Winter 2013 - Dartmouth Alumni

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news...news...news
OUR LEADERS:
William G. Schur - President
Marc Josephson - Vice President/Webmaster
Bill Price - Secretary
Andrew M. Carstensen - Treasurer
John S. Rockwell - Newsletter Editor
F. Sheldon Prentice - Head Agent
Gary Dicovitsky - Gift Planning Chair
David “Fuzzy” Thurston - Reunion Chair
WINTER 2013
For the wolf-wind is wailing at the doorways, And the snow-drifts deep
along the road, And the ice-gnomes are marching from their Norways, And the great
white cold walks abroad.-- Richard Hovey
Greetings from storm-tossed Manhattan! Since last I took pen to paper (well, typed
things in a computer), NYC and the Northeast has suffered through a Superstorm and
was digging out of a record Nor’Easter. At least the snow came to Hanover in time for
this year’s Winter Carnival, which is never quite as fun without the white stuff on the
ground. “Aha, we are Warm and we have our Heart’s Desire,” which is to deliver the
latest info on you and your classmates.
LIFE AFTER DARTMOUTH - ITALIAN STYLE
Roberto Petroni (petroni-roberto@libero.it) was here on a Fulbright Scholarship
but he had to go back to Italy after one year, He explains, “In those days (I understand
things are different nowadays), American academic titles weren’t recognised in Italy;
on the contrary, Italian titles were highly considered in the States. ergo, graduating in
Florence would keep my options totally open, whereas staying at Dartmouth (besides
being considerably more expensive - in spite of the generous scholarship - as
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compared with stayin' home with my parents!) would then compel me to live the rest
of my professional life as an expatriate.
Once back, because of those crazy rules, I had to take exams ON THOSE SAME
SUBJECTS, ALL OVER AGAIN: basically, for the italian academic system, I was simply
one year behind my class mates - as though I had been foolin' around for a whole
‘sabbatical year!’
To cut a long story short, I made it in graduating within the prescribed four years
in '72, making up for the "lost" year. My professional life has luckily been very ‘glocal,’ spent between Rome, the City
of London and my hometown of Florence, in close contact (always in a ‘fertile’ uneasiness!) with those peculiar people, that not inappropriately are defined as
‘banksters.’ I can tell you that, thank God (..and a bit of healthy conservativism &
skepticism in our previous years!), things aren't today bad at all for me and my family
(that Paul Tyson met here in Florence a few years ago), in spite of the rather severe
crisis surrounding us these days. Besides our very panoramic apartment in Florence,
we own a nice, cosy house (an old cottage with a fine British family as next door
neighbours) in the countryside of Liguria (Italian Riviera), not far from the the Apuan
Alps & the sea - where we have a little motor boat.” Roberto would like to hear from
the classmates he knew from his time at Mass Hall and the Hanover Plain.
YOUR EXEC COMMITTEE ON THE JOB
In December Prez Bill Schur gathered up the
Executive Committee by phone; our primary topic was
how to distribute '72 assets in one or more Class
Projects. As I've said before, all ideas from any
classmate are open for review; we decided on three
that could be acted on quickly and easily: $3000 to the
Dartmouth Intramural Sports program, provided that
there is credit to us for the gift (to the right is the
graphic of what will be painted on equipment boxes
and the PE/Rec skate room door at Thompson Arena,
with the thanks of the program's Roger Demmett);
a $1000 donation to Athletes United, the group
!"#$%&'$%()*+,$#*
we donated to last year that gets Dartmouth
student athletes and local kids together; and a $6000
Supported by
budget reserved for travel expenses incurred by
classmates who lecture at the College as part of the
The Class of 1972
Financial Literacy series designed by John DeRegt. This
still leaves us with the wherewithal for other project
ideas, so drop a line to the B-Man (wgs1972@aol.com) with suggestions (no, not the
prurient kind!).
Shel Prentice is looking for a Few Good Men - to be Class Agents. "Class Agents
should be prepared to call on 5 to 10 classmates of their choosing, or they can have it
be random if they prefer to call on those they don’t know to ask classmates to donate
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to the Dartmouth College Fund," Shel explains. "It is not heavy lifting and they don’t
need tons of information. They just need to give $ themselves and ask others to join
in and give whatever is appropriate for them. No gift is too small because other
donors and, sometimes challenge gifts, look at the participation. Dartmouth used to
have participation at the high 60%’s and now our class hovers around 45%. We need to
do better. We need more class agents to reach the entire class and raise participation.
We have only had 10 to 15 classmates serve as Class Agents at a time. We should have,
say 72 - a pretty good number - and then we would have 72 gifts from them and if
each one called 10 or so classmates, we would reach our whole class and raise
participation. We have College people and some classmates who reach out to the
donors deemed capable of making large gifts, so the class agents just focus on
participation. Sometimes, a dorm, a fraternity, a team, the D.O.C. or some other
campus organization serves as a good source for reaching out to classmates. We really
do need to reach out more and it’s our time to give back." Contact Shel
(SPrentice@nbtbci.com) if you want to join The Few - The Proud - The '72 Class
Agents!
AUTHOR! AUTHOR!
Virginia Tech history professor Roger Ekirch’s book on the history of sleep, At
Day’s Close, has been getting a lot of interest from the medical profession. Roger’s
detailed look at how humans sleep throughout recorded history has shown that for
ages we used to sleep in a segmented or bimodal way. One would have a period of
wakefulness between two periods of sleep, and might use that time to do “anything
and everything imaginable.” This means that people who wake up at night might not
be anxious, as many doctors think, but may be reverting to the kind of sleep we’d
have before the modern well-lit society and the call to sleep for a full eight hours.
