Class Notes

C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y M A G A Z I N E S P R I N G 2 0 1 0Chambliss Giobbi ’82, with his wife Laine and children Valentino and Gigi,exploring Central Park last summerquite ready for Led Zeppelin. She’s livingin MA and would love to see and hearfrom more CA alums in 2010. DavidSwaebe is happy to have survived 2009and feels badly for those who sufferedfinancial hardship. His professional highlightwas the move of his company, theamazing Mullen Advertising, from amanor house in Wenham, MA to hisfather’s old office building on BroadStreet in downtown Boston. David is incharge of business development, publicity,social media, and community relations.He has been participating in asocial justice program called LeadBoston, which has been both enlighteningand psychologically challenging. Heand his (very cool) wife Connie have twoboys, Dylan, 15, and Carter, 13. David islooking forward to an upcoming 25threunion with the McGill Redmen basketballteam, which won the Quebec championshipin 1985 and went to theCanadian National Tournament. All is wellwith Deborah Bernat in Boston. She isselling real estate with Hammond Residentialand is keeping very busy (probablyan understatement given that hermother miraculously survived a rupturedbrain aneurysm last July). Debbie reportsthat her mom is recovering beautifullyand that the family is celebrating the miracle.David Greene is working hard onhis new venture, Greene Means Go Consulting,but is also on the staff of petconnection.com,writing two columns aweek for their blog (more when themood strikes). His pet-related newsroundups appear on Mondays and Thursdays,while his wife’s first full-length studioand live album, Sweet Ride, wasreleased in September. He noted that64the summer of 2009 probably wasn’t thebest time to become entrepreneurial forthe first time, with a tanking economyand pressing finances, but he had tostart some time. He has since learned allabout paperwork, bidding, contracts, andinvoicing. The gray hair is advancing atgreat speed, making him an officialentrepreneur. Nadia Belash McKay runsthe Boston region for Mom Corps,where she serves a wide range of companies,matching their nontraditionalstaffing needs with top-tier talent. She isa frequent speaker at educational forumsand working mother networking groupsand has appeared on cable TV, speakingon topics such as returning to the workplaceduring a difficult economic climate.She also moderated a panel on work/lifebalance at this year’s MassachusettsConference for Women. Nadia, her husbandJim, and two sons Henry, 9, andOllie, 6, traveled to Paris for April vacationto celebrate Jim’s 50th birthday,their 10th wedding anniversary, and theboys’ hard work in their French immersionprogram at Glover School in Milton.Cynthia Gorey reports that her familybought a townhome in Sunapee, NH in agreat lakefront community called Granliden.They are a few minutes from MtSunapee, and the whole family loves theskiing and water access. Her children,Liam (7th grade), Catherine (5th), andBrian (2nd) are healthy and busy andlooking forward to creating many happymemories there. Cynthia’s husbandSteven left Lehman Brothers for a newjob at a private equity real estate fund inNew York. Cynthia still leads the NewCanaan Community Foundation, whichtook over the work of the local UnitedWay in 2009 in their CT town. CalvinGreen chimed in from his home inQueens. He’s been dealing with adversity,but finding faith and resilience afterhaving lost his eyesight a few yearsback. He is a true NYer at heart—misseshis independence to ride the subwayalone, but has made progress relearningthe skills we take for granted. Calvinfeels he still hasn’t opened all the doorsof his learning experience from his yearsat CA. He realizes there is a balancebetween what he is going through nowand his CA life and would love to hearfrom people. It was great speaking withCalvin and learning more about his upsand downs—he certainly has had astruggle, but also has a very positive outlook.He’s limited to phone contact, soplease ping me for his cell phone number.Tara O’Brien Pride took her familyon a marvelous tour of the Andean highlandsand Galapagos Islands of Ecuadorthis past summer. They also visited thePanama hat factory. Yes, Panama hatsare made in