ALUMNI PROFILES
Curtis Johnson '75
Knowing the Drill

Jean Minkel '80
Outside the Box

T.J. Tavares '99
Real Politik

Andrea Pomerance '02
Culture Crossing

Thanks for your patience! After two empty columns in Colby magazine, Cici Bevin Gordon calmly suggested to me that "something might be wrong with your e-mail link to Colby, Sue!" Of course, I just assumed that no news was good news, but she was, in fact, correct. I am back up and running. . . . Kimberly A. Lyford and her husband, Andrew Toler, had twin boys on March 21, 2002. She adds that they are "the most amazing ongoing event of my life." . . . Stephen Reed has been living in London for the past couple of years with his wife, Marcy, son, Carter, and daughter, Hailey. He adds that they moved for Marcy's job, probably will stay until the summer of 2004 and then head back to Boston. It seems that Stephen has had some time to play. He wrote that after temporarily retiring as a labor and employment lawyer in Boston he "spent the first year bumming around with a group of professional guys who have also quit their jobs to follow their wives over here." He added, "We have spent a great deal of time getting to know the local golf courses and pubs!" Stephen is working on a master's in British and European labor law at LSE, which was completed (he hoped) by this September. Many Colby friends have visited the Reed family in London: Rick and Kathryn Clarke Anderson, Marion and Mark Howard, Nancy Simarano '87 and her husband, Patrick, Eric Trucksess, Sandy Codding, Sandy Maisel and his wife, Patrice Franco, who was in London teaching for a semester. . . . Elizabeth E. Johnson (Liz) writes that she "hasn't submitted an entry in ages, but since I am taking care of my now 2-year-old daughter, Emily, I seem to have more time to write this. I am working as executive director of the Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House in Cambridge, Mass. It is a nonprofit serving the community with a variety of services." Liz and her family live in Somerville, Mass., and love being in an urban and diverse setting. Her husband, Titus Kao, continues as a software engineer at Lotus Development/IBM in Cambridge. Liz keeps in touch with Heather Payson Hamlin and Leslie Melville-Kraemer '86. . . . Melinda Underwood Griggs and her husband "have a little house in the village of Saxtons River in Vermont." She is the program director for the Vermont Center for the Book, which creates picture-book-based professional development programs that she says enhance children's learning (for more information go to www.vermontbook.org and www.mothergooseprograms.org). . . .Leslie Robinson reports that she is living in Seattle and working as a freelance writer. She mentioned that "one of my writing gigs is a bi-weekly humor column for gay newspapers around the country. The column is called the General Gayety." . . . M.-J. James-Pirri wrote that her son, Domenic James-Pirri, was born on March 29, 2003, at 3:01 p.m. in Providence, R.I. Congratulations! . . . Imogen Mintzer Church also has big news: she was to be (re)married on July 4, 2003. Her husband is Steve Hinds, who works for Apple Computer in Cupertino, Calif. Soon Imogen will have a big family of three stepchildren and her son, Connor, who is 8. Congrats to Imogen, too! . . . I still have more updates and will squeeze them all into the next column. Thanks for writing! If you have additional news, please send an e-mail to classnews1985@alum.colby.edu (it should come directly to me) or fill out the class news card in this magazine.

