2011 - Dartmouth Alumni

President and Newsletter Editor: Richard L. Ranger Jr., 216 G Street SW, Washington DC
20024-4336, phone 202.484.0483 or 202.494.1430, e-mail rranger@gci.net
Vice President: Christopher C. Gates, 525 E 72nd St., #47B, New York NY 1 0021-961 5
phone 212.879.8094, e-mail worldthatworks@gmail.com
Vice President: Christopher S. Pfaff, 7 Briar Lane, Glencoe IL 60022-1801,
phone 847.835.2471, e-mail christopher.pfaff@ubs.com
Treasurer: Kirk B. Hinman, 6402 Karlen Road, Rome NY 13440-7452,
phone 315.337.4080, e-mail kirkh@romestripsteel.com
Secretary: J. Rick Sample, Retreat Farm, 1137 Manakin Road, Manakin Sabot VA 23103-2801,
phone 804.267.3605, e-mail samplejr@msn.com
Head Agent: Thomas W. Ludlow, 1637 Tuckerstown Road, Dresher PA 19025-1306
phone: 215.830.8788, e-mail tludlow@ix.netcom.com
Alumni Council Representative: Steven Geanacopoulos, One Robin Rd. Norfolk MA 02056-
1707 phone: 508.520.0568, e-mail: sgeanacopoulos@apslaw.com
Communications and Projects: Kenneth F. Hall, 7 Lord William Penn Drive, Morristown NJ
07960-3214, phone 973.539.6045, e-mail hallken@optonline.net
40th Reunion Co-Chairs: Gerald and Eleanor Bowe, PO Box 57, Bristol NH 03222-0057,
phone 800.950.2647, e-mail gbowe@ceoexpress.com
Class Website: http://www.dartmouth.org/classes/74/
Send YOUR changes, stories and reflections to: rranger@gci.net
********** From Your Editor **********
Because I'm the son of a Dartmouth alumnus and the grandson of another, I've been looking at the Dartmouth Alumni
Magazine for a long time. Because of this, whenever I hear or see the phrase "the march of time" the first image that comes
to my mind is the class notes section of the DAM. When I was a boy, the front of the class notes section contained short
paragraphs written by members of classes from the previous century, a time before cars were invented and before streets
were paved. DAM's class notes was among my first connections to the notion of history. Fast forward to this warm Saturday
afternoon as I sit composing this newsletter. The recognition that there is now a decade and a half's worth of Dartmouth
classes in the twenty-first century is not an unmixed comfort. Nor is the fact that the front of the DAM class notes section
advances toward steadily 1974 like some inexorable incoming tide.
During a phase of life when one is likely to take note o
hips, it is helpful to take note of some of the positive at
is getting on in years, one is likely to have old friends
Memorial Day, not in a Dartmouth context (maybe you
and professional context, when I traveled to Portland,
the phenomenon because of its unpleasant effects on one's knees or
'butes of the march of time. Key among these is the fact that if one
d long friendships. I was reminded of this during the week before
hought I was heading down that well-worn trail), but in a career
regon, to attend the 2011 International Oil Spill Conference.
The IOSC is held somewhere in coastal North America
NOAA, the International Maritime Organization (IMO)
others, the IOSC is a venue for the presentation of scho
pollution resp nse - as well as measures to prevent oil
of technologie employed in spill response. As you mig
this year's I0 • C a lively and well-attended event.
very three years. Co-sponsored by the U.S. Coast Guard, EPA,
and my organization, the American Petroleum Institute, among
arly papers on the organization, execution and consequences of oil
ills from occurring - and a trade show for producers and suppliers
t suspect, the events of last summer in the Gulf of Mexico made
I stumbled int the world of oil spill preparedness and
California for new job with ARCO's Alaska operatio
Inlet south of • nchorage, and needed various regulato
clock running The principal regulatory approval requir
In the spring o f 1990, barely a year following the 1989
Legislature ha • passed the law that became AS 46.04.0
and approved nder the nation's strictest oil pollution s
sponse in 1991 upon arrival in Anchorage from Bakersfield,
. We were planning to drill exploratory oil and gas wells in Cook
approvals to be able to drill. We had the rig contracted, and a time
d was for the oil spill contingency plan for the drilling operation.
xxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound, the Alaska
0. Ours was to be the first contingency plan to be written, reviewed
tute, and I was assigned to write it.
Among select company, and after a glass of wine or so, Catherine has been known to remark that we owe to Joe Hazelwood
the fact that I till draw a paycheck. With a bit less sn k, I might modify her statement to say that I owe the fact that I still
draw a paych k to certain people, to the benefit of kno ing them and learning from them, to the richness of their stories and
to the value o their friendships. In the right circumstan es, a professional conference - like a wedding, or a funeral or a class
reunion, I sup ose - can gather a critical mass of peo • e from one's experience, people who influence, inform or, in some
cases, transform, one's life. Among the rewards that can come to a person who has the word 'senior' in his position title is the
chance to witness the formation of a team from the combination of the talent one may have helped develop, and the mentors
from whom one has learned. IOSC was that sort of experience.
