Linnea Basu writes, “One of the lasting legacies I received from Colby is my friendships, most of which are now passing 20 years.” She’s seen Nancy Huynh—a research director at Congress Asset Management in Boston—who took her out to dinner for her 40th birthday; Zahid Chaudhary ’97—a tenured English professor at Princeton—during a recent trip to New York; Hacho Bohossian—a father of three and physician at Beth Israel in Boston; and Jess Taphorn, Nozomi Kishimoto, and Kate Lawn Chouta ’97 during a mini reunion in California. In October she’s visiting Kaushik Sen ’98, CEO of Healthspring in Mumbai, while he’s in Boston on business. Linnea is still at Northeastern running a co-op program for economics students. * The inimitable Jeff Sklarz recently opened his own law firm, Green & Sklarz LLC, in New Haven, Conn., representing businesses and individuals in complex financial disputes involving bankruptcy, tax, and litigation. He cannot believe his two daughters, like their father before them, are huge fans of Ren and Stimpy. * Gregg LeBlanc had an Alex Talbot sighting! Alex lives in New Hampshire. As an aside, I bought Alex’s cookbook Maximum Flavor and made the lime doughnuts last Christmas morning. Yum. * Frank Favaloro and wife Michelle welcomed daughter Lily Agnes on Frank’s 40th birthday (Feb. 12). Casey McCullough and his wife, Andrea, are Lily’s godparents. Kevin Hausmann and his wife, Marlene, attended the baptism. * Keith Albert appeared with his wife, Pam, in an issue of Maine Home + Design, whooping it up with artist and former Colby admissions great Matt Russ. Keith was not in KISS makeup on either occasion. * Aaron Schlechter has a new job as project manager for Hunter Roberts Construction Group in New York, where he’s managing a major chunk of the largest green infrastructure project in the world, overseeing an engineering team and construction by five contractors of 1,100 bioswale projects in Brooklyn. He’ll also manage a project of similar scope in da Bronx and does triathlons on the side when he’s not chasing around his two kids. Fuhgeddaboutit! * Jess Taphorn and her husband, Chris, hosted a mini reunion in Sacramento with Nozomi Kishimoto, her husband, Brent, and two daughters (8 and 3) (all flew in from Tokyo), Linnea Basu, and Kate Lawn Chouta ’97, who brought her husband and daughter (18 months) from Fremont, Calif. * Peter Agolasto writes that he graduated from Colby with an independent major in archaeology, digging on Mayan ruins in Honduras. That experience apparently prepared him for a career running a recording studio, working with digital media, and writing code. He says Colby helped him see the link between material culture (archaeology) and media culture (Bob Dylan). Peter lives with his wife, Sara, on a small farm outside Charlottesville, Va. * Kristin Drake Patterson finished her second master’s from Johns Hopkins with a focus on women’s reproductive health. As of August she’s a senior policy advisor with Population Reference Bureau, a nonprofit in D.C. promoting the connections between human health and ecosystem health in African countries. Her husband, Dan, and two boys (4 and 8) are doing great. She saw Emily Graham and her new baby girl at their annual meeting in Ocean Park, Maine. * Load Team standout Sandler Passman’s family extended by two more this past June, welcoming twins—a boy and a girl. Mom, big brother, and babies are doing great—dad is hanging in there, but nobody seems to care. * Though I tried and tried, Derek Scacchi was sadly unreachable. * Nate Howell just became CEO of Claxton Hepburn Medical Center in Ogdensberg, N.Y. * Kevin Rice received tenure last year as a Colby chemistry professor, and his wife, Stacey, took a job at Colby in development and alumni relations communications. Kevin also participated in the seventh annual Colby Undergraduate Summer Research Retreat, hosted by Robert Peabody and attended by Betsy Bowen, who works for Colby as a gift officer. * As for me, I turned 40 this summer, still work at MIT, sent my youngest to kindergarten last week, and see as many Colby people as I can, as often as I can. Send more notes, please.
Fall 2014