Vermont MOVE MOUNTAINS CAMPAIGN KINDLES UVM’S NEXT ERA

Vermont
UNIVERSITY OF
Q U A R T E R LY
MOVE
MOUNTAINS
CAMPAIGN KINDLES UVM’S NEXT ERA
FALL 2015
| PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE
together faculty, students, and 525 of the university’s most stalwart
supporters to celebrate this auspicious moment and consider what
we are and what we can be. At evening’s outset, we were amused
and uplifted by a reading of a rap poem that poet/professor Major
Jackson wrote in honor of the event. Never has a university been
captured so well in verse. We heard student Flore Costume tell us of
her personal journey from Haiti to New York City to UVM. We heard
of the innovative research and teaching of faculty members Lizzie
Pope, Josh Bongard, and Stuart Hart. We heard what a UVM education has meant in the life of Karen Nystrom Meyer, UVM alumna
and a member of the Executive Campaign Council.
The evening also provided the opportunity for direct conversation with the students and faculty who define us—from the Gund
Institute for Ecological Economics to UVM Rescue, the Humanities
Center to our top-flight ski team, the Clinical Simulation Lab to the
new Wellness Environment residential community.
I am pleased that so many of our alumni were able to join us for
these moments of community dialogue and celebration. I hope that
many more will join us along the four-year road ahead as we strive
to reach our goal of $500 million by 2019. I am deeply grateful to the
thousands of alumni, parents, and friends of the university who—
with our current campaign gift total nearing $250 million—have
already brought us nearly halfway home. —Tom Sullivan
A milestone weekend
A tremendous sense of optimism,
pride in our past, and anticipation of our future filled the
University of Vermont campus over the first weekend
in October. While the UVM Reunion and Homecoming
Weekend is a perennial time for celebration, we reached
a new pitch this year as the event was coupled with the
public launch of Move Mountains: The Campaign for the
University of Vermont.
Thursday morning began an unprecedented run of fifteen new UVM gift announcements, a crescendo of giving that would continue across the next two days. Each
gift, in its own individual way, spoke volumes about the
loyalty and generosity of our donors. At the same time,
taken together, they paint a picture of the myriad endeavors of the University of Vermont in 2015 as we build our
future. Medical education, Fleming Museum collections,
LGBTQA Center, Jewish Studies, civil engineering, and
the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural
Resources are just a few of the areas of the university that
will be greatly enhanced by these new gifts. And, in keeping with the core focus of our campaign, these gifts will
all directly benefit the work of our students and faculty.
On Friday afternoon many gathered in the Kalkin
Building courtyard for a milestone moment, the
announcement of the largest individual gift in the history of the university. Steven Grossman, a 1961 graduate, spoke to having some of the best years of his life at
UVM, the lifelong impact of his education, his ethical
2|
V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
commitment to philanthropy, and his excitement at the
direction UVM’s School of Business Administration has
taken under the leadership of Dean Sanjay Sharma. All
combined to inspire a $20 million gift to the school, now
named in his honor—The Grossman School of Business.
Steven Grossman’s gift directly supports our aspiration to position UVM as one of the nation’s top public
research universities: making UVM a talent magnet to
attract the best faculty and students from across the land
to our university. We are profoundly appreciative of the
generosity of this support and what it will do for the University of Vermont.
Fresh from that announcement, my wife, Leslie, and
I stepped into the Davis Center atrium to find the threestory staircase and floor filled with students, staff, faculty,
and alumni. The UVM pep band stirred the excitement
another notch as students, trustees, and alumni joined
me at the podium to make the official announcement of
a $500 million campaign goal. I thought alumnus John
Hilton, chair of the UVM Foundation Board of Directors,
put it very succinctly in context when he said that this
campaign is “not about numbers but about excellence.”
Indeed, while $500 million presents a compelling
goal that we will meet, we must never mistake that goal
for our true objective. With this campaign we are on the
move to rise to the next level of accomplishment, excellence, stature, and consequence.
The day was not done. On Friday evening, we brought
SALLY MCCAY
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VQ
EDITOR
Thomas Weaver
ART DIRECTOR
Elise Whittemore
CLASS NOTES EDITOR
Kathleen Laramee ’00
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Joshua Brown, Sarah Tuff Dunn, Rick Green ’82,
Jay Goyette, Kathleen Laramee ’00, Jon Reidel G’06,
Carolyn Shapiro, Amanda Waite’02 G’04, Jeff Wakefield
PHOTOGRAPHY
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Sally McCay, Ian McHale ’17, Ralf Roletschek,
Stephanie Seguino, Shana Surek
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3
THE GREEN
YOU SHOULD KNOW
going to be the generation most affected
“ We’re
by climate change. We’re not just the leaders of
tomorrow, we need to be leaders today.”
UVM SOPHOMORE GINA FIORILE, whose work on climate education has earned her two
White House invitations in the past seven months. More: go.uvm.edu/gina
SO LONG CBW AND ANGELL HALLS. Central campus transformation launched
this summer. Watch the STEM project progress live: go.uvm.edu/webcam
On August 1, UVM became a tobacco-free campus.
TOP 25
WORLDWIDE:
School of Business cited for family business
expertise, keeping company with the likes
of Harvard, Penn, and Cornell.
NEWS REPORTS
Washington Post, CNN, and The New
York Times were among hundreds
of international news organizations
that reported on UVM research studying climate change and bee habitat.
See page 7.
34
GREEN
& GOLD
SCHOLARS
A record number of Green & Gold Scholars
enrolled with the Class of 2019. The top
students in their Vermont high schools,
they receive full-tuition scholarships.
GROSSMAN School of Business
The largest gift in UVM history, $20 million from Steven
Grossman ’61, highlights the Move Mountains Campaign
launch. See page 22.
Sex Objects
Art history and anthropology students
curate a show for the Fleming that offers
perspectives on gender and sexuality.
More: go.uvm.edu/fleming
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V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
News & Views
SERVICE TREK |
BUILDING BONDS
On a Tuesday morning the week
before fall semester began, eight
new students and their two
upperclassmen leaders got down
to work at a Habitat for Humanity
site in Shelburne.
Freshmen backpacking
the Long Trail is likely the first
image that come to mind when
the subject is UVM TREK. But while
the immersive week-long student
orientation program has its roots in
the wilds of Vermont, Service TREK
has carved out its own distinct
place in the university’s culture
across nearly twenty years.
While a table saw buzzed, nail
guns thumped, and rain poured
outside the roughed-in house
frame, Brenna Foley, an Honors
College student majoring in
Global Studies, says the same
ethos behind Service TREK drew
her to UVM more broadly.
“There was this feeling on
campus that working together
is valued at UVM,” she says. Foley
plans to get involved in service
and human rights work during her
years at the university.
SAVE THE DATE
NCAA Frozen Four.
Tampa, Florida.
April 7-9, 2016.
Why not?
V E R M O N T
ABOVE: BRIAN JENKINS; RIGHT: IAN THOMAS JANSEN-LONNQUIST
Q UA R T E R LY
|
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2 0 1 5
THE GREEN
Bumblebee in a coal mine
ENVIRONMENT |
Washington, D.C., sinking fast
GEOLOGY | New research confirms that the
CLIMATE
SUMMIT
As world leaders
soon gather in Paris
for the 2015 U.N.
Climate Change
Conference, UVM will
be well represented.
Faculty members
Lini Wollenberg,
Asim Zia, Meryl
Richards, and
Jennie Stephens,
together with
student Gina Fiorile,
are among the
voices of expertise
and advocacy
hoping to inspire
action.
6|
land under the Chesapeake Bay is sinking rapidly
and projects that Washington, D.C., could drop
by six or more inches in the next century—adding to the problems of sea-level rise.
This falling land will exacerbate the flooding
that the nation’s capital faces from rising ocean
waters due to a warming climate and melting ice
sheets—accelerating the threat to the region’s
monuments, roads, wildlife refuges, and military
installations.
For sixty years, tide gauges have shown that sea
level in the Chesapeake is rising at twice the global
average rate and faster than elsewhere on the East
Coast. And geologists have hypothesized for several decades that land in this area, pushed up by the
weight of a pre-historic ice sheet to the north, has
been settling back down since the ice melted.
The new study—based on extensive drilling
in the coastal plain of Maryland—confirms this
hypothesis, and provides a firm estimate of how
quickly this drop is happening. Additionally, the
researchers’ detailed field data make clear that the
land sinking around Washington is not primarily
driven by human influence, such as groundwater
withdrawals, but instead is a long-term geologi-
V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
cal process that will continue unabated for tens of
thousands of years, independent from human land
use or climate change.
The new research was conducted by a team of
UVM geologists, the U.S. Geological Survey, and
other institutions.
Lead author of the study is Ben DeJong, who conducted the research as a doctoral student at UVM’s
Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural
Resources with support from the U.S. Geological
Survey.
“Right now is the time to start making preparations,” says DeJong. “Six extra inches of water really
matters in this part of the world,” he says—adding
urgency to the models of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change that project roughly one
to three or more feet of global sea-level rise by 2100
from global warming.
“It’s ironic that the nation’s capital—the place
least responsive to the dangers of climate change—
is sitting in one of the worst spots it could be in
terms of this land subsidence,” says Paul Bierman,
a UVM geologist and the senior author on the new
paper. “Will the Congress just sit there with their
feet getting ever wetter? What’s next, forebulge
denial?”
RALF ROLETSCHEK, WIKIMEDIA
Global warming is putting the squeeze on
bumblebees. In the most comprehensive
study ever conducted of the impacts of climate change on critical pollinators, scientists have discovered that global warming
is rapidly shrinking the area where these
bees are found in both North America and
Europe.
Researchers examined more than
420,000 historical and current records of
many species of bumblebees—and confirm that bumblebees are in steep decline
at a continental scale because of climate
change. The new research is reported in
the journal Science.
This shrinking range is bad news
for more than bees. “Bumblebees pollinate many plants that provide food for
humans and wildlife,” says Leif Richardson, a UVM scientist in the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics and the
Rubenstein School of Environment and
Natural Resources, who helped lead the
new research. “If we don’t stop the decline
in the abundance of bumblebees, we may
well face higher food prices, diminished
varieties, and other troubles.”
With climate change, many species
of animals, including butterflies, have
been observed to expand their territory:
the northern edge of their range marches
toward the North Pole—while the southern edge remains in place. Not so with
bumblebees. The team of fourteen scientists who conducted the new study found
that northern populations of many bumblebee species are staying put—while the
southern range edge is retreating away
from the equator.
“This was a surprise,” says Richardson.
“The bees are losing range on their southern margin and failing to pick up territory
LEFT: ©ISSELEE/DREAMSTIME.COM; RIGHT: IAN MCHALE ’17
at the northern margin—so their habitat
range is shrinking.”
The new study shows that the culprit is not pesticides and it’s not land
use changes—two other major threats
to bumblebee populations and health.
Instead, the research shows clearly that
this “range compression,” as the scientists
call it, tracks with warming temperatures.
The team also found that bumblebees
are shifting to areas of habitat at higher
elevation in response to climate change.
“Moving upslope doesn’t necessarily mean
they’ve lost area there yet,” says UVM’s
Richardson, “but, eventually, they may
simply run out of hill.”
To respond to this problem, the research
team suggests that a dramatic solution be
considered: moving bee populations into
new areas where they might persist. This
“assisted migration” idea has been considered—and controversial—in conservation
biology circles for more than a decade, but
is gaining support as warming continues.
Bottom line, the most important
message of this study is “the need to
halt or reverse climate warming,” says
Richardson.
DUDE,
WHERE’S MY DORM?
As the Class of 2019
arrived on campus, student
Ian McHale shot photos for
the #moveuvm social media
campaign. He couldn’t resist
the chance to get one new
student to pose by the
recently razed ChittendenBuckham-Wills complex.
The venerable “Shoeboxes”
came down this summer,
and work has begun on new
central campus residence
halls slated to open fall 2017.
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| THE GREEN
STUDENT FOCUS |
SIERRA THOMPSON
WORDS OF WISDOM
The second annual
#MoveUVM Giving Day
Challenge raised more than
$80,000 in gifts, unlocking an
additional $100,000 challenge
gift. The effort, largely driven
by social media, took place on
August 28 as UVM’s Class of
2019 and families arrived on
campus. #MoveUVM appealed
to alumni and the broader
university community to
remember their own college
beginnings with a gift in support of student scholarships.
Along with their financial
gifts, donors were invited to
share three words of advice to
the incoming students. Here’s
a glimpse:
Do not procrastinate.
Tell good jokes.
Kindness matters!
PRAY, STUDY, APPRECIATE.
Look within.
Live your life.
Youth is overrated.
Always be courteous.
GET A DOG!
Don’t be shy.
Ask for help!
Visit Red Rocks.
SEEK THE TRUTH.
Study hard, SKI.
Lots of science!
Call your mother.
Give ’em hell!
Love the library.
Shred the gnar.
Breakfast at Mirabelles.
DONA NOBIS PACEM.
Take religion classes.
Read the book.
Be a sponge.
Put the cellphone down.
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V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
Sierra Thompson ’15 was the founding
president of the new Kappa Delta sorority, but
it’s another kind of sisterhood that has also
defined her four years at UVM. In 2012, her
brother Jordan Preavy committed suicide after
being hazed by football teammates in Milton,
Vermont, charting a new course for Thompson,
who originally aspired to plan couples’ weddings.
Today, she’s on track to planning the country’s toughest policies, thanks to her work on
Jordan’s Bill, a piece of legislation triggered by
her brother’s death that clarifies language and
tightens requirements for mandatory reporting
by school officials in bullying and hazing cases.
It was signed into Vermont law on June 15. “It
was a very exciting and meaningful day,” says
Sierra. “Not to say we are done, by any means!”
Up ahead are speaking engagements on
hazing and bullying, along with joining a
Vermont Democratic candidate’s campaign.
This comes after her summer of traveling
everywhere from West Virginia to Hong Kong,
and a year of working as the marketing media
specialist for Carved Solutions.
As she considered her college options,
Thompson initially eyed an out-of-state school,
but when she found that UVM would be the
best financial fit, she chose to see the Green
Mountain State through a new lens. “I initially
had the impression it wouldn’t feel like a new
venture,” admits Thompson, who discovered
“purpose” through Kappa Delta, Jordan’s Bill,
and “incredibly influential” professors.
Proximity to her family, meanwhile, empowered her to take a leading role in the passage
of Jordan’s Bill, a public-eye process that
increased her poise and professionalism. When
she presented the Preavy-Thompson plight to
Professor Catherine Finley Woodruff’s Introduction to Public Affairs class last January, she
galvanized a community. “I was blown away—I
could feel the support,” she says.
Building a better solar panel
PHYSICS | TV screens that roll up. Roofing
tiles that double as solar panels. Sun-powered
cell phone chargers woven into the fabric of
backpacks. A new generation of organic semiconductors may allow these kinds of flexible
electronics to be manufactured at low cost,
says UVM physicist and materials scientist
Madalina Furis.
But the basic science of how to get electrons to move quickly and easily in these
organic materials remains murky.
To help, Furis and a team of UVM materials scientists have invented a new way to
create what they are calling “an electron
superhighway” in one of these materials—a
low-cost blue dye called phthalocyanine—
that promises to allow electrons to flow faster
and farther in organic semiconductors. Their
discovery, reported in the journal Nature Communications, will aid in the hunt for alternatives to traditional silicon-based electronics.
Many of these types of flexible electronic
devices will rely on thin films of organic
materials that catch sunlight and convert the
light into electric current using excited states
in the material called “excitons.” Roughly
speaking, an exciton is a displaced electron
bound together with the hole it left behind.
Increasing the distance these excitons can
diffuse—before they reach a juncture where
they’re broken apart to produce electrical current—is essential to improving the efficiency
of organic semiconductors.
Using a new imaging technique, the UVM
team was able to observe nanoscale defects
and boundaries in the crystal grains in the
thin films of phthalocyanine—roadblocks in
the electron highway. “We have discovered
that we have hills that electrons have to go
over and potholes that they need to avoid,”
Furis explains.
To find these defects, the UVM team—with
support from the National Science Foundation—built a large scanning laser microscope.
The instrument combines a specialized form
of linearly polarized light and photoluminescence to optically probe the molecular structure of the phthalocyanine crystals.
“Marrying these two techniques together is
new; it’s never been reported anywhere,” says
Lane Manning ’08 a doctoral student in Furis’
lab and co-author on the study.
Though the Nature Communications study
focused on just one organic material, phthalocyanine, the new research provides a powerful
way to explore many other types of organic
materials, too—with particular promise for
improved solar cells.
“One of today’s big challenges is how to
make better photovoltaics and solar technologies,” says Furis, who directs UVM’s program
in materials science, “and to do that we need
a deeper understanding of exciton diffusion.
That’s what this research is about.”
JOSHUA BROWN
SALLY MCCAY
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9
| THE GREEN
M E D I A
BRIEFS |
AL GORE TALKS CLIMATE
CHANGE AND HOPE
Usually, climate change activists
use melting ice as a sign of approaching trouble. Not Al Gore.
Speaking to more than a
thousand people—packed into
UVM’s Ira Allen Chapel and watching remotely at Mann Hall—the
former U.S. vice president and
Nobel Peace Prize winner took
the opposite metaphor. “It’s just
one degree of difference between
water and ice,” he said—and the
same is true of markets, he added.
The cost of solar panels, advanced
batteries, and other renewableenergy technologies has reached
a melting point, Gore said, where
they are becoming cheaper than
fossil fuels.
“The difference between ‘more
expensive than’ and ‘cheaper than’
is markets that are frozen up and
markets that are liquid with investments flowing toward the new,
more attractive alternative,” Gore
said on October 6.
And in that fundamental shift
in economics, Gore told his audience, there is cause for hope about
solving the problems of global
warming.
Gore’s lecture at UVM, “The
Climate Crisis and The Case for
Hope,” was hosted by the Burlington-based company Seventh
Generation and the University of
Vermont’s Energy Action Seminar
and Clean Energy Fund.
Read more: go.uvm.edu/gore
10 |
V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
Howard Frank Mosher G’67 published God’s Kingdom, his eleventh
novel, in October. Set in northeastern Vermont in the 1950s, God’s
Kingdom continues the story of the
Kinneson family from Mosher’s bestselling A Stranger in the Kingdom.
Blue eyes & the bottle
GENETICS | People with blue eyes
might have a greater chance of becoming
alcoholics, according to a new study by
UVM genetic researchers.
The work, led by Arvis Sulovari, a
doctoral student in cellular, molecular
and biomedical sciences, and Dawei Li,
assistant professor of microbiology and
molecular genetics, is the first to make a
direct connection between a person’s eye
color and alcohol dependence. The results
of the research, published in the July issue
of the American Journal of Medical Genetics:
Neuropsychiatric Genetics, suggest the hope
of finding the roots of not only alcoholism,
but also many other psychiatric illnesses.
The authors found that primarily European Americans with light-colored eyes—
including green, gray, and brown in the
center—had a higher incidence of alcohol
dependency than those with dark brown
eyes, with the strongest tendency among
blue-eyed individuals. The study outlines
the genetic components that determine
eye color and shows that they line up
along the same chromosome as the genes
related to excessive alcohol use.
But, Li says, “we still don’t know the reason” and more research is needed.
Li has worked with physicians and
scientists throughout the Northeast who
have collaborated to build a clinical and
genetic database of more than 10,000 individuals, mostly African Americans and
European Americans, diagnosed with at
least one psychiatric illness. Many have
multiple diagnoses of diseases, including
depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, as well as addiction and alcohol or
drug dependence.
“These are complex disorders,” he says.
“There are many genes, and there are many
environmental triggers.”
From that extensive database, Li’s and
Sulovari’s study filtered out the alcoholdependent patients with European ancestry. After Sulovari noticed the eye-color
connection, they retested their analysis
three times, arranging and rearranging
the groups to compare age, gender, and different ethnic or geographic backgrounds,
such as southern and northern parts of the
continent.
Next, Li wants to delve deeper into the
relationship between cultural background
and genetic makeup, continuing his quest
to find the mechanisms of mental illness.
His greatest challenge: All the genes identified in the past twenty years “can only
explain a small percentage of the genetics part that has been suggested,” he says.
“A large number is still missing, is still
unknown.”
Li’s project with Sulovari has provided
a significant stepping-stone, he says.
“What has fascinated me the most about
this work has been investigating the interface between statistics, informatics, and
biology,” says Sulovari. “It’s an incredible
opportunity to study genomics in the context of complex human diseases.”
RIGHT: CHERYL GERBER
Children of Katrina
The vulnerability of children was starkly
apparent in Hurricane Katrina, the most
disruptive and destructive disaster in modern U.S. history.
A dozen children and youth in Louisiana perished in the disaster. An untold
number of children lost loved ones, were
orphaned or left homeless. More than
370,000 school-age children were displaced immediately following Katrina,
while 160,000 remained dislocated for
years.
A new book, Children of Katrina (University of Texas Press), coauthored by sociology professor Alice Fothergill, is the first
multi-year sociological study of children
after a disaster. Fothergill and co-author
Lori Peek, of Colorado State University,
spent seven years after the hurricane
interviewing and observing several hundred children and their family members,
friends, neighbors, teachers, and other
caregivers.
The book focuses intimately on seven
children between the ages of three and
eighteen, selected because they exemplify
the varied experiences of the larger group.
Authors Alice
Fothergill and
Lori Peek in
New Orleans’s
Lower Ninth
Ward.
“We chose to
focus on children
and youth because
there has been so little research done in
this area, and we felt
it was a very important topic,” Fothergill
says. “We also knew there were misconceptions about children and disasters.”
Among the misconceptions: children
are super-resilient, “like rubber balls, they
just bounce back”; or the opposite, that
they are “helpless victims” with no capacity to help themselves or others.
Drawing on what they learned, Fothergill and Peek clarify what kinds of assistance children need during emergency
response and recovery periods, as well as
the individual, familial, social, structural
factors that aid or hinder children in getting that support.
“We know there are going to be more
disasters, more intense storms,” Fothergill
says. “So it becomes particularly important to look at what led to positive outcomes and consider how we can make sure
those things happen in the future.”
Sylvia Parker, senior lecturer of music theory and piano, has recorded
Bela Bartok’s piano harmonizations of folk songs that the famed
Hungarian composer collected in
the eastern European countryside.
Parker’s two-CD set, Peasant Jewels,
was released by Centaur Records
in May. It is the first time all 152 of
the pieces have been featured in a
single album.
Daniel Lusk, poet and senior lecturer emeritus in English, released
The Vermeer Suite in September. The
collection features eighteen original
poems with full-color images of the
eighteen masterpieces by Johannes
Vermeer that inspired them. Based
on the work of eminent art historians and his own, first-hand observations of these beloved paintings, his
imaginative poetry offers admirers
of Vermeer a bridge between the
analysis and insights of scholars
and their own direct experience of
contemplating these intimate and
timeless works.
Alumni couple Jules ’62 and Effin
Lawes Older ’64 recently released
their e-book Take Me Home: How
to Rent or Buy in a Hot Home Market
on Amazon and other platforms.
The Olders share wisdom from their
experience “hacking through the
housing wilderness” in New York,
New Zealand, and San Francisco.
|
ALTERNATIVE
PERSPECTIVES
Most UVM alumni know Stephanie
Seguino as a professor of economics focused on issues of inequality
by class, race, and gender. But she
is also a committed and talented
photographer who explores those
same issues through the lens of
her camera. “Radical Empathy,”
Seguino’s exhibit on display this
summer at Burlington’s Flynndog
Gallery, was a timely exploration
of black men’s images and the
bias that viewers may bring to
their perception.
Depending on whether the
individual is photographed from
in front or behind can create a
very different reaction. “The
project is about lifting that racial
veil that obscures the deeper
humanity of black men in our
society,” Seguino says.
Jeffrey, 2015
20” X 30”
Stephanie Seguino
UVM.EDU/VQ |
AUDIO SLIDE SHOW OF
SEGUINO’S EXHIBIT
12 |
V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
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| C ATA M O U N T S P O R T S
UVM.ATHLETICS.COM | THE LATEST NEWS
Beyond Coaching
Alumnus Fred Fayette, heart of the Catamount Nordic program
Spend a morning on Lake
BY | THOMAS WEAVER
PHOTOGRAPH BY |
JOSHUA BROWN
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V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
Champlain visiting Juniper Island aboard
Fred Fayette’s research vessel, the Neptune,
and you’ll learn something from the man at
the helm. Like how sonar works, some of
the curiosities that lie on the bottom of Lake
Champlain, and the date (October 10, 1776)
Benedict Arnold and fleet sailed north past
Juniper to meet the British attack.
It’s a fair bet that a number of UVM’s
top-flight Nordic skiers across the past
four decades have absorbed some of those
same facts from Fayette, a Class of 1969
alumnus of the ski program and longtime volunteer coach with the team. Both
savvy advisor and beloved uncle to skiers
across generations, Fayette is a man with
a lively mind and a warm spirit.
While his ski waxing wisdom may have
helped athletes kick and glide to NCAA
Championships, or split times called out
on a frigid morning along the race course
at Trapp’s served as a valuable gauge of
their efforts, most skiers take away deeper
memories of Fayette.