Among the first people I bumped into was Barry, whom 4 once supervised in my mid-90's years with ARCO's tanker division.
In terms of the nuts and bolts of pollution clean-up, Barry has forgotten more than I know. He was always the sort of person
who would ra her be outfitted in tyvek and goggles and maybe even a respirator, leading a crew in response to a truck tanker
spill or pipeli e break, as opposed to stuck in an office - as befits someone who went through JC and college on the six-orseven year pl n moonlighting as a drummer in a jazz c mbo. Barry is among the heroes of the Deepwater Horizon Macondo
response, where he commanded the mechanical spill cleanup operations of principal contractor Marine Spill Response
Corporation.
It was difficul to miss Eric, larger than life at 6'5", who I first met as a senior maintenance technician at the same Cook Inlet
response coo • erative in 1991. Several years later Eric nd I worked together as committee members drafting the first major
revision to the Prince William Sound tanker contingency plan. Now the manager of emergency response services for refiner/
marketer Tes • ro Petroleum, Eric served on loan to BP d the DWH response command as the principal tactician for the insitu burning o • - rations that successfully removed hun • I eds of thousands of barrels of oil from Gulf marine waters.
I first met Ed ate in his 30 year Coast Guard career, wh- n he was Captain of the Port of Anchorage, and had the role as senior
evaluator of e major annual spill response drills we ould carry out at Alaska Clean Seas - the oil spill cooperative for the
North Slope d Prudhoe Bay. Ed is shortly to move film Anchorage to London where he will direct the post-DWH re-work
of BP's crisis esponse organization. Seconded to the f•l and response operational command for DWH in Robert, Louisiana,
Ed was taske • with bringing organizational order and perational focus to a fleet of contracted response and service vessels
and volunteer fishing boats that at its peak was sligh y under half again as large as the flotilla engaged in the Normandy
invasion at D-Day. To extend the metaphor, Ed is son': one under whose command you would take a beach.
Ed is also an exceptional judge of people. He recruited T• ny, a friend from our Valdez years with a background in oceanography
and marine science, initially to re-design the response' effort to predict the trajectory of the oil gushing from the damaged
Macondo well, and Tony was later shifted to the proj ct team for deepwater injection of surfactants into the flowing oil,
another measure that greatly mitigated the effects of the huge spill by breaking up the oil flow into small droplets that could
be consumed by the Gulf's surprisingly abundant oil-e ting bacteria.
Ed recruited our Anchorage friend Trish, whom Ron and Don Smith will recall from a laughter-filled evening in Seattle
she still recalls, to serve as a field community representative in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Trish, who also once
worked for me, consults part time on community response in crisis situations. A true Alaskan, she is equally at home
chairing a school fundraiser, competing in a 25k ski race, making a quilt, or reducing a quartered moose carcass into
cutlets and stew meat from an improvised table using two saw horses in her garage. She is the sort of person whom you
can practically parachute into some town on the Gulf Coast (as BP did), and who within two days will no longer be a
stranger and will be helping the mayor's office work up a temporary housing plan for contract workers.
Another friend and mentor with complimentary skills is Kim. We met at ARCO Marine, where he preceded me as
emergency response planner and operational integrity manager. Kim, from South Central LA, went to Cal Maritime to
learn a trade, rose to chief engineer in ARCO's tanker fleet, and was sufficiently effective as the president of ARCO's
fleet union that the company brought him onto the management team. After the wind-up of ARCO Marine, Kim
invested his severance package in acting lessons, and over the years he has moved from off-off-broadway theatre in LA
and the occasional industry instructional video to a paying career with numerous commercials and guest appearances
in House, Cold Case, and Commander in Chief. Kim hired on to the response team to head to a small town with a
mostly Vietnamese shrimp fleet where he negotiated fishing vessel contracts and helped expedite damage claims from
a room above the town convenience store. Chances are if you look up "charismatic" in the on line Oxford English
Dictionary, Kim's photo will appear, an attribute that equipped him to build bridges of trust essential to addressing the
needs of the afflicted bayou communities of the Mississippi Delta.
I could go on, writing about Ed, geologist and former English rugby player, who has directed and advised shoreline
cleanup operations from the Exxon Valdez to the aftermath of the First Gulf War to DWH, with whom I once practically
dangled out the door of a Bell JetRanger helicopter flying the Arctic Coast west of Prudhoe, marking up a map has he
called out shoreline types. Or Victoria, a chemical engineer and environmental scientist from Russia, who in her spare
time works down her list of bucket-list surfing beaches around the globe, with whom I work on an Arctic spill response
task force, and who was a key scientific liaison between the DWH response command and NOAA.