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"Well, I am finally doing it (after how many years since graduation?)" seems to be the theme of this column. Judy Swift Fairfull e-mailed, "I am an educational/college counselor in an urban high school. I love it. I work with a very diverse population, and a big percentage are of low income; it's very rewarding." She lives in Grafton, Mass., a small town about an hour west of Boston. She is married, with two Boston terriers and an Arabian horse. "I love my pets!" she says. "My husband and I do a lot of traveling: Australia, Germany, France, Switzerland, England, the Caribbean and other neat places. I've been blessed! Unfortunately, I haven't been in touch with a lot of Colby people, except for Amy Bleakney Neil, Ann Yates and Sue Whitney." . . . Andy Docherty, who hasn't written in since graduation, e-mailed to say, "Life's been good to me-married 12 years (wife Donna), three kids (Connor, 10, London, 8, Brooke, 6). I'm a U.S. Navy Commander/SH-60B sea strike helicopter pilot." Andy is currently living in Fairfax Station and working as the executive assistant to the director, J-7 on the Joint Staff in the Pentagon (they work operational plans and joint force development issues for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff). After almost three years there, which he says is the normal length for a military tour of duty, he's getting ready to move on. His next assignment will be executive officer, then commanding officer of Training Squadron SIX (VT-6) in Pensacola (VT-6 is one of the fixed-wing training squadrons where Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard pilots learn to fly). . . . Scott Perry plays the blues like nobody's business. Scott's fourth album, Hero Worship, is the first he has produced since moving south four years ago, but he said it's something he's wanted to do for a long time-record the songs of musical idols Blind Boy Fuller, Mississippi John Hurt, Tampa Red, Muddy Waters and others. Check it out on CD. . . . Robert Kenney e-mailed to say he purchased some land on Embden Pond, about 30 minutes from Colby, and will be building a vacation home there to give him and his children one more reason to spend as much time as possible in Maine and to be closer to family for a couple of months each year. . . . Paul Turci, who started City Green, Inc., with Thomas Outerbridge, has left to become a teacher in the New York City public school system while simultaneously earning his master's in education. Thomas continues to run City Green and recently entered into a joint venture agreement with one of Europe's leading anerobic digestion companies. They are proposing to build the first anerobic digestion facility for solid waste in the U.S., in the South Bronx, which will convert food waste into energy and compost. . . . Jim and Lila Hopson Monahan write that they have "moved yet again," relocating from Wilton, Maine, to Nashua, N.H., in January. Lila started a new pediatric practice, Partners in Pediatrics, in the southern part of Nashua and is working on building up the practice and "continuing my work on both the community and state level to improve asthma care for children." Oreo, an Old English Sheepdog puppy, joined the family in June. Cassie, 8, and Nicholas, 5, were very excited about the new addition (Jim's not so sure about the sleepless nights). . . . Once again this year, I walked in the Multiple Sclerosis Society's 50-mile challenge walk in September to raise money and awareness for MS. Last year, 850 people walked 50 miles in three days and raised $1.6 million! It's such an amazing experience. . . . Chris and Cindy Lloyd Brogan say that their son, Joseph Arthur Brogan, was born last May 8, and his big sister, Hannah, 3, couldn't be happier. . . . John Rafferty e-mailed his own exciting news: "My wife, Geri, and I will be adopting a child sometime in July/August. Child is due to be born on July 8 and is from Connecticut. Other events and activities in my life seem to pale in comparison, but here goes. I head up marketing for a division of MassMutual, and I serve on the board of trustees of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Hartford, Inc., an organization with which I want to become more involved. Any Hartford-area alums who are interested, please give me a call or e-mail me (rafferty152attbi.com).

--Andrea V. Sarris

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Thanks once again for all the e-mails and updates. Dora Delarosa-Villanueva and her husband, Tony, have been raising their three kids, Nico, 9, Coco, 6, and Clarita, 3, in Austin, Texas. She wrote, "Between Tony's band touring (The Derailers, for any honky-tonk fans out there) and my teaching an English as a second language class to adult immigrants, we've managed to travel to the Caribbean and Guatemala in January, Switzerland and Italy last summer and southern France this summer as well as deep south Texas and Oregon. We've been involved in different church activities, including a mission to Nuevo Laredo, on the Texas-Mexico border. When we have been home-and no, the kids are definitely not home-schooled-we've worked on our yard, built a 13-foot arbor, put in a fence and expect the first tomatoes to be ready soon. It's nice, at night, to sit on the porch and be able to see the capitol building of the great state of Texas nine blocks away. Still, I miss the good friends I made at Colby. We have a mad plan to drive up and stop by Susan Kaplan's in New Hampshire, Lisa Gronbeck, also in New Hampshire, Buffy Connor in Alfred, Maine, and Willa Cobb in Portland. Buffy and I compare notes on raising three kids, what we get right and what we'd rather not mention!" . . . Jane Nicol Manuel wrote that they "moved down to Charleston, S.C., this summer for Dave's job. Traded in the skis for boogie boards! Ben, 9, Andrew, 7, and William, 5, are looking forward to year-round sports and living in driving distance from my dad. Had a fun going-away party in Beverly, Mass., with Natasha and Brian Low, Joy Pratt, Tim and Teri Scally Kinsella, Mel Brown Bride '88 and Kevin and Karen Reilly Quirk '88, all there to send us off. (Teri and her family planned to move over the summer from Massachusetts to Scottsdale, Ariz.) Also saw Karen, Cassidy and Ned Case at an Easter egg hunt in Savannah, Ga., last spring as both our dads live there. Ned didn't knock over too many 2-year-olds going for the eggs! Looking forward to seeing anyone in the Charleston area." . . . Baby news came from Karen Czuchry Sallmann, who had her first child, a daughter, Selina Anna Sallmann, on September 6, 2002, in Munich, Germany. "She keeps me extremely busy, but she is really a bundle of joy," said Karen, who has taken a leave from her department head position at Siemens in Munich to take care of Selina. "In addition, shortly after Selina's birth, we all moved from Munich to Vienna, Austria, where my husband is finishing his doctorate and has a new position with a German insurance company. Vienna is a beautiful city, and I am glad they also speak German here so I do not have to learn another language." . . . More moving news came from Art Nagle, who said that "by the time people read this I will have moved from North Carolina to Los Angeles to take the position of upper-school director at Windward School, an independent school on L.A.'s west side. My wife, Kim Hamer, and I will be there with our three young children and would love to hear from any Colby classmates in the area." . . . News of an international flair came from Dan Raddock, who has been living in Tokyo, Japan, for the past three years with his wife, Liz First-Raddock, and their two kids, Harry and Helena. Harry is almost 3 and Helena is going on 2. Dan is working in Morgan Stanley's corporate distressed debt group buying Japanese non-performing loans. . . . Allyson Goodwin wrote that she and her family planned to spend some of the summer vacationing in Maine "and expect as usual that our 9-year-old son, Jordan, will explore the coastal islands and our 6-year-old daughter, Haley, will drive the family boat! During the rest of the year, my husband and I renovated our Victorian home in N.H., which always has one room or another in a loving state of mid-repair. When we're not working on the house, messing in the yard or out on the river kayaking, we're like other parents with young kids and are very busy with all of their many activities. We started a chess club at their school and volunteer in the classroom when our work schedules permit. I've also been co-host of a movie review show on our local TV station and finally using all of that useless movie trivia I've had stored up for so long! I'm very much enjoying my work as development director at a great science museum in Norwich, Vt. (www.montshire.org). I've actually spied some Colby classmates out on the floor!" . . . Keep the news coming!