Fred Fayette’s own career as a Nordic
skier began somewhat reluctantly. When
the South Burlington native enrolled at
UVM, after serving in the U.S. Navy’s Fleet
Air Reconnaissance Squadron, he joined
legendary coach Archie Post’s cross-country team. Fayette would add another sport
when ski coach Bill Stone recruited some
of Post’s fit harriers in the hope of building his Nordic ranks.
Problem was, Fayette really wanted to
ski alpine. A deal was struck. If Fayette and
some of his fellow runners would attend
the pre-season Nordic camp, then they
would also get a tryout for the alpine team.
Smiling at the memory, Fayette recounts
when alpine coach Hermann Muckenschnabl watched him ski down the mountain around gates then, with thick Austrian accent, said, “Well, Fayette, you turn
OK one way.”
With those words, a Catamount Nordic
skier was born.
There’s no sport like cross-country ski
racing for wringing an athlete dry. Fayette and his fellow-convert runners soon
fell in love with it. “That feeling of being
exhausted, but a good exhaustion,” he says.
The bonds built training and racing
lasted long beyond graduation. Mention
the name of an old teammate like Perry
Bland ’71 or Dave Hosmer ’66, and Fayette
will feign a hazy memory of this person of
whom you speak, before cracking a smile
and launching into their virtues. It was
Bland, during his years as UVM Nordic
coach, who first brought Fayette into the
coaching fold. Bland’s pitch, as Fayette
remembers it, centered around road trips
to ski carnivals and the opportunity to
share coffee, donuts, and conversation.
Fayette signed on and has never looked
back. Though there have been offers
through the years to formalize his coaching status beyond volunteer, he declined.
There has always been something else
going on in his life—running the Marble
Island Resort he used to own with his
brother David or the scientific exploration
of the lake he’s conducted aboard the Nep-
tune with his business Juniper Research.
Lake Champlain has always been at the
center of Fayette’s life. As a kid, he remembers wondering what was on the lake’s
bottom; as an adult, he and colleagues used
sonar to map the entire bottom of Champlain. Juniper Island, which Fayette’s
father bought from the U.S. government
for $7,000 in 1956, has long been a gathering spot for the large extended family.
The same MacGyver-like ingenuity that Fayette brought to designing
an underwater camera and other lake
research efforts has guided projects for
UVM Skiing, such as crafting a device to
determine the exact kick zone on a ski or
a hot box to optimize waxing. But when
you speak with Catamount athletes about
Fayette, they seldom want to talk about
technical matters of skiing so much as,
well, the Fredness of Fred.
Knut Nystad ’94, chief of service for the
Norwegian national team, cites Fayette’s
rare gift for being equally adept at storytelling and listening. “Fred is a walking Wikipedia with facts and tidbits about everything
(and nothing) worth discussing,” Nystad
says. “Thanks to his patience it was possible
to have great discussions with us stubborn
foreigners about culture, politics, finance,
economics, and other fun subjects.”
Dave Stewart ’00, a former assistant
with the UVM team and now head Nordic
coach at the University of Denver, recalls
the freewheeling discussions—“always
with an open mind and always forcing
me to question my own ideas”—as he sat
shotgun next to Fayette on the drives to
races. Stewart continues, “I get to talk with
Fred once or twice a year, and he so often
amazes me by recalling some minor personal triumph or special moment from my
years on the team. If we are judged by how
we make others feel, Fred has no equal.”
Fayette’s fans aren’t limited to UVM
skiers. Athletes throughout the Eastern ski
circuit have felt his influence. Last year,
Middlebury College skier Stella Holt created a video that featured Fayette and the
lessons she has drawn from him. (Watch:
go.uvm.edu/fred)
Fayette is generous with his encouragement along a race course, regardless of the
colors the skier is wearing. He recalls a few
years back when the UVM and Dartmouth
women traded off wins in the Eastern Carnivals, then combined to take places one
through six at the NCAA Championships.
Faster competition makes for faster skiers.
“It helps us all in the long run,” Fayette says.
That close Nordic community, which
transcends team, is a large part of what
drives Fayette’s years of volunteer coaching.
He admits to some embarrassment at having a spotlight on his own work, and talks
instead of what his years with UVM Skiing
have brought him. Top of the list: meeting
his wife, Susan, at ski races in Craftsbury.
“It is such a great joy for me,” Fayette
says. “This enriches my life—all the wonderful kids and coaches I’ve been able to
VQ
spend time with.”
WATC H T H E C ATA M O U N T S O N L I N E
CATAMOUNTV.COM FOR HOCKEY
AMERICAEAST.TV FOR ALL OTHER SPORTS
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15
| ALUMNI VOICE
In these Woods
Finding renewal in the borderland
BY | KERSTIN LANGE G’03
ART BY | PEP MONTSERRAT
A cool morning mist raised
goose bumps on my skin when I set out on
the Goethe Trail. I had picked this particular trail because it offered the most direct
access to where I wanted to go, but the
idea of hiking in the footsteps of the great
poet-thinker-naturalist-all-round-genius
certainly added to the appeal of my quest.
Where I wanted to go was the Harzer
Grenzweg, the trail in Germany’s Harz
Mountains that traces the former border
(Grenze) that divided the country for forty
years. For most of that time, this had been
one of the deadliest borders in the world—
a high-security strip cleared of all vegetation and studded with land mines, watch
towers, and booby-trapped fences.
By the time I set foot on the Goethe
Trail in September 2014, the border had
lost its grim purpose and the two Germanys had been reunited for almost
twenty-four years. By now there was a
whole generation of young Germans for
whom the four-decade-long division was
a strange but largely irrelevant chapter in
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V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
history books. Yet here I was, pulled from
my Vermont life by an irresistible longing to hike along the former border. I had
crossed it many times by train and on the
Autobahn, had reveled in my explorations
of eastern Germany (the ‘other’ Germany
for the first half of my life), had made
friends with easterners—and still, this
urge to spend time in the border strip had
only grown stronger.
It was not so much the brutal history of
the border that pulled me, though that had
certainly been on my mind. There was also,
thankfully, an uplifting element to my fascination. Ironically, because humans had
been kept out of the border strip, some
1,200 species of rare plants and animals—
like the peregrine falcon—had found a
refuge there from the relentless pressures
of development and agriculture on both
sides. Almost immediately after the fall of
the Berlin Wall, naturalists from both sides
of the border came together to call for the
creation of a nature preserve in place of
the 900-mile border strip between the two
German states. A seventy-mile stretch of
the resulting Grünes Band (Green Belt)
was now part of the Harz National Park,
which had started out as two separate
national parks in East and West Germany
but had later been combined.
I had been uncertain what to expect of
the forest in the National Park, even outside of the former border strip. On a crosscountry ski excursion some fifteen years
earlier, it had struck me as looking more
like a spruce plantation than a forest: A
legacy of the Harz region’s centuries-long
history of silver, copper, lead, and zinc mining. From the eighteenth-century on, the
largely destroyed native forests had been
replanted with fast-growing spruce rather
than the beech that would have been typical of the region’s mid-elevation. A more
hands-off approach was adopted in the
1870s. I was relieved now to find myself
in a lush, uneven-aged stand of beech and
spruce—a clear sign that ecological processes, rather than human management,
were at work here.
Half an hour later and a few hundred
feet higher in elevation, the trail traversed what looked like a ghost forest—an
expanse of dead spruce. On second glance,
I noticed some clearly alive spruce and
mountain ash saplings. An interpretive
sign explained that this area had been hit
by a bark beetle attack a few years earlier.
In keeping with national park management guidelines, the spruce stand had
been left to its own devices. The saplings
hinted at a future forest much more typical of this elevation—ecological succession was indeed unfolding.
From my trail map, I knew I had to be
close to the Grenzweg now. And indeed,
the trail was now palpably changing
under my feet. Early on, it had alternated
between a wooden walkway and a trampled footpath. Now my feet could feel a
grid of concrete, overgrown but clearly
recognizable as two parallel tracks. I
knew that this was the Kolonnenweg, the
pathway installed by the East German
regime for border patrol vehicles.
I really was in the former death strip
now. For anyone who didn’t notice the
concrete grid, there was a large wooden
sign pointing out this fact. Across from it,
four people were sitting at a picnic table,
engrossed in conversation over thermos
bottles and Butterbrote, homemade sandwiches wrapped in parchment paper.
Throughout the morning, I had wondered how other people felt about hiking
in this history-heavy place. Was it as mean-
ingful to “normal” Germans—those who
had everyday lives here—as it was to me? I
decided to approach the four and ask.
Clearly the conversation had been
about entirely different things before
my interruption, but the picnickers, two
couples perhaps in their early seventies,
indulged me and switched topics to share
their reflections about the border. One of
the two men had escaped from East Germany with his parents as a child. He had
only seen his grandparents once after
that; they had died before reunification.
The other man told of an aunt in the east
whom he had met for the first time on the
day after the border opened in 1989, and
who died two weeks later. Both couples
remembered hearing about a nine-yearold boy who had run after a ball into the
border strip and been shot by East German
border guards.
Deep in thought, I continued on the
overgrown concrete-grid path. Aside from
the concrete itself, there was no trace of
the deadly contraptions that had been
here until twenty-five years ago. The forest
around me was certainly not old growth,
but then the rest of the forest wasn’t either.
All in all, the place had a serene feel to it.
The stories of disruption and grief were
part of its history, but so were the stories of
recovery and resilience. I could see signs of
that all around me in the forest, and I had
just heard and felt it in the conversation
with the four hikers.
I could also feel it in myself. Hiking
back towards the Goethe Trail that afternoon, I was reminded of Ralph Waldo
Emerson’s words: “In these woods, we
return to reason and faith.” I had long
felt drawn to “the woods” as a place of
refuge, a place to regain perspective and
renewal. In fact, the woods were, in large
part, what had brought me to Vermont.
I felt grateful now that Emerson’s words
felt true in these German woods as well.
In these woods here, I felt myself returning not only to reason and faith, but to a
deeper bond with my complicated home
VQ
country.
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CAMPAIGN
KINDLES
UVM’S NEXT ERA
MOVE MOUNTAINS
The power of the place
burns brightly within
the most ambitious
fundraising campaign
in the history of the
University of Vermont.
BY | RICK GREEN ’82
TOP LEFT TO RIGHT: JOSHUA BROWN, BOB HANDELMAN,
JOSHUA BROWN; BOTTOM LEFT: ANDY DUBACK
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You find it in the confidence and inspiration student
STUDENT OPPORTUNITY
Without the aid of a Donald H. DeHayes
Multicultural Scholarship, it’s unlikely
Jacqueline Cordoza ’17 would be enrolled
at the University of Vermont. That critical
financial assistance has given her the opportunity to thrive in college.
Early coursework sparked her interest
in environmental health and social justice
and career goals in environmental epidemiology. “I learned that who you are and
where you live can directly impact your
health, and my dream is to help those
who do not have a voice,” Cardoza says.
Creating “access to success” for
students has been a passionate refrain
for President Tom Sullivan from his first
days on the job. With a fundraising goal
of $210 million—nearly a third of the
total goal—that commitment to student
support stands tall as a top priority of the
Move Mountains campaign.
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V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
Jacqueline Cordoza ’17 has discovered in her years on campus. You
find it in the commitment of UVM vaccine researchers working to
save lives half a world away. And you find it in public school classrooms across Vermont where, with mentorship from education professor Penny Bishop, young teachers are learning to harness technology for the good of their students.
Move Mountains: The Campaign for the University of Vermont aims
to raise $500 million in private support by 2019 to nurture academic
programs, expand scholarships and professorships, and strategically transform the campus through new and enhanced facilities. In
the eyes of President Tom Sullivan, the fundraising campaign also
works like a giant lever, lifting UVM to a new position of distinction
among public research universities.
While the campaign is about the hard business of asking for gifts
at a time when more universities are aggressively fundraising, Move
Mountains is also about the invisible glue that cements a diverse
community of 100,000 UVM alumni across the world. It is about
declaring “this is where:” sharpening and focusing the possible of a
public university that even its graduates might not fully appreciate
sometimes.
“We educate and encourage our students to be leaders in communities and societies. The experience here is about the educated person, the whole person,’’ Sullivan explains. “That’s the uniqueness of
the University of Vermont undergraduate experience.’’
The public launch of the campaign on October 2 at Gutterson
Fieldhouse capped a four-year effort that began with the creation of
the UVM Foundation in 2011 and comes as universities turn to private foundations for a helping hand. Created to engage UVM’s most
capable supporters, the nonprofit UVM Foundation is governed by
its own board of directors and exists solely to benefit the University
of Vermont.
At the October launch, President Sullivan announced to a crowd
of more than five-hundred supporters that about $248 million has
already been committed toward the goal of $500 million by 2019.
“The timing of this comprehensive campaign is really critical at
this point in the university’s history,’’ says Sullivan, who since his
arrival three years ago has sought to craft a concise strategy to bring
UVM forward in an era of tight finances, intense competition for
students, and a rapidly evolving higher education market.
“It’s a tipping point because at this juncture in our history we
are on the move to go to the next level of excellence and stature and
reputation,’’ Sullivan says. Noting that just six percent of the overall
UVM budget comes from the state of Vermont, the president adds,
“Our friends, our alumni and donors to this university are absolutely critical. We’re asking them to help us step up and have this be
a historic transformation for the University of Vermont.
“When you have a big idea to move forward and you have a
friend of the university or a donor or an alum and they have a passion about that idea—and they have the ability or the capacity to
make an investment—when those things come together, the big
idea, the passion, and the capacity, it’s magical.’’
BRUCE CRAMER (2)
Twice the size of UVM’s last fundraising effort in 2007,
the Move Mountains campaign has been in its silent, or planning,
phase for the last four years as the UVM Foundation ramped up.
While new and improved campus facilities are part of the strategy—including a $104 million STEM Complex, an Alumni House,
an expanded and renamed Grossman School of Business, and a firstever partnership with the recently renamed University of Vermont
Medical Center—it’s young women such as Jacqueline Cardoza who
will illustrate the vital role private support can play.
Her story is one of the most basic messages of the Move Mountains
campaign: a financially accessible education for talented students
of all backgrounds. The campaign is seeking nearly $210 million in
scholarship support from private donations.
“I was looking at universities and colleges a lot smaller than
UVM. I ended up taking a tour, coming up here and braving the
cold. As soon as I stepped foot on the campus I just knew I wanted
to be here,’’ says Cardoza. Private support, through her Donald H.
DeHayes Multicultural Scholarship, has made her experience at the
Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources possible.
“It’s really about the environment here. But not just the landscape. It’s the social environment. I really feel that students and faculty members are helping you, helping you thrive to be who you
want to be. And I was kind of nervous going out of my realm from
within a small town in Connecticut to go to a big university,’’ she
says. “But it’s been just the opposite. I’ve been really kind of nurtured and talked to about where I want to go. I’ve been inspired to
do so many other things and, really, I’ve become more passionate in
so many different areas.”
Over the last quarter century, Rob Cioffi ’90 has closely watched
the ups and downs of his alma mater and sees this moment as something of an inflection point and an opportunity for UVM to tell a
bigger story.
“This campaign has the chance to elevate UVM to the level where
we need to be—increasing SATs, better engineering scholars, better
basketball players, better thespians … so people say, ‘Wow!’’’ says
Cioffi, a member of the University of Vermont Foundation’s Executive Campaign Council, the group that has been planning the strategy for the Move Mountains campaign. A native Vermonter, Cioffi is
a former chair of the University of Vermont Board of Trustees who
now lives in Connecticut.
“This is a comprehensive university. We have an incredible nursing school, an incredible college of engineering. We have a great college of arts and sciences. There are very few universities that have all
these pieces on a campus of only 10,000 students,’’ says Cioffi.
FACULTY ENDEAVOR
Speaking to the leverage created by endowed professorships, Dr. Beth Kirkpatrick
says, “It’s just a phenomenal tool that the
university can have to make sure that it
perpetuates itself with very strong leaders.”
Kirkpatrick, a professor in the College of
Medicine, is founder and director of UVM’s
Vaccine Testing Center, which works to tame
some of the world’s most deadly diseases.
Endowment gifts provide funding that
can cover a portion of a professor’s salary
and open additional flexibility to advance
that individual’s teaching and research—
creating new courses and student research
experiences, supporting graduate students,
securing new grants, and launching new
partnerships, among other opportunities.
Over the past three years, UVM has
made remarkable progress in growing the
number of endowed professorships. The
Move Mountains campaign aims to push it
to a new plateau with a plan to raise more
than $148 million to create new professorships, chairs, and deanships across the entire
university.
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Among the high-profile goals President
Steven Grossman’s landmark gift leads
to renaming of the business school
After the largest individual gift in UVM history, the school of business has been renamed in honor of the donor, Steven Grossman, a
1961 graduate and a long-time supporter of the school.
“This is the kind of gift that can transform a school or college and
elevate it significantly on the national stage,” President Sullivan
said at a business school ceremony on the day the Move Mountains
campaign had its public launch.
The $20 million gift from the Grossman Family Foundation funds
three endowed academic positions: the Steven Grossman Chairs in
Entrepreneurship, Finance, and Sustainable Business. The gift will
also provide resources to support teaching and program priorities
as the school aims to become one of the top undergraduate business programs in the nation and among the best MBA programs in
the world.
“As the school’s direction under the leadership of Dean Sanjay
Sharma came into sharper focus, I felt that the business school was
on the verge of a transformative change and what they need to
make the change was the right amount of capital. Thus this gift.
This process was not an exact science but rather a feeling from my
heart and soul,” Grossman said.
The Grossman School of Business is only the second of UVM’s
ten schools and colleges to be named in honor of an individual for
outstanding philanthropic support. The first was the Rubenstein
School of Environment and Natural Resources, named in 2003 in
honor of Steven ’61 and Beverly Rubenstein, whose $15 million
gift brought UVM into the national spotlight of environmental and
natural resource programs.
University officials believe the Grossman gift will have a similar
impact on the business school.
“The timing of the gift is propitious as the school continues its
progress into the ranks of the world’s finest via revamped and new
programs, world class faculty, dedicated staff, and the most talented class of students in UVM’s history,’’ said Sanjay Sharma, dean
of the Grossman School of Business.
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V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
Sullivan has brought to campus is a plan to
double the number of endowed professorships
and chairmanships. The university has made
rapid progress on this front and the Move
Mountains campaign aims to push it to a new
plateau with a plan to raise more than $148
million to create new professorships, chairs
and deanships across UVM—an acknowledgement that a public university must be a talent
magnet to compete in a world where other
state universities receive more support from
their state legislatures.
A gift that creates and funds a named professorship “enables us to build strong programs
around it. It immediately institutionalizes a
program in a way that says this is something
that’s really important,’’ says Penny Bishop,
professor of middle level education and the
director of the Tarrant Institute, a donor-supported initiative that trains Vermont teachers
and schools to use technology more effectively
in the classroom.
“It enables us as a university to attract new
faculty, faculty who are doing really innovative things with research, to showcase a lot
of the research that’s being done as well as to
invest more in the teaching that’s done within
the program,’’ says Bishop.
Both President Sullivan and Provost David
Rosowsky point out that these endowed positions become the essential DNA for a successful UVM future—they keep top professors on
campus for long careers, add to the university’s
capacity for high-quality research, and serve as
a beacon to attract more talented faculty and
scholars.
“It’s just a phenomenal tool that the university can have to make sure that it perpetuates
itself with very strong leaders,’’ says College
of Medicine Professor Beth Kirkpatrick, who
founded the Vaccine Testing Center, which
works to tame some of the world’s most deadly
diseases.
All of this complements a campus that
already has a strong reputation as a place that
is “open to creative ways to do different things,”
Kirkpatrick says. “People feel a little less pigeonholed here and are able to think more broadly.”
STEVEN GROSSMAN, ALUMNI HOUSE: SALLY MCCAY
Rosowsky, who as provost must make sure
UVM has top academic programs, emphasizes
that while a comprehensive fundraising campaign is about students, faculty and programs,
it can’t stop there.
A centerpiece of the UVM Board of Trustees’ plan to transform the Central Campus is
the 266,000 square-foot STEM Complex now
under construction just east of University
Row. The big buildings, slated for completion
in 2019, have deep symbolism: the $104 million project aims to bring the university into
a future where top students choose UVM
because of lab and research facilities—and
faculty remain or are attracted here because of
the unique interdisciplinary cooperation that
the STEM facility will nurture.
“It’s also a critically needed and timely
investment in the science and technology and
engineering side of our house. It’s not changing the university’s emphasis on academics.
It’s not changing the character or the ethos
of the university’s academic programs,’’ says
Rosowsky.
“It’s simply elevating those programs to
the same level of quality and opportunity that
we have across the rest of the university. And
science and engineering and math and computer science facilities are expensive, similar
to medicine and nursing. These are expensive
facilities to construct and to maintain, but
CAMPUS ENHANCEMENTS
Though increasing scholarships for students and support for
faculty are the keystone priorities of The Campaign for the
University of Vermont, a number of new facilities and historic
renovations are also critical to the university’s future.
The STEM Complex will feature modern classrooms, labs, and
equipment for teaching and research in science, technology,
engineering, mathematics, and related fields.
The Multi-Purpose Event Center will create a new arena for ice
hockey, basketball, and special events. A second phase is planned
that will include a hockey practice facility and campus recreation
center.
Kalkin Hall expansion and renovation will add two classrooms,
a sixty-seat-case-method classroom, faculty offices, graduate
students spaces, and an upgraded computer lab in the Grossman
School of Business.
Billings Library renovations will restore the Great Hall, Apse,
and Marsh Lounge, creating a new home for library Special
Collections, the Center for Holocaust Studies, and the Center for
Research on Vermont.
UVM Medical Center Inpatient Building adds four floors
of private, technologically advanced rooms for medical-surgical
patients.
The Taft School renovation creates new studio, classroom,
and exhibition space for the Department of Art and Art History.
Alumni House completes the restoration of the Queen Anne
Revival-style home at the corner of Summit and Maple streets.
Together with an adjoining pavilion, the facility will establish a
central space for alumni events and activities.
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23
you must have them to be attractive as a top university to the best
students.”
Like the comprehensive campaign, university leaders point out
that the STEM Complex must be viewed through a larger lens, one
that takes in the economic health of Burlington and all of Vermont.
Increasingly, the outside world is taking note of the area’s growing status as an innovation hub—Vermont was ranked no. 5 for its
“startup culture” by the Kauffman Foundation in 2015, and Burlington’s growing entrepreneurial reputation has won accolades from
Forbes and Atlantic Monthly.
“We believe as the state’s public research university we have
both opportunity and obligation to train students who will go into
fields that will create new technologies and spin out new companies, graduates who will be energized intellectually and culturally
to want to stay in Vermont,’’ says Rosowsky. “We view that as part of
our mission and part of our commitment.”
Five hundred million is a dramatic number for a humble
On October 2, President Sullivan launched the public phase
of Move Mountains: The Campaign for the University of
Vermont, and its $500 million goal, at a gathering of the
campus community in the Davis Center’s Olin Atrium.
President Tom Sullivan and his wife, Leslie Black Sullivan ’77,
toast the Move Mountains launch with Executive Campaign
Council members Diane Seder ’74, Peter ’69 and Karen
Nystrom Meyer ’70, Megan Walsh Cioffi ’91 and Robert
Cioffi ’90, Ian Boyce ’89, James Betts ’69 MD’73, and UVM
Foundation CEO Rich Bundy. Alumni, university and UVM
Foundation leadership, faculty, and students celebrated the
launch at an event in Gutterson Fieldhouse Friday evening.
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V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
state and a public university with a reputation for modesty.
But Richard Bundy, president and CEO of the UVM Foundation,
sees a striking opportunity amid the ambitious goals. He points to
the more than 23,000 donors who expressed their confidence in
UVM’s promising new path this year, as private support continues to help to shape the future of one of the nation’s oldest public
universities.
“This year we broke the $60 million mark for the first time in
UVM history,’’ Bundy says. “Fiscal 2015 was the fourth consecutive
year of record-setting fundraising for the UVM Foundation. That is
a testament to our donors and their commitment to UVM’s mission
and values. And it speaks volumes about the quality of the people
who work at the foundation.”
The days before the campaign launch bolstered Bundy’s optimism, adding to the growing sense that the Move Mountains campaign is a turning point for UVM. More than $40 million in new
commitments to UVM were revealed in a series of fifteen gift
announcements across campus on October 1 and 2, culminating in
the Grossman Family Foundation’s donation of $20 million to what
will now be known as the Grossman School of Business.
UVM is “on a different trajectory,’’ says alumni leader Rob Cioffi.
“We are in a different place today.”
It is that extraordinary confluence of place, people, and what
happens when they come together here that comprises the magic
that President Sullivan believes will fuel a successful Move Mountains campaign.
“We have friends and alumni and donors who deeply believe in
this university, as I do,’’ he said. “When you have a really creative,
inspiring big idea, it’s transformative. And that’s what this campaign is going to do as we celebrate the 225th anniversary of UVM—
transform it so that the University of Vermont continues to be in the
VQ
forefront of the great universities in the United States.” SALLY MCCAY (ALL)
William Meezan ’67, Richard Ader ’63, Daniel Burack ’55, J. Brooks Buxton ’56
Two-day crescendo of gifts leads to campaign’s public launch
From the Fleming Museum to
Billings Library, Davis Center to
Gutterson, the challenge and
progress of Move Mountains: The
Campaign for the University of
Vermont crackled across campus as
the largest fundraising initiative in
UVM history went public the first
weekend in October.