This year's IOSC was appropriately dominated by the unfolding lessons of last year's Deepwater Horizon - Macondo
disaster and the response to the environmental consequences of that event. It wrapped up with a candid and riveting
post mortem by retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, who served as the National Incident Commander for DWH.
The tragedy of DWH should never have happened. In the maelstrom that followed, some of the best talent from around
the world converged on the Gulf Coast to address the challenges that the spill presented for the Gulf, its people, and
its environment. Like any of us in this class in our various professions, I've now been around enough to have worked
with and learn from people who are among the best at what they do. If you're like me, you may occasionally ponder
what it might be like to assemble a team from among the best with whom you have worked. With all that has been said
(and will be said) about Deepwater Horizon, the knowledge that such a team went to work last summer is a reaffirming
thing.
********** News from and About Your Classmates ********"
Facebook certainly opens doors to vicarious sharing of others' family experiences. I have come to enjoy Don Shaw's
photo chronicles of his sons' athletic endeavors. Son Tim just recently graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois,
where he was a standout back on the football team. Son Ben is a three sport athlete for Wellsboro High School in
Pennsylvania's northern tier, where he also sings in the school chorus. Don and wife Debbie have raised their sons
in one of the country's most lovely tucked-away areas. After completing his studies at the Philadelphia College of
Osteopathic Medicine, Don' wound up in Wellsboro, serving at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hospital, where
he is now Medical Director of the Emergency Department. Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hospital (SSMH) is an
acute care, 83-bed community hospital whic h serves a rural population of over 40,000 people.Don holds board
certifications in family practice, emergency medicine and sports medicine, and is a past Tioga County Emergency
Physician of the Year, He is involved in both the Hospital Disaster Committee, assisting with Disaster Exercises as
well as EMT Instruction. He also serves as the team physician for the Mansfield University football team and, based
on the quality of some of his sports action shots, he could also moonlight as a sports photojournalist!
In March Ca herine and I took our first trip to Florida, a destination that just never seemed to make it to the front burner
during our any years in the West or in Alaska. Among the highlights of the trip was a meet-up with Ellis and Toni
Rowe at the ovely and ornate Florida Theatre in Jacksonville, Florida, the city that is now their home (the Florida
Theatre, by t ie way, holds the distinction of serving as the very first concert venue for Elvis Presley, according to a
plaque on the theatre's wall). The occasion was one Ellis suggested, "Art After Dark", a fundraiser for the Friends of
the Florida Theatre that for 15 years has showcased some of the best local artistic talent in greater Jacksonville. One of
the featured artists on that particular March evening was the youngest of Ellis and Toni's three sons, Ryan, who at 25 is
emerging as significant young talent in the difficult medium of glass sculpture. Our living room is now graced with a
lovely abstra t shell-like piece of Ryan's that made it safely back from Jacksonville to DC swaddled in laundry inside
one of those ecyclable shopping bags. Ellis, who goes by the name "Poppie" to his grandchildren Christopher and
Courtney, ha been enjoying semi-retired life in north Florida with Toni for the past few years. Ellis came to Dartmouth
from Miami, where his mother still lives, and met Toni at UC San Diego during the junior year exchange program
Dartmouth u ed to have there. Although Toni is a Californian, she agreed to Florida as a family destination, with the
presence of xtended family and - most especially - grandchildren making a strong argument for the Atlantic over the
Pacific Coas . Ellis picked up his MBA at USC in the arly 80's, and has held a number of positions in corporate finance
and executiv- management in the food and consumer roducts businesses over the years, and about as many relocations
as Catherine and I have made. The reward for Ellis an Toni is being reasonably close to family and to be in the enviable
position to atch their grandchildren grow. Thanks fo a great evening, you guys, and very best to Ryan as his career
continues to row.
Earlier in th winter, we had the chance to get togethe for dinner here in DC with Chris Gates on one of his periodic
visits to DC. Chris has several ventures going, chief ong them work with Landmark Education, among the leading
ventures in t e field of individual training and develo ment. For a number of years, Chris has had a keen interest in
what makes s eople tick, and in rummaging through t Is in the tool box to help himself and to help others unlock
secrets to th watchmaker's art, so to speak, to encourage and to nourish richly-lived lives. It's a mission that Chris has
lived throug experience in transitioning from a career as a financial advisor with Bear Stearns to work as a private
—financial co ultant, augmented by developing a business as a voice-over professional, which motivated him to take
on the risk of an acting career. For Chris, this advent e has moved beyond the mere juggling of three careers to the
exploration f frontiers - his own as a person, and fro tiers in the study of what helps people to be at their best. If this
reads like I' struggling a bit to describe what Chris "doing", it's because laying down a conversation with Chris on
two-dimensi a nal paper is a challenge, when the delig t of spending an evening in Chris' company is not unlike flying a
thousand fe- over Victorian London with Dickens' G ost of Christmas Future. The programs of Landmark Education,
with whom I hris is working are grounded in what L dmark describes as the model of transformative learning rather
than inform tive learning. Landmark explains that what it calls Informative or additive learning increases what people
know, adds t their skills, extends already established capacities by bringing new knowledge to an existing worldview
and frames f reference. By comparison, transformative learning gives people an awareness of the basic structures in
which they ow, think, and act in the world. From that awareness comes a fundamental shift that leaves people more
fully in acco d with their own possibilities and those f others — in their personal and professional lives, relationships,
and wider c mmunities of interest. Perhaps the best ay to capture the sense (and the stimulation) of our evening
together on cold, drizzly Saturday night in February is to leave you with a question Chris asked us in the middle of our
conversatio : "So what brings you joy?" Something t think about.