--Kathleen Harnett Linger

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Hats off and a world of gratitude to Paige Alexander and Bert Languet (and any and every other person involved) for organizing a terrific 15th reunion. Our class had a strong turnout, and the weekend was a great success (at least according to this critic). A highlight was Dave Scannell's hilarious and thoughtful speech, into which he managed to artfully weave beer, breasts, poetry and receding hairlines. Two apologies for Dave: first, sorry to ruin your heretofore unbroken streak of not being mentioned in these pages; second, try as I might, there is nothing I can do about our class's slow and deliberate march toward the middle of this magazine. . . . Also at reunion: Tom Ferris camped himself out at the top of the Miller Library steps, picking us off one by one as we made our way up. Tom jogs through campus when he isn't practicing law in Waterville. Anne and Rob Young made the trip up from Framingham where, it seems, the world still revolves around Rob's (pathetic?) obsession with the hapless Red Sox. Eric Zieff gets the "best dressed" award, while Bob and Carrie O'Brien Thomas get the dunce caps for having assumed a team of baby sitters miraculously would be waiting to care for their twin boys, daughter, black Lab and kitten. . . . Todd Wallingford, John Davie, Jeff Cohen and Jeff England '89 somehow managed to stand in the exact spot in front of the Student Center (Cotter Union) where I last saw them 15 years ago. If I hadn't seen Jeff once on the Cape, I'd swear they'd never moved. Steve Masur made his way up from Manhattan. By day Steve tames the corporate, entertainment and intellectual property law scene in New York City (check out his firm at www.masurlaw.com), while by night he is the consummate music aficionado, surfer dude, ski bum. Well done, Steve. In addition to Charlie Lord, who made the trip from Chicago, about 60 other '88ers traveled from all over the country to be at reunion. (Sorry not to have all your names and notes.) A cryptic, grammatically challenged e-mail from David and Leslie Migliaccio Mitchell, deciphered when we sat together at dinner at reunion, revealed that David recently was honored with a Fleet Bank Excellence Award. (While at the awards ceremony in South Carolina, the Mitchells met two Colby grads from 1983, Chip Kelley and his wife, Martha. Chip is with Fleet in Portland and also an award recipient. To make it a White Mule hat trick, award winner Bill Williamson '71 was also in attendance.) The Mitchells happened across fashion plate Mike Paquin (hey, Mike) at The Gap. Apparently Mike is doing well and working for a company called Beacon in Rhode Island. Oh, and Leslie is active with her real estate and LJM Cookies. (Who else saw the Mitchells's eldest daughter running around campus without shoes? Guys, if times are rough, let me know; the wife's a children's footwear designer, so we should be able to scare up a pair of shoes for the kid.) Betsy Lockhart Casey, husband Pat, and their 3- year-old son, Peter, were grateful to escape the misery of this past winter with a two-week getaway to Naples, Fla., in March. With summer finally here, the Caseys are busy with projects around the house and planning their annual 4th of July party. In addition to returning to campus for reunion, Betsy and family were heading for her little sister's wedding. Rick Angeli writes that he was very sorry to have missed the alumni weekend, but work had him in San Francisco. Rick's wife, Tricia, gave birth in November to their third child, Rick III, who joined sisters Emily, 5, and Katelyn, 3. Then, a month later, Rick started a new job with Organon Pharmaceuticals USA as the regional account manager, managed care for the Northeast. Three months after that, just to keep things hopping, the Angeli family say they "moved out of the hustle and bustle of Warwick, R.I, giving up airport noise and traffic for the quiet surroundings of South Kingstown." . . . Tanya (Goff '89) and Stew Richmond continue to balance the demands of their legal careers with raising three children (ages 6, 4 and 2). As if there weren't enough on his plate, Stew manages to find the time to train for and run marathons. . . . Rick and Patty Cirigliano Kohn had their second child this year. Mary Alice turned 1 in June, and sister Patty was 6 in August. The elder Patty is completing her 11th year at Greenwich High School and just finished directing 42nd Street. . . . Best wishes to you all.