Multiple events heralded new gift
announcements, totaling $40 million, and led up to President Sullivan
announcing the campaign’s goal,
$500 million, in the Davis
Center atrium, packed with faculty,
staff, students, and alumni. Later
that evening, supporters gathered
in a magically transformed
Gutterson Fieldhouse for a
celebration of the campaign’s
launch. As Move Mountains
transitions into the public phase,
$247,636,555 has been raised.
MOVE MOUNTAINS
THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
CAMPAIGN
GOAL
$500M
CURRENT
GIFTS
$248M
In addition to Steven Grossman’s $20 million in support of the business school,
gifts announced in the days prior to the campaign launch included:
• $8.9 million from Robert ’39, MD’42 and
Helen Larner to establish the Robert and
Helen Larner Medical Education Fund in
the College of Medicine.
• $1 million from the Richard E. and
Deborah L. Tarrant Foundation to
support the Patient Care Facility project
in The UVM Medical Center.
• $3.0 million from Daniel and Carole
Burack to support the programs and
activities of UVM Hillel and enhance
Jewish life on campus.
• $900,000 from Gregory N. Sweeny ’70 to
support the civil engineering program in
the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences with a scholarship, professorship, and program support.
• $1.5 million gift-in-kind from J. Brooks
Buxton, UVM Class of 1956, who is
donating his art collection to the
Fleming Museum.
• $1.2 million to support the work of the
LGBTQA Center on campus. This includes
$875,000 from UVM Foundation Leadership
Council member William Meezan, UVM
Class of 1967, and his husband, Michael
Brittenback; $200,000 from Sanford
Friedman, Class of 1973, and his husband
Jerry Hipps; and $125,000 from Michael
Upton, a member of the College of Medicine, class of 1994.
• $1 million from John ’68 and Julia Hilton
to establish a Faculty Research Support
Endowment and expand the Janus Forum
Lecture Series. John Hilton is chair of
the UVM Foundation Board of Directors.
• $1 million from Eugene ’50 and Joan
Kalkin to fund a professorship in the College of Arts and Sciences. Eugene is chair
emeritus of the UVM Foundation. Both
Kalkins are former UVM trustees.
LEARN MORE | MOVEMOUNTAINS.UVM.EDU
• $500,000 from the university’s food services
provider, Sodexo, to support the university’s Food Systems Initiative.
• $450,000 estate commitment from John
Bossange of Burlington to add to the
scholarship fund he established to honor
the memory of his late wife, Dr. Janet
Bossange, a long-time faculty member
in the College of Education and Social
Services.
• $250,000 from Richard Ader ’63 to support
UVM’s Alumni House capital project. Ader
is a member of the UVM Foundation Board
of Directors and Foundation Leadership
Council.
• $250,000 from the Crowley family of
Princeton, Mass., to support the student internship program in the Rubenstein School
of Environment and Natural Resources.
• Robert ’90 and Meghan Cioffi ’91, a gift
to endow the men’s basketball coaching
position.
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THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT AWARDED
THE 100,000th BACHELOR’S DEGREE IN THE
HISTORY OF THE INSTITUTION AT LAST SPRING’S
COMMENCEMENT. THAT MILESTONE SUGGESTS
CATA
MOUNT
NATION
AN APT MOMENT TO STEP BACK AND
LOOK BROADLY AT A FRACTION OF OUR
COMMUNITY OF GRADUATES, A GLOBAL
GLIMPSE AT WHERE SOME OF THOSE
UVM DIPLOMAS HAVE LED.
by joshua brown, jay goyette, kathleen laramee ’00,
jon reidel g’06, amanda waite ’02 g’04, thomas weaver
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Yudi Bennett G ’75
WORK: Founder of Exceptional Minds Studio, a nonprofit vocational center and
animation studio for young
adults on the autism spectrum. Venture is a shift in
direction from a more than
thirty-year career in film
production HOME: Glendale, California. UVM DAYS:
While earning her master’s
in communications, professors such as Kim Worden
advanced her interest and
skills in filmmaking—“My
studies there totally changed
my life!” IN HER WORDS:
“Because we are an innovative, one of a kind program,
the work is tremendously
fulfilling and very exciting. We like to say
we are ‘changing lives…one frame at a time.’
Our graduates have just finished working
on Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, and
Game of Thrones—just to mention a few.”
Scott Baldwin ’76
WORK: Owns Vermont Brokerage Services a, financial planning and employee
benefits agency. A retired Vermont Air
National Guard F-16 pilot, on September
11, 2001, Baldwin and another jet from the
squadron were the first military planes to
patrol the skies over New York City in the
aftermath of the terrorist attacks. HOME:
Burlington. UVM DAYS: Made lifelong
friendships through a circle of guys, a fraternity of sorts, that dubbed themselves
“Chikago.” They still gather each New
Year’s Eve and, since 1991, have taken a
reunion trip to Europe every five years. IN
HIS WORDS: “To me, those relationships
you build—the friendships and growing
experiences you take away—are the most
important things of your years in college.”
IAN THOMAS JANSEN-LONNQUIST
Laura Wildman ’89
Meredith Rose Burak ’07
WORK: A Merrill Lynch financial
manager for non-profits, Burak
is also a committed volunteer
advocate who recently led efforts
to gain financial support from
New York City government for
impoverished Holocaust survivors. HOME: Living her dream of
moving to Tel Aviv, Israel, this fall.
UVM DAYS: Professor Richard
Sugarman and Holocaust Studies
classes were major influences.
Burak founded and organized
the UVM student group raising
awareness of genocide in Darfur.
Also working with Hillel, she led
efforts to bring author Elie Wiesel
to campus. IN HER WORDS:
“I set up a table outside of the
library, put up a poster, and
started stopping people. ‘Hey, do
you know what is happening in
Darfur?’ I was that person, which
was very uncharacteristic of me.”
WORK: Fisheries engineer who specializes in the
removal of dams. Formerly
chief engineer at American
Rivers, Wildman now runs
the New England office of
an ecological restoration
firm, Princeton Hydro. She’s
helped design and supervise
the demolition of over one
hundred dams—reopening
waterways for fish and other
wildlife. HOME: Glastonbury, Connecticut. UVM
DAYS: Wildman credits
her UVM engineering professors, including Richard
Downer, with pointing
her toward a good career
path. IN HER WORDS: “I
had started as a mechanical engineer, but
Downer convinced me that if I liked the
outdoors and people, civil engineering
might be a better choice for me—and, boy,
was he right. I now get paid to kayak and
restore rivers!”
Matt Sharp ’94
WORK: Founder and CEO of Sharp Entertainment, a television production company based in New York City. HOME: New
York, New York. UVM DAYS: Enjoyed
every minute of his UVM experience
from freshman year in the Shoeboxes to
his studies (history major/poli-sci minor)
to joining a fraternity, playing lacrosse,
skiing at Stowe, and playing Frisbee on
the Green. IN HIS WORDS: “I’ve always
been entrepreneurial but at the same time
loved a creative challenge. At UVM, I took
painting and acting classes and during the
summers in Burlington, I ran my own window washing business. I guess a production company is a happy medium between
being a creative and an entrepreneur.”
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Diana Brooks ’13
WORK: Studio art instructor at North
Branch Arts, and art instructor for kindergarten, fifth, and sixth grades through
North Branch Arts at Edgebrook Elementary School. HOME: Chicago, Illinois.
UVM DAYS: Began her undergraduate
studies at UVM at age twenty-seven after
earning an associate’s degree from Community College of Vermont in her early
twenties. Counts art faculty Kathleen
Schneider and Chris Campbell as key
influences. Waitressed at Penny Cluse to
help pay tuition. IN HER WORDS: “My
students’ intelligence and perseverance
really shows through when you allow
them to find their own answers. This is
the way artists create outside of the classroom, and I want my students to consider
themselves artists, to think of themselves
as capable and creative people.”
Michael Hurdzan ’69 G’74
WORK: Golf course architect with an
international practice whose firm has
worked on 400-plus projects on five continents over the past forty-five years.
Hurdzan has been a pioneering thinker
and practitioner in creating environmentally friendly courses. HOME: Columbus, Ohio. UVM DAYS: “Vermont was a
paradise to this midwestern, redneck kid,”
Hurdzan recalls. He came for a master’s in
plant and soil science and ended up staying for his PhD. He credits his professors
and the state’s environmental ethic for
setting his path. IN HIS WORDS: “One of
my greatest challenges is convincing colleagues, clients, and golfers that the best
golf is enjoyed in the most natural environments. We strive to make golf courses
environmental assets not liabilities.”
Madeline Murphy Hall ’10
WORK: Global affairs regional officer,
working at the State Department on human
rights policy in the Middle East. HOME:
Washington, D.C. UVM DAYS: A political
science major and anthropology minor, she
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V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
was inspired by Professor Gregory Gause,
Middle East expert. She studied Arabic at
the Middlebury Language program, then
won a Boren Scholarship to study abroad
in Jordan her senior year. IN HER WORDS:
“Being part of the Lawrence Debate Union
at UVM was hugely influential. My coaches,
Tuna Snider and David Register, and my
teammates, were my family on campus.”
Sascha Mayer ’89
WORK: CEO and co-founder of Mamava,
Inc., a company that makes self-contained
lactation pods, allowing nursing mothers to use their breast pumps or nurse
in private. Business was incubated at
JDK Design in Burlington, where Mayer
worked for nearly twenty years. HOME:
Williston, Vermont. UVM DAYS: Sociology major with a minor in women’s
studies. Post-graduation, worked for then
Congressman Bernie Sanders in his Burlington office. Has fond memories of the
view from Williams Hall and “digging into
a steaming plate of Nectar’s fries” with
friends. IN HER WORDS: “Mamava’s mission is to create a healthier society due to
a changed cultural perception of pumping/nursing that affords every woman the
opportunity to nurse her child regardless
of her circumstances.”
Sanjeev Yadav ’05
WORK: Recently co-founded Banyan Tree
Capital, a boutique investment advisory
firm based in Boston. Prior to that venture,
Yadav served for nearly two years as a vice
consul for trade and investment at the British Consulate-General in Boston, where he
worked on furthering trans-Atlantic trade
between New England and the United
Kingdom. HOME: Boston, Massachusetts.
UVM DAYS: The son of longtime psychology professor Dharam Yadav, Sanjeev calls
UVM a “home” to his family in many ways.
IN HIS WORDS: “Some of the most lasting
experiences of my undergrad years were
opportunities to serve as a student ambassador, a student trustee, and to work with
other students to bring unique and engaging speakers to the university to increase
campus discourse.”
Gary J. Margolis ’91 G ’96 ’01
WORK: President & CEO of Social Sentinel, Inc., a service that alerts officials in
education, local government, and other
entities to potential threats on social
media; Co-founder of Margolis Healy &
Associates, LLC; Former chief of police at
UVM. HOME: Richmond, Vermont. UVM
DAYS: Gained valuable experience working in police services, residential life, and
admissions; undergraduate courses with
Professor Robert Tyzbir and graduate
courses with Professor Robert Nash guided
him personally and professionally. IN HIS
WORDS: “Our service has helped prevent
suicides, stop drug dealers at schools, identify sex offenders, and many other things.
Having worn a uniform for twenty years
as a police officer, I feel like I’m still protecting people and communities through
Social Sentinel.”
Zwick’s abiding love for Vermont’s hiking trails
inspired his advocacy and significant funding
support for a long-sought footbridge over the
Winooski River in Jonesville.
“ I began to have
doubts that I would
live long enough
to see the finished
bridge, let alone walk
across it. But the
bridge is completed.
And I have walked
across it. Joyfully.”
Jilyne Higgins ’09
WORK: Co-founder of ZGiRLS, a nonprofit organization dedicated to elevating and empowering the lives of girls
through athletics. Established in Seattle in
2012, ZGiRLS has begun to branch across
the country. HOME: Charlottesville, Virginia. UVM DAYS: A public communications major, Higgins balanced her studies
with training and competition as an elite
alpine skier. She was a seven-time NCAA
All-American skiing for the Catamounts.
IN HER WORDS: “I know that we’ve set a
really big goal and with that comes challenges. But I always come back to exactly
what we teach at ZGiRLS—chasing down
your dreams takes courage, and by doing
so, you make courage contagious. Like fire,
it spreads and ignites even bigger dreams
in those around you.”
—DAAN ZWICK ’43
Joshua Prince ’86
WORK: President of The CDM Group, a
global healthcare communications company. Named 2015 Industry Person of
The Year by MedAdNews, he is also the
author of two-well-reviewed children’s
books. HOME: Westport, Connecticut.
UVM DAYS: He credits the Cynic for forging his idea of what a workplace should
be—“demanding, creative, productive, but
WORK: Retired from a long career at Kodak, where he was a research
scientist exploring image structure in color photography and the interface
between motion picture film and color television. HOME: Rochester, New
York. UVM DAYS: A chemistry major, Zwick also ran cross-country and
track, wrote for the Cynic, and was active in the Outing Club.
JOCELYN HEBERT
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Ray Allen ’59
WORK: Fourth-generation Vermont farmer
on his family’s Allenholm Farm in South
Hero. His alarm goes off at 4 a.m., beginning a day that includes the anything and
everything of overseeing a diversified agribusiness—bookwork to hauling a load of
apple bins to making a batch of pie dough
for the farm store. Many family members
pitch in, including a pair of great granddaughters who “train the chickens to be
friendly” in the farmyard petting paddock.
UVM DAYS: Allen ran on one of Coach
Archie Post’s greatest teams—Yankee Conference and New England champs. IN HIS
OWN WORDS: “Having guys on the team
who could work together that way was just
an incredible experience and those lessons
have helped me throughout life.”
fun.” IN HIS WORDS: “I love how you
can take a bunch of smart, creative folks,
dig into a problem, and make something
that moves people. We created the Tamiflu
commercials with that giant flu guy…and I
remember the moment when the team sitting around a table came up with the idea.
Magic!”
Robert Bayer ’66, G’68
WORK: An expert on lobster health and
nutrition, he is executive director of the
Lobster Institute, and professor of animal
and veterinary sciences, at the University
of Maine. HOME: Orono, Maine. UVM
DAYS: Credits his animal science major
with teaching him approaches to solving
problems of food production, the main
focus of his work today. Made lifetime
friends in Buckham residence hall and
joined some of them this summer to watch
the walls tumble down. IN HIS WORDS:
“What I do is about preserving a way of
life that is lobstering. Lobsters are doing
very well this season, but the issues that
we’re concerned about are climate change,
ocean acidification, and pollution.”
Nancy Clark ’71
WORK: Co-founder and director of the
Zienzele Foundation, which supports
AIDS orphans and caregivers in rural Zimbabwe; care coordinator at Gifford Medical
Center in Randolph, Vermont. Last year
Zienzele supported approximately one
thousand orphans in school. HOME: West
Topsham, Vermont. UVM DAYS: Majored
in nursing because it felt like a “safe and
predictable women’s career” at the time,
but was encouraged by professors to think
outside the box. IN HER OWN WORDS:
“My UVM experience gave me the courage
to leave Vermont for a job at Albert Einstein Hospital in the Bronx, where I had
my first experiences working in intensive
pediatrics among underserved populations, an experience that has guided my
entire career.”
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V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
Charles Iacovou ’92
Ricky Strauss ’88
WORK: President of marketing for Walt
Disney Studios, overseeing global marketing strategy including creative, media,
digital, promotions, publicity, research,
and synergy for live-action and animated
motion pictures. HOME: Los Angeles, California. UVM DAYS: Credits his involvement in UVM theatre, film, creative writing, and art history as “stoking his passion
for the arts,” and a summer internship at
TriStar Pictures for paving the way for his
current career. IN HIS WORDS: “With
a portfolio of films from Marvel, Pixar,
Lucasfilm, and Disney there is something
creatively stimulating every day. I’m
also fortunate to work alongside some of
the industry’s top filmmakers and lead a
team of incredibly talented and strategic
marketers.”
Thorodd Bakken ’96 G’98
WORK: Dean of the Wake
Forest University School
of Business, Kirby Chair in
Business Excellence and
Professor of Management.
Home: Winston-Salem, North
Carolina. UVM DAYS: Came to
UVM from Cyprus to become
a high school teacher, like his
mother, but changed course
after conducting research with
his undergraduate advisor on
the use of information
systems by small companies.
IN HIS WORDS: “I was
captivated by that research
experience. That was when
I realized I could still be a
teacher and follow my passion,
and that a PhD would allow
me to educate students at the
college level.
It changed my life.”
Lesléa Newman ’77
WORK: Author of seventy books
for readers of all ages including
the children’s classic, Heather
Has Two Mommies. HOME:
Holyoke, Massachusetts. UVM
DAYS: Professor David Huddle’s
creative writing class made
a great impression. IN HER
WORDS: “As Heather was challenged, burned, and defecated
upon over the years, I looked
on in amazement that my little
book caused such an uproar.
It’s such a sweet little story with
the message that ‘The most
important thing about a family
is that all the people in it love
each other.’ I never expected that
to be seen as controversial. I’m
thrilled that children with two
moms or two dads now have the
legal protection they deserve.
Love DOES conquer all!”
WORK: Head of sales and research
for Nordea Markets in Norway, one of
Europe’s largest banks. Leading the Norwegian operation involves setting strategic direction and continually developing the talented team that Bakken says is
critical to success. HOME: Oslo, Norway.
KEN BENNETT/WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY
SHANA SUREK
Laura Bernardini ’95
UVM DAYS: A four-time NCAA champion in Nordic skiing, Bakken also was
the Catamounts’ top cross-country runner. In addition to his coaches, he counts
business faculty members Lauck Parke
and Len Tashman as key influences. IN
HIS WORDS: “I guess I have always liked
working with financial markets—the
everlasting chase to try to figure out how
and why they move like they do.”
Linda Sell Steil ’83
WORK: Helping rehabilitate veterans as
military adaptive sports and reconditioning site coordinator, Warrior Transition
Battalion-Europe. HOME: Recently moved
to San Antonio, Texas, where she continues to work with soldiers, after nineteen
years in Germany. UVM DAYS: Worked as
an athletic trainer and was introduced to
adaptive sports in a required physical education course. IN HER WORDS: “Military
adaptive sports gives those wounded in war
the opportunity to start over and find new
ways to tackle issues that come with losing
a limb, sight, or dealing with chronic pain.
It has been rewarding to see most soldiers
rise to the occasion and make a good transition either back to duty or to civilian life.”
WORK: CNN Washington’s director of coverage. After fifteen years in the field, she’s
now managing the assignment desk and
live unit, and planning D.C. coverage. Bernardini is writing some, too, contributing
to CNN’s Belief Blog as she reads through
the Bible. HOME: Washington, D.C. UVM
DAYS: Benardini was an English major,
but her main focus, she says, was working on the Cynic, an experience she credits for her career today. IN HER WORDS:
“The Cynic gave me the chance to write,
edit, and work with a team. I may not have
been the best student in the classroom, but
I loved being in that newsroom.”
Vincent Mugisha G’14
WORK: Educational development adviser
for FHI360, a Washington, D.C.-based
international development think tank.
Current project is a collaboration among
FHI360, the government of Equatorial
Guinea, and HESS Petroleum Corporation
to improve the quality of public schooling in the country. HOME: Professionally
based in Washington, D.C., but currently
working in the west central African nation.
UVM DAYS: Mugisha earned his doctorate
in Educational Policy and Leadership Studies. He credits many faculty members for
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creating a welcoming and supportive environment. IN HIS WORDS: “In my view, to
succeed in this environment one has to
develop important competences such as
political savvy, intercultural competence,
program planning, monitoring and follow-through abilities, human empowerment, and capacity development.”
Marion Brown Thorpe ’38
WORK: After graduating with a degree in
home economics education, she went on
to earn her master’s at Syracuse University, then returned to join the faculty at
UVM, where she taught home economics
education for thirty-three years, retiring
in 1974. (Thorpe turns 100 November 27,
2015.) HOME: South Burlington, Vermont.
UVM DAYS: Her students found in her
an inspiring and gifted teacher, a friend,
mentor and advisor who helped launch
and sustain many a successful career. IN
HER WORDS: In her “Opening Reflection”
at UVM’s historic two-hundredth Commencement Ceremony in 2004, she said, “I
leave you with this. You may be only one
person in the world. But you may be the
world to one person.”
Chris Zimmerman ’81
WORK: President and CEO of Business
Operations for the St. Louis Blues. Held similar positions with the Vancouver Canucks,
Nike, Bauer, and Easton. HOME: St. Louis,
Missouri. UVM DAYS: Zimmerman recalls
the joy of playing hockey to packed houses
at Gutterson Arena and the power of the
Catamount community. IN HIS WORDS:
“My journey through the sports world has
been filled with the chance to see athletes
at all levels achieve spectacular personal
accomplishments. From the NHL to the
Ryder Cup to the Little League World Series
to Special Olympics to six year-olds playing
Kick and Chase, I have been inspired by the
power and emotion that drives athletes to
test their personal boundaries.”
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V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
Jay Shindler ’94
WORK: Chef, chocolatier, and owner of
Catering Chocolate, a retail gourmet food
shop with a focus on catering. Shindler’s
client list has included Mikhail Baryshnikov, presidents Clinton and Obama, as
well as beloved Chicago institutions such
as the Steppenwolf and Goodman theatres.
HOME: Chicago, Illinois. UVM DAYS:
Philosophy major; Delta Psi brother; Mad
River skier; Kountry Kart Deli lover. IN
HIS WORDS: “Catering covers a lot of
ground and we need to be prepared to cook
anything at anytime. Staying creative with
the changing seasons and meeting the
needs of varying events certainly is a daily
challenge. People say I’m a workaholic; I
say my customers are orderaholics.”
Melissa Wolff-Burke ’82
WORK: Physical therapist, professor of
physical therapy at Shenandoah University, and founder of the Adventure Amputee Camp for children, now in its twentyfirst year. HOME: Winchester, Virginia.
UVM DAYS: Still talks about the donut
machine in Redstone dining hall. IN HER
WORDS: “We have campers who (until
camp) hid their amputated limb in pictures, never went swimming because of a
bathing suit, climbed a ladder, rode a bike,
or thought someone would like them. And
something magic happens at camp when
they’re surrounded by other people with
physical differences… there is a bigger,
prouder self that emerges.”
David Perez ’81
WORK: Founder and CEO of Seamless
Medical Systems, Inc., a digital healthcare
company that replaces the paper forms
patients fill out in medical offices with an
iPad. HOME: Santa Fe, New Mexico UVM
DAYS: Double major, economics and political science, focus on economic development and international affairs. Away from
class, worked with Concert Bureau and
loved to ski. IN HIS WORDS: “I am a serial
entrepreneur. This is my third venture
since 1999. The challenges of starting a
business from an idea are manifold—raising capital, building the team, building the
software, getting customers, scaling the
enterprise. I love the creative experience
of coming up with an idea, then building a
team and business to execute it.”
Bill Barron ’89
WORK: Carpenter; founder of the nonprofit Renewable Energy Resources, dedicated to educating the public in ways to
utilize renewable energy and improve
energy efficiency; founder of the Salt Lake
City-Citizens’ Climate Lobby; a past (and
likely future) single-issue climate change
candidate for U.S. Senate and Congress.
HOME: Salt Lake City, Utah. UVM DAYS:
Geography major and founding member
of UVM Crew, rowing in the team’s first
competitions, including the 1987 Head of
the Charles. IN HIS WORDS: “My work
as a carpenter keeps me grounded, offers
tangible results, creativity, and a sense
of accomplishment. My advocacy work
offers a way to speak from my heart for
what I believe is possible and necessary.”
Meghan Clohessy ’05
WORK: Studio director of Daniel Arsham
Studio, a role that includes overseeing the
production of Arsham’s artwork and films,
working with galleries and museums to
arrange exhibitions, manage press, and
plan events. Previously, she managed artists Vanessa Beecroft and Kehinde Wiley.
HOME: Brooklyn, New York. UVM DAYS:
Double major in art history and studio
art. Professors Kelley DiDio and Frank
Owen and an internship at Burlington’s
Firehouse Gallery were key influences.
IN HER WORDS: “My work is fulfilling
because it allows me to use my business
sense to help an artist achieve their professional and creative goals. I’m involved in
the creative side of the art world without
being a professional artist myself, which is
a unique position.”
Ian Thomas
Jansen-Lonnquist ’09
WORK: Freelance photographer whose work regularly
appears in the New York Times.
He’s currently the paper’s go-to
photographer for coverage of
the presidential campaign in his
home state of New Hampshire.
(Pictured: Jansen-Lonnquist,
left, covers a Donald Trump
rally.) HOME: Burlington,
Vermont. UVM DAYS: While
majoring in natural resources,
he also pursued his love of
photography—at the Cynic and
during his junior year abroad
in India, where he served as an
international correspondent for
a National Geographic-affiliated
organization. IN HIS WORDS:
“Photography has always been
a vehicle for me to meet and
interact with people. It’s a little
bit of psychology, sociology,
anthropology all wrapped up
into one.”