Another gre t spur-of-the-moment visit occurred in 1 e winter when Phil and Melissa Franklin came to DC to assist
their son wit his relocation here and to help him sho for a car. Both efforts having proved successful, we met up
for beers an glasses of wine at a place up on Barrack Row on Capitol Hill on another chilly evening. Catherine and
Melissa co ared notes about the challenges of uprooting and relocating because of spouse's career changes. Phil and I
resumed our reunion conversation from summer 200 , swapped some stories and talked about job changes. Phil is now
Principal Ac ounting Officer, Vice President of Oper ions Support, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Littelfuse
Inc. You ma not have heard of Littelfuse, but the co pany is the world's number one brand in circuit protection,
offering aut motive fuses, automotive circuit protecti n, fuses, electrical fuses, thyristors for both consumer products
and industri systems. At Littlefuse, Phil is responsi e for treasury, investor relations, accounting, information systems
and global s pply chain functions - a significant area or a company with Littelfuse's sprawling transnational operations
and marketing portfolio. He served as Vice President of Littelfuse Inc. Mr. Franklin joined Littelfuse Inc. in 1998 from
JLG OmniQuip, Inc., a company that is now a part of Textron. With a Tuck MBA, Phil's more than 30 years of finance
experience also includes tenure as Chief Financial Officer for Monarch Marking Systems, Inc. (a manufacturer of
bar code printers) from 1994 to 1996 and as Vice President of Finance for Hill Refrigeration, Inc. (a manufacturer of
refrigerated display cases) from 1990 to 1994. Hope to see you guys again on a future visit to DC!
Just as spring was about to emerge from mid-Atlantic winter a couple of months ago, Steve Geanacopoulos called to say
he would be coming to DC to attend an ABA seminar on international business transactions, and would it be possible to
meet for lunch. We did at Union Station, shoehorning the opportunity into our Outlook calendars. Steve is off to a fine
start in conscientious service as our class representative to the Alumni Council. As a current Dartmouth parent (daughter
Alexandra is a sophomore), Steve has the benefit of insights and questions about today's "Dartmouth experience" given
color and context by Alexandra's conversations and e-mails. Steve also understands the reality of the cost of today's
Dartmouth education, and assures a listener that even in a household with two attorneys (Steve's wife Becky practices in
Boston) Dartmouth tuition sticker shock still resonates. At his firm Adler, Pollock and Sheehan, Steve chairs the Business
and Corporate Law Group and is Co-Chair of the Mergers and Acquisitions Practice Group, with substantial experience in
both stateside and international business transactions. Quite a journey for a former Archaeology major.
A few weeks ago, the phone rang one weekend evening. Catherine picked it up, spoke for a few moments and handed
the phone to me, saying "It's Don Smitty". This sort or surprise does not happen nearly enough - and shame on both of
us. It was a call prompted by a recollection of old times that I had included in an exchange of e-mails among members
of the Class Executive Committee, an exchange on the topic of the "value" of a college education today. As such
conversations among classmates often will, this exchange touched on the difficulty of putting a price on the community
we who have been part of Dartmouth have been privileged to experience. I offered an anecdote to illustrate the point,
describing an evening in Seattle back in the late 90's when I was sitting in a hotel lounge with an ARCO colleague from
Alaska after a long all day meeting, she waiting for a walk to dinner with some of the rest of the people at the meeting,
I waiting for Ron and Don Smith to arrive for an evening we would share together somewhere. What next transpired
is that the Smitties burst through the entrance of the sedate Seattle boutique hotel. "Burst" is the operative word in this
instance, as any who will remember a dramatic entrance of the Ron and Don show at its full flower can attest; Don in
a tailored suit fresh from a day's work at Paccar, Ron in a knit cap, sweatshirt and jeans, fresh from a day connecting
with undergraduates in his post as Director of Housing and Residential Programs for the University of Washington. The
sequence of events here loses clarity and detail (or maybe I'm simply losing my memory), but my Alaska friend Trish
was swept into our evening much like an errant kayak is swept into rapids, and our evening ended hours and glasses of
wine later with Trish and I hitting elevator buttons back at the hotel, and Trish saying something like "Richard, you must
have had something really special at Dartmouth".
