April 2012 - Alumni News - Williams College

CLASS NOTES
hosting Elizabeth (Feeney) Asali
in London, as she travels to the
GSK home office occasionally,
and that “tonight we have plans
to visit a purple pub.” Amy
heard from Caitlin Mann that she
was meeting Lloyd Alexander and
Clint Kendall in Boston for lunch
but had no details.
Kristen (Hassing) Howard
reports that in November she
met up with Brad Behr, Jonathan
Lindley, Jared Cumming, Karen
Schroeder, Amy Elmore and
Maura Gallagher along with their
families for a weekend in Deep
Creek, Md. “Peter Weingartner
usually joins us but was unable
to this year, so we hung out via
video chat instead. We watched
our kids perform some very
funny skits, ate some really
great food and found a geocache
in Deep Creek State Park.”
Kristen has also performed in
two plays, Oliver! and Alice in
Wonderland, and has started
up with rapier sword dancing
again (there’s something for
you to Google!). She currently
works for Silverchair Science &
Communications, a company
that designs and hosts websites
for science, technical and medical
publishers.
Arielle (Kagan) Masters writes
that she is determined to at least
try to get in shape, and so has
been taking classes at LA Boxing
since October (and hopefully
will still be taking them as of this
printing so as to avoid the hasbeen
embarrassment. She’s loving
the classes, aside from the sore
back and shoulders.
Alison Locke Perchuk continues
to enjoy teaching art history
at Occidental College in LA,
where her fellow faculty members
include Paul Nam ’91 and
Jeremiah Axelrod.
Also in academia is Marica
Tacconi. Marica had what may
just be the best gig going: In July
2011 she concluded a sevenmonth
residency as a visiting
research professor at Villa I
Tatti, the Harvard University
Center for Italian Renaissance
Studies in Florence, Italy. “I was
assigned to live in my own huge
villa overlooking Florence and
had a marvelous 1875 concert
grand piano in my living room/
ballroom. When not playing
and composing at the piano, I
worked on a new musicological
project while benefitting from
the interdisciplinary community
of scholars at the center. With
a more flexible schedule away
from my regular teaching duties
at Penn State University, I also
82 | Williams PeoPle | aPril 2012
got to fit in some great trips to
Paris and Tanzania.”
Holly Frazier has been working
significantly harder and has been
very busy juggling work, home
and school. She completed her
PhD in educational leadership
from University of Pennsylvania
in 2011 and is happily married
and the proud mother of
three terrific kids—EJ, Nia and
William. She continues, “People
may be surprised to know that
I am currently involved in a TV
series called DanceMoms, and I
have the pleasure of supporting
my daughter through the world
of competitive dance.” I have
to admit, that sounds intriguing
enough to break my “no reality
TV” rule.
Patty (Altoff) Conte returned
to education part time in the fall
of 2010, “tutoring at the school
where I did my student teaching
(17 years before!). And this summer
I will be coaching diving for
the first time in almost 20 years!”
From Kent Wosepka, we learn
John Staudenmayer did Ironman
Louisville over the summer.
Oddly, Kent shared no details of
his own.
Dan Rhode very helpfully wrote
the following: “Dan is living and
working in Buxton, England,
and is hoping some more people
in the U.S. will buy his recently
published book on pottery
(Introducing Pottery, find it on
your favorite online bookseller!).
Work includes looking after his
two nutty children aged 9 and
3 who are a constant source of
bedlam mixed with fun. He is
happy to show anyone around
the peak district by mountain
bike so stop by!”
And last but not least, Christy
Johnson writes, “I wish I had
something exciting to send in,
but I got nuthin’! Just getting
excited about the reunion in
June.” As am I. I wish you all
safe travels to Williamstown, and
I am looking forward to seeing
you in June!
1993
Chad Orzel
1570 Regent St.
Niskayuna, NY 12309
1993secretary@williams.edu
Another year, another January
set of class notes. This time, I’m
not writing from an airport bar,
but never fear, I’ve found a new
way to simulate jet lag and thus
generate the slightly punchy
prose you’ve come to expect: My
wife Kate Nepveu and I had a
son, David, in November. Big sister
Claire (now 3 1 ⁄2) is so excited
to be a big sister that she can’t go
more than five minutes without
running over to give him a hug
and a kiss. She’s also apparently
too excited to sleep, which means
nobody in the house is getting
any rest. I’m typing this at 10
p.m. in my bedroom, hoping that
she’ll finally doze off, but judging
by the sounds from her room,
she’s still telling stories to her
stuffed animals…
This leads naturally to
the other new births in the
class: Zahie El Kouri and John
Greenman have a new son,
Nico, born back in June, and
Laura (Wedner) Grams had her
third, Patton Henry, in August.
Laura’s still teaching philosophy
at the University of Nebraska,
Omaha. Dara Musher-Eizenman
and her husband Abe had their
third, Sylvia, in April, and are
greatly appreciative of the many
advances in baby technology
since their first two, 8 and
11 years ago. Dara was also
promoted to full professor at
Bowling Green State University,
which is nearly as difficult as
having kids, so double congratulations
to her.
The topic of new children also
brought in a couple of first-time
reports, first from Rajveer Purohit
and his wife Mamta, who have
a new son, Shivraj. Rajveer also
had his first co-authored book on
urology published, sees Sandeep
Patel and Girish Bhakoo regularly
and attended Navin Girishankar’s
wedding in DC. Paul Krebs also
wrote in for the first time, to
report the birth of his daughter
back in April. Paul’s living in
Atlanta, working for Coke and
promises to write in again in
2031 or so.
There were also plenty of
pre-existing child stories. Patty
(Pennebaker) Rutins reports that
she and husband Erik are still
looking for their 5-year-old in
the giant pile of Lego bricks
from Christmas (this was in
January, but may well still be
true when this sees print later in
the spring). Nadine Block is still
working on sustainable energy in
DC and reports that it’s gotten
much harder to keep up with her
4-year-old twins now that they
no longer need training wheels
on their bikes. Pete Putnam’s kids
are a little older (8 and 11), so
he and his brother John ’90 took
them hiking to a “remote yurt in
Colorado” in December, which
sounds faintly ominous but was
apparently fun. Rebecca Beavers