Matt Carreira ’05
WORK: His business card with TwoXSea
reads “Sustainable Fishmonger.” Carreira
defines that as primarily a sales role to
connect chefs with the company’s sustainable seafood, but adds, that could span
making deliveries to analyzing financials—“basically doing whatever it takes
to keep the company moving in a positive
direction.” HOME: Alameda, California.
UVM DAYS: Carreira looks back fondly
on the friendship of fellow students and
mentorship of professors in the School of
Business Administration. His passion for
sustainability was kindled by an elective
course in environmental studies. IN HIS
WORDS: “It feels great to wake up every
day utilizing my talents to make the world
a better place. For me, it does not get any
better than that.”
Rebeka Foley ’13
WORK: Pursuing a master’s degree in
International Relations and Russian Studies at the European University of St. PetersRYAN MCBRIDE
burg. Prior to that, Foley worked in film
and video production in Paris, France.
As a “fixer,” she organized productions
and translated for American crews working abroad in France, Monaco, and Italy.
HOME: St. Petersburg, Russia. UVM DAYS:
Double major in French and Russian Studies, also active in Student Government
Association. IN HER WORDS: “Professors
Kathleen Scollins and Kevin McKenna
of the Russian Department are not only
fantastic instructors and hugely inspiring
academics, but they were also mentors for
my career and life in general. The whole
department had a huge impact on my further pursuits.”
Leslie Lawson ’91
WORK: Chief of the Nogales Border Patrol
Station. The 700-employee station, the
largest in the country, is responsible for
securing more than thirty linear miles
and nearly 1,100 square miles of border
with Mexico. HOME: Green Valley, Arizona. UVM DAYS: An English and hisFA L L 2 0 1 5 |
33
catamount
nation
tory double major, she found a friend and
mentor in Professor Jean Kiedaisch, who
taught Tutoring Writing. Favorite Burlington hangouts included Rasputin’s, What
Ales You, and Nectar’s, where she heard
Phish “before Phish was Phish.” IN HER
WORDS: “I find it very fulfilling to serve
my country by entering a career field that
most women do not.”
Will Trowbridge ’12
WORK: Video producer and director at
Disney Interactive Media. HOME: Los
Angeles, California. UVM DAYS: A film
and television studies major, Trowbridge
got his first break in the business with
an internship on the 2012 Sundance
film Safety Not Guaranteed. He scored the
position after making an impression on
the director during a class visit. IN HIS
WORDS: “I think about UVM often. I
appreciate my analytical education now
more than ever and have found it gives me
a leg up in my largely technical industry.
I miss the lake and cold winters. L.A. is
really warm, just a heads up.”
Kristin Hubert ’00
WORK: Principal at Northwest Primary
School (Rutland City). Winner Distinguished Principal Award from the National
Association of Elementary Schools Principals. HOME: Rutland City, Vermont. UVM
DAYS: Worked at Recreational Sports
and as a lifeguard at the UVM pool. Participated in mentoring/tutoring programs
and volunteered in community elementary schools. IN HER WORDS: “I love collaborating with teachers as they do the
important work of molding young minds.
As a teacher, I made a positive impact on
the students I taught. As a principal, I have
the ability to make a positive impact on
my school and the community.”
Achier Mou ’06
WORK: Principal, Aweil Health Sciences
Training Institute. It’s the first post-secondary health training institution in the
South Sudan city, part of an effort to com-
34 |
V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
Jamie Christian ’94
bat the severe shortage of health workers
in the country. HOME: Aweil, Northern
Bahr El Ghazal State, South Sudan. He’s
finally close again to his mother, from
whom he was separated—unsure if she’d
survived—for twenty years. UVM DAYS:
A “Lost Boy of Sudan,” Mou started his
time at UVM as a custodian. As a student,
he helped lead UVM to divest from Sudan.
IN HIS WORDS: “I had always thought I
would come back to South Sudan to help in
the field of health and development. It was
going to be the time when the country had
straightened out its priorities and all the
agendas had been set.”
Emily Berliet ’08
WORK: Founder of the CSR Alliance, a corporate social responsibility and sustainability advisory firm specializing in social
entrepreneurship, social innovation, and
social business. HOME: Lyon, France, until
she moves to Paris this fall. UVM DAYS:
Vice president of SGA and co-coordinator of the Big Buddies program. IN HER
WORDS: “Social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. We
create value while fostering a strong social
and environmental impact, proving to the
world that making profits can be compatible with bettering society and the planet.”
Richard Bass ’66
WORK: Founder and president of Cardinal
Shoe Corporation, one of the largest manufacturers of ballet pointe shoes in the
world. The patented slippers are shipped
to more than ninety countries and used
by American Ballet Theater, the Royal Ballet, and the Bolshoi Ballet to name a few.
HOME: Salem, New Hampshire. UVM
DAYS: In between “studying like it was my
job,” he learned to ski. IN HIS WORDS: “In
1962 I went into the shoe manufacturing
business with my father. Now my son, Jon,
and daughter, Jill, have joined the team
and they plan on extending our history
well into this century.”
WORK: Christian and his wife run Karisia
Walking Safari, using camels to explore
northern Kenya—rich with wildlife and
far out of reach of vehicles. HOME: Laikipia, at the base of Mt. Kenya, where his
children go to school. UVM DAYS: Credits profs Ross Bell, David Hirth, and others
for a solid grounding in natural history.
IN HIS WORDS: “On the property we currently have hundreds of elephants—and
lions that are trying to eat our camels. Like
any business we face some mundane challenges, but rural Africa does also present
some interesting obstacles. We’ve had to
consult a witchdoctor to dissipate an argument between two employees. The night
before last a leopard ate one of the dogs
that guard the camels.”
Alana Chain ’06
WORK: Senior construction manager on
solar energy projects with Barron Partners. HOME: Boston, Massachusetts. UVM
DAYS: Chain recalls quickly falling for the
university and Burlington when she visited as a prospective student. She studied
French and political science, counting Professor Garrison Nelson as inspiration, mentor, and friend. IN HER WORDS: “You can’t
help but feel fulfilled when you’re standing
in that field among thousands of modules
that were once just a concept in a CAD file
and know that by harnessing this natural
source of power we’re not only reducing
energy costs, but most importantly; we’re
combating greenhouse gas emissions,
reducing our dependence on fossil fuels,
and creating jobs in the process.”
Ryan Fletcher ’02
WORK: Principal, Piedmont Middle
School, recently ranked the #1 public
middle school in the country. Previously,
taught math and science in Palo Alto,
California. HOME: Oakland, California.
UVM DAYS: An elementary education
major and human development minor,
Fletcher still found time for plenty of ski
days and “seeing live music all around
the East Coast.” IN HIS WORDS: “My
Gulnar Pothiawala
Odera ’03 MD ’08
WORK: Cardiologist at Kaiser Permanente in Antioch,
California. HOME: San Francisco. UVM DAYS: Favorite
hangouts ranged from the
Molecular Genetics labs to
Muddy Waters coffeehouse.
Favorite activities: intramural soccer, running, studying
in the medical library in the
dead of winter. “UVM was and
still is an idyllic place to go to
school,” the Essex, Vermont,
native says. IN HER WORDS:
“What I enjoy most about my
job is the variety: I see patients
in clinic, I supervise stress
tests, read echocardiograms,
EKGs, place pacemakers, and
take care of patients who are
hospitalized with more acute
cardiac needs. The most challenging part is making sure I’m
making the right decisions for
my patients.”
DEANNE FITZMAURICE
proudest professional moments have
been reading letters that I receive from
former students. In this line of work,
there is nothing better or more fulfilling
than hearing how students feel that you
have supported them along their educational journey.”
Rose Levy Berenbaum ’65
WORK: Cookbook author and designer
of bakeware products. A three-time James
Beard Award winner, she has authored
ten best-selling cookbooks with an eleventh on the way and hosted her own PBS
cooking series. HOME: Hope, New Jersey.
IN HER OWN WORDS: “In a food class
at UVM I learned how to make lemon
meringue pie, and when I tried making it
on my own in a friend’s house it would
not thicken. It turned out it was the hard
water, and that was the beginning of my
investigative approach to baking—the
merging of science, art, craft, precision,
and instructional and creative writing—
all the things I love.”
Mark Biedron ’74
WORK: President, New Jersey State Board
of Education. Co-Founder, The Willow
School in Gladstone, New Jersey, home of
LEED gold and platinum facilities where
“children discover who they are, the joy
of learning, and the wonder of the environment around them.” HOME: Pottersville, New Jersey. UVM DAYS: Majored
in business, enjoyed skiing at Mad River,
hiking in the mountains, and exploring
the countryside around Starksboro. IN
HIS WORDS: “Education is my focus. It
is the process for real and lasting change.
In K-12 education, you are designing the
VQ
future.”
FA L L 2 0 1 5 |
35
FACES
FUTURE
of our
Sustainability to workplace dynamics
to mathematics pedagogy, new faculty
advance UVM’s research tradition
REALITIES OF CHANGE
Energy expert Jennie Stephens has led her students to the edge of a dam. They’re standing on top of
Green Mountain Power’s hydroelectric plant #19 along Route 2A in Essex, Vermont. It’s a sunny morning, but a sparkling torrent of water pouring over the concrete spillway is strangely silent. It’s March
and in Vermont that means winter. With a closer look, it’s clear that the whitewater is frozen solid.
The course is “Natural Resources 385: Energy System Transitions.” Stephens’s graduate students,
in wool hats and Ray-Bans, chat amiably about the falling cost of solar panels and ask their tour
guide, GMP plant operator Bob Young, questions about this power station and carbon markets. It’s
a cheerful scene.
But Stephens, hired last year as the Blittersdorf Professor of Sustainability Science & Policy—
with appointments in both the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and the
College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences—wants her students to take a closer look at the
realities of our energy situation.
“We know fossil fuels are limited, and we’re eventually going to move away from them to renewables—but the important thing to consider is that an energy system transition is not primarily a
technological change,” she says. “Some may think it’s about switching from coal to wind—but more
fundamentally it requires deep cultural change.”
With ever-rising global demand for energy, land, and materials, “and with an expanding population—it’s impossible,” she says, “unless we voluntarily limit consumption.” In other words, while
humanity may benefit from technological innovation, cleaner power, and improvements in efficiency, there is, finally, no engineering fix to problems from “our ideology of endless economic
growth,” she says. Which is why her own social science research explores the interconnections
between emerging social movements “that aim for human well-being instead of growth,” and new
expectations for energy production and consumption—both in Germany and Vermont. “We can’t
know the future,” Jennie Stephens says, but she and her students are looking closely for ways to
avoid a drop-off into what she calls “overwhelming unsustainability.” J.B.
36 |
V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
BY | JOSHUA BROWN,
JON REIDEL G’06,
AMANDA WAITE ’02 G’04
PRINCIPLE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY |
ANDY DUBACK
FA L L 2 0 1 5 |
37
E
EVOLUTION ON FAST FORWARD
volution is not just a theory to plant biologist Steve
Keller. He watches it happen. “Most people think of species evolving very gradually,” he says. And, indeed, sometimes change within a lineage of plants is imperceptible over
millions of years. But when environmental conditions shift
quickly—as with human-caused climate change or when
people carry species across oceans—“evolution can happen
fast too, year-to-year, generation-to-generation,” he says.
In his work, studying poplar trees and other plants, “evolution is not a cartoon that people debate philosophically,”
Keller says. “Exploring evolution is an experimental science
just as much as any other science.”
“The key is that it’s measurable,” he says. “I can go out
there and quantify and measure it.” Which is exactly what
he and his students do. “We’ve looked at specific genes in
balsam poplar involved in light and temperature sensing,
and have found rapid evolutionary changes in these genes
during the range expansion of the species since the last ice
age,” he says.
In other words, trees can change and move fast. Not
quite so fast as the Ents in The Lord of the Rings, walking on
huge bark-covered feet, but almost. At the end of the last
ice age, about 20,000 years ago, much of North America
was scoured to bedrock. Then, as temperatures warmed,
the trees, squeezed into the south, started marching north
again, bits of their DNA getting constantly rejiggered by
natural selection as they recolonized millions of square
miles in a few thousand years.
Today, balsam poplar is the hardwood found farthest
north in North America—and a keystone forest species across
the whole continent, taking Keller to field sites from Alaska
to Vermont. Back in the lab, he uses an advanced technology
called “Genotype by Sequencing,” or GBS, to discover slight
genetic differences between hundreds of poplar trees from
many different regions. “We’re looking across the entire poplar genome,” he says, “for signals of adaptation to climate.”
Keller and his team have focused on the southern edge of
the poplar’s range to better understand the genetics of trees
already adapted to the warmest growing season poplars currently face. Now they’re combining this knowledge with
landscape modeling to predict which stocks of these economically and ecologically important trees might be able
to keep pace—as global warming gathers unprecedented
speed. J.B.
I
magine that you’ve lost your hard drive. Argh.
There goes your term paper. Now jump forward
into a foreseeable future and imagine that you’ve
lost a hard drive—that’s wired into your brain.
There goes…what? Your memories? The behavior
modification software that conCHARTING BOUNDARIES
trols your heroin addiction?
“If I am really tied in to my
iPhone—in the sense that it has
taken over some of my cognitive functioning—
should it get a protective status now?” wonders
Randall Harp, assistant professor of philosophy.
“Should technologies have a moral and ethical status as part of me?”
As a teacher, Harp wants his students to think
deeply about questions like this—about what,
exactly, does “me” mean? And as a researcher, Harp
has thought deeply about how that me—that self
or “agent” as the philosopher-speak puts it—can be
understood to have chosen to act.
Harp tips back in his chair and directs his eyes
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V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
toward the ceiling when he is thinking. Musing out
loud, he quotes famed philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein from memory: “What is left over if I subtract the fact that my arm goes up from the fact that
I raise my arm?”
Far from daydreaming, Harp’s field of action theory has pressing relevance for guiding new developments in behavioral science, neurobiology, and law.
“If you hit somebody while having a seizure, generally we say, ‘Oh that’s unfortunate, but that’s not
your fault,’” Harp says, but figuring out “what the
boundaries of agency are is very important. A growing strategy in law—neuro-law—is to reduce all of
the things we do, to some extent, to something like
seizures.” Not guilty, your honor, my brain did it.
“Is it taking away free choice if you know how
someone is going to choose based on the way their
brain works?” Randall Harp wonders. “These are the
kinds of questions that we are going to need to face
up to, the more advanced our behavioral sciences
get. Asking them is my job.”
J.B.
FA L L 2 0 1 5 |
39
to suck a milkshake through a straw,”
“ It’ssayshard
Adrian Del Maestro, assistant professor of
physics. Not so with helium. When cooled to just
above absolute zero, it forms a bizarre state of matter, called a superfluid, “that has no friction,” Del
Maestro says. “It’s a perfect liquid.” Once
SMALL MATTER
it has been stirred, a closed ring filled with
superfluid helium will continue circulating for months.
Now, “think about a wide river heading into a
narrow canyon,” says Del Maestro. “What’s it going
to do?” Common sense tells us that liquids speed up
as the channel containing them tightens. But what
if a faucet were so amazingly tiny that only a few
atoms of helium could squeeze through its opening
at once? There, slippery perfection—and common
sense—reach their quantum limits, it seems.
According to a longstanding model of quantum
mechanics, once the pipe shrinks to the nanoscale,
the bizarre behavior of superfluid helium should
become even more odd: far from speeding up, it
should actually slow down. For more than seventy years, scientists have been studying the flow
of helium through ever-smaller pipes. Now, Del
Maestro and a team of researchers from Canada
and Germany have successfully created the world’s
smallest faucet: a pore through silicon nitride that
is less than thirty atoms wide. In results published
in May, in the journal Science Advances, Del Maestro
and the other researchers report that the flow of
helium through this microscopic pipe does, indeed,
appear to slow down.
Del Maestro used computer simulations on
the Vermont Advanced Computing Core at UVM
to understand just how small the faucet will have
to be before this new physics fully emerges. “This
‘Luttinger liquid,’ as it’s sometimes called, is a very
strange state of matter,” he says. “Because it exists
in strictly one dimension, it’s not really a liquid, it’s
not really a superfluid, it’s not really a solid—it’s
everything, all at once.”
“We’re almost there,” he adds. “This knowledge
could lead to novel technologies including ultrahigh-precision rotation sensors with application to
the GPS system.”
J.B.
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V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
A
t first glance, Katie Gough’s work life
is marked by the disparate. Even her
resume includes academic positions in
three different countries, in three different
disciplines. Now, as resident dramaturge
in UVM’s Department of TheUNLIKELY COUSINS
atre, she’s enjoying her role as
“the academic wing to a creative arts department, where
everyone is a designer or playwright or
acting teacher.” It may be a position that’s
different from her peers in Royall Tyler,
but she’s in an environment, she says, that
“feeds my theoretical interests really well.”
Those theoretical interests happen to
be rooted in finding connections among
unlikely subjects. She’s published a book
on relationships between Irish and African-American culture, Kinship and Performance in the Black and Green Atlantic. She’s
also at work on a project that explores the
relationship between medieval and digital
performance and culture, two areas that
seemingly have nothing in common, but
in fact, she says, mirror and relate to each
other in interesting ways.
Broadly, her work focuses on “people,
performances, objects, or time periods
that don’t seem to have a lot to say to each
other, or that you wouldn’t think had
anything in common,” she says. “I think
there’s always an ethical imperative in my
work to see interconnections and relationships across cultures, situations, people
who maybe wouldn’t think of themselves
as the same. Yet, often times these diverse
cultures and people were involved in
similar projects and worked within and
against similar political structures. Those
principles are an effective means of seeking common ground.”
A.W.
FA L L 2 0 1 5 |
41
A
WORKPLACE YIN-YANG
I
f Patrick Garcia, assistant professor of management, finds himself feeling a little depressed
while researching employee aggression and
deviance in the workplace he can always turn to
his other area of expertise: career development
and self-efficacy.
“My research interests involve two parallel
research streams,” says Garcia. “I call this my
yin and yang. People often ask me how I got
into doing research on the ‘dark side’ of organizational behavior. Looking back, I guess it
has something to do with my background and
training in clinical psychology, where we usually focused on psychopathology and mental
illness.”
Garcia became even more intrigued with
the yin side of his research after working as an
employee in organizations in the Philippines.
“Like most of us, I encountered my share of
abusive, aggressive, and dominant colleagues
42 |
V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
and supervisors,” he says. “These experiences
further motivated me to find answers to the
questions ‘why do they behave the way they
do?’ and ‘what happens to the rest of us if they
behave that way?’”
Garcia hopes to produce evidence-based
approaches for how to detect, prevent, and/
or minimize aggressive behavior at work. “My
ultimate goal is to be able to use what I find in
my own research to develop specific training
programs that organizations can implement to
manage abusive supervision.”
As for the yang side of his research, Garcia
is exploring how employees adapt to the everchanging career landscape and how adolescents
and older workers make decisions regarding
their future career goals. “The answers to these
questions would have important implications
for career counselors, educators, students, and
employees,” he says. J.R.
ABOVE: SALLY MCCAY
s a high school math teacher, Carmen
Petrick Smith found that her students
learned geometric principles more easily
when she incorporated physical movements into her lesson plans. Today, as an
assistant professor of mathematics education, she is reimagining what a
MATH THROUGH MOVEMENT
math class looks like based on a
similar question: What if instead
of manipulating symbols on a paper, you
manipulated your body?
Her latest research in the Journal of
Mathematical Behavior shows significant
gains in the understanding of angles and
angle measurements by elementary school
students who performed body-based tasks
while interacting with a Kinect for Windows mathematics program. “Maybe they
don’t know the words quite yet, but they
have a way to express it using their body
that they didn’t have before when they
were sitting in a row of desks looking up at
the teacher and searching for an answer.”
Smith and her research team engaged
thirty third- and fourth-grade students
in a series of tasks that involved moving
their arms to form angles projected on a
large Kinect screen that incudes a motion
sensor input device that allows people to
interact with computers based on their
natural movements.
“We’re finding that these kinds of
activities are giving students new ways to
think about mathematics and new ways of
expressing their ideas,” says Smith, who
once taught students how to write geometric transformations by having them do the
Electric Slide on a giant coordinate plane
she placed on a dance floor. “Our hope is
to continue to develop these activities and
support teachers in integrating them effectively in the classroom.” J.R.
CHEMISTRY’S CODES
“T
he typical image of a chemist is a guy wearing a lab
coat, shaking a flask,” says Jianing Li with a big smile,
“that’s not me.” Li is a chemist, but she does her experiments in a virtual way—simulating chemical processes
on supercomputers, including on the Vermont Advanced
Computing Core at UVM.
Her goal: “to help decipher the sugar code,” she says.
Besides nucleotides (like DNA) and amino acids (that form
proteins), sugars are considered “the third alphabet of life,”
Li explains. For example, “the sugar coating on a disease
virus recognizes specific proteins on the surface of the
human cell,” she says.
Li’s research simulates the motions of atoms in these
sugars and proteins as they interact. “If we can block parts
of these interactions, we might come up with new ways to
treat diseases. But these molecules are super-large. Even
with a supercomputer, it’s impossible to see all the atomic
detail at once,” Li says. “So in my lab we are coming up with
a smart way to adjust the resolution of the model to study
different parts of the interaction.”
Li grew up in China, a few hours from Hong Kong, and
went to college near Shanghai before coming to the United
States to complete her doctorate at Columbia. Her parents
are doctors who practice traditional Chinese medicine.
“The reason I chose chemical physics is because when I was
young I loved how my parents grew and prepared different
herbs. You drink the black soup and you can get better. For
a kid, it’s like magic. So I became interested in how they did
this. I wanted to learn this magic.”
“A goal for me would be to marry computational chemistry with traditional Chinese medicine—but we’re not
there yet!” Li says. “Someday we might be able to isolate
each compound, each molecule, but it’s very difficult to
do.” In the meantime, she carries a bit of her upbringing
into her workday routine: “I drink tea everyday,” she says.
“Monday green tea; Tuesday black tea; and flower teas over
three or four different days.” She swirls a pale-green liquid
around in an oversized cup and holds it up to the light. “See
what I’m drinking this out of? It’s a beaker actually.”
J.B.
CLASS NOTES
Life beyond graduation
an amazing trip to Cuba
“inAfter
March, I am now planning
a road trip across the United
States with my daughter and
grandkids. California to Vermont
and it should be interesting­—
either bickering or bonding.”
­—Class of ’61
Alumni reconnect at a Class of 1985 gathering.
Photos of Homecoming/Reunion Weekend 2015: uvm.edu/vq.
33-64
Green & Gold Reunion
September 23–25, 2016
If you are interested in planning your upcoming
reunion, email [email protected].
Send your news to—
UVM Alumni Association
411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401
alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes
36
Send your news to—
UVM Alumni Association
411 Main Street
Burlington, VT 05401
Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes
41
Francis Nye called in from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to say that at
97 he is physically unable to attend
the October Homecoming activities but wishes
every attendee a most memorable weekend.
Send your news to—
UVM Alumni Association
411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401
Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes
42
Gwendolyn “Gwen” Brown, 93,
died peacefully on Monday, April 13,
2015 in Milford, Massachusetts. She
received her bachelor’s degree in teaching from
UVM, where she served as class secretary. Gwen
taught in Newport, Vermont, where she met her
future husband, Arthur “Slim” Brown, whom she
married in 1944. They settled and raised a family
in Milton, Vermont. Gwen had been very active in
her church and the Milton Historical Society and
kept up with her many friends and family.
Send your news to—
UVM Alumni Association
411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401
Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes
43
While doing my spring house cleaning (yes, I still do that!), I forgot I was
93 and did something stupid. My
stupidity resulted in a hospital stay plus rehab of
over four weeks. Not a happy time, I had a double whammy: compression fractures of the spine
with the usual spasms and an enflamed colon.
One malady would have been enough. The good
news is that I am getting better slowly, but surely.
44 |
V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
IAN THOMAS JANSEN-LONNQUIST
FA L L 2 0 1 5 |
45
| CLASS NOTES
I heard from my loyal contributor, Daan Zwick
this week. He reports that he and his wife, Janis,
have made a big change by moving from their
lovely, lifelong home in a most beautiful and rustic setting to the top floor (eighth) of a large apartment dwelling of about 125 units. You can be sure
Daan will make the most of his new lifestyle with
Janis by his side. I have heard from Mary Beth
Bloomer recently and Dr. Art Wolk MD’43. They
live at the lovely Gables near me. Art’s son, David
Wolk ’75, G’77, is the esteemed president of the
newly named Castleton University. I could not
resist mentioning this since it is a source of great
excitement and pride to me as a former educator
at Castleton State College, just three hundred students when I began teaching there in 1958. About
thirty of those students petitioned then President
Dundas to have French taught. I took up the challenge and enjoyed every minute of it. This was
the first time language was taught at Castleton
and by a classics major from UVM. I believe there
were about five language teachers when I retired
who offered courses in Spanish and German as
well. The new name augurs well for the future of
this fine institution which has grown by leaps and
bounds under David’s presidency. Please send me
some news. No matter how unimportant it may
seem to you. We all care.
Send your news to—
June Hoffman Dorion
Maples, Apt.114, 3 General Wing Road
Rutland, VT 05701
[email protected]
44
Rose Eisman Boyarsky and
Saul Boyarsky ’44, MD’46 write,
“We have been in a continuing care
retirement community for two years now, having
moved there at age 90. We met Penelope Easton
who moved to the same place several years before.
