April 2012 - Alumni News - Williams College

CLASS NOTES
2000
Jon Pearson
129 Franklin St., Apt. 218
Cambridge, MA 02139
2000secretary@williams.edu
Despite the fact that you’re
likely reading this in early spring,
I’m going to start this edition by
wishing all of you a Happy New
Year, because as I type this up on
a cold day in January it still very
much feels like the new year to
me. One of my resolutions this
year is to start submitting my
notes on time (the editors will
believe it when they see it), so
let’s get on with the show:
Steve Kim and his wife Susie
moved to Atlanta in summer
2010 and are enjoying the
Southern life. He’s in practice as
an orthopedic surgeon and finds
it very gratifying. He is also, by
the way, extremely generous
about giving medical advice to
friends on request. Steve and
Susie are the proud parents of a
beautiful little girl, Brynn Susanne
Kim, born June 28, 2011. Steve
says, “She’s definitely Daddy’s
little girl, and life has definitely
not been the same since.”
Melissa (Vecchio) ’01 and Don
Wood welcomed Tyler Franklin
Wood on Aug. 9, 2011. Vitals on
Tyler: 7 pounds, 7 ounces and,
according to his dad, very smiley
and pleasant. As luck would have
it, Tyler shares the same birthday
as his big brother Cameron; the
birthday parties will be wild
affairs. On the day he wrote his
update, Don had Robert and Jess
Adamo ’01 over to watch the
Giants game. Don continues to
work at Campbell’s Soup and
was eagerly anticipating a brand
switch to V8 Splash and some
work on the company’s Hispanic
beverage efforts.
Will Darrin and his wife Tracy
made a lot of big changes last
year. First and foremost was the
birth of their first child, daughter
Autumn Marie, born right on
her due date of Nov. 7. I was
fortunate enough to visit Autumn
in the hospital a day later and can
attest that, despite looking very
much like her father, the child is
beautiful. The second big change
for the Darrins was their move
from Boston to Marblehead,
Mass., last summer. They took
advantage of their new abode by
hosting Matt Levy, Anna Frantz,
Steve Roman, Becky Iwantsch and
me for a delightful New Year’s
Eve soiree.
If you’re not friends with Torie
Gorges on Facebook, you’re
94 | Williams PeoPle | aPril 2012
missing one of the funniest,
most honest accounts out there
of what it’s like to be the parent
of young twins. Torie, Todd,
Andrew and Molly made a big
move cross-country in October;
they are now living in Northern
Virginia, just a bit outside of
DC. Torie works with SRI as an
education researcher. “Things
are going well in our new
home, and we’re getting used to
winter again after many years
in California. I do not, for the
record, highly recommend moving
with one-and-a-half year-old
twins, but I DO recommend
the fantastic cooking of our
new sort-of neighbor, Cristina
Santiestevan, who kept us fed
for a week while we awaited the
arrival of our moving truck.” If
you live in the area, Torie would
love to get together with you.
Jennifer Kingsley started working
at Johns Hopkins University
in a new academic program
called Museums and Society.
She assures us that “if it’s not
obvious to you what that means,
you’re not alone—defining how
we are not really museum studies
is about a quarter of my job.”
Working in Baltimore means
that Jen finally gets to live with
her husband after three years
of bouncing from university to
university. She adds: “Two-body
problem, I am glad to see the
back of you at least for the next
three years, ’til the grant runs
out...”
Raph Rosen knows what his
class secretary likes: “I just saw
a cool ferromagnetic sculpture
at the New York Hall of
Science. I thought that was pretty
noteworthy.” Dan Mason takes a
page from Raph’s book with his
update: “Nothing’s really new
except that we bought a minivan,
which we call the Silver Bullet.
The irony is not lost on us.”
At the time of this writing, Paul
and Allison (Jacobs) Friedmann
and their daughter Maya had
just returned from a holiday trip
to Philadelphia to see family.
While they were there, Paul spent
some time with JA Anne Pitts
Londergan ’98 and her husband
Casey Londergan ’97 and their
two kids. Anne asked after former
Sage A-ers and was curious
how everyone was doing. The
Friedmanns see my former colleague
Andrew Cloutier as well as
Andrew Speck and Emily Simpson
Speck fairly regularly. Paul
writes, “Clouts and I recently ate
an absurd amount of junk food
at Five Guys, where I shamefully
must say I was the worse
imbiber.” On occasion, Allison
and Paul also get to see Lauren
Krisko Sweatman and her brood,
and the couple continues to work
hard teaching at Brooke Charter
School in Roslindale, Mass., and
tell me that the excellent results
their kids have posted over the
past few years is the payoff for a
lot of hard work.
Lauren (Siegel) Applebaum
wishes you all a Happy New
Year, and what a happy new year
it is for her, with son Micah Zev
having arrived on Dec. 22. As I
read Lauren’s email, I thought
to myself that I’ve loved writing
class notes for almost a decade
because of stuff like this: “We are
all doing really well, including
big sister Liora. But does anyone
actually admit it if their older kid
is being a pill about it?” She adds
that the family is enjoying life in
Santa Monica. Mike Hickey wrote
about the arrival of his daughter,
Rory, news of which appeared
in the last class notes. I mention
it again because, well, why not,
and also because Mike was
kind enough this time to attach
a picture of the little one, who
is about as cute as they come.
Wrapping up the baby announcements
this time are Phil Groth
and Abbey Eisenhower ’01, who
welcomed Henry Eisenhower
Groth into the world on Oct. 3.
Elise (Estes) Morgan had a
“wonderful” dinner over the
holidays with Becca Parkinson
and Ann Brophy. Becca is the
godmother of Elise’s daughter
Emily, and Ann is the godmother
of her son Erik. This reminds me
that none of my Williams friends
have yet trusted me with godparenting
responsibilities, which
speaks to the wisdom of our
classmates. Little Emily enjoyed
a taste of skiing at Sugarloaf over
the holidays, “especially riding
the chair lift.” Elise also revealed
an exciting upcoming MLE that
I cannot mention if I wish to
avoid the considerable wrath of
my humorless, MLE-embargoing
editors. Whom I love. They’re
the best. Seriously.
Ruko Takeuchi Senseney has
taken advantage of social media
to reconnect with some former
classmates. Facebook allowed
her to reach out to friends in
San Francisco when she visited
with her two-year-old son Tyson,
which resulted in a long brunch
with Malana Willis and Sunshine
Wu ’99. LinkedIn helped Ruko
reconnect with her freshman-year
roommate Molly (Cummins) Scott,
and they managed to exchange
holiday cards this year. “So nice