April 2012 - Alumni News - Williams College

CLASS NOTES
That’s not all the excitement in
the McClements household these
days: “We entered this fall with
some real trepidation. In addition
to two new jobs, all three of our
kids are high school seniors. We
were anticipating a holiday break
filled with application writing,
lots of nagging and grumpy
teenagers. Happily all three are
done with the process. Annie
and Becky are members of the
Williams Class of 2016, and Will
is deciding between Elmhurst
College and New England
College. We couldn’t be happier
for them.”
Julie Meer Harnick sent in news
that her daughter Jocelyn, like
young Will McClements, started
2012 with the happy choice
between two early acceptances:
the College of Charleston and
University of Delaware. And this
from David Gow: “I hope my
fellow classmates will forgive
me, but my third son will be
attending Amherst next year. We
will have three in college (tuition
is not my friend) and two still at
home.”
David is now deep in the world
of sports talk radio, with a local
station in Houston, 1560 The
Game, and a national network,
Yahoo Sports Radio.
Our era’s contributions to the
Williams Art Mafia continue
to make their mark: I spotted
Michael Govan in the February
issues of Vanity Fair and Town
and Country, photographed at
the Art & Film Gala at the LA
County Museum of Art—where
Michael is director—and at Art
Basel Miami Beach. The same
edition of T&C also featured
Thayer Tolles ’87, a curator at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
in a story about the Met’s new
American wing, which opened
in January after 10 years in the
making.
January in an election year
means caucus season in Iowa, so
I reached out to Rachel Stauffer
afterward to see how she fared.
As a registered Democrat, she
didn’t get inundated with candidate
mail and robocalls this election
cycle but has been very busy
nonetheless with the construction
of a new house in Des Moines
with her husband, Jim Lawson.
“The move was awful but
well worth it, as we love our
new home,” said Rachel, who
continues to enjoy her work at
Aviva Investors. She and Jim are
both active in the community on
nonprofit boards and with their
church, and will be celebrating
their 10th anniversary in 2012.
72 | Williams PeoPle | aPril 2012
My deadline was too close to
the New Hampshire primary to
get a report from John Gregg.
A longtime reporter on Capitol
Hill, he’s now political editor for
Valley News in West Lebanon,
N.H., so no doubt got a lot of
face time with the candidates.
I laughed out loud while reading
this missive from Anne Melvin
about her mid-life crisis-averting
adventure with husband Dan
Sullivan ’82: “After 15 years of
not having a vacation alone, Dan
and I finally found time to take
a week together joining Lizard
Head Cycling Guides White
Rock tour of Utah for a 350-mile,
25,000-foot climbing, weeklong
road biking extravaganza in the
most deserted (and beautiful) part
of Utah with 11 other slightly
‘off’ souls. I say ‘off’ because, the
week before, in telling a group
of girlfriends over dinner about
trying to get in 100 miles on my
bike each weekend in preparation
for this vacation, one of the
slightly puzzled women said to
me ‘Um, Anne, we don’t take
vacations that we have to train
for. That doesn’t sound like fun.’
All the other women nodded in
agreement to murmurs of ‘swizzle
sticks,’ ‘beaches’ and ‘cabana
boys.’” So, why did she do it? In
Mel’s words, “Let’s face it: We’ve
been at this thing for 26 years
now since graduation, and I can
tell you down to the minute what
I’m doing each morning between
5:48 a.m. when my alarm rings
and 7:06 a.m. when I leave the
house to catch the train to work.
I need to shake things up a little.
What I am far too insecure to do
in my job (namely, try something
different and get a new one), I
am bold to do on a bike.” Anne
also passed along the news that
Alec Brackenridge won’t tell her
what he’s doing at his company,
Equity Residential, but that he’s
more than happy to share that
his wife Heidi Knight Brackenridge
’86—Anne’s former Mills House
suitemate—teaches part-time at
the Epiphany School in Boston
and teaches yoga in Natick.
“Since I’ve gotten into yoga in the
last few years, I’m going to go try
her class and see if I can’t make
her break into peals of giggles
in front of the other adults just
by my looking at her funny,”
declared Mel, “which, if you’ve
taken yoga at all, you’ll know is
very non-yogi (especially during
shivasana) and, if you know
Heidi, you’ll know is also very
likely to occur.”
Chris Varrone celebrated his first
full year in business at Riverview
Consulting, focused on renewable
energy. His daughters both
starred as Sgt. Sarah Brown
in their schools’ respective
productions of Guys and Dolls;
Emilia is a senior at Choate,
and Elise is a fifth grader in the
local Irvington, N.Y., school.
Meanwhile, his equally talented
son Espen, a high school sophomore,
toured Belgium with his
band over the holiday break.
Finally, thanks to Class
President Peter Orphanos for graciously
hosting the 1985 tailgate
at homecoming. Classmates at
the game included John Gregg
and his wife Mary, Jeanette
Hazelton Fairhurst (who was
up for a women’s ice hockey
reunion), Phil and Mary Nealon
Lusardi with their pre-schooler
Grace and older daughter Jackie
’14 in tow (“They may challenge
for the greatest offspring age
spread,” observed Orph), Ted
Thomas, Mike Coakley and Mike
deWindt, who may challenge
for longest distance traveled to
Homecoming in a single day,
having flown from and back to
Cleveland to see the Lord Jeffs
beat the Ephs, 31-18. Talk about
alumni devotion.
Also dropping by the presidential
spread were Jay Thoman
’82, Liz Gallun Krieg ’83, Debbie
Bernheimer Harris ’86 (in town
to play hockey with Jeanette and
visit daughter Addie ’15) and former
swim coach Carl Samuelson
and his wife Nancy.
“While work keeps me busy,
I try to keep in touch with Rob
Kirkpatick and John Peloso as
often as possible,” Peter said.
May the rest of you also enjoy
many classmate connections in
the months ahead … and write
to me about them, of course!
1986
J.P. Conlan
Tulane D-2
San Juan, PR 00927
1986secretary@williams.edu
At the conclusion of his first
Hundred Days, Class President
Mark Braude reports that he
“was up in Williamstown for
homecoming this fall, and saw
Richard Miller and Ken Richardson
perform in the Octet alumni
concert on Saturday night. My
son, an aspiring a capella singer,
joined me and absolutely loved
the performance. In a sign of how
much things have changed, upon
getting home he immediately
pulled up videos of the current
Octet on YouTube.”