We celebrated our 70th wedding anniversary this
year. Are any of the class of ’44 or ’45 still around?”
Send your news to—
UVM Alumni Association
411 Main Street
Burlington, VT 05401
Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes
45
Send your news to—
UVM Alumni Association
411 Main Street
Burlington, VT 05401
Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes
46
Hattie Wright shares, “Alice Miller
Wright died January 19, 2015. She
had a career in teaching and as
state nutritionist. She often appeared on WCAX’s
‘Across the Fence.’ Alice, her husband, David
Wright ’44, and six children ran a jersey farm in
Middlebury. She also taught at Middlebury Union
46 |
V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
High School.”
Send your news to—
Mrs. Harriet Bristol Saville
468 Church Road, #118, Colchester, VT 05446
[email protected]
47
Send your news to—
Louise Jordan Harper
15 Ward Avenue
South Deerfield, MA 01373
[email protected]
48
Vivian DuBrule Ells passed away
on May 5, 2015 in Northampton,
Massachusetts. Vivian and Bernard
Ells of Essex Junction had five children and a very
rewarding life. After her youngest child went off
to first grade, Vivian went back to school herself.
She earned a master’s degree in education from
the University of Massachusetts and then worked
as the reading supervisor for the town of Williamsburg, Massachusetts. After retirement, Vivian moved to Largo, Florida, and enjoyed the sunshine for 20 years. Recently, due to health concerns,
Vivian moved back to Massachusetts to be closer
to her children. She never forgot her experiences
and the good times she had at UVM. She was very
proud to be an alumna. Louise Shopis Bedarfas
writes, “After graduation I went to Washington, D.C.,
since I had my degree in political science. There I
met my wonderful international science professor,
Robert Eli Long, who suggested I apply to the Central Intelligence Agency. I did and became a counter intelligence agent in the Baltic Division since I
knew Lithuanian. We were sending displaced men,
volunteers from the Baltics, to their countries partisans, all top secret work. I married one of the volunteers and we moved to California. I bought a
franchise from creator Glen Bell and a 14-unit apartment house which I still have. During this time I had
a son, John, and daughter, Laurie. John’s son graduated from Palos Verdes High School as valedictorian
along with four honors in other subjects. My daughter, Laurie, is very successful in real estate in Texas,
where her daughter attends the University of Texas.”
Send your news to—
UVM Alumni Association
411 Main Street
Burlington, VT 05401
Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes
49
Send your news to—
Gladys Clark Severance
2179 Roosevelt Highway
Colchester, VT 05446
[email protected]
50
Doris Jones Fafunwa writes, this
would be my 65th Reunion and I am
sorry to miss it as I returned to Lagos,
Nigeria in mid-August. It is always wonderful to see
family and friends here and I have visited in Penn-
UVM ALUMNI
ASSOCIATION
GREEN
&
GOLD
Connecting
alumni ages 60+
alumni.uvm.edu/
getinvolved/affinity
sylvania, Vermont and Massachusetts, enjoyed professional productions of Romeo & Juliet and Man of
La Mancha and the lovely walk over the Bridge of
Flowers in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. Several
friends in the United States have kindly supported
our project for street children as well as our Braille
Centre which produces textbooks for students all
over Nigeria and trains visually-impaired adults on
computer. Warm greetings to all my classmates and
anyone else who may remember me. My email is
[email protected] and I would be delighted to
hear from you!
Send your news to—
Hedi Stoehr Ballantyne
20 Kent Street
Montpelier, VT 05602
[email protected]
51
Claire Fink and Dick Fink wrote
that both of their daughters bought
homes near their place in Sarasota.
Dick plays tennis three days a week and said his
legs are good. The only problem he notes is that
everyone he plays with is much younger than he
is. Good for you, Dick! Carolyn Lindy Nelback
McClintock wrote that her husband, Russell
McClintock ’52, passed away on March 4, 2014.
He is dearly missed by Carolyn, their four children, and seven grandchildren. One of the granddaughters followed in her grandparents’ footsteps
and graduated from UVM. Another granddaughter enlisted in the Navy with a concentration in
aviation and married a naval flight engineer. Carolyn continues to live in Enfield, Connecticut, and
still maintains the family homestead in Vermont.
Renee Schulman ’49 wrote, “Sadly, I report the
death of my husband, Bernard Schulman, who
died on May 9, 2015. Bernie attended UVM on the
G.I. Bill and graduated with a major in mechanical engineering. Later he earned a master’s degree
in electrical engineering at Yale. We lived in Morristown, New Jersey, for almost 50 years where he
worked at Bell Labs and then Piccating Arsenal. We
moved to Birmingham, Alabama, six years ago. He
is survived by me, two children, and five grandchildren.” Charlotte R. Bostwick of New Milford, Connecticut, writes, “Happy trails!” Harry and Beth
Lohr McMarthy moved recently from their home
in Quechee, Vermont, to a senior living community called River’s Woods in Exeter, New Hampshire.
Dick Aplin and his wife live there as well. I guess
many of us are downsizing and moving to these
types of communities. My home is now a duplex at
Wake Robin in Shelburne, Vermont, which is a Continuing Care Residential Community.
Send your news to—
Valerie Meyer Chamberlain
52 Crabapple Drive, Shelburne, VT 05482
[email protected]
52
Mary Dustin Hutchinson reports
that four generations of her immediate family have graduated from
the same high school (Randolph High School) and
UVM. A daughter-in-law, Nancy Giles Hutchinson ’79, did also. She recently attended the graduation of granddaughter Annie Hutchinson ’15
who graduated from UVM magna cum laude. The
other family alumni include Clifford Dustin ’19,
Mary D Hutchinson ’52, Mark Hutchinson ’78,
Marla Hutchinson ’78, Abagail Hutchinson ’12,
and Annie Hutchinson ’15. “How the university
has grown,” Mary notes, “I would have difficulty
finding my way around! Hello to all my classmates
of the class of 1952.” Katie Berger Saunders ’79
wrote, “My dad, Lawrence C. ‘Larry’ Berger, a
UVM graduate of the School of Business Administration, died at the age of 84, in June 2015.”
Send your news to—
UVM Alumni Association
411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401
Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes
53
54
Send your news to—
Nancy Hoyt Burnett
729 Stendhal Lane
Cupertino, CA 95014
Send your news to—
UVM Alumni Association
411 Main Street
Burlington, VT 05401
Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes
55
Norman O. Stevens died on July
2, 2015. Norman taught agriculture
at Whitingham, Chelsea and Chester High Schools. While in Chester he received his
master’s in education administration at Keene
State College. He went on to be the principal of
Green Mountain Union High School in Chester, Vermont, and then as house master at Mill River High
School. He held various positions in the Vermont
Headmaster’s Association. In 2012, he was proud
to be named to the Vermont Principal’s Association
Hall of Fame. Norman retired in 1993 to Whitingham. George Donald Ewins, Sr. died peacefully
on July 21, 2015, after a struggle with Alzheimer’s
disease. After graduation he moved to New York
City, where he worked while earning an MBA in
finance from New York University. He was accepted
into the Chase Manhattan Bank training program
after graduation and went on to become a portfolio manager for the Mobil Oil Corporation. He
capped off his Wall Street career at Loeb Rhoades
& Company. George’s love of his home state pulled
him from back from Wall Street to Vermont in 1978.
He and his wife Maxie settled in Shelburne, and
George established the state’s first Merrill Lynch
office, in Burlington. George retired in 2001, after
22 years of helping people achieve financial success. To read the full obituary, visit www.uvm.edu/
vq. Mark Rosenblatt passed away in Los Angeles this past July. Barbara and Dick Fallon write,
“We have been married for 63 years. We have three
adult children. Debbie, 62, married with one son.
Elizabeth 59, was recently widowed. Her husband,
Allen, 59, died in April of pancreatic cancer — our
hearts are broken. Jim 55, is married with two children (one married). Dick was in sales and traveled.
We lived in South Bend, Cleveland (Bay Village) and
Atlanta (Stone Mountain).We left all kids married
in the Atlanta area and retired to Sarasota, Florida. Built a home and lived there for 33 years. Then,
two years ago we sold the house and moved into
a retirement community 20 miles south in Venice,
Creative Community
Imagine dining each night with your neighbors who are
writers, musicians, professors, activists, and artists. These
are just some of the people who live at Wake Robin. Be
part of a community that dances, debates, paints, writes
and publishes, works with computers, practices carpentry
and makes music.
Live the life you choose—in a vibrant lifecare community
of interesting people. We’re happy to tell you more. Visit
our website or give us a call today to schedule a tour.
802.264.5100 / wakerobin.com
200 WA K E R O B I N D R I V E , S H E L B U R N E , V E R M O N T
| CLASS NOTES
Florida. It has been a great move. At 84 and 83 we
are in pretty good health, and enjoying our life. It
has been good to us.”
Send your news to—
Jane Morrison Battles
Apt. 125A, 500 East Lancaster Avenue
Wayne, PA 19087
[email protected]
Hal Lee Greenfader
Apt. 1, 805 South Le Doux Road
Los Angeles, CA 90035
[email protected]
56
Linda Pattison Banta writes,
“After 33 years at our current home
in Orangevale, we decided it was
time to make a change, so we are moving to the
Northern California coast to lovely Fort Bragg.
Any UVM alumni who would like to experience
beauty at its best are welcome to visit us at: 200
S. Whipple St., Ft. Bragg, CA 95437. Never fear—
we still visit Vermont as our daughter lives in Bennington and is on faculty at Williams College in
Massachusetts. Our two sons live in Colorado
and Nevada respectively so the family is shared
by much of the country. I retired nearly 10 years
ago from Sierra College biology faculty; Andy
is retired faculty of engineering from California
State University, Sacramento. Who else remembers and misses ‘sugaring off’ in March?”
Send your news to—
Jane K. Stickney
32 Hickory Hill Road, Williston, VT 05495
[email protected]
57
Robert “Bob” Wolfe and Joan Wolfe
write, “We just spent a great week visiting with Don Greenhouse and his
wife, Kathy, at their Chatauqua, New York, home.
Good thing we still have our long term memory
faculties. Went all the way back to our first week at
UVM in September, 1953.”
Send your news to—
UVM Alumni Association
411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401
Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes
58
Judy Clark Gibson writes, “I’m still
enjoying a busy, satisfying, small
town life in Canton, New York, including a happy relationship with my partner David
Nelson, a retired lawyer and family court judge. I’ve
stepped down from several volunteer activities but
find time for my Unitarian Universalist Church, the
public library, some travel, and my flower gardens.
My two sons and their families live in Weston, Florida, and Potomac, Maryland. The first of my four
grandchildren is off to Colgate this fall. UVM was on
his short list—maybe the other three will be interested. I am delighted to be in touch frequently with
classmates Carolyn Wall, CeCe Lindberg, and
Terry Siegel and happily read all the 1958 news.”
Send your news to—
UVM Alumni Association
411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401
Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes
59
Elliott A. Brown, originally from
Glens Falls, New York, recently created the first professorship in the
Department of Political Science, named the Elliott
A. Brown Green and Gold Professor of Law, Politics, and Political Behavior. A political science
major at UVM, as a student Elliott served with
distinction as vice-president of the Student Government Association, a member of Gold Key, Key
and Serpent, and Boulder societies, and was the
first recipient of the Warren R. and Mildred Austin
Prize for International Peace and Security. Elliott,
now retired, enjoyed a long and distinguished
career in Washington, D.C. in the United States
Department of Justice. While on my way to a high
school 60th Reunion in Concord, New Hampshire,
my wife Judy and I visited with Jerry Heller and
his wife, Anne Beaudin Heller ’72, on May 25 at
their lovely and gracious summer home in South
Dartmouth, Massachusetts. We had a great time
together, and Jerry and I reminisced about old
times and certainly some old friends.
Send your news to­—
Henry Shaw, Jr.
112 Pebble Creek Road, Columbia, SC 29223
[email protected]
60
Sue Alenick writes, “I’ve recently,
finally published an ‘autobiographical cookbook’ called Menus for a
Month of Sundays. It’s a celebration of memorable
Sunday dinners, which, un-strictly speaking don’t
have to be dinner or on Sunday.”
Send your news to—
UVM Alumni Association
411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401
Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes
61
Nancy Miller Kimball writes, “I selfpublished a book titled Possums to
Porcupines: The Wild Life of an Adirondack Rehabilitator based on my 14 years of experience as a home-based wildlife rehabilitator. You
can find more details at www.possumstoporcupines.com. My home is in the southern Adirondacks near Lake George and, at present, I have a
variety of animals in my care including two baby
mink.” Linda Hufnagel reports, “I have had a busy
and rewarding life as a faculty member at the University of Rhode Island, teaching cell and molecular biology courses and directing the research of
numerous graduate and undergraduate students.
However, now I am on phased retirement, with
one more year to go before I will be fully retired
from academia. I am already beginning a new
career as a ceramic artist! I have two grown daugh-
UVM ALUMNI
ASSOCIATION
GREEN
&
GOLD
Connecting
alumni ages 60+
alumni.uvm.edu/
getinvolved/affinity
ters, one of whom writes for television and just had
her first baby. My other daughter has been incubating, too, as the director of Fertilab, an incubator
for entrepreneurship in Eugene, Oregon. I would
love to hear from all my old friends from UVM! My
email address is [email protected].” Lynda Foley
Blevins writes, “After an amazing trip to Cuba in
March, I am now planning a road trip across the
United States with my daughter and grandkids.
California to Vermont and it should be interesting
—either bickering or bonding. The rest of the year
I have been volunteering teaching English literacy
to a Mexican mother and her 7-year-old daughter. I’m still playing tennis and have added yoga
to my activities.” Cynthia Beilig Bendelac had no
news she wanted to send, but said: “You can just
say that I continue!” Sheila Whitney Mable writes,
“Last October I decided to retire from teaching
English (writing and public speaking courses) at
Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, New Hampshire. After 51 years as an educator
at the high school and university levels (43 years
in Vermont), I wasn’t ready to give up teaching but
did so because of an early diagnosis of Parkinson’s
disease. I keep active, though, as New Hampshire
state president of Delta Kappa Gamma Society
International and as the Speechcraft coordinator in
the Karner Blue Toastmasters Club and mentor to
the Pleasant Street Toastmasters Club. It’s hard to
believe that my husband Duane and I will be celebrating our 53rd anniversary this summer and
our 10th year living near our two children, Marc
and Angela, and their families. We are particularly proud of our granddaughter, Rheanna Mable,
who is serving in the Peace Corps in southern Thailand.” Diane Germain ’64 writes, “My cousin, Bernard E. Germain passed away in his Colchester
home on February 18, 2015. He was a 1957 graduate of Cathedral High School in Burlington and a
proud graduate of UVM. He served for two years in
the United States Army at Governor’s Island, New
York. Bernard was a Vermont State Social Worker
for many years, serving diligently the children and
Frost Home and Museum. He is busier than he ever
was in his “working” life. He and his wife of thirty
years have a new granddaughter, Olivia, born in
Nairobi where her mom and dad live. David’s son
started a successful solar-powered drip irrigation
system business there and won several Pan-African awards for leadership in social venture capital business. Dad and son are proud that the State
of Vermont is the third most active solar-powered state relative to its population. Marcia Bickel
Coleman writes, “Phil and I have moved to Port
Townsend, Washington, to fulfill our dream of living on the water. We love it! Will be camping/hiking in the north Cascades in September with Sara
Jackson Simpson.” James Card writes, “I have
been driving or flying to Boston from Florida every
three or four months to visit family. (As I write this,
three grandchildren, soon to be four.) On my last
drive south, Loren Disque ’63 and his lovely wife,
Pat, were kind enough to invite me to stay overnight at their home south of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Wonderful visit. What wonderful hosts! My
wife and I (above trip was solo) visited with Al LeBlanc and his wife, Siriporn, in Bangkok earlier this
year. Wonderful dinner at a restaurant called “Cabbages and Condoms.” Great food and companionship. Not sure where the completely misleading
name came from. I should write a longer note-but
it is kind of a daunting to compress over a half century of a pretty good life (mostly) into a few paragraphs. Looking forward to the next Reunion. As
youth of the state. Later, he retired from years of
work at IBM in Essex Junction. In his retirement he
worked part time for the Colchester School District until just a few years ago. He put his education
and personal gifts to good purpose.” George Rioch
Anthonisen writes, “Professor Paul Aschenbach
not only introduced me to sculpture, but personally escorted me to New York to show me where I
should study. I continue to work as a professional
sculptor. Most recently, six of my bronzes were
exhibited in ‘The Rodin Legacy’, James A. Michener
Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, in conjunction with a larger exhibition ‘Rodin: The Human
Experience—selections from the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Collections’. Following the Rodin show,
three bronzes were included in ‘When I Was Here’,
an exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary designation of Augustus Saint Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, New Hampshire. Visitors are welcome to our home and studio. We are 90 minutes
from New York, one hour from Philadelphia, and
45 minutes from Princeton. My website is www.
ganthonisen.com.” Ruth Clifford Engs’ latest book
will be of interest to World War II history buffs: The
Field Hospital That Never Was: Diary of Lt. Col. Karl D.
Macmillan’s, M.D., 96th Field Hospital in China-IndiaBurma Theater 1945, WWII is available at amazon.
com and Barnes & Noble.
Send your news to—
Steve Berry
8 Oakmount Circle
Lexington, MA 02420
[email protected]
Pillsbury_SouthOpenHouse_Sept_4.5x4.45.pdf
62
Janie Heller Goldstein shares, “We
are here in Denver and love living
in Colorado. I am still doing travel
and Joel is still practicing medicine full time, now
with the University of Colorado Medical Center. We
have three kids and a total of eight grandchildren
ranging in age from 1 to 17 years and all live in the
Boston area along with my 101-year-old mother. If
in our area, contact us. Enjoy life!”
Send your news to—
Patricia Hoskiewicz Allen
14 Stony Brook Drive
Rexford, NY 12148
[email protected]
63
Donald J. McFeeters G’86 was
awarded the 2015 Robert O. Sinclair Cup Award on May 9 in the
Grand Maple Ballroom of the UVM Davis Center.
The award honors retired faculty who served with
distinction and excellence in their profession, with
a record of service and commitment to the landgrant mission to serve the people of Vermont and
beyond. David Nichols now lives in Dorset, Vermont, after retiring from his position as head of
the development and trustee for the Bennington Area Habitat for Humanity and as trustee for
the Southern Vermont Arts Center and the Robert
are the couples above. Al should get the award for
who traveled the farthest! Sandra Timmerman
and I met up in New York City; first time seeing
each other in many years. Of course it was as if we
had just seen each other! After lunch and walking
along Fifth Avenue, we headed to the Penn Club
as the Alumni Association had an open house for
UVM graduates. The reception was well attended
and the UVMers were interesting to meet. Sandra and I were the only ones from the class of ’63.
However, The UVM Alumni Association has formed
a Green & Gold Affinity Group. The group will consist of UVM alumni age 60 and above. Its mission
is to connect us for social and educational purposes, concentrating in areas of the country where
more alumni reside. The group held a brunch on
campus on Sunday, October 4 at 10 a.m. For more
details reach out to Barbara Clark Kay ’67, uvm.
[email protected] or Anne Brown
’66, [email protected]. Plan on
attending a Green and Gold Affinity Group event
in your area. By the way, I had an interesting summer as well. In addition to several successful International Latin Ballroom Competitions, I took three
teenaged grand children to Italy for two weeks!
Hope to see you soon.
Send your news to—
Toni Citarella Mullins
210 Conover Lane
Red Bank, NJ 07701
[email protected]
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UVM ALUMNI
ASSOCIATION
| CLASS NOTES
64
Susan Weatherby Engbrecht and
her husband, Ron, are retired and
have purchased the house they have
been renting near Aviano Air Base. It is a lovely
home with a view of the mountains in the village
of San Giovanni de Polcenigo. They will split their
retirement time between Italy and Binghamton,
New York, in Sue’s family home. Doug Barrett
shared that he and Sally Barrett ’65 had all eleven
grandchildren together at their home in Simsbury,
Connecticut in June. A hectic, activity-filled wonderful time was had by all. Their grandson, Drew
Simeon, will be attending UVM as a freshman this
fall as a member of the lacrosse team. Sally keeps
busy with volunteer work at the local library and
Doug enjoys his golf and bike riding as well as staying busy with their families. Doug also commented
on how great our 50th Reunion was. Many fond
memories were brought back. They head back to
Jupiter in October for the winter. Valerie Felten
Robinson has a camp down the lake from us and
spends her summers there with her husband Robbie. They winter in Mexico. I have also seen Susan
Benton Prezzano.
Send your news to—
Susan Griesenbeck Barber
1 Oak Hill Road
P.O. Box 63, Harvard, MA 01451
[email protected]
65
Sharon Roberts Palmer tells us, “I
am a retired school media specialist. My family includes two wonderful daughters and six grandchildren. I am enjoying travel and my lovely home in Florida, a home
in Colorado and my camp on Lake Champlain. Life
is good!” Roger Pickar writes, “I continue to publish my GoofyAmerica.com newsletter and attack
art projects where I have definitely achieved mediocrity. Most of all my wife, Gloria, and I relish our
family. Oldest daughter, Amy, is the chief medical
officer for Google’s largest investment in healthcare. Sarah and her husband own and manage
five Floyds 99 Hair Parlors. Julie edits while Dr. Gloria has retired from her job as president and chief
academic officer of Pearson’s online education
company, 650 employees. Currently, we supervise no one and play with our five grandchildren.
Life is good in Orlando, Florida.” Rose Beranbaum
shares, “In the fall of 2015 I published my 10th
cookbook: The Baking Bible. It won the best baking
book from the International Association of Culinary
Professionals. My first book, The Cake Bible, published in 1988, is now in its 52nd printing. In May
2015 my first online class “Cookies” for Craftsy.com,
went live. And, before the end of 2015 my pie baking kit will be available in just about every Costco
in the country.” Ralph D’Altilia passed away on
June 24, 2015. Ralph lived in Coral Springs, Florida.
Mark Berson and his wife, Ellen, welcomed their
sixth grandchild on July 9, 2015, Catleya Ellen Berson of Truckee, California. All are doing well. She
50 |
V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
will be skiing soon. Guriana Hanson writes, “I am
currently retired for the third time. It may or may
not be permanent. I do spend my days volunteering at a mission that provides a clothes closet and
food for the needy in Cedar Rapids. Living here
allows us to see our granddaughters who are 8 and
5. They keep us young.”
Send your news to—
Colleen Denny Hertel
14 Graystone Circle, Winchester, MA 01890
[email protected]
GREEN
&
GOLD
Connecting
alumni ages 60+
alumni.uvm.edu/
getinvolved/affinity
66
50th Reunion
September 23–25, 2016
If you are interested in planning your upcoming
reunion, email [email protected]. Larry Miller
recently wrote that he and his wife are currently
living in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he is working
for the University of Arkansas for Medical Services
as senior psychiatrist and clinical professor of psychiatry. Larry served as editor of The Cynic and he
and some of his AEPI fraternity brothers are hoping to attend our 50th Reunion in 2016. Speaking
of our 50th, please give serious thought to joining
your classmates at this very special gathering! John
Beck and wife Sharon Peloquin ’67 have been
in Williamsburg, Virginia, since John’s 2003 retirement from ExxonMobil Corp. after a 34-year career.
They are relatively healthy and active with walking/jogging, tennis, Pickleball, yard work/gardening, bridge/poker, dine out/potluck dinner groups,
movies, attending College of William & Mary football/basketball games, volunteering at William &
Mary Art Museum, attending Williamsburg Community Theater and country club activities, and
visiting the historical triangle area of Jamestown,
Yorktown and Williamsburg. John has become a
Pickleball enthusiast, playing 4-5 times a week and
has medaled in regional/state age group Pickleball tournaments. They are avid large ship sea cruisers, traveling throughout the world, with over 300
nights at sea, primarily on Princess Cruise Lines
and Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary 2,
including eight transatlantic crossings. Their three
children and their families live in San Francisco and
Richmond, Virginia. Janet Ruth Hadda, Yiddish
professor, psychoanalyst, and biographer, died in
Los Angeles on June 23, 2015. Moving to UCLA in
1973 to start its Yiddish Program, she later became
the first tenured professor of Yiddish in the United
States. She initially developed a specialty in American Yiddish poetry, particularly the works of Yankev
Glatshteyn, the subject of her first book and numerous articles. Dr. Hadda began psychoanalytic training in 1982, initially to improve her understanding
of modernist Yiddish poetry. She became a training
and supervising analyst at the New Center for Psychoanalysis and the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis, as well as a member of the Certification
Committee of the American Psychoanalytic Association. Her second book, Passionate Women and
Passive Men (1988), explored psychological issues
around suicide in Yiddish literature. Her psychoanalytic insights also contributed to her treatments of
Isaac Bashevis and of Allen Ginsberg, whose 194950 stay in the New York State Psychiatric Institute,
she argued in a much-admired piece in American
Imago, allowed him to emerge as a great poet. She
was particularly grateful to UVM for her years there
and she regularly recognized the importance in her
life of Dr. Harry Kahn and Dr. Truman. To read her
full obituary, visit www.uvm.edu/vq. Geri Sharff
Gould shares, “Jim and I just celebrated our 50th
anniversary with a sweet gathering of our children
and grandchildren at a lovely mountain resort in
Pennsylvania. Our two kids are both happily married with two children each. Our four grandchildren
range in age from 15 to 9 and are all delicious. We
left California in 2007, several years after my retirement and a few years after Jim’s, and migrated to
a golf community near Phoenix. Jim plays so regularly that he thinks of it as his job now, and I am
happily involved in a number of volunteer activities and three book clubs. We travel quite often as
well, and with Jim’s planned trip to Antarctica in
February, he will have been to all seven continents.
