Wake Forest Magazine, December 2004 - Past Issues - Wake Forest ...

The Casa Artom group in 1974 (left) and at their reunion in October 2004.
We knew and appreciated our opportunity as a
part of that group. Tom McInteer (’76), an actuary in
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, remembered, “I have never
felt so integrated and part of a group. My Venice experience
took a rather unremarkable college experience and
turned it into something wonderful.” Kiser, professor
of human services at Elon University, said, “The level of
cohesion within the group and the fun we had traveling
together and living together far exceeded my expectations,”
a credit to the guidance of Phil Perricone. “It was
a special group that bonded more than other groups,”
Perricone recalled.
We still remember and are touched by Venice ’74.
Every year when I teach about the Italian Renaissance,
my sixth-grade students wonder why my eyes become
misty for a moment as memories of that year intercept
my instruction. We were a part of magic there. Craig
Smith (’75), like many others in the group, returned to
Venice years later. He said as they approached Venice
by boat his friends noticed tears in his eyes and asked
why he was crying. “I replied that seeing how beautiful
Venice is, I could not believe I had let twenty-five years
of my life pass without coming back. I vowed to
rearrange my priorities, and have been back to Venice
2001
Laura O’Connor Bayzle is a marketing
product manager at BB&T in Winston-
Salem.
Rebecca W. Todd Bell is attending
medical school in Memphis, TN.
Erin Arrington Butler received her
master’s in English education from the
University of Georgia. She is teaching
English to sixth-graders at Alexander
Graham Middle School in Charlotte.
David Dorsey (MBA/MD) manages
a health care/biotechnology portfolio at
an asset management firm in New York.
Tisha Fowler received her master’s of
social work from the University of Michigan
and is a Presidential Management Fellow
with the National Cancer Institute. She
plans to attend the University of Texas-
Houston to begin doctoral studies in
public health.
two more times.” Keith Sherman and Karen Grove (’76)
met on the Venice ’74 trip, married, and three children
later recently celebrated their twenty- fifth anniversary
in—where else?—Venice.
Thirty years later, on October 16, 2004, we gathered
in the Magnolia Room to look back and remember. We
remembered the first communist rally, Eurailpasses, a
lost passport, a night spent together in a “haunted”
youth hostel castle, a tree marked “WFU” in the Vienna
woods, the Cinderella-style castle and gulashsuppe
in Austria, Tito’s revenge, pigeons, gnocchi, and a late
night swim in the Grande Canal (much to Phil’s consternation)!
Our Venice friends and experiences still
touch our hearts.
The Venice ’74 group voted to start a scholarship
fund to help with air travel expenses for a deserving
Wake Forest student to study in Venice.
We look back with gratitude, and with the next generation
of Wake Forest-in-Venice-graduates we lift our
glasses and sing,
“Here’s to Wake Forest, a glass of the finest…Italian
vino filled up to the brim!”
To WFU! To Casa Artom! To Venezia!
Pamela Gray-Faude (MBA) is a vice president
and senior information technology
leader at Wachovia Corp. in Winston-Salem.
Theravan Jarrett II received his MA
in international relations from Waseda
University in Tokyo, Japan. He is with
Lanier Worldwide Inc. in the Dallas/Fort
Worth area.
TIM MCINTEER
C L A S S N O T E S
www.wfu.edu/alumni DECEMBER 2004 33