April 2012 - Alumni News - Williams College

Mark’ can’t help but stay
connected. In August Mark
ran into Martha Nikitas Stone
and her family on a flight from
Chicago to Jackson, Wyo., and
in December, at the end of a
week’s ski trip in Big Sky, Mont.,
Mark came to the realization at
the lunch table that the one other
New Yorker in his daughter’s
ski class was the daughter of
Alexandra Shapiro.
In contrast to Mark’s successful
ski vacation in Big Sky, former
Class President Steve Troyer was
suffering from a lack of snowfall
in the Sierras. December wasn’t
a total loss for Steve, as he ran
into Marty Collins at a couple
of holiday parties. “Marty and
his family are doing quite well,”
Steve reports. Marty is running
corporate development at what
Steve calls “a pretty well-funded
green energy startup called
Bloom Energy, where he’s been
for a few years now.”
Class VP Tim Faselt answered
my call for information for the
class notes within seconds of me
posting to the class listserv. He
informs me, in an email timestamped
Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011,
at 3:55 p.m. that he was out of
the office. Thanks, Tim, for the
update. I hope these notes don’t
get you in trouble with your
boss.
In a hilarious post that I,
alas, had to edit, Debbie Semel
Goldenring reported what she
learned from an engaging email
exchange with her Eph-gal pals:
“All seems well with Martha
Nikitas Stone! From what I can
see from her holiday card she
and her family have recently
returned from Stockholm—real
jet-setters these Stones are.
Martha is aiming to have a new
holiday card from a different
destination every year—so far no
repeats! Ellenore Knight Baker,
while entertaining guests this
year for the holidays, has tried
her hand at crafting! Please send
all orders to her for personalized
snuggies; she and her adorable
children Cate and Graham are
helping keep Ellie in a festive
mood! Carolyn Walker Niles,
celebrating her first holidays in
Seattle where she and her family
have recently relocated, sent a
great holiday card—her daughter
Grace looks so much like she
did/does I had to do a double
take on the photos, requiring a
search for the ol’ reading glasses
(so sad). Kathy Kirmayer has
been trying her hand at cooking,
after a 47-year hiatus. She
decided to be an over-achiever:
her first attempt was to make a
Brussels sprout dish! Not even
dunking one in chocolate could
help! Madeline Hughes Hiakala
is busying herself with her four
grown children and workiing
full time doing the lawyering
thing in Alabama. Maryellen
Mahoney Bissell’s house in
Medfield is party central! She
and husband Brad were the hosts
to an impromptu holiday party
visited by the always elusive
Brian “Hoofa” Nixon ’87 and his
family.”
Debbie also reports that Sue
Klein has moved back from the
Czech Republic and is living in
the Atlanta area, where she and
her kids seem to be adjusting
to the American way. Welcome
back, Sue!
Still living abroad in Valencia
is Laura Gatzkiewicz, resident
director of the Rutgers University
in Spain program. Laura writes,
“Every year brings me two
new batches of college students
coming for all kinds of reasons.
Some come to party, some come
to improve their Spanish, some
come for adventure. In the end
they end up doing all of the those
things and growing more than
they realize. My own two children
are also growing fast. Julia
is in her last year of high school
and is applying to fine arts programs
here in Spain, while Paco
is finishing up primary school
and eager to move on to the
challenges of secondary school.
Both of them are wonderful company
and just all-around great
kids. I would like to take all the
credit for this, but I sometimes
think they’re that way despite my
parenting!”
Laura hopes that this summer
trip to Cape Cod to visit her
parents will be the first leg of
a road trip “out West” to the
Berkshires.
Soon after he completed his
work on the class book and
joined us at our glorious class
reunion with only minor injuries
to his offspring, Jeff Lilly left to
begin a new life in Jordan, where
he’s working “on a USAIDfunded
project that assists
political parties to develop and
municipalities to govern more
in concert with the needs of
citizens—boilerplate democracy
work. It’s a tough region for this
and one that is going through
dramatic changes as we speak
and violent convulsions. Jordan
has been stable, and we hope it
is able to address grievances in
[a] peaceful way. It’s a fascinating
country, just about 70
n 1985–86
years old and a mix of Bedouin
and Palestinian and urbanized
Jordanians. Few resources, little
rain but a highly educated elite
that serves the rest of the Middle
East as doctors, engineers, etc.”
Jeff’s boys are “in third grade,
learning Arabic faster than their
parents and scrambling over
Roman ruins whenever they get
the chance.”
Jeff has seen John Austin ’87,
who is head of King’s Academy,
the Deerfied-in-the-desert boarding
school started by Jordan’s
King Abdullah five years ago.
Shelley Ball writes that she’s
“still living in Berkeley, Calif.,
and loving my school job, which
gives me two weeks off in late
December.” Shelly got to see
Libby Hoffman and her daughter
Anna for a quick breakfast in
Manchester, N.H., over winter
break, as her family headed from
Boston to northern Vermont for
a family reunion.
Bill Hughson married Monica
Lee in 2005, and is raising two
wonderful little girls: Sophia, 5,
and Tessa, 3. In 2009 Bill moved
to Chicago with his family
from San Francisco to take a
job with DeVry: “It has been a
very interesting (read: challenging!)
time,” writes Bill, “to
begin a career in private sector
higher education, but DeVry has
proven to be a great organization
with exceptional commitment
to our students.” Bill’s
responsible for six institutions,
including American University
of the Caribbean School of
Medicine, Ross University School
of Medicine, Ross University
School of Veterinary Medicine,
Chamberlain College of
Nursing, Carrington College and
Carrington College of California
(the latter two of which focus
on allied health professional
education).”
One of the many things Sarah
Vandervoort Morgan gives thanks
for this year “is the reconnection
with people who matter to me
at our 25th reunion and, yes,
friending them on Facebook!”
She just joined the Williams
LinkedIn group, too, which she
describes as “long overdue!”
Sarah enjoyed a balmy Christmas
with her husband Christian’s
parents in St. Petersburg, Fla.,
where it was all college prep this
holiday season: the number-one
gift of the year was a foosball
table, a thoughtful investment
in the future that allows her son
Dylan eight years to practice
and Elena nine years to practice
before they are tested for real in
aPril 2012 | Williams PeoPle | 73