mentioned in the New Hampshire Sunday News regarding N.H. professional conduct rules, in particular rules 3.6 and 3.8. Rich is a Concord attorney, having previously taught professional ethics at Franklin Pierce Law Center, and now sits on the N.H. Bar Association's ethics committee. . . . Bob Kinney was feeling a bit remiss in not writing since his stint as class correspondent, but it sounds as if he has been very busy since stepping down. He is in the midst of his third year as chief counsel for environment for the National Association of Attorneys General. A significant portion of his job is arranging conferences and training workshops for staffs of the state attorneys general, as well as acting as liaison between state AGs and federal environmental enforcement agencies. He says he recently had his first opportunity to say, "Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court," if only for the purposes of moving the admission of four of his colleagues to the U.S. Supreme Court bar; "Was fun to appear before the highest court in the land, if only for 30 seconds." Still pretty thrilling in my book, Bob! Bob's kids, Matthew, 7, and Sarah, 4, keep him and his wife, Kay, busy with school and soccer. Bob reports that last fall Peter Goodnow, Mark Cecelski and John Veilleux '80 joined Bob in taking Jeff Monhart '81 out for dinner at Morton's of Chicago prior to Jeff's wedding in November. He says that Cecil had a difficult year in 2000, losing both his parents within one month of each other, but has recovered well. He continues to trade occasional e-mails with several other Colby alums outside the Washington, D.C., area and I hope will continue to keep me updated on what he hears. Keep working on the "honey-do" list, Bob. It is a never-ending list at my house as well. . . . Jane Gair Prairie writes from Westbrook, Maine. She is working at Mercy Hospital Westbrook in the eating disorders program. She loves what she is doing and waits to see if the program will change locations again. Her son, Everett, is 4 and keeps Jane and her husband both amused and challenged. She says that now that the smelly part of the mill has closed down, Westbrook is becoming a more desirable place to live. That's good, as she doesn't lack for tenants for her two-family house. . . . Martha Soucy is very busy working for Fleet. Martha is constantly on the road, working wherever Fleet is acquiring banks or businesses. Her title is financial systems project manager, but she refers to herself as part of "Ken Durling's [her boss] Road Team." The team consists of six or seven people who have spent the last four years on the road. Martha hasn't been able to enjoy her new condo, having only spent 30 days in it. I know that I haven't been able to keep track of her whereabouts as she has been in N.J., N.Y., Pa. and Mass. and will probably be heading west later in the year. One of these days we'll meet up. I need to reintroduce her to her goddaughter, my oldest, Kayleigh. . . . Well, that's it for now. I would love to hear how everyone spent their summers, where they went and whom they saw.

--Cheri Bailey Powers

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