OK, you can cue up the "Aw-w-w-w" like our 20-something children do in their Facebook comments, but the evening
was like that, and that is what Trish said about an evening she has never forgotten. The great thing was that back in the
day, when I seemed to be back and forth every several weeks between Anchorage and ARCO headquarters in Metro LA,
evenings with the Smitties occasionally rolled around like a lucky number on the roulette wheel, back when we were
younger, back before Ron got struck with MS, back when there was so much to share and to laugh about. Don's call had
been prompted by the fact that Ellis Rowe had forwarded my e-mail describing that Seattle evening. He'd gone over to
the family place that Ron now shares with their sister, and the three of us were back sharing stories. Such as the two of
them, Catherine and me, and our son Owen, then a toddler, attending what was Owen's first major league baseball game
at the old Kingdome, Catherine dipping Owen's pacifier in my beer because we had run out of milk and, for the moment,
water, and Owen discovering that this new flavor was rather intriguing. Don telling the story of another visit during
that same early 80's time period when Catherine and I were living in Vancouver BC, and I was up on the embankment
above Don and Sarah's Rainier Brach home, shoulder deep in blackberries, showing little Clayton and six or seven year
old Shasta how to pick blackberries without getting snagged on the the thorns. Shasta, Dartmouth magna cum laude
'01, who is now an associate with the Seattle firm of Perkins, Coie, assisting on the legal team that negotiated the lease
arrangements for Amazon's new world headquarters in Seattle. Don has represented both brothers at recent gatherings of
70's era Dartmouth football veterans, and I'm hoping that with help from Rocky and Ellis we could talk Don and Sarah
into joining us all for our 40th in 2014. As much as anything it was great to hear Ron's laughter over the telephone that
evening. Thank you guys, because my friend Trish was right.
Tim Geisse omes through DC every now and again on business related to the family foundation that he manages, and
he cycled th ugh again in early May (actually, I should select another verb, since "cycled" is starting to get to be a
proprietary term for our mutual friend and cross-continent cyclist Peter Conway). Now an attorney in private practice
in the Cleveland area, Tim serves as the managing trustee of The John F. and Mary A. Geisse Foundation, a family
foundation p .marily focused on economic development in developing countries. The Geisse Foundation owes its origins
to Tim's late father, John F. Geisse, founder of a warehouse discount operation that that was purchased by Wal-Mart in
1991, servin as the genesis of the Sam's Club chain.
Tim has gui • ed the Geisse Foundation grants toward 'upport for Christian and other non-profit microfinance operations
in the devel s ling world, in Central America, Africa a d India, both directly and through other NGO ventures, to assist
communities there with creative solutions to help bre the cycle of poverty. He had invited me to join him at a reception
hosted by on- of these, Strategies for International De elopment, a U.S. non-profit organization which focuses on
support for t e efforts of indigenous communities in e Americas by grants and direct assistance to launch cooperative
agricultural u roducts ventures. As is characteristic of • rograms Tim's foundation supports, it's not simply about air drops
of donated d s liars. SID works alongside subsistence f ers, who are often among the poorest people in their countries
to reclaim s • is and pastures by reducing erosion and sing organic fertilizers, and increase their income by developing
small scale arketing ventures that can eliminate mid • lemen. How this can be achieved in places like rural Bolivia may
seem surpris ng, but in the words of one of the SID d . ectors with whom we spoke "just because some of these people
may be illite ate doesn't mean that they can't count". e evening featured former U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell
of Colorado, the first Native American member of the Senate (and still a widely regarded artist) and former Bolivian
President G•nzalo Sanchez de Lozada. And fascinati stories about coffee cultivation in Guatemala and pastureland
restoration i Bolivia, which Tim's foundation helps s pport - locations that are typical of those to which Tim treks in the
course of his foundation work, whether bouncing on the seats of Land Rovers, or hiking on rutted trails. A great evening,
and a worth hile insight into a classmate's work and calling.
Back to Pet r Conway and the subject of transcontinental biking, here's his account (long overdue, because this
newsletter is long overdue):
"On Novem er 20,2010, I completed my transcontinntal bike ride across the USA. Starting 48 days earlier on October
4th, a friend nd I set out from Dog Beach in San Die o, where we dipped our wheels in the ocean before heading east.