Over the years I have been in touch regularly with
my UVM roommate, Betty Fuchs Welt, and have
gotten together occasionally when we travel to
New England. I would love to hear from fellow Patterson 2, Hamilton 2, and Christie 4 gals if they’re
so inclined.” Hayes Sogoloff, Bonnie Herschede
Sogoloff, Myron Fox and Phyllis Lowen Fox will
be traveling once again this winter to a Caribbean
island together in this the 49th year of their marriages. They frequently see friends Michael Unger
and Susan Kaplan, Art Fromer and Sheilagh
Fromer, Barry Dean Gordon and Leslie Gordon,
and Larry Schonbrun and Yolanda Schonbrun.
They are all looking forward to seeing their other
‘66 friends at their 50th Reunion. Den Linnehan
just published his fifth photography book: Yellowstone & Grand Teton Splendor, five years of photos
covering all seasons except winter and text of both
beloved parks. Currently he and his wife of 42 years
are out west doing book signings in places like the
Old Faithful Inn, Barnes and Noble in Bozeman, and
10 other selected stores.
Send your news to—
Kathleen Nunan McGuckin
416 San Nicolas Way, St Augustine, FL 32080
[email protected]
67
Stuart Jeffrey Shapiro writes, “Several TEP brothers, (and one lonely
Phi Sig) convened a mini reunion
of sorts. Roy Zuckerman, Gordon Josephson, Arnold Shimelman, Stephen Schulte
and Danny Goldberg dined at the Waverly Inn
in Greenwich Village. The occasion was Stephen
crossing the pond to remodel his apartment in
Tribeca and his marriage to Jayne in June. Both
turned out wonderfully. Good food, good wine,
and great stories from our UVM days as we all transition to retirement. Looking forward to our 50th
Reunion.”
Send your news to—
Jane Kleinberg Carroll
44 Halsey Street, Apt. 3.
Providence, RI 02906,
[email protected]
68
Congratulations to Jack Rosenberg
for having his four submissions to
Philadelphia’s Art In City accepted
into the “All That’s Jazz” exhibition. Jim Krause
writes, “Thought I’d better check in since the 50th
anniversary is coming soon before I check out. Just
retired from Aflac (that’s the one with the duck)
after 18 years as a leadership consultant and executive coach. Prior 24 years were with United Technologies as a human resources manager and training
manager. Two sons out of college and in professional careers. Son number three will be graduating from law school soon after six years as an officer in the Marines. Still doing some consulting, but
at my leisure. Celebrating 42 years married to a
UConn grad who teaches at a private school. We are
addicted to UConn basketball and Auburn University football where you will find us in the fall. Enjoy
travelling, especially to England, Scotland and Ireland exploring the family trees. Currently a volunteer tour guide at the National Infantry Museum at
Fort Benning, Georgia, so if any UVM grads are in
the area I’ll give them a private tour.” Curt Tobey
tells us, “The big news is that my daughter, Caroline Tobey, got married recently in Maine to Jake
Dolan. Caroline just finished her master’s in early
childhood education from Lesley University in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. There is a picture in the
Alumni Association photo gallery. Also in the picture second from right is my son, Ben Tobey; he and
his wife, Jordan, recently had twins. Blake and Jake!
Elizabeth and my son, Lorin, fourth from right, will
be going to Elon University in North Carolina this
fall. He hopes to play both soccer and lacrosse. I
recently joined Chilton Trust Company as a consultant. I also have been doing advisory work for Save
the Children which is a major humanitarian organization; I will be visiting the Middle East with them in
August to see their great work in Israel, Gaza, West
Bank and Jordan to include the Z’aatari refugee
camp on the Syria/Jordan border.” Georgia Walsh
Miller shares, “My husband, Richard Miller, and I
recently got together with Barb Johnson Winton
and Mike Winton ’67, and also Leslie Andrews
Freeman and Jim Freeman ’67. We had a great
time sharing memories of our days at UVM.”
Send your news to—
Diane Duley Glew
23 Franklin Street, 2 Wheeler Farm
Westerly, RI 02891
[email protected]
69
James M. Betts reports, “My 50th
high school reunion (Bennington
High School ‘65) was held in July.
More than 10 percent of my class went on to
attend UVM for their undergraduate education,
graduating together in ‘69. Almost all of us had
not only gone through our secondary education
‘as one’, but we had been together since kindergarten. Most of our parents had also been classmates since early elementary school. I’m sure that
is the same local story for many of our UVM Class
of ‘69 who attended various high schools throughout Vermont. UVM provided a continuity of education which began over 60 years ago for a significant number of our Ben-Hi class. Two of us went
on to our College of Medicine. Attending UVM: a
significant educational opportunity which I trust
will serve many more Vermont high school graduates, and classes, well into the future.” Lydia
Burdick is happy to share that the 10th anniversary second edition of her first award-winning
Alzheimer’s book, The Sunshine on My Face:
A Read-Aloud Book for Memory-Challenged
Adults, will be published this October. Lydia’s
books were featured last month on mariashriver.
com under #architectsofchange and have been
acclaimed by professional and family caregivers
as a “go-to” resource for connecting with people
in mid-to late-stage dementia. Check out www.
twolapbooks.com for more info.
Send your news to—
Mary Moninger-Elia
1 Templeton Street
West Haven, CT 06516
[email protected]
70
I am sad to report the death of our
classmate John B. McShane of Sudbury, Vermont, who died on April 15
of this year. Condolences to his friends and family.
I talked by phone to my old roommate Tom Cioci
from Providence, Rhode Island—one of the great
guys I met at UVM. Additionally, I corresponded
with Jim Stowell, another old Sigma Nu from our
class. Jim has a fabulous antique hardwood and
custom flooring business in Zirconia, North Car-
olina. Susan McClenning Silverberg writes, “I
am happily retired from teaching. But I am sad to
inform you that my wonderful friend and college
roommate, Lynda Strauss Quimby, died in June
2014. She was a highly respected and loved retired
high school teacher and administrator at Joel Barlow High School in Easton, Connecticut.” Norine
Freeman Noonan shares, I have returned to the
faculty at University of South Florida, St. Petersburg after five years as vice chancellor for academic and student affairs. I’m having fun coordinating our Biology Living/Learning Community,
being the pre-vet adviser and teaching my classes
in biology and health professions.” I want to close
with a truly descriptive accounting of our years
at UVM and its time and place in history. The following was penned by Penrose Jackson for our
Reunion this year. I think it represents more than
that. Thank you Penrose. “We were the last class
of the 1960s or the first class of the 1970s? Both.
What change we saw in our four years … we were
the last class to receive beanies (but we didn’t
wear them!). We began with curfews and ‘pinking out’. We ended our four years in living arrangements as diverse as our individual college experiences. As we planned for and began our years at
UVM we listened to the ‘Ballad of the Green Berets’,
“California Dreamin’, and, yes, ‘A Groovy Kind of
Love’.” To read Penrose’s full submission, visit uvm.
edu/vq .
Send your news to—
Douglas Arnold
11608 Quail Village Way, Naples, FL 34119
[email protected]
71
OK, maybe I won’t retire as Class Secretary quite yet. After the summer VQ
hit, I received several messages from
classmates. Keep your notes coming! Rob Sydney shares, “William ‘Bill/Willy’ Ridder, Jr. died on
November 16, 2014. He had lived in Alaska for over
40 years, many of those in Delta Junction (about
90 miles south of Fairbanks). For many years he
was an employee of the State of Alaska, Department of Fish & Game, Division of Sport Fish as a
fisheries biologist. Meanwhile, since we last communicated, I have retired from energy law, and
moved from Boston to Norwich, Vermont, where
I have the opportunity to pal around with fellow
residents and classmates Doug Kerr and Arnie
Brown.” Rob also met up with Steve Ralph in Pasadena, California, in early February at the Huntington Memorial Hospital, where he’s been president
and chief executive officer for 31 years! He’s still
having fun in his leadership role. The Board of the
hospital clearly values his accomplishments—just
amazing, and Pasadena isn’t too bad either! Peter
Spear emailed me recently to say he wanted to
catch up with classmates. He reports that he has
tried unsuccessfully to get that retirement-thing
across the goal line for some time. Despite that,
he travelled through 84 time zones last year in the
FA L L 2 0 1 5 |
51
| CLASS NOTES
pursuit of fair-chase hunting around the world. The
Grand Slam Club/Ovis awarded Peter the coveted
‘Capra World 20’ for the fair-chase taking 20 species of wild goats. Beyond that, he enjoys spoiling
his three grandchildren from daughter Carolyn
Wehler-Wagman ’88, ’95. Annie Viets and I had
lunch at the end of June. I continue to be amazed
at Annie’s fortitude to live and teach in Saudi Arabia. She is still an associate professor of management at the Prince Mohammad bin Fahd University (PMU) in the eastern province of the Kingdom.
She was recently featured in Boston University’s
School of Education Alumni Magazine. At our next
reunion, folks need to hear her account of camping in the desert with a student and her family—
truly “Kingdom-style”. From Tim Scott, “I just had
my 5th anniversary as a compliance officer for the
United States Department of Labor here in Jacksonville, Florida. I have really created another life
for myself down here, not quite believing that I
could adapt to the heat. I just came back from a
month in Aix-en-Provence, France, where a group
of MIT alumni went to study French in an international language school. We also toured Provence
on the weekends, some of the most scenic places
you’ll ever see. I am on the board of two non-profits and spend my leisure time hiking and biking
almost every weekend. I do miss the hills of New
England.” From Susie Campbell, “I was just reading your news update and have some additional
detail to add to one of the items. Molly Conant
’06, Mags Conant’s daughter, is getting married
at the summer camp both of my sons attended for
many years. Also, my older son Nick Pestone ’05 is
the officiant for their wedding. Erik, Molly’s groom
and former roommate of Nick, learned of the camp
from my son. We know Erik very well! My younger
son, Evan, is also getting married at the camp
this summer the previous week. He and his bride
both graduated from Johnson State. However, her
father, Brian Reed ’74 is the associate provost for
curricular affairs at UVM, and both he and his wife
Holly Reed ’72 graduated from UVM. I hope to
be in Burlington the week of Evan’s wedding.” Carl
Korman tells us, “Retired to Shaftsbury, Vermont,
in 2010 which was the best decision I made since
choosing to go to UVM. We just put on an addition
to our home so we’ve got plenty of room for any
of my ol’ AEPi skiing brothers to come visit.” Jim
Earle writes, “It is with much sadness that I share
the death of my life-long friend Mike Towner. He
is survived by his daughter, Aria, and his wife, Jan.
He had a very large heart, I will miss him.” Mary
Jane Leach reports, “It’s been a pretty busy year.
A book that I’m co-editing and that I wrote a couple of essays for, Gay Guerrilla: Julius Eastman and
his Music, is coming out on the Rochester University Press in December. I’ve had music come out
on Die Schachtel, an Italian CD label, a piano piece
published in Belgium, and performances in six
countries (three in one day!), with my first performance in Finland. And now I’m about to go to an
52 |
V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
arts residency in Italy, at Civitella Ranieri, and literally live in a castle for six weeks, making side trips
to Bari, Amsterdam, and Cologne to hear performances of my music. It’s going to be tough coming
down to earth after this.” I received an interesting
film clip of Duck’s Breath Theater’s latest work from
Bill Allard. There’s an event at Freight & Salvage
on August 29, 2015—Duck’s Breath Mystery Theater lives on! Joanne Czachor Magliozzi reports
that she’s well and very busy. We plan on a walk
together in the Boston area or Florida when I am
there visiting my grandsons!
Send your news to—
Sarah Wilbur Sprayregen
145 Cliff Street, Burlington, VT 05401
[email protected]
72
On April 25, 2015, some sisters from
Tri Delta planned a surprise retirement dinner for Sally Cummings.
She retired from Saint Michael’s College as an associate professor of applied linguistics. Sally taught
at Saint Michael’s for 36 years. She was totally surprised to see Sandy Willey ’56, Kathye August
Boll ’73, Diane Batt Smith ’74, Emily Schnaper
Manders ’74 and Pam Tanguay Simendinger ’85
at the Blue Paddle Bistro in South Hero, Vermont.
Sally thought it was just going to be a nice quiet
dinner with Robin Bossi Moore ’73 and Margo
David Diieso ’74. They had so much fun reminiscing about UVM. Congratulations and enjoy retirement, Sally!
Send your news to—
Debbie Koslow Stern
198 Bluebird Drive
Colchester, VT 05446
[email protected]
73
Glenn F. Rogers G’76, was awarded
the 2015 Robert O. Sinclair Cup
Award on Saturday, May 9, in the
Grand Maple Ballroom of the UVM Davis Center.
This award honors retired faculty who have served
with distinction and excellence in their profession,
record of service and commitment to the landgrant mission to benefit the people of Vermont and
beyond. Rogers is a retired UVM Extension professor. Albert G. “Bert” Thayer writes that he’s had
an interesting year with the birth of his 12th grandchild on St. Patrick’s Day in 2014; Bert’s son Peter
Thayer named his son after St. Killian, an Irish missionary who is the patron saint of Wuerzburg, Germany, where Bert was stationed for three years in
the United States Army. And because of his birth
date, Killian Thayer was given Patrick as his middle name. Bert saw his grandson for the first time
in September 2014 when most of his family gathered in the Boston area as Bert’s father, Donald
W. Thayer ’41, celebrated his 95th birthday. In
November, Bert represented UVM at a college fair in
Uvalde, Texas, and the next month he and his wife
sold their place and moved into a smaller house. In
February, his daughter, Tabitha Bomer, delivered his
13th grandchild, Maple Amber Bomer, in San Antonio, Texas. To celebrate, he planted a Rocky Mountain big toothed maple tree in his front yard that
day. Stuart Aque shares, “Sadly, I am notifying you
of Alan J. Berkowitz’s ’75 passing. We became
friends when we were at UVM. Alan was a distinguished scholar and teacher.” Gerard Bourcier tells
us, “I just returned from ten days in France (cousin’s
wedding) and Germany (visiting family). Younger
son is engaged to a beautiful young woman from
South Africa (destination wedding). Older son has
a new job as marketing director for a major restaurant chain based in New York. I’m still working in
the theater, trying to pay for these trips and weddings. Life is good.” On August 10 Carrie Richardson Towne Rhinelander, lost her 17-year battle
with breast cancer. Carrie grew up in Underhill, Vermont and graduated from Mount Mansfield High
School in 1969. Carrie was a dedicated nurse who
worked at the then Mary Fletcher Hospital, The Visiting Nurses Association in Burlington and the Neo
Natal Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Hospital in
Louisville, Kentucky. She received an advanced
degree in Neo Natal Nursing from the University
of Louisville. Later in her career, Carrie worked in
senior management in home health care in Portland, Maine. She became a Medicare certified Hospice Nurse in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
She also worked as the area Director of the Visiting
Nurses’ Association and Hospice of Southern Maine
and New Hampshire. Carrie grew up skiing at the
Underhill Ski Bowl, Smuggler’s Notch and Stowe.
Carrie became a certified professional ski instructor
and taught for many years at the Sunday River Ski
Area in Newry, Maine. She was recognized for her
work in teaching young children to ski. Memorial
gifts may be made to Hospice of Southern Maine:
Gosnell Memorial Hospice House, Scarborough,
Maine, or Putney Cares, Putney, Vermont.
Send your news to—
Deborah Layne Mesce
2227 Observatory Place N.W.
Washington, DC 20007
[email protected]
ment ceremonies. MacKay received an honorary doctorate of journalism. Every July I vacation
for a week in Bethany Beach, Delaware. This year
I found out that Cathleen Doane-Wilson MD’80
was building a house close by in Lewes, Delaware.
Cathleen and I met for lunch and we promised to
get together whenever I am in Bethany Beach.
Send your news to—
Emily Schnaper Manders
104 Walnut Street, Framingham, MA 01702
[email protected]
75
Richard T. Cassidy, partner at the
Burlington law firm of Hoff Curtis has
been elected to serve a two-year term
as president of the Uniform Law Commission (ULC).
Richard is the first Vermont lawyer to serve as president of the ULC since George B. Young served from
1925 to 1927. Judy Cohen shares, “I just retired
from UVM in May from the Department of Nursing
as a professor emerita after teaching there for the
past 34 years. I continue to be connected to UVM
as I serve on the executive board of the retired faculty organization and am their representative to
the Faculty Senate Executive Committee.” Jim Morrison writes, “I am widowed with two boys. After
40 years on the road selling medical equipment,
I’m retiring. Love to see old classmates in my travels.” Glory Lanphear Douglass Reinstein retired
1263 Spear Street, South Burlington, VT 05403
[email protected]
76
Oney P. Smith and Marcia Evangelista Smith ’77 met on campus in
August of 1975 as resident assistants
on the fourth floor of Millis Hall. They write, “We
have been married 35 years and just returned
from our summer vacation, including our visit
to the UVM campus. A photo is posted on the
Alumni Association’s website photo gallery.”
Michael Diederich, Jr. shares, “I retired from the
Army Reserves after 29 years, and tours in Germany (3 years), Iraq (1 year) and Afghanistan (9
months). I can devote full attention to private law
practice (employment law/civil rights). My daughter Victoria Diederich ’17 will be a junior at
UVM this fall. I expect to be skiing Mad River Glen
again this winter and bicycling in lower Hudson
River Valley and Harriman Park to get in shape.”
Send your news to—
Pete Beekman
2 Elm Street, Canton, NY 13617
[email protected]
77
Charles “Chuck” Hoffman is moving to Hawaii and would love to hear
from classmates, aloha! David Nicholas writes, “I have been living in Tucson, Arizona,
UVM &
The Penn Club
Socialize in
the Franklin
74
Rhode Island Public Radio political reporter Scott MacKay served
as featured speaker at the Rhode
Island College undergraduate commencement
ceremony on Saturday, May 16. MacKay has a
30-year career of chronicling the Ocean State’s
political scene. A Providence native, he worked as
a reporter for The Providence Journal from 1984 to
2008. Since 2009, he has served as a political analyst for Rhode Island Public Radio (RIPR), where
he provides commentary and analysis to “Political Roundtable,” “Morning Edition,” and “All Things
Considered.” He is also a co-author of the RIPR
“On Politics” blog. MacKay is among six community members chosen to receive honorary degrees
from Rhode Island College during commence-
this past June after a 38-year career in music education in Vermont. She recently accepted the position
of director of licensing at Song and Film. Glory is the
owner and creative liaison at Malletts Bay Music in
Colchester, Vermont. Margery A. Kaye writes, “My
world continues to enlarge. My first grandchild was
born this summer (her dad is also a UVM alum). My
business continues to sweeten up lots of lives all
over the world. My daughter is making her way in
New York City as a forensic informational specialist.
My youngest son lives in Cheng Du, China, running
his own business AquaFude. My parents (both UVM
Alums) are doing well nearby. Life is good! Cheers
to all of us! Enjoy and be well!” Jon Nelson writes,
“Sue and I finally left Pennsylvania for Venice, Florida, to enjoy the warm weather and sandy beaches.
Our oldest boy is working at Brown University in
economic research, while the twins finish their last
semester at university (Pitt and Susquehanna).”
Debbie Sample Kim writes, “Three children in college (son at University of Utah Honors College; two
daughters at Barnard College-Columbia University).
I guess that would make me an empty nester! I miss
the green trees, lushness of New England, family
and East Coast friends. Looking forward to the 40th
Reunion in October. Not ready to retire—maybe
someday.”
Send your news to—
Dina Dwyer Child
Alumni Benefits Worldwide –
Access to 150+
Reciprocal Private Clubs
A NYC Historic Landmark
Home Base in Midtown Manhattan
for UVM & You
m
Living Roo
Stay or Put Guests
Up in Guests Room
s
Become a Member Today!
Connect at www.pennclub.org
Work out
ess Center
at the F itn
Attend Lectures & Host in Even
t Spaces
Indulge in Gourmet
Cuisine
| CLASS NOTES
for the last two years. Would love to hear from fellow UVM alumni.” Ron Nye writes, “A shout out to
all classmates who have made the big ‘60’ milestone
and wondering, like me, how we got here so fast!
My employer, Savantage Solutions, has designated
me a subject matter expert (scary isn’t it?!) and it’s
amazing the questions I’m fielding. My daughter, Carlie, is attending college across the puddle
at SUNY Plattsburgh and I’m trying to complete
renovations on an apartment building that I have
there in time for her and her friends to move in this
fall. Been dealing with chronic Lyme disease and I
would appreciate hearing from anyone who has
put this beast into remission. It’s been three years
with no success at all, although on the positive side
I did drop 50 pounds. Looking forward to attending
the 40th reunion and having as much fun as was
had at the 35th!” Deb Jenkins Fennell shares, “In
April, 2015, I finished my fifth year with the State
of Vermont as a professional relations officer for the
Office of Disability Determination Services. Winter weekends I teach skiing to kids at Smugglers’.
And this winter, I also fed my muse, as Snowsports
Reporter for the Stowe Reporter. A highlight of that
gig was being able to cover the 2015 NCAA’s in Lake
Placid. It was a blast to interview and shoot photos
of the athletes and then write up their stories, especially all of the awesome Catamount cross-country
and alpine skiers!” Debi Chaffee Seamans writes,
“I have been living in the Midwest for 20 years and
look forward to a return to New England after my
husband, Stephen, and I retire. Our oldest daughter, Colby, got married this year and our youngest, Courtney, moved to New York City, so we are
headed towards a new phase of our lives. I always
look forward to returning to Vermont.”
Send your news to—
UVM Alumni Association
411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401
Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes
78
Mark William Weber, 60, resident
of New London, Connecticut, died
peacefully at a New London hospital
after a several month battle with Leukemia in July of
2015. Mark had been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid
Leukemia in November 2014. A jack of many trades,
Mark was a strong salesman of all things with a passion for selling cars and real estate. Most recently,
he served as executive director of Serenity Living
Recovery Centers, Inc., a non-profit organization,
which he devoted his life to until the very end. Mark
is survived by his two daughters, Callie and Sarah
Weber, of New Canaan, Connecticut, and the many
friends whose life he touched on a daily basis. Stanley Przybylinski writes, “I’m enjoying the surf at
Long Beach Island, New Jersey with Susan Brady,
Carol Brady Lundgren ’79, and Anne Brady ’11. A
tradition that dates back at least to 1979.” Bob Hopwood writes, “Members of the ‘Christie Commandos’ have managed to stay in touch over the years.
Gary Catlin, Topher Slack and Bob Hopwood
54 |
V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
gathered at Mike Durkin’s home in Florida last
year and are hoping to plan more mini-reunions in
the future. Other Commandos can reach out to any
one of us to learn more. Catherine Stowell Howland writes, “I have been a proud alumna and supporter of the Green and Gold. I’ve taken my family
to sporting events, and a most memorable hockey
game between UVM and Dartmouth. My youngest, Chelsea, was in grade school at the time and
cried after Dartmouth had ‘invited UVM to play and
then beat them.’ Her innocence at the time was so
charming, but I never realized her underlying affection for UVM. So this spring I had the greatest pleasure in watching the 214th Commencement Ceremonies and seeing Chelsea walk across that stage.
She received a Bachelor of Science in nutrition and
food science, graduating cum laude. Chelsea is also
a member of the honor fraternity Alpha Zeta and the
Golden Key Honor Society. It is with great honor that
I can now enjoy my alumna status with my daughter. Thank you UVM, go Cats go!
Send your news to—
UVM Alumni Association
411 Main Street
Burlington, VT 05401
[email protected]/classnotes
79
I would like to send a big thank you
to MaryKay McGuire Conte and
Chuck Conte for hosting a summer
weekend Pi Phi reunion in Long Island. Joining
me for the fun was Eileen Sheehan McCann and
Peter McCann ‘78, Anne Trask Forcier and Larry
Forcier.
Send your news to—
Beth Gamache
58 Grey Meadow Drive, Burlington, VT 05401
[email protected]
80
Heidi Winslow writes, “Since graduating I followed my heart to the
Rocky Mountains to work at The
Aspen Club Sports Medicine Institute, where I
studied under Dr. Julie Anthony and Br. Bruno
Balke. After getting married, having two amazing
daughters and moving from Aspen to Telluride,
Colorado, I continued my passion for wellness by
opening a studio called Workout. In 2006 my family returned to the East Coast and I started a small
private training business called Winslow Training
(winslowtraining.net). From that, Core Connect
Method (a class I designed based on the combined principals of both Pilates & Yoga, infused
with resistance stretching & strengthening) was
designed. Core Retreats are now offered on both
the West and East Coasts, integrating principals
of wellbeing for fitness, nutrition and mindfulness. I am grateful for the education and opportunities that were presented to me at UVM, in the
school of education and the APEX Program. Thank
you!” Harry Tower reflects, “Thirty-five years?
