April 2012 - Alumni News - Williams College
April 2012 - Alumni News - Williams College
April 2012 - Alumni News - Williams College
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CLASS NOTES<br />
electronic drum kit and is ready<br />
for a reunion.” If references are<br />
needed, “Jane Greenawalt ’90<br />
or Soo La Kim can provide fan<br />
notes of the awesome show in<br />
Greylock Quad.” We should<br />
keep an eye out for the Janes on<br />
YouTube or demand a live show<br />
at our 25th Reunion. Joel also<br />
visited DC in September and<br />
spent time with Jake Smith and<br />
Cliff Majersik and came away<br />
impressed by “how many kids’<br />
soccer games Cliff planned to<br />
attend the next day (three).”<br />
Betsy Allen-Pennebaker and<br />
Andrew Allen are living in<br />
Burlington, Vt. While Andrew<br />
is busy growing a new division<br />
of his business, Betsy is<br />
now teaching the liberal arts<br />
strand at Champlain <strong>College</strong><br />
in Burlington. Betsy writes, “I<br />
am enjoying teaching the curriculum<br />
because it is so varied.<br />
I just couldn’t face teaching<br />
‘der, die, das’ to freshmen. …<br />
Here I get to teach psychology<br />
and literature and this semester<br />
political philosophy. Classes start<br />
tomorrow, and I am nervous<br />
because the readings for this one<br />
are quite dry, and I am starting<br />
to have late-night moments of<br />
terror in which I see a classroom<br />
full of heavy-lidded teenagers,<br />
all texting under the desks to<br />
their friends, saying how much<br />
my class sucks.” A common<br />
nightmare for all faculty, Betsy,<br />
particularly those teaching philosophy,<br />
I suspect!<br />
Josh Becker is making sure he<br />
raises a next generation of Eph<br />
fans by bringing his son Aaron<br />
to watch the <strong>Williams</strong>/Amherst<br />
game in Palo Alto, Calif. Josh<br />
writes, “two members from our<br />
reunion entrepreneurship panel<br />
(at the 20th reunion in June)<br />
were featured in San Francisco<br />
Magazine: Mariam Naficy was<br />
on the cover for an article about<br />
women and entrepreneurs, and<br />
Eric Grosse is in the same magazine<br />
having taken over as CEO of<br />
Task Rabbit, a company that just<br />
raised $18 million and is growing<br />
rapidly.” Congratulations to<br />
our West Coast entrepreneurs!<br />
In East Coast sports news,<br />
Chris Mersereau is making sure<br />
the Red Sox have a next generation<br />
of fans. Chris writes, “My<br />
sons Jack and Pierce and I attend<br />
many Fenway Park games,<br />
and we were heartbroken by<br />
their September performance.”<br />
Chris’ own home equine team is<br />
doing far better: “Stoneymeade<br />
Farm continues to grow and<br />
‘show,’ with 40 horses. Last<br />
November we had three of our<br />
80 | <strong>Williams</strong> PeoPle | aPril <strong>2012</strong><br />
horses compete at the Maclay<br />
National Finals in Lexington,<br />
Ky. Fortunately our daughter<br />
Josie, 6, prefers horseback riding<br />
to baseball.” Chris also spends<br />
time with Ephs in Boston and<br />
was planning a <strong>Williams</strong> trip<br />
to golf St. Andrews in Scotland<br />
with Pam Dickinson ’86 and Paul<br />
Mersereau ’61.<br />
Michelle Sanders writes from<br />
Bedford, Mass. Michelle was<br />
enjoying her holiday break from<br />
her pediatric practice and gearing<br />
up for the busy January season.<br />
She was able to bid bon voyage<br />
to Jonquil Wolfson, who with<br />
husband Jeff and children Talia<br />
and Eliana, has moved to Stuart,<br />
Fla., where Jeff is the new rabbi<br />
for a congregation. Having seen<br />
photos of the family in shorts<br />
for Halloween, Michelle believes<br />
“Jonquil misses wool sweaters …<br />
but the family enjoys the citrus<br />
trees in their backyard and being<br />
able to use the pool for much of<br />
the autumn.” Doesn’t sound like<br />
a bad trade-off, but then I live<br />