Ecuador and always havebeen; the name stemmed from stampson the shipping crates. For those of youwho relish trivia—thank Tara. TimBergreen is still my favorite for politicalcontent and creative rants. He is stillworking in DC as chief of staff for a Californiacongressman and reports nonews. “As John Lennon said, I’m justsitting here watching the wheels goround and round.” Don’t believe him fora second. David Kukla, our esteemedex-class president, has nothing but theminutiae of daily life to share, and occasionallywonders what the job of kittenherder would really be like and what theuniform would look like? Let’s hopethere are epaulets! He was thrilled tohear that Laura Newbern won the 2010Kore Press First Book Award. “Woot. GoLaura go!” Laura Newbern is at GeorgiaCollege. In the last four years, she haspublished poems in Poetry, Black WarriorReview, Stand (U.K.), the Best NewPoets anthology, and elsewhere. Lastsummer she was invited to read in theWord-for-Word poetry series at BryantPark. Kudos to Laura on the Kore Award—it’s a major accomplishment. SusanArmstrong Mueller and her husbandPeter have hit two big milestones thisyear. Their eldest son Tyler graduatesfrom high school and will be attendingLehigh University in the fall. He will berunning cross-country and track and fieldwhile studying bioengineering. Theiryoungest son, Nathan, is a sophomore inhigh school and just got his driver’slicense. These milestones mean they arefeeling very old. Sue also indicated thather healthcare IT consulting businesshas been very busy while her husband isstill working for Siemens. They alsoenjoy playing tennis in their spare time.Helen Bird Guidotti is still in Coloradowith her husband Tim, who is playingmusic in Telluride while Helen is wishingit were a bit warmer. Their two labs,Noah and Puja, love the snow. As Helenso aptly put it, they get to “hike all overcreation.” She is still in touch with SusanArmstrong Mueller and enjoyed theflashbacks as Susan took her eldest ontheir college road trips. Abigail Fisherwrapped up 2009 by chanting Torah infront of 3,000 people at the Union forReform Judaism and Women of ReformJudaism joint biennial assembly inToronto in November. Next fall, she willbe installed as president of Women ofReform Judaism’s northeast district. Thisspring she will receive her master’s inJewish studies from Hebrew College,where she focused on the Jewish ethicsof public health care spending. In her“spare” time, she’s raising her two children—Jamieis a junior year at BelmontHigh, and Valerie is in 7th grade atBeaver Country Day. As if this were notenough, Abby is also finding the time toplay bassoon in a trio, a duo, and anoctet, as well as some solo work. CarolMallard and David Kaufman deservesome special recognition. They starteddating senior year and actually got marriedin 1986—so for high school sweetheartsand CA love stories they willactually be married 26 years at our 30threunion! They say it all seems like yesterday.2009 was a year of changes andshuffled responsibilities/schedules, asDavid joined a small health care softwareconsultancy, while Carol ramped up hermusic teaching at a small private highschool in downtown Boston. Carol isalso singing in choruses with the Handeland Haydn Society as well as recording anew opera with the Acting Singers Project.David completed hiking the 48peaks over 4,000 feet in the WhiteMountains of NH this summer (slacker!).Their son Nathan is a 6th grader at LexingtonMontessori, where he is thriving.Their daughter Miriam is in the specialeducation program for children on theautism spectrum in the public schools.She enjoys her piano lessons and singsall day long. Andrew Kripke is enjoyingmarried life in CT while working in NYC.He has two growing daughters whom headores. Sung Kim is working on his PhDin management information systems atthe University of Oklahoma—he’s finishinghis course work this semester andwill be preparing for his comprehensiveexams. He’d be happy to hear from CAfriends. Chambliss Giobbi lives in NYwith his wife Laine and children,Valentino, 7, and Gigi, 5. I, for one, losttouch with Cham and asked him for aquick rundown. After getting his BA fromBoston University in music composition,Cham moved to NY, where he wrotemusic and became a high-endwelder/fabricator as well. About ten