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CONCORD ACADEMY MAGAZINE SPRING 2008Cullen Curtiss ’85 and her son Gushiking in Spain’s Catalan Pyreneesof architecture program in September.”Lisa Hall says all is well in Maine:daughter Matilda is 5 and in kindergarten,so Lisa now “has to relearn howto work a full day.” Her jewelry businessis great (I have seen her work to confirmthat!) and gives her an opportunity to goto Florida for a month of jewelry showsand sun. Julia Hubbard reports: “Billand I are still living at the far eastern endof Long Island, taking on the real estatecraziness of the Hamptons. I am designinggardens for Hamptons’ homes, andBill is doing some beautiful houses. Thekids are great — Harlan is 7; Lucy is 5and starts kindergarten next fall. Ournew addition is a Cairn terrier namedBear, and I have become a crazy dogperson.” Julia invites anyone who wouldlike to come to the beach to visit.Dereck Jones had quite a year, welcomingtheir fourth child Sophie in June.With their expanding family, they movedinto a new house in January that theystarted building in November 2006.Dereck realized one of his dreams, withthe delivery of his own Steinway grandpiano. It is a 1914 ebony Steinway O,completely refurbished. Dereck looksforward to pursuing his quest to masterall four Chopin ballads. Go Dereck!Matt Laurence has also had quite ayear. He won his second MassachusettsInteractive Technology Exchangeaward and first WedAward. His wifeMaryHelen Gunn Laurence ’87 is in herfifth and final year of school, and theirdaughter SophiaRose turned 2 inFebruary. The family moved to a beautifulhouse in Jamaica Plain, Boston. Mattnotes anticipation for the election seasonwith hopes of good things to come!72Left: Sarah Zelda Mehl, daughter ofJill Conway Mehl ’85 and Marc.Right: Greta Leigh Conway, daughterof Ben Conway ’91 and Anikke.Anne Maffei’s year was another remarkableone. In February she married awonderful man named John Eaton. InJune, she was promoted to presidentand CEO of her firm, Vista Research,and “best of all,” on October 29 gavebirth to their son, John Harold Eaton III,or Jack. Way to go Anne! Anne alsoreflected on a very sad piece of 2007,which was that Sarah Block passedaway on March 14. The class feelsSarah’s absence. Jennifer RussellMahoney writes: “Life continues to begreat up here in Maine, still living inFalmouth, with lots of running aroundwith kids. I spent a great weekend inNYC with Martha Leggat and our twodaughters, Katherine and Lucy, who aregood pals.” Jill Conway Mehl reportsthe exciting arrival of their first child, onNovember 27, 2007. “Her name is SarahZelda Mehl, and she is pure delight,sleeping well and checking us all out,starting to smile and coo, and evenscoot like she’s getting ready to crawl.”Jill says that everything in her worldrevolves around being a mom. They’respending the rest of the winter in theirhome in Florida and will return in thespring to enjoy NYC. Anne Pfitzerwrites: “I am living in Ethiopia with myhusband Emil and two sons, Andre andTheo.” She still works for JHPIEGO [aJohns Hopkins global health organization],where she is country director for alarge HIV program as well as programmingto improve maternal and newbornhealth. “We work with the Ministry ofHealth and universities to improve thequality of services directly, or indirectlythrough education of the next generationof health care workers.” While thework is fascinating and keeps her busy,“the lack of infrastructure and precolonialbureaucracy can drive one crazy.”Anne does some travel within Indonesia,and has also been to Kenya for additionalbeach time. Lucienne SpaldingSchroepfer says her son Otto is “8going on 16 and a fun and charismatichandful.” Her daughters, now 4, “playpretend nonstop with Otto’s old actionfigures. Superman loves to go to thegrocery, Batman has a baby.” Lucy stillworks out of the neighbor’s garage,often not going out for days at a time. Inher spare time, Lucy explores Japanesequilting and sewing. Twice a month she“puts on her black suit and venturesto another city to meet with a nonprofitclient.” Lucy finds Dallas, Houston,Tampa, Atlanta, and LA all very welcometrips in the middle of winter. LauraSafran Shepard is still living inMosman, NSW, Australia, but anticipatesa new assignment by July or so.