Seems like yesterday! Doing great, living in Wilm-
Athletic program
support honors late
Sigma Nu brothers
Sigma Nu brothers rallied this summer to raise funds in support of the
Sigma Nu Athletic Fund, which began
modestly in 2008 with a collective
gift in memory of Jack “Jocko” Clifford ’75 and grew significantly in
2013 with collective gifts in memory
of Tommy McNamara, son of Tom
McNamara ’77 who lost his life in a
boating accident in July 2012.
Gifts in Tommy’s memory were
used to help launch the summer academic and conditioning program for
the men’s hockey team in the summer of 2014. On July 19, the hockey
team and athletic department hosted
a cookout for more than fifty brothers
from the classes of 1976-1983 who
returned that weekend to honor two
Sigma Nu brothers: Mark “Bronto”
Byrne, who had an untimely death in
March 2015, and Charles “Chuckie”
Stahlin, who was killed in a car accident in 1984. Brothers from 1979-83
raised funds for the Sigma Nu Athletic Fund in Stahlin’s honor.
Sigma Nu brothers offered special
thanks to Bruce Rockowitz ’80 and
Mark Campagnon ’80, who put up
a large financial matching challenge,
all the way from China, to the group
that helped kick start and motivate
the campaign.
Collective support in memory of
Byrne and Stahlin totals $250,000.
Leaders of the fundraising note that
the effort is driven by the role the fraternity played and continues to play
in their lives—“While the chapter is
gone, the strong affiliation with UVM
and the hockey program continues.”
Sigma Nu brothers interested in
supporting the Sigma Nu Athletic
Fund or seeking information on how
to organize an effort to remember
and honor a fallen brother, are
encouraged to contact Jim Duffy
’79, [email protected] or
Peter Beekman ’79, pbeekman19@
gmail.com.
ington, Delaware. In regular touch with Giordano
bro’s: Phil Stimpson, Rip Warrendorf, and a few
others. Have had a nice career in advertising and
brand management, now working for Fannie Mae
in D.C. Look me up on LinkedIn!” Barbara Kane
DelGrego shares, “In June, six of us got together
in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I
came from Connecticut, Shirley Moore Ryan
from Vermont, Nancy Madden Reid from Maryland, Janine Sanford from Texas, Nancy Kearney
Hora from Tennessee and Pam Hurlbert Kelsea
’81 from Massachusetts. During the weekend we
ate at the famous Polly’s Pancake Parlor and drove
out the Kancamagus for some views, walking and
a lot of laughs! En route back to the airport some
of us visited with John O’Brien at his hosta nursery in Granby, Connecticut. It was great catching
up with everyone and we have already discussed
a future get together!” Elisheva Kilner writes,
“I have been teaching in the same school since
1985. I currently teach math to students in grade
seven and Hebrew language to students in grades
five through eight. Seems like just yesterday that
we were all ‘little kids’ together at UVM. I would
love to hear from anyone who was there when I
was there. I enjoyed reconnecting with those who
responded to my last class note.”
Send your news to—
UVM Alumni Association
Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes
81
Karen I. Plaut was recognized
as the 2015 Outstanding Alumni
Award recipient at the May 9, 2015
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Alumni
and Friends Dinner at the UVM Davis Center.
Karen was honored for achieving excellence in
her academic career, exhibiting significant leadership, and contributing to the land-grant ethic
to benefit her community, college and nation.
Thomas Horan writes, “In July, I became dean of
the Peter F. Drucker School of Management, Claremont Graduate University. I also got to spend
a couple of summer weeks back in New England,
which was great and I got to see lots of green
grass (a rarity in California these days)!” Leroy
Watson and his family have recently moved to
Walpole, New Hampshire. He says that they are all
happy to be living in New England again.
Send your news to-UVM Alumni Association
[email protected]/classnotes
82
Robert Boucher writes, “I would
like to get a Varsity Baseball reunion
organized for the Class of 1982 at
the 2015 or 2016 Alumni Baseball Game.” Frank
L. Lojacono, III writes, “I was wondering how my
freshman friends from Chittenden first floor and
the best broomball team ever were doing. Living in Pittsburgh with my wife and two daughters—The Skipper.” After being asked to chair the
College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Board of Advisors last year I have found
myself deeply involved with the college’s major
improvements. The STEM facility enhancements
are going to totally change the look and feel of
the back of main campus with vastly improved
science and lab facilities, a new look for the green
with the removal of the shoe boxes, and a real
physical tie in with the newly named UVM Medical Center, Fletcher is officially dropped—never
really did understand that differentiation to begin
with. I strongly urge you to look at what’s happening in your old school—it is truly transformative—including the development of a bio-medical engineering track! In addition, I had the honor
of delivering this year’s commencement address
to the CEMS graduates; what an opportunity and
incredible honor. Thank you, Dean Garcia. My wife,
Donna, and I were able to celebrate the marriage
of our eldest daughter one year ago this August. I
continue to see lots of my UVM family, Rob Rogers and Mike Gochman are frequent concert
buddies; also Jim Greenebaum and Chris Hodgson at a recent soiree in CT. Also see Bill Edwards
’80, Chis Cushing, Marc Hauser, Rich Goodwin,
Peter Melmed and Mark Kepler ’83 and Graham
Pettengill ’83 on a fairly regular basis—f any of
these names sound familiar, get on line and tell us
what you’ve been up to.
Send your news to—
John Peter Scambos
[email protected]
83
John Monty Clark just published
the book, I Wish Someone Had Told
Me... which offers practical advice,
real life examples and hands-on exercises to help
students get the most out of their college experience. A must-read for high school seniors and
college students, as well as anyone wanting to
improve their career and life. On April 18, 2015
Helen Connors married David Grant. The wedding took place in St. George Island, Florida. Kris
Johnson, Tracey Lynch Meaney ’85 and Chris
Meaney ’84 were in attendance. Congratulations
Helen! Todd Wulfson sent the following information regarding our classmate James McDowell, “James’s boat, Grand Illusion, won the Overall
in the 48th edition of the 2225-mile biennial LAHonoluluTransPac Race and it is the only boat to
win this race three times in a row with the same
owner! His boat also won in 1999 and 2011. Find
further information and pictures: www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2015”. Ken Oasis shares, “Earlier this summer, my wife, Lauren, and I visited Don McCree, and his wife, Gabby McCree,
at their beautiful lake home. We were joined by
other UVMers, Andy Goodman, David Spector, and Stewart Ledbetter. Laughs were flowing. Missed Steve Reinecke and Paul Butler who
couldn’t make it. A photo is posted on the website Flickr photo gallery. Congratulations James
and crew! My husband and I have just come back
from a two-week cruise/land trip to Alaska to celebrate our 30th anniversary! Absolutely beautiful
and amazing! It is truly God’s country. We saw lots
of wildlife: orcas, humpbacks-breaching and bubble net feeding, brown bear, eagles, ptarmigan,
Dall sheep, snowshoe hare, osprey, lots of eagles,
moose, caribou and one grizzly bear! One of the
highlights was a plane ride through Denali to land
on Ruth Glacier and a sighting of the north and
south summit of McKinley, aka, Denali. I highly
recommend a trip to Alaska.
Send your news to—
Lisa Greenwood Crozier
[email protected]
84
Bruce Hurd shares, “My company,
NOVO Development Corporation,
developed, constructed, financed,
and is now leasing a 77-unit apartment building
located at a powerful address, 1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue, SE Washington, D.C. To investigate living
at a presidential address without ever having to
deliver one, visit, www.liveat1600penn.com.” Gail
Earley Renaud celebrated her 30th anniversary
working for the Social Security Administration on
August 4, 2015. Her son Jeffrey Renaud ’16 is currently in his senior year at UVM majoring in political science.
Send your news to—
Abby Goldberg Kelley
[email protected]
Kelly McDonald
[email protected]
Shelley Carpenter Spillane
[email protected]
85
Jay Rein recently joined EPAM Systems as their new vice president
of the Travel & Hospitality Industry
Solutions Practice. He is helping airlines, hotels,
and travel distribution systems around the world
deal with technology challenges of today and
in the future. As for Jay’s children, Lauren (19)
is returning to Tulane University for her sophomore year of college. Marni (17) is starting the college application process now, and a trip to UVM
is planned for the fall. Sydney (14) will be starting high school at The Weber School of Atlanta.
Marc Hartstein and Chris Pizzo Hartstein ’86
are thrilled to report that they have two children
in medical school. Joey is starting his fourth year
at the University of Maryland while Luke will be a
first-year student at New York University. They are
happy to still have daughter Hannah at home starting 10th grade at Towson High. Marc is a senior
executive with Medicare and Chris does professional organizing and a lot of volunteer work. Ann
Ruck Hand writes, “Jeff Hand ’86 and I celebrated
our 30th wedding anniversary this month! I have
FA L L 2 0 1 5 |
55
| CLASS NOTES
Paul Grieco was named presidentelect of the Ohio Association for
Justice for the coming 2015-2016
year at its annual convention. Grieco is a member
of the association’s executive committee, and has
served in the past as vice president, treasurer and
secretary. Grieco is a partner with the Landskroner Grieco Merriman law firm based in Cleveland.
He has been a member of OAJ’s board of trustees since 2007. He also is a member of the Ohio
State Bar Association, the American Association
for Justice, The Justinian Forum, and the Cleveland Academy of Trial Attorneys. Julia Davies
writes, “In June 2015, I graduated with distinction
from DePaul University with a master’s in humancomputer interaction. I am seeking employment
where I can combine my expertise in user experience design and project management.” Kim
Johnson McCrae and Scott McCrae ’84 celebrated their 25th anniversary in May with a celebration in a real castle in the heart of old Montreal. Kim writes, “How is it possible that 25 years
have flown by? We had a great time remembering
our fun wedding with the Pi Phi girls and Sigma
Phi boys in attendance. Hope you are all well!”
Send your news to—
Lawrence Gorkun
[email protected]
based compensation arrangements, employment
agreements, change-in-control agreements and
all other executive compensation arrangements.
In addition to advising business owners and corporate executives, Mark represents pension plan
fiduciaries, investment fund sponsors, pension
plan investors, banks and other financial services firms regarding fiduciary issues related to
employee benefits, including ERISA’s “plan assets”
rules. Thornton Tomasetti Principal and Sustainability Practice Leader Gunnar Hubbard, AIA,
LEED Fellow, has been elected a fellow of the
American Institute of Architects. The designation
is awarded to architects who have made significant contributions to architecture and society, and
those who have achieved a standard of excellence
in the profession. Hubbard has more than 25 years
of experience as an architect, consultant, educator,
and advocate for projects around the globe. See
photo on the Alumni Association Website Photo
Gallery. Stephen Farrington recently installed a
new soil moisture monitoring technology developed by the firm he owns with wife Catherine
Voghell Farrington ’89, ’93 in a groundbreaking experiment in Puerto Rico that will examine
the effects of warming on a tropical rainforest ecosystem. Farrington founded Transcend Engineering in 2010. The firm has applied for three patents
related to the PRISMS moisture monitoring technology and has sponsored Electrical Engineering
Professor Tian Xia and graduate student Taian Fan
to research system performance. Celeste Leon
writes, “As a physical therapy alum and author, I am
pleased to announce that my novel, Luck is Just the
Beginning, is being released this fall, published by
Floricanto Press. A labor of love for nearly 10 years,
the novel is inspired by a true story. I would love to
hear from you and welcome your comments. For
more information, please visit me at www.celestejleon.blogspot.com.” Happy 50th everyone! Hope
you are all doing well and have found time to celebrate this big milestone with family and friends!
I celebrated mine with Keri Wolfson Craft, Karen
Murray Bosworth, Jennifer Kohen McNair, and
Carol Brinkerhoff. Be sure to submit any UVM
birthday celebrations to us!
Send your news to—
Sarah Reynolds
[email protected]
87
88
been a Special Education Resource Room teacher’s aide in a 4th/5th grade elementary school for
12 years (after staying home with our daughters
for 15 years). I also tutor students during the summers and after school. I love my job, and I have
really enjoyed this age group very much. Our three
daughters are all in their 20’s. Laura is 26, and is
at Johns Hopkins University studying for her master’s degree in healthcare administration, graduating in May 2016. Elizabeth is 24, and is close to
completing her bachelor’s degree, hopefully also
in May 2016. Kathryn, 22, just graduated from the
University of New Hampshire and is looking for a
job while working in Kennebunkport for the summer. Overall, life is wonderful! We look forward to
connecting with classmates for the 30th Reunion
in October!”
Send your news to—
Barbara Roth
[email protected]
86
Mark Hamilton, formerly a partner at White & Case for 21 years,
joined the firm of Danziger & Markhoff, LLP as counsel in June of 2015. Mark counsels
clients on employee benefits and compensation
matters, including those arising in mergers and
acquisitions, financing arrangements and other
types of corporate transactions. He offers guidance to public companies and underwriters concerning the United States Securities and Exchange
Commission’s executive compensation disclosure
rules. He also advises companies regarding stock-
56 |
V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
After 12 years with Ralph Lauren Corporation, Liz Paley was just named
to a new role as senior vice president
of strategic initiatives and chief of staff to the president and chief operations officer. Although she
recently stepped down as a many-year member of
the Board of Advisors to the UVM School of Business,
she remains engaged with students and young
alums in the area of career development. Christine McCarthy was selected as Vermont EMS Educator of the Year. Sonna Sween Allen shares, “I am
still living on Long Island, and teaching high school
chemistry. I have been the science department
chair at Portledge School for 15 years. My husband
and I have not been up to UVM in ages but we do
get to Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, most summer weekends. We are doing well and are in touch
with Karen Hobbs Sharpe occasionally.” Marleigh
Pelton McNealus writes, “I moved my business,
Manchester Eye Care, to downtown Manchester,
Vermont. If you’re in town, drop by. I am married to
Jerry McNealus ’78 and we have two children. Our
oldest is 16 and is looking at UVM! Our youngest is
13 and wants to be a reporter. My husband, Jerry, is
still skiing in the winter and doing construction in
the summer.” Jill Talbot Huard writes, “I had a great
time connecting with some of my UVM friends at
our Rutland High School 30th reunion in November of last year. I was able to reconnect with Laura
Williams, Joe Carmolli, Pam Shaffer Hersperger
as well as fellow Cats’ Meows Jackie Aldinger, Victoria Teta ’87, and Haley Veller ’87! I have been
a real estate agent with Century 21 Surette Real
Estate in Waterville, Maine, for the past 10 years. I
am also a past president of the board of directors
for the Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers,
a non-profit offering family counseling, adoption
services, a teen parent school, alternative education and early childhood education. I am currently
the president-elect for the Kennebec Valley Board
of Realtors, as well as a director on the board of the
Maine Association of Realtors!”
Send your news to—
Cathy Selinka Levison
[email protected]
89
Kathy Clark writes, “What a great
night at the home of Sean Martin
’90 connecting with Sam Williams,
Ed Kim ’87, Lara Kelly Bohlke, Mike Buccelato,
Andrew Malkin and others.” Marren Mary Sanders is serving as interim associate dean of academic outcomes at Arizona Summit Law School.
Send your news to—
Maureen Kelly Gonsalves
[email protected]
90
Mark McGowan writes, “Catamount
II, pictured on the Alumni Association
website photo gallery, entered the
Block Island Race Week Regatta. We had two alumni
onboard; Paul Noniewicz ’86 was trimming headsails and I was at the helm. We had a great week and
finished second against other Flying Tiger 10M’s.
While we were there, we stayed at Payne’s Marina
where the owner’s wife and son are both alumni.
With the UVM flag flying as our sailing war flag, met
many other alumni during the course of the week.
Sail fast and go Catamounts!” Laura Molony Chevalier writes, “My husband Tim Chevalier ’91, and
I are over the moon excited that our son Ryan Chevalier is a member of the UVM Class of 2019! Ryan
will be studying electrical engineering. He is fourth
generation on Tim’s side to attend UVM. We had a
great time celebrating Ryan’s high school graduation in May with fellow UVM alums and friends
Susan Foster Wadehul ’91, Keith Wadehul,
Kathy Lorenzetti Morse, Beth Blanchard Landry
and Mark Landry. Needless to say all are excited for
the newest Catamount!”
Send news to—
Tessa Donohoe Fontaine
[email protected]
91
25th Reunion
September 23–25, 2016
If you are interested in planning your upcoming
reunion, email [email protected]. Laurie Way
moved to Boston a couple of years ago and works
in fundraising at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
She and her fiancé, Paul, got engaged last spring,
and have been enjoying weekend trips to Cape
Cod over the summer. Laura Clark joined PT360’s
Williston office. She has practiced physical therapy
for over 23 years, with a focus on sports, orthopedic, and post-surgical rehabilitation. Her areas of
expertise include foot and ankle biomechanics,
orthotic evaluation and fabrication, manual therapy including fascial restrictions and work hardening.
Send news to—
Karen Heller Lightman
[email protected]
92
Lauren Swick Jordan writes, “After
years of being a stay-at-home mom,
I began writing parenting articles, specifically about how our family is affected
by autism. My articles have been featured in the
Washington Post’s “On Parenting” section, themighty.com, and the Organization for Autism
Research. I have loved writing and my boys think
they are famous. So it’s good for all of us!” Lauren Jordan blogs at http://lauren-idonthaveajob.
blogspot.com
Send your news to—
Lisa Kanter
[email protected]
93
Mindy Menkowitz Scheier started
a program called Runway of Dreams.
Runway of Dreams is a nonprofit
collaborating with the fashion industry to adapt
mainstream, affordable clothing lines with wearable technology for the differently-abled community. The organization’s goal is to change the
fashion landscape so that it’s inclusive of everyone. One in twenty children between 5 and 18
are differently-abled and this company offers
mainstream clothing options, formerly unavailable. Justin LeBlanc shares, “I am preparing for
my third Dopey Challenge (5k, 10k, half marathon and full marathon over four days in Walt Disney World) in honor of my son, Theo, and to raise
money for, and awareness of, Tourette Syndrome.
Tax deductible donations can be made at www.
classy.org/LeBlanc.” Dianna Gahlsdorf Terrell, an
assistant professor of education at Saint Anselm
College, launched a new blog about parenting
children through schools called schoolingourkids.
org. She lives in southern New Hampshire with her
husband, two children, MIL, two cats and a brood
of hens. Charlie Kellett shares, “In recognition of
the Americans with Disabilities Act 25-year anniversary, I envisioned the Global Virtual Comedy
Club, which demonstrated the power of comedy
to put person first, disability second and overcome
societal barriers that hinder disability inclusion.
This unprecedented event was co-hosted by the
United States Department of State and the Kennedy Center, set a new attendance record at the
Millennium Stage and included audiences around
the world via viewing parties at United States
Embassies.
Send your news to—
Gretchen Haffermehl Brainard
[email protected]
94
J.P. LaFors writes, “I’m still using my
marketing degree as chief operations officer of a Richmond, Virginiabased advertising agency, Free Agents Marketing. Also still playing tennis and love to ski.” Rob
Cronin writes, “In early August, UVM ‘94-rooted
| CLASS NOTES
‘Equipe Henry’ completed another Pan-Mass Challenge (www.pmc.org). The 192-mile bike ride from
Sturbridge, Massachusetts, to Provincetown is a
fundraiser for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute which
raised $40 million in 2014 for cancer research with
a goal of $45 Million in 2015. UVM ‘94 team members include Captain Josh Fenollosa, Chapin
Mechem, Mark Robohm and Rob Cronin with
Cathy Ray Fenollosa serving as Equipe Coordinator and Coach. Equipe Henry would like to
thank the UVM community for its tremendous and
continued support of our team and of the PMC.
Furthermore, we’d welcome any and all alums
that would like to join us for the 2016 PMC next
August. Please be in touch with Josh, Cathy, or Rob
if you’ll join us for this great cause. It’s a tremendous event with a very UVM feel to it. Go Cats Go
and Vive Le Equipe!”
Send your news to—
Cynthia Bohlin Abbott
[email protected]
95
Robes Parrish is living in the
shadow of the Cascade Mountains
in beautiful Leavenworth, Washington. He shares, “I’m busy working as a hydrologist for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service
doing river restoration projects for salmon habitat
recovery. I am fortunate to live somewhere that I
can go climbing, ski tour, ride bikes, and paddle
right out the back door! Old friends should drop
in if they’re in the neighborhood: heydukelives@
hotmail.com.”
Send your news to—
Valeri Susan Pappas
[email protected]
96
Patrick Riordan shares, “I’m now
at Sikorsky Aircraft as a production test pilot, but still maintain
my part-time status in the Connecticut Army
National Guard as a chief warrant officer 3 maintenance test pilot. I will be moving to Westbrook, Connecticut, at the end of the summer
and my son Connor, who just turned three, will
be attending school in the fall for the first time.
My daughter is due to be born mid-September.
Parents still live in Stowe, Vermont, and I get
home from time to time. Life is pretty decent,
but I do miss the Green Mountains.” Kurt Scanio
and Julie Coffin Scanio welcomed their daughter Emily Alexis Scanio on May 20, 2015. Emily is
already sporting her first UVM outfit but is hoping to find a pair of UVM “greenies” to wear during the winter months.
Send your news to—
Jill Cohen Gent
[email protected]
Michelle Richards Peters
[email protected]
58 |
V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
97
Caroline Walsh, Alicia Williams,
Joanna Cossman, Rachel Lupert,
Hollie Meyer, Deborah Adler,
Megan Eagle, Suzanne Roy, and Leslie Haines
recently went to Vegas a few weeks back to celebrate their 40th birthdays. Happy birthday ladies!
A thorough update recently arrived from another
classmate: Peter Rand lives in New York City with
his wife, Rachel. They recently welcomed their second baby, a little girl named Delaney. Peter recently
celebrated his 40th birthday. In attendance was
Brendan Burke, who along with his wife Jennifer Burke ’98, has three boys and lives in Sudbury,
Massachusetts, where Brendan spends his free time
training for Cross Fit competitions. Steve Losordo
and John Hallisey also made the trip to New York
City from Boston. Steve recently picked up the guitar again and told us to look for his first solo project to be released shortly. John Hallisey and his wife
Britta Hallisey have three kids, including a set of
twins and live outside of Boston. They recently celebrated John’s 44th birthday at the Chatham Bars
Inn. Rob Slocum was also in attendance. Rob and
his wife, Sarah, live with their three kids outside of
New York City where Rob works for CAA. CAA talent
reps our own Ryen Russillo ’01, who can be heard
daily on ESPN co-hosting the SVP and Russillo
show. Ryen reports to have 231K loyal Twitter followers. Darren Blasko celebrated his 40th birthday
recently and welcomed his second child, Catherine,
with wife Emily. They live in Darien, Connecticut.
Darren is still playing video games and attending
jam band concerts regularly. Chris McGuirk and
his wife, Sarah, live in Norwell, Massachusetts, with
their three boys. Chris runs North River Lacrosse
and is grooming his boys for future success on the
field for the Catamounts. Ben Fisher and his wife,
Trisha, live in Chicago, Illinois, and recently welcomed their second child. Ben works for Deutsche
Bank and spends his free time arguing with Eben
Thurston. Eben lives in Bronxville, New York, with
his wife and daughter. Ryan Carroll lives in San
Francisco with his wife, Ashley, and is very active
in local rec sports leagues. Robert Balchunas, his
wife, Katie, and daughter, Lola, also live in the Bay
area. Rob rarely sees Ryan. Tim Walsh and his wife,
Jenny, live in Denver, Colorado, and welcomed their
first baby, a little boy named Lochlan, in October.
Tim is still in his 30s. Mark Robertson ’96 lives in
Denver, Colorado and still claims to be Class of ’97.
James Baden writes that his wife Heather Isham
Baden completed the Lake Placid Ironman Triathlon this past July and earlier in the summer she
qualified for the Half Ironman World Championships in Austria. They live in Rye, New York, with
their two daughters. Heather currently has a private
practice as a board certified sports dietician. Jessica Dayton Mendez shares, “I recently left my job
as manager of legal services at a nonprofit domestic violence organization to start my own law firm:
ADZ Law, located in San Mateo, California. I will
focus on family law as well as civil remedies for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and
human trafficking.” Macalester College has granted
tenure status to Amy Damon who teaches in the
Economics and Latin American Studies Departments at Macalester College. Damon focuses on
household poverty reduction strategies and food
security issues and is currently working on a project
examining links between conservation, food security, and hunting practices in Tanzania.
Send your news to—
Elizabeth Carstensen Genung
[email protected]
98
Ewen Syme and his wife of three
years, Becky Beers G’10, married
privately in Hawaii and have been
very happily living in Seattle, Washington, for the
past five years. After moving away from Burlington, Ewen worked as a user experience designer
for Microsoft, Frog Design, and for the past year,
Google where he leads the design of their Cloud
Computing product. They love the Pacific Northwest lifestyle of camping in National Parks, hiking
and swimming with their mini-labradoodle puppy
and eating some of the world’s best seafood. They
bought a house last year and when they’re not
busy exploring the region (having no kids helps),
they’re probably doing some form of interior
design upgrade on their 100-year-old craftsman.
They love it!