Averaging 7 miles per day, we traversed 8 states: Ca ifornia; New Mexico; Texas; Louisiana; Mississippi; Alabama; and
Florida. Cro sing Texas took 3 weeks by itself. By then, we were definitely in a Lone Star state of mind . . . loco. From
Mandeville, ouisiana, to Gulf Shores, Alabama we hugged the Gulf Coast looking for tar balls. We saw none, but we
saw that Ka na damage had not yet been rebuilt. The area still has no beachfront structures. Our ride raised money for a
Cleveland c arity called "Fill This House". It helps orphans aging out of foster care to get a start. For more information
on our ride, lease check our blog http://transam2010 blogspot.com". While many of Peter's loyalties and business and
church conn ctions remain in Cleveland, Peter and M ry have relocated to Kiawah Island, South Carolina.
.
Received a ote from David Stafford Johnson whic brought back another of those "march of time" moments. David
and I had co esponded a few years ago when he was lanning a West Coast college tour with his daughter, and our son
Owen hoste I them during a visit to Pepperdine - and, if memory serves, I was corresponding with him two computers ago
from the up airs hall computer station in our former ome in Valdez. Here's David's note:
"Rick - Hop all is well! Daughter Morgan is now at the University of Arizona Law School in Tucson (my alma mater,
too!) after g aduating from the University of Colorado), Boulder, with honors. I am now working with Foundation Markets
out of Toron o in a business development capacity with a focus on natural resources and renewable energy projects. Spare
time spent s ing and playing bagpipes competitively with the Denver and District pipe band, as well as teaching bagpipes
with the Colorado Youth Pipe Band. Life seems to be passing by way too quickly - hope to see you sometime soon".
Several of our classmates were honored in recent months. At the Boston University Annual Law School Reunion dinner
held on October 30, 2010, Law School Dean Maureen O'Rourke conferred Bob Grondine the law school's highest
honor for its alumni, the Silver Shingle for Contribution to the Profession. Bob is a 1980 magna cum laude graduate of
BU Law, and is a partner with the Tokyo office of the firm White & Case. Dean O'Rourke cited Bob's support for the
school, including membership on the Dean's Advisory Council since 2007, his outstanding professional achievement and
public rankings in multiple fields of law (M&A, bank finance/project finance/asset finance, dispute resolution) during his
30 years of practice in US-Japan legal transactions primarily based in Tokyo, and his leadership in building the Tokyo
office of White & Case from six lawyers when he and his colleagues joined the Firm's Tokyo office in February 1992 to
100 lawyers today. The Law School also recognized Bob's leadership as elected President (2000-2001) and as appointed
Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (2003, 2004-5), his service to the community as Treasurer
of the Japan-US Education Commission (Japan Fulbright) 2002-2006 and his many other contributions to the political,
business and legal relationship between the United States and Japan since 1980. Bob continues as a partner of the major
international firm White & Case LLP, where he has been a partner in the Tokyo Office since February 1992. Bob has been
married to his wife Aiko for 32 years and their daughter Michelle is preparing to enter law school in the United States in
fall 2011 after graduating with a BS from Ithaca College in December 2009. Congratulations, Bob, for a career of service
and leadershsip in commercial and legal relations between our country and Japan.
Dartmouth recognized our classmate Jan Tarjan with the Lester B. Granger '18 award for Lifetime Achievement upon
Jan's retirement from her position as Senior Program Officer for Local Service with Dartmouth's William Jewett Tucker
Foundation. The Tucker Foundation's local programming under her oversight involved approximately 1,300 Dartmouth
students annually in more than thirty ongoing student-led service projects and special events in the Upper Valley area
surrounding the College. Jan began her career in Dartmouth's administration as an officer in Dartmouth's Admissions
Office in 1975. After several years she moved to the Tucker Foundation, where she directed numerous programs,
including the Jersey City Urban Internship, Tucker Fellowships, Dartmouth Partners in Community Service Internships,
Kicking Horse and Upper Valley Internship Programs, Eastern European Work Camp program, and a Dartmouth—Peace
Corps pilot internship that later became the nationwide Peace Corps and Campus Compact "Going Global" program and
the Tucker Retreats. Jan also participated in the inaugural Project Preservation, which focuses students on Holocaust
history and involves them in service-learning trips to Auschwitz-Birkenau and in the restoration of Jewish cemeteries
in Eastern Europe. In the Hanover area, Jan serves on the boards of a number of local non-profit organizations and
professional organizations, among them COVER Home Repair and the Upper Valley United Way. She has been a member
of the Board of Trustees for the Twin Pines Affordable Housing Trust and was a founding board member of the Children's
Literacy Foundation of New Hampshire and Vermont as well as of the Campus Compact for New Hampshire, an
organization that promotes community and public service in academia. She also served on the board of the Consortium for
Excellence in Educational Partnerships. Jan came to Dartmouth as a transfer student in the first year of coeducation in the
fall of 1972. Congratulations, Jan for a lifetime of service to the Dartmouth community.