in a country where sunshine is<br />
worthy of a special mention.<br />
Please do send your news<br />
in—to Christine next issue—and<br />
a happy and healthy <strong>2012</strong> to<br />
everyone.<br />
1992<br />
REUNION JUNE 7–10<br />
Stephanie Phillips<br />
241 Central Park West, Apt. 5A<br />
New York, NY 10024<br />
1992secretary@williams.edu<br />
I’m saddened to report that<br />
after a two-year battle with cancer<br />
Elizabeth (Betsy) Carson Rupe<br />
passed away on Jan. 10. She is<br />
survived by her husband Allan<br />
and sons Keith, Simon and Isaac.<br />
The rest of these notes were written<br />
three weeks prior to receiving<br />
this news, so please excuse the<br />
incongruity in tone.<br />
Here’s the few, the proud, that<br />
made it in before I had to shame<br />
you all into contributing: Lynette<br />
Guastaferro bumped into Eric<br />
Kaye in the lobby of the building<br />
where her nonprofit, Teaching<br />
Matters, is located. In a random,<br />
fun coincidence he was in the<br />
building cutting a record with<br />
singers from the building’s wellknown<br />
choir.<br />
Anne (Joseph) O’Connell shared<br />
a comprehensive update: In<br />
the past five years she married<br />
Jamie O’Connell, had two kids<br />
(Evelyne, born in 2008, and<br />
Alexander, just born Oct. 21,<br />
2011), and received tenure (at<br />
the University of California,<br />
Berkeley).<br />
Jim Scott, whom we haven’t<br />
heard from in ages, was encouraged<br />
by his wife and kids to<br />
“let everyone know that I<br />
was honored to be selected to<br />
perform with the Philly Pops<br />
Festival Chorus with Peter Nero<br />
in their 2011 holiday program.<br />
It was a blast and brought lots of<br />
memories back from performing<br />
with the Springstreeters in<br />
Chapin Hall.”<br />
Kerr Houston rang in the New<br />
Year by traveling to Cairo for a<br />
week as part of a research project<br />
that culminated in a paper,<br />
delivered in LA in February, on<br />
1950s Egyptian movie posters. In<br />
the meantime, he also managed<br />
a second, briefer trip to the City<br />
of Angels, in order to compete<br />
on Jeopardy! Kerr advised that if<br />
you want to see him wishing he<br />
knew more about jazz pianists,<br />
tune in in late <strong>April</strong>.<br />
From Keith Faigin, we learn<br />
that “the Faigin family still<br />
counts themselves as one of nine<br />
documented families that voluntarily<br />
moved to the Detroit area.<br />
We’ve been here about seven<br />
years. I moved up to take the<br />
position of CIO of a health services<br />
company and my wife is an<br />
oncology nurse. Our daughter,<br />
Anabel, 12, has her bat mitzvah<br />
in May and is a cheerleader. She<br />
is the first cheerleader who will<br />
talk to me*. Our daughter, Eliza,<br />
9, is a budding drummer and<br />
excels in the areas of volume and<br />
noisiness. As for me, as a way of<br />
further avoiding growing up, I’ve<br />
gotten back into improv. *I’ve<br />
used this joke before—primarily<br />
on <strong>Alumni</strong> Fund solicitation<br />
emails—but, it is a good bit, and<br />
I feel it merits repeating.”<br />
And now the guilty consciences<br />
who felt that it would be untoward<br />
for our class to have really<br />
short notes on the eve of our<br />
20th reunion.<br />
Ivan Fermon very helpfully<br />
asked whether I meant “saddest<br />
as in depressing or as in<br />
pathetic?” but then provided<br />
no information. Thanks for the<br />
help, Ivan.<br />
Dan Weiswasser shares that, “as<br />
an internist/pediatrician, I am the<br />
director of quality and clinical<br />
informatics at Riverbend Medical<br />
Group, the largest multispecialty<br />
medical group in Western<br />
Massachusetts, i.e., we’re big fish<br />
in a small pond. When not seeing<br />
patients, I work to leverage our<br />
electronic medical records system<br />
to provide the best quality care
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