April 2012 - Alumni News - Williams College

Jake Russin ’94 (standing, left) takes a breather with some of the 30 Ephs
who participated in a six-mile hike he led in Virginia’s Great Falls Park
for a Williams D.C.-area “Mountain Day” celebration in October.
who are stretched too thin. Alas,
I work full time (albeit in a family
friendly law clerk position) in
Philadelphia, where my younger
son attends day care. I’d like to
have someone pick up my kids
for me too sometimes, but I’m
not about to ask another working
parent to do it!”
Tony Qaiyum writes that life
has been thrilling and exhausting
the past few months—it was a
record year for Smallflower.com
and for Merz Apothecary, his
family’s 137-year-old Chicago
business. Tony was able to get
away to celebrate Cory Nohl’s
wedding to Sarah Daoust in
Southern Vermont in October.
Daughters Saffron and Nol
were flower girls along with
the daughters of Pete and Liz
Richards. Other ’95ers celebrating
the occasion were Chris
Murphy, Josh Caley, Rami Batniji,
John Streng and Jessie Price. “It
should be mentioned that the
wedding band was without a
doubt the most dance-inducing
group of all time. I want to
become a wedding crasher and
follow them around!”
Tony was able to grab brunch
with John Ruder and his wife
Kate on Jan. 2 before they
finished their Chicago visit and
headed back to their new digs in
Boulder, Colo. “They and their
sons Wes and Quinn seemed as
happy as can be!”
By the end of this year, many of
us will begin to cross into our
fifth (ack!) decade. Classmate Ted
Welsh confessed to some memory
lapses related to the cheers at
homecoming and mentioned he’d
made it to the annual mathematics
meetings in Boston, where
he “saw half the Williams math
faculty and a bunch of (much
younger!) alumni.” They’re getting
younger every year, Ted.
Jonathan Eades, who is the
head of St. Mary’s Hall in San
Antonio, also made it back to
Boston for a conference. After
the conference, he and his
wife squeezed in a road trip to
Williamstown. They “stayed at
the Orchards, appreciated the
new student center, ate a pizza
from Hot Tomatoes, reloaded
on Williams gear at the Williams
Shop, stopped at the new Purple
Pub (the old one burned down)
and learned Spring Street is now
a one- way street!”
Max Simian sends news from
Saipan, Commonwealth of
the Northern Mariana Islands
(“where America’s day begins”),
in remote Micronesia. He is now
a registered professional geologist
and works for the local utility
company’s power division in
their environmental compliance
office. He is working on groundwater
oil spill cleanup and future
prevention. Go, Max!
Laura Hemmeter Putnam wrote
that her husband Pete Putnam
’93 and his brother, John Putnam
’90 recently took themselves and
their sons (Ethan, 15, Tom, 11,
and Matt, 8) camping in a yurt
in Colorado. They had a wonderful
time with snowshoeing,
cross country skiing and card
playing. Although the temperature
dropped into the single digits
overnight, the wood-burning
stove kept the yurt toasty with
temps in the 70s. Pete also got to
feel like a heroic frontiersman by
stoking the fire in the middle of
the night. Laura stayed down in
n 1994–96
Colorado Springs and “enjoyed
Starbucks and Barnes and Noble
with my in-laws, and everyone
was happy!”
Co-secretary Anamaria
Villamarin-Lupin shares that she
and her husband Tim Lupin ’93
met with Sue Le Page Wintner and
Tom Wintner ’93 in Connecticut
in December to enjoy a Saints
game. Anamaria is now the New
Orleans representative on the
Louisiana Parenting Education
Network’s guidance team and
continues to supervise master’s
level students pursuing their
degrees in social work and counseling.
“And when I am not busy
with that, I continue to supervise
master’s level offspring pursuing
their degrees in elementary education
and socialization.”
*My mother’s definition of
“successfully raising” seven kids
meant that none of us ended up
in jail, and I am happy to report
that when this went to press that
was still the case.
Happy spring, folks! Keep the
news coming.
1996
Lesley Whitcomb Fierst
245 Dale Drive
Silver Spring, MD 20910
1996secretary@williams.edu
So, I get a little e-receipt telling
me when my messages to the
Class of ’96 list have been successfully
distributed. I could not
help but notice that, when I sent
out my request for news in which
I described my grandfather’s trip
to the Katy Perry concert (only
briefly), the e-receipt said the
message had been distributed to
441 recipients, but when I sent
out my reminder email a couple
of weeks later, it said it had gone
out to 439. I immediately felt a
pit in my stomach, thinking that
in my attempts to be clever and
funny in my email news requests
and reminders, instead I had
inspired two of you to ask for
mercy. I am going to hope that
two people just left jobs and so
they lost their email addresses, or
moved to cabins where they have
no email access, but just in case,
I promise my next request for
news will be more garden variety
so as not to potentially alienate
folks.
On to the news. Joan (Lee)
Tarbutton appears to be gunning
for her own Brady Bunch.
“Believe it or not, I just had
my fifth kid! Robert Augustine
Uh-Jin Tarbutton was born on
Dec. 18, weighing 8 pounds, 10
aPril 2012 | Williams PeoPle | 85