Also in October, the College honored our classmate Morris "Rocky" Whitaker with the Dartmouth Alumni Award,
established in 1954 to recognize long-standing and meritorious service to Dartmouth, with career achievement and
community service as additional important dimensions.
A gifted athlete and musician from Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey, Rocky was ready to attend Livingston
College on a full scholarship for track and football, when he was talked into giving Dartmouth a look-over by former high
school teammate George Riley '73, and the Dartmouth family has been blessed ever since. A standout free safety for the
Big Green, Rocky demonstrated that it did not matter that your legs were skinny, if your heart was big. His leadership
of the defensive secondary and his team leading interceptions helped turn the 1973 season around (remember, we began
that season with the first-ever loss to UNH), providing Dartmouth with a record fifth straight Ivy football title. Rocky
pursued the Dartmouth experience passionately off the football field as well, serving on the Interdormitory Council and
completing a Tucker Fellowship in Oakland sophomore year. Rocky was also in the Glee Club and sangr for the popular
undergraduate band, the Green Dream.
Senior year, Rocky pursued an independent study in C lifornia through the music department, and formed a new group,
Mantis, for w rich he sang as lead vocalist, with gigs all over the East Bay and a record before returning to Dartmouth to
complete spri ig term. Following graduation, Rocky rejoined Mantis, with whom he toured the country for three years. His
next stop was Washington, D.C., where he began a well-respected career in social services with federally funded youth
programs, and the D.C. Commissions on Social Services and Public Health. In 1998, Rocky made a major career transition to work in radio sales for the Carolina Panthers football organization and eventually for Urban Sports & Entertainment
Group. In 2004 Rocky founded his own sports marketing agency, Millennia Solutions in Charlotte, North Carolina, where
he is currentl one of the managing partners.
Rocky has co tributed in numerous roles for the College, serving as our class as president, vice president and class agent;
on the Alumn Council as chair of the Student Life Committee and member of the Nominating and Alumni Trustee Search
Committee; a. an Enrollment Interviewer; and as an indispensable prime mover for the Black Alumni of Dartmouth Association wh e he has been president, second vice president, treasurer, and Washington, D.C. regional representative. In
Charlotte, Ro ky has volunteered with such organizations as the Everyday Theater Youth Ensemble as trustee, the Carolina
Panthers You Sports Camp as a volunteer coach, the Long Creek Optimist Club as director of the basketball program, and
as a member if
i the Dawn Staley Foundation, the Charlotte Regional Sports Commission, and the Sports Leadership Initiative — a program you created to provide local youth the chance to meet every Sunday to play basketball and receive your
mentorship. I e man who introduced me to John Coltrane on a warm summer afternoon at New Hampshire Hall during
football doub e sessions has never lost his groove, andlRocky still sings with a Charlotte-based 21-piece jazz group called
A Sign of the Times, and with his church choir. Rocky and Linda are the proud parents of Manya '06. Well-earned, Rocky.
It has been a .rivilege to serve with you.
Another one s f my musical mentors is also launching s new venture. Received this note from Tom VanBenschoten in
November:
"Rick, In the business world, timing is often everything. Our current moribund economy would not be the preferred choice
to launch an exciting new company but we take heart in the histories of so many technology companies that emerged during tough tirries, -strivived and progpered. It has been a privilege so deep into one's career to become associated with a real
game-changer in the broadcast industry.
"What has c me together over the past year was not anticipated but, never-the-less, an answer to many prayers. Much of
my past deca e has been invested in altering how television stations do business; not that they haven't been seriously challenged by ne media and advertising recessions of late (which, of course, they have), but more because the industry is undergoing fou dational changes that may just usher in its 2nd golden age. It is not just economics prompting so many local
TV stations t expand their weekly roster of newscasts. In a multi-channel, multi-platform world, local is the content they
capture and resent best, and is their lasting audience Value for the future (especially in light of the collapse of so many
newspapers) Local continues to rival network and syndicated fare for eyeballs and is at lot less expensive to broadcast.
"My comp • 's, QVizLabs', prototype product has been garnering rave reviews and enthusiastic demand as we stealthily
unveil it aro nd the country. What our product does is bring real-time graphics - RTG - to live local television. Perhaps
the biggest a tractions in RTG are virtual sets, which allow limited studio facilities to appear to be as large or as intricate as
your graphic artists can make them be. The tipping point in virtual sets came a few years ago when, at the network level,
they ceased I II project virtual realities behind on-air talent but, instead, captured the live talent image against a green screen
(floor to ceil ng) and inserted the live image into a 360' virtually-rendered environment. RTG also renders in real-time 3D
graphics and objects that can populate theses virtual environments and allow the live talent to interact with them. Virtual
environment can also be used to augment modest real sets, saving space, providing well-architected extensions and saving
a great deal f money versus building them up to the rigors of HD camera scrutiny. Everyone predicted talent would wilt
under HD; i stead, curiously it's their analog sets that have failed to make the grade."