Dean A. Schwartz

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As I write this in the middle of June, our 15th reunion is less than a year away. Chris Tompkins reports that he, Jim Connolly, Kim Brewer and Rob Hoopes will be meeting in D.C. to "get things rolling." They are gathering names of people willing to serve on the reunion committee and also need people to help Bill Bullock with the class gift. Contact Chris or me if you're interested in planning or if you have ideas about what you'd like to do at our 15th. . . . Christine Burke wrote with news of her doings since graduation. Christine was a "non-traditional" member of our class, and she worked as a nurse in the infirmary while majoring in government. After graduation, Christine served in the Maine Legislature and then went to law school at UMaine. She worked at a Portland law firm for a couple of years, then purchased her own consulting firm. She is now "of counsel" to a newly formed law firm. Her youngest son, now a sophomore, carries on the Colby tradition. . . . My fellow Iowan Tom Wieck sent a long missive about his life since 1989. After traveling to Alaska and working in Japan (not to mention a year-long trip around the world), Tom settled in Iowa. As he says, "Thanks to my East Asian studies degree, I edged out the competition" for a job as a construction supervisor, and he now works for Communications Data Services as a senior account manager. He married Erin Budreau in 1996, and they have two sons and a baby daughter. In his spare time, Tom participates in triathalons and marathons, fishes and goes to Little League baseball games. Maybe I'll see you when I visit my mom in Des Moines, Tom. . . . Brian Kaplan sent a message about his firm's new Web site, www.impressionpr.com. Check it out. . . . Kent Fikrig is still in N.Y.C., working at Société Générale as director in structured products. He talks to Peter O'Toole and Rob Koff '88 frequently and hears occasionally from Mark Sicinski, who is busy with his two little girls. Kent was hoping to get to Maine this summer to eat lobster and visit Colby. . . . Bryan Cook was elected assistant vice president in the production division of Amica Mutual Insurance Co. . . . Brendan Cahill just received his M.B.A. from Fordham and is still running a humanitarian NGO in N.Y.C. His daughter, Helen, just turned 1. He went to Colby in 2002 and met up with Jay Stabile, Doug Hall '90, Jeff Ward, Jared Webster, Dana Hollinshead and Matt Frymier '90. Brendan sees Jan Gisholt when he can and says that Tucker Offutt is "out west." As Brendan also reported, Tom Cahill has moved to Paris, where he works for Bloomberg News writing feature stories on oil and energy. His wife, Jamie, is writing a book called "The Dessert Detective." Tom and Jamie's couch in the Marais has already been used by Tim Barnard, and Tom was expecting visits from Jan Gisholt, Jake Ulick '90, Tucker Offutt and Brendan Cahill. If you're in Paris, look Tom up at tcahill@bloomberg.net. . . . Beth Bitoff Odom writes that she and her family found a house in Alexandria and were scheduled to move on June 18. That move was on hold for a bit when Beth's husband, Mark, was sent to Iraq. He returned in May, to the delight of their daughter. . . . Laura Thornton Pellegrino keeps busy with three daughters, Elizabeth, Katherine and Caroline. She also ran the Frisbee Foundation's recent successful fund raiser. Laura had dinner with Catherine Andrew Rogers and her family and Jen Pierce Barr and her family. She also is in touch with Tina Clifford Comparato, who lives in Manchester, Mass., and is loving spending time with her daughter. Jen Brountas stopped to see Laura on her way back to Boston, where she works for Pioneer. . . . Eric Whiteford is still at Electronic Arts as the director of the EA Sports brand, managing advertising, online marketing, promotions and branding efforts. He and his wife, Sara, have a 2- year-old daughter, Lucy, and another baby on the way. They just moved into a new house in Haight Ashbury in San Francisco. Eric planned to attend Kevin Plummer's wedding in Philadelphia in June. Make sure to write me with the details, Eric! . . . I visited Colby with my husband and two daughters in late May. Saw Meg Christie and her twins on the trip and spent an evening eating lobster with Tracy Gionfriddo. In April, I visited Jeff Berger in L.A., where he tried to kill me by weaving in and out of traffic as much as possible. . . . I hope to see all of you in June 2004!

--Anita L. Terry

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