April 2012 - Alumni News - Williams College

CLASS NOTES
ounces. We now have two boys
and three girls, and it appears
that we have more blond-headed
kids than brunettes! Both our
boys are blond, and one of our
girls is fair-haired. I often get
asked where on the Korean
side of the kids’ family does the
blond gene come from. Uh-Jin
(whose name in Korean means
‘kind and benevolent king’)
is enjoying the attention of so
many. My a capella music friends
will appreciate that I now have
enough children to form that
SSATB vocal ensemble I have
always wanted.” Making a rare
appearance in class notes, Jill
Wasserman had a few pieces of
exciting news. “My husband,
Stephen Devereaux, and I were
married on April 30—the day
after the royal wedding of
Will and Kate. Although my
(maternity) wedding dress was
not nearly as chic as Kate’s, I
managed to pull off a “tiara”
(purchased on Etsy) and certainly
felt as lucky as a princess. In
addition to marrying my own
Prince Charming, the marriage
also came with Stephen’s darling
10-year-old daughter Emma. I
am trying very hard not to be a
storybook wicked stepmother!
And finally, our lovely twin
daughters, Harriet McGillivray
and Carolyn Witte, arrived just
a few months later on Aug.
23. Needless to say, 2011 has
been a year of fairytale magic
for me and my family.” Also
new parents (again), Mary Liz
Brenninkmeyer and her husband
Chris Kaczmarek had a baby girl,
Annika Elizabeth Kaczmarek, on
Nov. 9. According to Mary Liz,
big brothers Ian and Andrew are
enjoying their little sister, but,
hey, just give it time.
Among our internationally
residing classmates, Ian
Graham wrote of the birth of
his third daughter, Charlotte,
on Dec. 14 in Bad Homburg
(Bah Humbug?), Germany.
“Obviously, this meant that my
wife Priscilla and I weren’t going
to go off and have a raucous
New Year’s Eve, but it did give
us an opportunity to check out
what German TV has to offer in
lieu of Dick Clark. The highlight
of the night was coming across
the ‘Silvesterstadl,’ a concert
featuring traditional folk music
from across Germany, Austria
and Switzerland and complete
with audience members dressed
in lederhosen. Hearing the sound
of the accordion-infused music
brought me back to the Saturday
morning polka show we would
86 | Williams PeoPle | aPril 2012
listen to after Friday night
water polo games at Amherst.
If memory serves me, the theory
was that nothing can be as bad
as the polka, so enduring it made
the hangovers that much more
manageable. Besides such choice
TV options, we are still very
much enjoying our time here and
taking advantage of the travel
options. The highlights from last
year were Istanbul, Provence
and Amsterdam. This year we
are really looking forward to
San Sebastian, where Kevin
Burke ’94 will host a gathering
of Williams alums in Europe.”
And Kyle Downey and his family
moved from Shanghai to Hong
Kong a year ago, “where I’m still
working for Morgan Stanley. I
heard from Micah Edmond over
the break but just missed him in
NYC at end of 2011.”
Living it up in LA, Heather
(Laquer) Williams wrote, “Life
with three kids (ages 11, 8 and 3)
is busy and fun. I’m embracing
my sports mom role and have
now branched out into being a
stage mom as well with my oldest
daughter Caitlin performing
as Young Louise in a 12-week
run of Gypsy and booking and
shooting a co-star role where
she plays a bully named Tiffany
on The Office that airs March
1. I can’t really give out the
details of who all she takes on
and beats up, but it is funny.
We’re big Office fans too, so it
was just as exciting for us to be
on set with her—never has my
husband offered to help with set
parent duties as quickly as he did
for this! So now I’m attending
premieres not only for my husband’s
projects as a film and TV
composer, but now my daughter’s
projects as well. #groupie.”
As for other Eph sightings, Kate
Newman Jerris, her husband
Rand and their three kids swung
through LA, and we met up at
Descanso Gardens so all of our
kids could run around and we
could catch up. They’ve been
coming out to LA fairly regularly,
so it’s been great seeing them and
marking the passage of time by
how much bigger our kids have
gotten. And after about a decade
of living in the same city, Smith
Glover and I finally met up for a
nice alfresco lunch by the pool.
He got a taste of how crazy life
can be with three kids as, while
they were playing pirates, one
kid accidentally fell in said pool.
So if anyone is in LA, drop me
a line, and I’d love to hang out,
with or without pirates. Also
out in LA and in what I can only
assume is his iPhone version of
a Tweet, Shing Chi Poon wrote,
“Baby Nicole born in mid
October 2011. Big brother Derek
adjusting to new addition.”
Apparently in competition
with Strom Thurmond and Mr.
Rogers, Teon Edwards this past
summer passed the 15-year mark
at her job. “Despite being at
the same company for so long,
my actual work has changed a
lot over the years. Currently it
largely involves designing and
researching games that engage
the players in science learning
and that they want to play in
their free time. A task that is
both very fun and very hard. Jen
(Nicholson) and Jon Todd, along
with their daughter Julia moved
to Newton, Mass., recently,
so we’ve been able to see each
other much more often. The J’s,
plus Sarah Calvo, Alexia Rosoff,
Jim Wilber and I met recently
for an (almost) annual holiday
gathering. As I’m sure all the
parents out there know, but
something new to this ‘Auntie,’
watching a 4-year-old decorate
a Christmas tree is a truly great
experience! Along with many
others in the Northeast, I’ve had
more than a few blackout days
this past fall, between Irene, the
‘hurricane, that wasn’t’ but that
still knocked out my power for
three days and flooded so many
areas, and the freak October
snowstorm, which took down
my power for another two days,
plus several more during the following
week for ongoing repairs.
I actually kind of enjoyed them. I
hope both were fun in our purple
mountain valley!”
Hanna (Kelly) Sanoff liked my
Katy Perry reference (so there).
“My news is definitely not of the
‘earth shattering’ variety. Still
living in Charlottesville, working
at UVA, trying to make some
headway against cancer. I think
my favorite thing here is our
Friday night ‘girl parties’ with
my 3-year-old daughters and
one of our favorite people: Kate
Paxton. Girl parties feature ‘girl
wine,’ wine, cheese, dancing and
general ridiculousness. Lest anyone
think girl parties are exclusionary—my
husband is invited
too—we just rename them wine
and cheese dance parties those
days so he doesn’t feel left out (or
have to wear a party dress, which
he just plain refuses to do!).”
Also living in the Southeast
region, Brad Wasserman and his
partner Scott Graves met up with
Tracy (Weir) Marek, her husband
David and their daughter Maria