Tom is Seni r Vice President of Broadcast Sales and Marketing for QVizLabs, which was poised to introduce its system
at the Natio al Association of Broadcasters' main convention in April. I'm waiting to hear how the roll-out worked out,
and about th company's quest for initial capital given the turmoil here in Washington and on Wall Street. Tom welcomes
inquiries fro any entrepreneurial members of the class involved with venture capital investments oriented towards media
technologie and intrigued by QVizLabs' potential market opportunity.
Finally, some sad news to report - the passing last year of classmate and hockey standout Bob "Purple" Hayes.
The College forwarded a death notice, but I am indebted to obituaries from Buffalo and Winnipeg area papers for
this tribute.Bob died last August near Buffalo at his Elma, New York home at the age of 58 after a nine month battle
with cancer. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Bob did most of his growing up in the city's Windsor Park area where he
played hockey for Winakwa Community Club. He also enjoyed football, baseball and lacrosse and loved golf from
an early age. Bob graduated from Windsor Park Collegiate and was came to Dartmouth where he helped the hockey
program achieve national recognition with the ECAC title upset in 1972. It was probably foreordained that a hardhitting player from Heorot would be given the nickname "Purple" by his rocker classmates, and the name stuck.
After graduation, Bob traveled to Europe to play professional hockey in Langenthal, Switzerland and Cortina, Italy.
He returned to the U. S. in 1977 and settled in Boston, to pursue a career in the insurance industry. In the early
1980s, he first moved to Buffalo to work for the Walsh Duffield Company, and although other opportunities took
him away from Buffalo, he returned there often throughout his life to visit friends and family in the area. In the early
1990s, Bob began a management career in the airline industry, moving to New Jersey to work for United Airlines,
and enjoying an industry that responded to his passion for travel. By the mid-1990s, he was transferred by United to
Florida and worked there until the early 2000s. He returned to Buffalo to work for Northwest Airlines and remained
with Northwest after its merger with Delta Airlines. Most recently, he worked for Delta out of Minneapolis, where
he was recognized for his skill at fostering teamwork in the workplace, earned the respect of his colleagues and built
steadfast friendships. Bob was a loving companion, father, grandfather, brother and uncle as well as a treasured friend
to many. He is survived by his partner Suzanne and her daughters Christine and Melissa Turk, his daughter Elizabeth
and stepson David (and David's wife Molly), grandsons William and Sean. two sisters, Carol and Mary; and two
brothers, William and Raymond. Peace to you, Bob, while you "kiss the sky".
Blessings,
Addresses:
SHAW, Donald D., D.O. (Deborah) 153 Valley View Estates, Wellsboro PA 16901-6870 (h) 570.724.5686 (w)
570.723.0141 (email) ddsdo@epix.net
ROWE, Ellis B. (Antoinette) 2218 Alicia Lane, Atlantic Beach FL 32233-5974 (h) 610.203.7023 (email) ebr39@aol.
com
FRANKLIN, Philip G. (Melissa) 112 Wildwood Road, Lake Forest IL 60045-2463 (h) 847.482.0133 (w)
847.391.0566 (email) pfranldin@littelfuse.com
SMITH, Donald C. (Sarah) 10425 Rainier Avenue South, Seattle WA 98178-2736 (h) 206.772.6797 (email) don.
smith@paccar.com
SMITH, Ronald C. 7418 Gatewood Road SW, Seattle WA 98136-2117 (h) 206.938.2601
GEISSE, Timothy F. (Jane) 38050 Jackson Road, Chagrin Falls OH 44022-2025 (h) 440.247.8218 (w) 440.247.0003
(email) timgeisse@aol.com
GRONDINE, Robert F. (Aiko) 6-19-2 Shimo-Meguro, Meguro-Ku, Tokyo 153-0064, JAPAN (email) rgrondine@
whitecase.com
TARJAN. Jan R. (Raymond) 48 Isaac Perkins Road, Lyme NH 03768-3615 (h) 603.795.2770 (email) jan-roberta.
tarjan@dartmouth.edu
WHITAKER, Morris W. (Linda) 8433 Golden Oak Court, Charlotte NC 28216-1692 (h) 704.398.2064 (email)
morriswhitaker@bellsouth.net
VANBENSCHOTEN, Thomas (Lenore) 775 Herbglen Court, Colorado Springs CO 80906-7692 (h) 719.538.9449
(email) tvb9449@gmail.com
CONWAY Peter (Mary) 33 Turtle Beach Lane, Kiawah Island SC 29455 (h) 843.637.4691 (e-mail) pfyawnoc@
roadrunner.com
JOHNSON, David Stafford (Stephanie ) 740 Gilpin Street, Denver CO 80218 (h) 303.394.3852 (o) 303.564.9525
(email) piperdsj@gmail.com
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