“Australia has been absolutely fabulous.We just returned from a month-long tripthrough Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia(try getting that much time off inAmerica) and had many exciting familyadventures. We ate boiled silkwormsand roasted water snake, rode elephantsthrough the gates of Angkor Wat, spenta night in a junk boat on Halong Bay, andfed sticky rice to saffron-robed monks atsunrise. Definitely memories for a lifetime.”Tracy Slater, a freelance writer,lives half the year in Osaka, Japan,where her husband and his family arefrom and where he works. “The rest ofthe year I live in Boston, where I teachwriting, literature, and gender studies onBU’s main campus and in their collegebehind-barsprogram at medium-securityprisons around the state. I also run theliterary series Four Stories, which holdsmonthly events in Boston, Osaka, andTokyo.” Tracy got together last year withKate Stoia, Fernanda Moore, TimPryor ’86, Jen Fallon ’87, Chris Baker’86, Sarah Koenig ’86, and AntoniaKoenig ’84. And finally, I, MarthaLeggat, continue to enjoy life in Mainewith my husband Steve and our crew ofkids, Katherine, 8, Elias, 5, and Tommy,2. Life feels full between our differentpersonal, professional, and outdoor pursuits,and we feel fortunate that thepace of life in Maine gives us time tosavor life’s small pleasures. Thanks to allof you who wrote. My best to everyone!1986Class Secretaries: Madeleine R. Blanz-Mayo, madeleineblanz@aurean.com;Melanie Campbell, otters@rcn.com;Julia B. Foster, juliadance@aol.comMadeleine Blanz-Mayo and her familymoved to Bow, NH, last summer, wherethey are thrilled to be living in a nonantiquehome for the first time in 12years! The kids (Cameron, 10, Bryn, 8,Alistair, 7) were troopers for the wholeprocess and are embracing the newschool and sports opportunities withenthusiasm. Madeleine took her work asan independent representative forSilpada with her, and her husband’scareer took an unexpected and excitingturn in March with a new job. MollyCallender writes that “my husband andI have just about completed a 9-monthrenovation of a meandering Craftsmanhouse in the Los Feliz neighborhood ofLA. (I am almost done obsessing aboutarchitectural salvage and sleek Germanrefrigerators.) I am also still on staff as aproject specialist at the Getty. And thereare kids: Finn, who will be 5 in June,and Maeve, who turned 2 in October.We spent a week in NY where we sawmy ridiculously talented and delightfulsister Brett Lally ’90 and a bunch ofother old friends. Longer voyages areplanned for summer, in honor of my40th year.” This past winter, MelanieCampbell created a database of localsummer camps for families living in herarea: “no mean feat considering that Icreated it in the moments when I wasn’tchasing Emma (she’s 2) around thehouse. Having spent years watching myson’s martial arts class, I started studyingkung fu, and I love it.” RandellDrane has started a new job at a startupdoing warehouse automation. JessicaPutz Farrelly writes: “My volunteerismat school has evolved into subbing regularly,mostly K-1-2. My wellness teamwork has evolved into an after-schoolcooking club. I’ve had a few CA contacts.Elissa Meyers Middleton and herhusband Clark showed up on Vinalhavenlast summer! That was really fun, butway too short. I had a pleasant lunchwith Sarah Huntoon ’84; again, tooshort. Eliza Vaillant, Meredith StrawnSudborough, and I pulled off a secondannual Columbus Day weekendtogether. Truly a good time! Anytimeanyone comes to Vinalhaven, please docall. We’ll pack a picnic and hit thebeach.” Eden Parker Grace wrote fromNairobi, where she and her family havebeen displaced following the violence inKisumu, their hometown in the west ofthe country. She is helping coordinate aQuaker response to the humanitarianneeds and longterm issues exposed inthe post-election crisis in Kenya. Folkscan support her work at fum.org. Inaddition to coping with the Kenyan situation,Eden and her family also lost theirhome in Maine to a fire in late August.Jim spent three months apart from Edenand the boys, dealing with the insuranceclaim. Despite these difficulties, Eden,Jim, Isaiah, and Jesse continue to thankGod for their lives and their work, and