April 2012 - Alumni News - Williams College

1998
Andrea Stanton
734 St. Paul St.
Denver, CO 80206
1998secretary@williams.edu
Hello, all, and happy 2012
from Denver! Several 1998ers
wrote in with news about how
they finished 2011 or are starting
2012—lots of great stuff all
around, including a few first-time
updates. I’m going to try another
regional division, so…
Starting off on the East Coast,
Andrew Fagenholz writes that
daughter Ruby arrived in
October, joining older sister
Viola, 2. They live in Boston,
and Andrew describes himself as:
“Slogging away at a mega law
firm as of this writing, so work
and family occupy all hours.”
He notes that Evan Hornbuckle
’99 was his “go-to tennis partner
on the local public court” but
that Evan recently moved away.
If you’re in Boston and like
tennis, you might get in touch
with Andrew. Diana Villamarin
writes from Connecticut that
she married Carl Solazzo on
Nov. 21. The newlyweds spent
the holidays with her family,
including Anamaria Villamarin
’95 and Tim Lupin ’93, where she
was also able to spend time with
goddaughter Isabella Tarantino
(daughter of Ken Tarantino ’97).
Back in Boston again, Peter
Robinson writes that he, wife
Liz and daughter Millie had
a great year. “We managed to
meet up with Aaron Kammerer
and his family regularly,” he
writes, “most recently for my
birthday, where we made a
hasty retreat from the restaurant
because, well … our kids are 2
years old.” They also ran into
Whit Growdon, whose children
attend the same nursery school.
Family adventures included
putting Millie on skis (a hit!)
and ice skates (deemed “scary”),
while Pete joined the board of
a local charity, CYCLEKids,
“which is fighting childhood
obesity through putting bike and
nutritional programs into urban
schools.” Meanwhile, he adds,
“I am happy to report that my
company has officially matured
out of the toddler stage.” Lauren
(Guth) Barnes writes that she and
husband Tony are doing well, and
that daughter Ariadne, 7 months,
is “crawling and pulling up on
anything she can get her hands
on,” which Lauren describes as
“both thrilling and terrifying.”
They recently spent a weekend
in Washington, where Lauren
was sworn in to the Supreme
Court Bar and heard oral
arguments for a case involving
the EPA. “Ariadne was a star
throughout,” she notes, adding:
“Like her dad, she can fall asleep
before the plane takes off and
not wake up until it lands.”
Lauren also notes that she and
Tony will be sad to say goodbye
to Abby (Fisher) Williamson and
family this summer, when they
move to Hartford for Abby’s
newly-accepted position as assistant
professor of political science
and public policy at Trinity
College. “We’re sad to see them
leave Boston,” she says, “but
we’re thrilled for her.”
Writing from our nation’s
capital, Rob Watkins notes that
he and his wife welcomed a
son, Aire Furio, in late July. Sam
Young writes that he attended the
Iceland Airwaves Music Festival
in October, a few days after running
the Army Ten Miler—“my
first big distance race,” he
notes. Sam adds: “I’m training
for the Rock ‘n’ Roll USA
Half Marathon in March and
taking a class on the taxation of
financial instruments”—which he
describes as a conversation ender.
Micaela Coady writes from New
York that she and Kate (Genung)
Taylor and their families enjoyed
a “lovely” dinner at the Taylors’
over the holidays. “Kate’s two
daughters as well as my daughter
were luckily asleep,” she says,
“so the four of us could really
live it up.” They’re planning
another “somewhere on the
East Coast get-together” with
Liz (Mills) and Chris Little, Britta
(Beenhakker) Mullany, Kai Collins,
Erica Bollerud and Katie Schultz
but note that “our group now
includes over a dozen adults and
eight kids, so it’s a challenge to
find a house large enough to hold
us all.” Jonathan (J.O.) Oakman
writes from South Carolina to
say: “All is well in 70-degree
Charleston.” He adds: “The
weather is great for the kids to
play outside, but I do miss snow
and pulling on a heavy coat
every once in a while!”
From the West Coast comes
some of the most interesting
travel news of this update.
Ned Sahin and wife Nicole are
traveling the world for a year
while she works on a book, Ned
“writes up my scientific papers
and grants,” and they work
together on a startup. We look
forward to future updates! Jim
Ying writes that he and his wife
spent Christmas Eve welcoming
n 1997–98
new daughter Harper, who joins
son Miles, 20 months. “She’ll
inevitably be getting those
combined birthday/Christmas
presents,” he writes. After several
years in Seattle, Jim is now in
San Francisco, working at a
social gaming startup. They live
in Millbrae, but he says: “We’ll
probably be headed back up
the coast pretty regularly, since
we have family in the Seattle
area.” Brad Johnston writes that
he spent Thanksgiving at Sally
and Chris Bell’s house, where he
found an Amherst alum among
the guests—although one, he
notes, who brought “delicious”
contributions to the potluck.
Chris in turn adds that he and
Sally have been “expanding my
life-long vegetarian palate by
sampling freshly caught oysters
in, logically, Oysterville, Wash.”
Giving up on the low snow levels
across the U.S., they headed
up to British Columbia for a
week of Nordic and telemark
skiing, which Chris described
as “getting our Norwegian
on.” Finally, Evelyn Spence
has rejoined the ranks of West
Coasters, having returned to
Seattle from Brooklyn. She’s still
traveling, though: “I spent New
Year’s at Mount Rainier with
Honora Englander,” she writes,
“and now I’m off to Mongolia
and South Korea to write about
skiing in Asia!”
Moving overseas: Our woman
in Brazil, Thais Mariz de Oliveira,
writes that she is currently on
maternity leave from her work
as a headhunter with Heidrick
& Struggles, having given birth
to daughter Catarina in October.
Catarina joins son Caique, 4, and
Thais reports that she is “loving
every minute” of her leave.
She adds: “I had a VIP visitor
come in for a quick visit to meet
Catarina: Carlos Arnaiz was
here for a couple of hours with
Nacho (Jose-Ignacio Palma). Even
though it was too quick,” she
says, “it was absolutely amazing
to reunite.” And, she concludes,
she’ll be in Williamstown for
our 15th reunion. Another
1998er abroad is Reed Lindsay,
who is working as a freelance
journalist and documentary filmmaker
in Cairo. After covering
the Egyptian revolution with
partner Jihan Hafiz, “we later
covered the Libyan rebellion and
did a documentary film called
Benghazi Rising.” They returned
to Egypt in October, and Reed
now contributes to the Real
News Network.
I hope that the year ahead
aPril 2012 | Williams PeoPle | 91