According to VT’s website, sleep experts see in Ekirch’s book, now translated into six
languages, a question: By using sleep-aiding drugs, are we medicating a problem
that’s actually a natural way to sleep?
Roger is working on a new book about the consequences of the most violent mutiny
in British naval history.
Retired diplomat Paul Tyson (paultyson@cox.net) and
colleague David Jones have written a commentary in the
Watertown Times on John Kerry’s challenges in running
the Foreign Service as Secretary of State. Although Kerry
is the son of a foreign service officer, his family lived in
places like Paris, not Kabul. “This is not his father’s State
Department,” the article warns. Tyson and Jones stress
three things Kerry must do in his new job: emphasize
training, undertake a broad review of how the Foreign
Service does business and know that security is more than
higher embassy walls. One hopes Kerry gets the message.
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From Bristol, Tennessee comes Jack Kersh (jackkersh@gmail.com), who has a new
novel out - "Natalya" - available through Amazon.com and all booksellers, which he
hopes all will read.
MORE GOOD NEWS
David Watters (david.watters@unh.edu) was elected New Hampshire state senator
after two terms in the House. When not lawmaking,he's a professor of English at the
U. of NH. Also in political news, Roger Curley's wife, Anne Kirkpatrick, has returned
to Congress from Arizona's 1st District.
Greg Yadley sent this word to Bill Schur back in December: "We're in Poland for 2
1/2 weeks . Truly awesome - people, sights, food! It's cold but that's OK. The only
tough thing is the language - impossible. Fortunately, everyone speaks English, but I
feel inadequate because I don't even know simple phrases.
I'm teaching at the University of Warsaw Law School – the Business Enterprises and
Regulation 2 week segment of a 10 week certificate in American Law course. The
students are bright but to teach 1 1/2 hours a day, it's taken me 3-4 hours of prep
time (not to mention weekends since July). Still, it's a unique experience.
I addressed the Warsaw Bar Ass'n. - around 125 lawyers! We also went to Krakow
for the weekend - gorgeous city - and from there, a day visit to Birkenau and
Auschwitz - very sobering."
The "Clear view" from Florida and "Coach" Geoff Clear (geoff.clear@yahoo.com):
"Retirement is treating me well. Plenty of golf (but not getting much better); involved
in several community activities on Amelia Island. Most exciting activity is working/
consulting part time with classmates Jamie MacArthur and Marc Josephson (and
Class of '73 Jim Sullivan), at CORIS Energy - a company that Marc founded in Rye, NY
several years ago. Marc and several associates, including his son, have developed a
suite of products for saving energy costs for various businesses (Dartmouth included).
Great potential, and we are accepting new shareholders; let us know if you're
interested."
When I first hit the Hanover Plain I naturally gravitated towards fellow Illinoisians
(Illinoisers?), so it's good to finally hear from one who went back to the Land of
Lincoln, Gershon (Gordon) Wolf (gwolf@luc.edu): "I've been teaching ESL (English as a
Second Language -- ed.) for a little over 20 years now, and am married with four kids.
Currently working on the faculty at Loyola university of Chicago and as the 'Director of
ESL Services' for the Iraqi Mutual Aid Society, both on the city's North Side. My wife,
Irina, from the Ukraine, is a business analyst at Nokia. I'm blessed with a wonderful
family and a wonderful life!" I've been recording ESL programs for over twenty years;
wonder if he's used some of my audio?
Mark Hennigh (mhennigh@grmslaw.com): "I went to Burning Man last summer and
will be going again this summer. Burning Man seems like something that would likely
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attract others in our class. I would be curious if any others in our class are going this
summer and if so, I would like to meet up with them. If it is not already on everyone's
bucket list it should be."
A FINAL WORD FROM THE MAN WITH THE PLAN
Gary Dicovitsky (gary.dicovitsky@gmail.com), our esteemed Gift Planning Chair,
has sent me his Annual Message To The Troops (that’s you guys):
REASONS TO DOCUMENT YOUR BEQUEST
In Dico We Trust
If you have graciously named Dartmouth as a
beneficiary to your will, retirement plan or outside
trust and have not notified the college, here are a
few reasons why documenting your bequest could
be beneficial to you and for Dartmouth:
Recognition: Dartmouth would like to
acknowledge you now for your future gift and ask
you to become a member of it’s legacy association,
The Bartlett Tower Society.
Peace of Mind: If you have designated your
bequest for a specific purpose or program, the Gift
Planning Office can review the language to make
sure the College can fulfill your intentions.
Inspiring Others: The estimated value of your
bequest will be included in Dartmouth’s fundraising
totals and will encourage other alumni and friends to make similar gifts. Estate gifts
are a crucial source of support for the College.
By documenting your bequest you are in no way making your bequest binding or
irrevocable. You can always change your estate plan if your circumstances or priorities
change. Dartmough considers bequests a very personal form of giving and strives to
make sure every intention can be honored and celebrated.
Okay, time to wrap this up and ship it out so it doesn’t become the SPRING issue!
As always, gang, your news and views (and JPEG pix!) are what makes the whole ball
‘o wax sticky, so send in your Green Cards and emails ASAP or I’ll sic Honey Boo-Boo
on you! (shudder)
John R.
john.s.rockwell.72@alum.dartmouth.org