Send news to—
Ben Stockman
[email protected]
99
John Murtha sends greetings from
sunny Colorado! “I have been living
out here for the last 16 years. I am a
realtor for the Denver and mountain areas. If you,
or anyone you know, is interested in purchasing a
home, please contact me at [email protected]. I am always looking for ways to
help out fellow Catamounts!” Jeff Look joined the
PT360 team at its Shelburne location. He has spent
a majority of his professional career in the outpatient sports and orthopedic settings. He is proficient with functional capacity evaluations and has
experience in outpatient orthopedics, acute and
sub-acute care hospitals, and skilled nursing facilities.
Send your news to—
Sarah Pitlak Tiber
[email protected]
00
Courtney Daly McGuire and her
husband, Ryan McGuire, are happy
to announce the arrival of their first
child, Julia Elizabeth McGuire, born May 26, 2015.
She met UVMer’s at a July weekend mini reunion;
Patrick Reed, Rebecca Stoops Reed, Jody Matthews, and Meagan Mckiernan Barry.
Send your news to—
UVM Alumni Association
[email protected]/classnotes
01
Brian Levine writes that is has
been a busy couple of years.
“Moved to Australia in September
2012 to become fire management officer for ACT
Parks and Conservation Service. Responsible for
planning and implementing prescribed fire program which involves a burning program of 25,000
acres a year, mostly completed by aerial ignition.
I also serve as an officer for fire suppression. We
recently had a second child, Eden Sierra in May.
Our first child, Scarlet Lily Grace, just turned two.”
James Conley writes, “On August 2, 2015, Ted
McGillicuddy married his partner of 14 years,
Adam Terella, of Denver, Colorado. The ceremony was held at the Twin Oaks Country Club in
Littleton, Massachusetts.”
Send your news to—
Erin Wilson
[email protected]
02
Doniyor Ahmedov writes, “I was
an international student at UVM
from 1999 through 2002 majoring in business administration. After graduation, I
lived and worked in Alexandria, Virginia, for some
time. Right now, I live in my home town Tashkent,
Uzbekistan. I am running a successful real estate
business which I started more than four years ago.
I own half a dozen apartment units which I rent
for the guests of our city and I also work as real
estate agent for other apartment and house owners.” Rebecca Loonin shares, “I am starting a master’s program in speech language pathology at
Adelphi University and aim to be part of the 2017
graduating class.”
Send your news to—
Jennifer Khouri Godin
[email protected]
03
Heather Hawkes and Nick Wolfe
welcomed another daughter, Helen
Elizabeth, on March 27. The College
of Agriculture and Life Sciences awarded Jeffrey
M. DeCelles with its 2015 New Achiever Alumni
Award on Saturday, May 9, 2015 in the Grand
Maple Ballroom of the UVM Davis Center. Jeff
flew in from his current home in South Africa to
receive the college’s award which honors a graduate within the last 15 years for their outstanding
professional achievement and potential for future
accomplishments. Jeff spent a few extra days in
Burlington and the Northeast to see family, friends
and former professors before returning home to
his wife and two children. Tracy Petherbridge
Liebenow writes, “My husband, Brian, and I have
experienced a couple of big life changes over
the past year. On August 29, 2014 we welcomed
our baby boy, Bryce, to the family. Kylie (4) absolutely loves being an older sister. They just adore
each other, and boy, can she make him laugh! Sibling love is amazing. Just a few months after Bryce
arrived my husband got a job offer we couldn’t
refuse, and so we took the family, left Vermont and
now live in the Capital Region (Clifton Park, New
York). We have been here since December 2014. I
am still working in the human resources field and
we bought a wonderful home with a huge backyard for the kids to play. We are still settling in, getting to know the area, and making this ‘home.’ We
visit Vermont often (luckily it isn’t too far away) as
it will always be ‘home’ in our hearts.”
Send your news to—
Korinne Moore
[email protected]
04
Erin O’Neill shares, “I had the pleasure of being a bridesmaid in my
dear friend, Kerry Sullivan’s wedding on Saturday, August 1. Kerry married Christopher Tomecek, a Boston College graduate, in
Hingham, Massachusetts. It was a beautiful wedding (with a gorgeous bride!) and was attended
by many UVMers: Jessica Gabriels Slagen, who
also served as a bridesmaid; Elizabeth Lundgren
’02, Shawna Wells, Jim O’Neill ’76 and Cindy
Wilson O’Neill ’77, and Steven ’78 and Susan
’78 Lane. Congratulations to Kerry and Chris!
Anna “Anya” Gushchin completed her advanced
training this past July by finishing an Ophthalmic
Plastic and Orbital Fellowship at Stanford and an
International Ophthalmology fellowship at the
University of Utah with her previous UVM mentor, Dr. Geoffrey Tabin. In conclusion of her fellowships, she had the privilege of leading a multidisciplinary team of surgeons to take care of 100
patients with a previously undescribed drooping
of the eyelids in Eastern Highlands of Papua New
Guinea. After spending the last year teaching in
Asia and Africa, she is back in the United States
looking for an academic faculty position in oculoplastic surgery. Sarah Wilby writes, “I am beginning a new position as the head of the Bio-Science
and Environmental Technology Department at
A.I. Prince Technical High School in Hartford, Connecticut.” A few of our classmates have some new
additions to their families! Dave Jadwin writes, “I
wanted to announce that Shanna and I had our
first child, a daughter named Sella Liron, on July
8, 2015. Hopefully, she’ll be a future Catamount!”
I also heard from Amy Christensen Manchester, “My husband Don and I welcomed our second
daughter on April 14. Her name is Kathryn Margaret Manchester and she joins big sister, threeyear-old Abigail!” I had the pleasure of spending
some time in Burlington this summer to celebrate
the upcoming nuptials of Korinne Moore ’03
and Dan Berenson. Jessica Rosenfeld Vicente,
Kara Egasti Dooley, Rebekah “Boo” Stuwe
Baril, Molly Betzhold Kusek ’03, Janine White
’03, Jenny Casartello Eddy, and Callie Moore
’10 were also in attendance for the fun and festivities. We all reunited again in September for
Korinne and Dan’s big day with even more UVMers
in attendance! If you have any news you would like
to share please let me know! I love receiving your
updates.
Send your news to—
Kelly Kisiday
[email protected]
05
Jennifer Zicherman Kelleher tells
us, “I graduated May 9 from MCPHS
University (formerly Massachusetts
College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences) with a
Doctor of Pharmacy. I will be completing a yearlong clinical pharmacy residency at WentworthDouglass Hospital in Dover, New Hampshire, this
summer.” TD Bank has promoted Nicholas J. Faitoute to senior vice president, market commercial credit manager in Commercial Credit Management. Based in Manchester, New Hampshire, he is
responsible for managing the credit underwriting
and credit administration functions for TD Bank’s
commercial banking portfolio in New Hampshire.
Faitoute has 10 years of banking experience. Keith
Upton-Weber and his husband, Chris, welcomed
their boy and girl twins via surrogacy, on April 13.
Madison Karl Upton-Weber was 6 lbs., 10 oz. and
19 inches and Margaret “Maggie” Patch UptonWeber was 5 lbs., 4oz and 18 inches. Both dads
and babies are doing great and enjoying each and
every day!
Send your news to—
Kristin Dobbs
[email protected]
06
10th Reunion
September 23–25, 2016
If you are interested in planning your upcoming
reunion, email [email protected]. Carl Siebecker
and his wife Laura Vogric Siebecker ’08 welcomed their second child, Eva Elizabeth, in May.
Kate Haggerty writes, “My husband, Ryan Allgrove ’05, and I met at UVM and just got married June 20, 2015. There were a good number of
UVMers there, so we figured we would send names
and post a photo on the Flickr photo gallery. The
following were there: Nickii Whitney Davignon,
Jake Davignon, Betsy Harlow, Ethan Bernstein
’05, Hana Fritz Bernstein ’07, Adam Morrison
’05, Jay Harpp ’05, Stephanie Gergely Davis
’05, Richard Lendino ’05, Alison Basdekis,
Sara Armstrong Donegan, Kyle Cram, Janet
Machon Lampkin, Matt Lampkin, Patty-Ann
Csizmesia Holden, Sarah Hall Magoon, Amira
Bakr, Ben Visich, Dave Chez ’05, Libby Meehan
’06, Tim Hancock ’05, Angela Muzzey, Logan
Sena ’05, Linky Le Roux-Ohm and Ben Englund
’05. There are six married couples in there that
met at UVM! Brian Murphy and I recently relocated to Acton, Massachusetts. I accepted a fulltime active duty position with the Massachusetts
Army National Guard as the deputy chief of behavioral health and Brian has started a new career at
Worcester Polytechnic Institute as a development
FA L L 2 0 1 5 |
59
| CLASS NOTES
officer in University Advancement. We welcomed
a daughter, Harper Elizabeth, on June 8. Aidan, 6,
and Addison, 2, are excited for their new little sister to arrive.
Send your news to—
Katherine Murphy
[email protected]
07
Tom Collingham and wife, Jameson duPont Collingham ’06, welcomed their second child on July
9, 2015. Baby Clara is also welcomed by her
20-month-old big brother, Campbell. Robert Orr
III is completing the final year of a family medicine residency with hopes to return to the Champlain Valley region to practice. Alex Friendly is
between his first and second year at UCLA Anderson getting his MBA. He’s interning this summer
at the NFL in Los Angeles working on data analytics on their Next Gen Stats business. Alex left his
job at the White House for his degree program.
Tori Jones, Sarah Jane Compton, Rini Mayer
and Christine Vela reunited on Lake Fairlee, Vermont, in July. The visit was spent eating, laughing,
and reflecting on the ten-plus years of friendship,
countless Orchard Terrace memories, dance parties, and of course, cornbread. In October 2014,
Marisa Dauber and Michael Fullam were married in Rancho Santa Fe, California. The two met on
the Redstone Green freshman year, and have since
moved to the West Coast. Michael was recently
named one of San Diego’s outstanding young
attorneys and Marisa continues her UVM education in environmental consulting. They were lucky
enough to have numerous UVM alumni present
at the wedding, including, Terry “The Scorpion”
Ganer, Edward Reimann ’05, Julie Bastian
Claus ’08, Daniel Wilf, Suzy Teibloom Ganer,
Sky Ganer, and Michaela Best. Coco Kuehn
Kaminski welcomed baby Brady Kaminski, 7 lbs.,
3 oz., on July 31, 2015.
Send your news to—
Elizabeth Bitterman
[email protected]
08
Katherine Carton-Bacon Weigel
writes “On July 3 my husband, Benjamin Weigel, and I celebrated our
fifth wedding anniversary and the birth of our
first child, Connor Philip Weigel.” Andrew Richard recently returned to the United States from
yet another deployment, this time at sea with
the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. “While away,”
he writes, “my wife Kim welcomed our new son,
Nolan, into the world.”
Send your news to—
Elizabeth Bearese
[email protected]
Emma Grady
[email protected]
60 |
V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
09
Kit Wiebe Cahill recently moved
back to Vermont with husband
David Cahill to take a job at the
UVM Medical Center in the surgical ICU. She is
excited to be back in Burlington and reconnecting
with old friends. David Volain shares, David Helfand just received his Psy.D. in clinical psychology
from William James College, Newton, Massachusetts. He is now in practice in Beverly, Massachusetts at the Medical Psychology Center. He specializes in neuro feedback. Ryan Jackson Walker
writes, “2015 has been a big year for me! I got
married in Italy, graduated from Babson College
with my MBA, and started a new job as a manager with M Booth & Associates, a marketing and
public relations firm in New York.” Caitlin Adams
married Joshua Barker on May 30, 2015 in White
River Junction. Fellow UVM alums Audrey Arnold
and Catriona Brosius ’10 were bridesmaids. Caitlin works as an infection preventionist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New
Hampshire. The couple reside in White River Junction. Erica Bruno has been promoted to the district operations manager for Nissan USA covering
the Maine and seacoast of New Hampshire. She
started with Nissan seven months ago as a fixed
operations manager covering Vermont and New
Hampshire. In her six-year career in the automotive industry, this is now her fourth promotion.
Emily Rodney married Paul Tufaro (of Emory
University) on June 27, 2015 in Newport, Rhode
Island. Emily currently works as a story producer
on TLC’s show “Say Yes to the Dress”. Paul works
as a director of business development at Business
Talent Group. The couple reside in New York City.
Sage Stout and Peter Johannessen got engaged
this summer while hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. They’re pretty excited!
Send your news to—
David Volain
[email protected]
10
Jeremy Baras got married in
December, 2014 and moved from
Boston to Chicago with his wife. He
is the CEO of PopUp Republic, the leading endto-end service provider for the $50 billion dollar
pop-up industry. He is currently working with his
publisher, John C. Wiley & Sons, to write the definitive book on pop-ups. The book will be released in
stores (and on Amazon) in October, 2015. Bailey
Adie writes, “Since graduating from UVM, I have
completed a master’s in cultural heritage and
international development from the University of
East Anglia, Norwich, UK. During this time, I also
undertook a five-week internship in India working with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage. I married my wonderful husband,
Alberto, on August 9, 2014. We have both been
working on the completion of our doctorates,
with his being undertaken in New Zealand. Mine
was in management and development of cultural
heritage from IMT Institute for Advanced Studies Lucca, Italy. I focused on world heritage tourism and undertook fieldwork in the United States,
Serbia, and Morocco. I also completed a research
period at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. I successfully defended
my thesis on July 10, 2015, and I hope to find a
researcher/lecturer position focusing on cultural/
heritage tourism.” Christine Elliott and Addison
Minott have lived together in Boston, Massachusetts, for the past four years. Christine worked in
healthcare at Massachusetts General Hospital for
several years and just accepted a business development position at a healthcare startup called
American Well. Addison continues to work in environmental engineering and remediation for a
small company in Winchester, Massachusetts. He
is also president of the Boston Polo Club and travels with the club to participate in hardcourt bike
polo tournaments throughout the United States
(and Mexico this fall!). His love for bike polo originated in Burlington! Christine and Addison both
enjoy cycling in their free time and are making
plans to travel to Chile and elsewhere in the next
year. They enjoyed cheering on the Catamounts
this past winter as UVM advanced to the Hockey
East semi-finals and challenged Boston College.
Go Cats!
Daron Raleigh
[email protected]
11
5th Reunion
September 23–25, 2016
Lisa White Finan and Thomas Finan were married on September, 13, 2014 in Watch Hill, Rhode
Island. The couple met during their freshman year
at a Delta Delta Delta and Pi Kappa Alpha event.
There were many fellow Catamounts in attendance, including Caroline Shepard, Adam Rogers, and Carlo Casa in the wedding party. Also
there to celebrate were Megan Fitzgerald, Christiana Nilson Martin, Luke Martin ’12, Vanessa
Denino, DJ Figueiredo ’12, Frank Flora ’12,
Colin Robichaud ’12, Michael McHugo ’12, Jonathan Berger and Nathaniel Kay ’12. The couple resides in Brookline, Massachusetts. Holly
Bridges writes, “I have spent the past year or so
completing the clinical externship for my doctoral
degree in Audiology in Seattle. I graduated in May
2015 from Washington University in St. Louis, but
decided that I liked being in the Pacific Northwest
so much that I decided to stay there. I am now
working as an audiologist in the Seattle area.”
Send your news to—
Troy McNamara
[email protected]
12
William Vitagliano writes, “I worked
in the Office of the Registrar for three
years as the university residency officer and enrollment management professional.
During my time as an employee, I also earned my
master of education in interdisciplinary studies
in education in May of 2015 and represented the
graduate study body as the vice president for the
Graduate Student Senate. Upon completing my
degree, I began working for the University of San
Francisco (USF) as the assistant registrar for course
& degree audit. Zach Hirsch writes, “I now live in
Plattsburgh, New York, where I launched a news
bureau for NPR-affiliated North Country Public
Radio. I was recently profiled in a local business
magazine which quoted me as follows, ‘Then I was
accepted into a respected radio workshop called
Transom. I did some work for a station in New York
City, and one day, I looked up and I was a full-time
reporter for an award-winning NPR station. I bring
our average age down! I help make sure that our
content appeals to a younger audience. And I have
a unique news sensibility, my self-assigned stories
have a certain flavor—they can be adventurous,
quirky and uncomfortable.” Abbie Desrochers
Jefferis, and Erik Jefferis ’11 welcomed son, Oliver John Jefferis, on Tuesday, July 28. Ollie was 5
lbs., 14 oz, and 19.5 inches long. All are doing well
and Ollie eagerly awaits attending his first Catamount sporting event! Nina Dinan G’12 joined
the team at PT360 in Williston, VT. Her specialties
include sport and work-related injuries pediatrics,
and post-surgical patients in addition to general
orthopedics. She has a certification in Selective
Functional Movement Assessment, which classifies patients’ movement patterns to direct therapeutic interventions.
Send your news to—
[email protected]
13
Hannah Faesy writes, “The following alums had a small UVM reunion
in Bangkok, in January 2015, at the
Root Garden, an urban farm. Alex Gagnon ’14,
Joseph Hasselmann ’14, Sarah Alexander ’14,
and Hannah Faesy. Alex and Joe both started
engineering jobs in late winter, so they took a
month to explore and volunteer in Thailand and
Vietnam. Sarah and I quit our jobs and took three
months to explore Southeast Asia and we all happened to be in Bangkok at the same time.” Katharine Hawes writes, “Jeffrey Hammersmith and
Shannon Emmons got married on July 25, 2015.
Karole-Ann Bayer is a first-grade teacher.
Send your news to—
Katharine Hawes
[email protected]
a wedding next year, we will be tying the knot in
our beloved Vermont. Joe Connors writes, “For
those entering the field of psychology, inquire in
the New England area where positions are readily
available and are usually in high demand. The job
market has been more than kind, and I have since
been employed at two prominent corporations.
One being at the highly-esteemed McLean Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I serve
as a counselor for women diagnosed with borderline personality disorders and other co-occurring
conditions. The other position I hold is clinical case
manager at O’Connor Professional Group, which
caters primarily to those afflicted with addiction and substance abuse. Even one job will still
put your foot through the door and learning new
aspects of the field will allow you to make better professional decisions and narrow down your
career choices. Accrue as much experience as you
can in the field before pursuing graduate studies
to really appeal to future employers or admissions
officials.”
Send your news to—
Grace Buckles
[email protected]
15
Deniz Sehovic received the 2015 L.
K. Forcier Outstanding Senior Award
on Saturday, May 9, 2015, at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Alumni and
Friends Dinner in the Grand Maple Ballroom of the
UVM Davis Center. The award recognizes accomplishments and character of one senior who
exhibited the highest standards and distinguished
service to the college, UVM, and the community.
Congrats Deniz! Tom MacJarrett teamed up with
Liz Herlihy to serve as rescue scuba divers for the
June New England Tough Mudder held at Mount
Snow in Vermont.
Send your news to—
UVM Alumni Association
[email protected]/classnotes
CLASSIFIEDS
RENTALS & SALES
GRAND ISLE, VT
Rustic elegance with a sunset view.
5BR year round retreat on 520’ of
private lakefront. Call Becky Moore ’74.
802-318-3164 or [email protected].
HARWICHPORT, CAPE COD
2-4 person apt – $650/wk, June-Sept,
end-road-beach: DVD/WIFI, CC Bike Trail
nearby; National Seashore 15 miles.
[email protected], 508-432-0713.
MARTHA’S VINEYARD, MA
Let me help you find the perfect vacation
home to buy or rent. Visit our website at
<www.light housemv.com>. Call Trish
Lyman ’89. 508-627-4424 or email
[email protected].
ST. MAARTEN
Private 4 bedroom alum family home,
stunning view of St. Barth’s. Gorgeous
beaches. “Culinary Capital of the
Caribbean.” UVM Discount.
<www.villaplateau.com>
SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN, ME
On mountain 4season 1BR condo,
pool/tennis/ski-in/out
[email protected]
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
VERMONT
Longing for Vermont? Acquire a
successful, readily learned business
offering a comfortable living and
make the move! For Vermont
business opportunities, contact
The Silva Group at 802-864-6200,
<www.thesilvagroupvt.com>
Madelaine White
[email protected]
14
After meeting in UVM’s Integrated
Humanities Program nearly five
years ago, former Cynic editor-inChief Mike Eaton and I are happy to announce
another Catamount Couple engagement! Set for
FA L L 2 0 1 5 |
61
| IN MEMORIAM
Shirley Chapin Montgomery ’32, of Milton,
Vermont, July 14 2015.
Helen Cook Nelson ’34, of Scotia, New York,
July 24, 2015.
Barbara Blodgett Rea ’41, of York, Pennsylvania,
May 31, 2015.
Mildred McRae Scotten ’42, of White River
Junction, Vermont, May 9, 2015.
Robert Emmett Fenix ’43, G’47, of Burlington,
Vermont, May 27, 2015.
Helen Clifford Crawford ’44, of West Lebanon,
New Hampshire, April 26, 2015.
Cleveland R. Denton ’44, MD’48, of Broad
Brook, Connecticut, June 23, 2015.
Rudolph H. Kempter ’44, of Carlsbad, California,
May 12, 2015.
Ronald H. Neal ’44, MD’47, of Ludlow, Vermont,
May 27, 2015.
Elaine Bailey Gage ’45, of South Burlington,
Vermont, June 19, 2015.
Pauline Fitch James ’45, of Maineville, Ohio,
August 11, 2015.
Robert W. Linehan MD’47, of Queensbury, New
York, June 21, 2015.
Kathleen Haus Moriarty ’47, G’66, of Boca
Raton, Florida, May 7, 2015.
June Beverly Abell ’48, of Sterling, Massachusetts, May 14, 2015.
Stanton H. Bryden ’48, of Cambridge, Vermont,
May 19, 2015.
Vivian DuBrule Ells ’48, of Largo, Florida, May
5, 2015.
Ann Davis Fagan ’48, of Rutland, Vermont, April
26, 2015.
Phyllis Prescott French ’48, of Lebanon, New
Hampshire, May 10, 2015.
Laura Byington Kreutzer ’48, of Holbrook, Massachusetts, June 23, 2015.
Paul Pascal ’48, of Seattle, Washington, May 11,
2015.
Truman R. Cavanaugh ’49, of Boise, Idaho, May
12, 2015.
Jewell Yvonne Croom ’49, of Roswell, Georgia,
June 12, 2015.
John Lawrence Gardner ’49, of Richmond, Vermont, July 26, 2015.
Thomas R. Ingram ’49, G’57, of Osteen, Florida,
April 29, 2015.
A. Gould Susslin ’49, of Fort Myers, Florida,
April 28, 2015.
Bernard Edmond Villemaire ’49, G’51,
of Burlington, Vermont, May 13, 2015.
Robert F. White ’49, of Wellesley, Massachusetts,
August 3, 2015.
Samuel D. Mills ’50, of Cypress Gardens, Florida,
February 25, 2015.
Alfred Edward Peterson MD’50, of Binghamton,
New York, July 20, 2015.
John Reznor Ward ’50, of Albany, Oregon,
May 11, 2015.
Rae Mactiernan Worthen ’50, of South
Burlington, Vermont, August 4, 2015.
62 |
V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
| UVM COMMUNITY
Paul L. Hackel ’51, of Nashua, New Hampshire,
June 3, 2015.
Edward J. Leach ’51, of Saint Paul, Minnesota,
May 22, 2015.
Robert T. Platka, Jr. ’51, of Gardnerville, Nevada,
April 7, 2015.
Douglas Parker Shaw ’51, of Manchester Center,
Vermont, May 4, 2015.
Dorothy Post Stevens ’51, of North Scituate,
Rhode Island, June 28, 2015.
Nancy Varn Baldwin ’52, of Hendersonville,
North Carolina, May 24, 2015.
Lawrence C. Berger ’52, of Melbourne Beach,
Florida, June 10, 2015.
Robert K. Blakeman ’52, of Milford,
New Hampshire, May 25, 2015.
Donald L. Booth ’52, of Princeton,
Massachusetts, August 7, 2015.
Harald F. Henningsen ’52, of Orlando, Florida,
June 14, 2015.
Thomas B. Miller ’52, of Milford, Connecticut,
July 18, 2015.
Rita Blinder Deutsch ’53, of Miami, Florida,
August 4, 2015.
Paul W. Jary ’53, G’58, of Queensbury, New York,
June 10, 2015.
John A. La Belle ’53, of Hilton Head Island,
South Carolina, May 11, 2015.
Carolyn Pinto Rossi ’54, of Doylestown,
Pennsylvania, April 25, 2015.
Merritt W. Sheldon ’54, of Essex Junction,
Vermont, June 5, 2015.
Marilyn Bates Smith ’54, of Westfield,
Massachusetts, June 13, 2015.
Carlton M. Brown, Jr. ’55, of Newfane, Vermont,
May 16, 2015.
George Donald Ewins, Sr. ’55, of Shelburne,
Vermont, July 21, 2015.
Norman O. Stevens ’55, of Jacksonville, Vermont, July 2, 2015.
Charles Parker Barrows ’56, of Glover, Vermont,
June 30, 2015.
Philip D. Chiaravalle, Sr. ’56, G’58, of Hyde Park,
Vermont, June 6, 2015.
William A. Frappier ’56, of Rutland, Vermont,
June 15, 2015.
Robert Gorman ’56, of Bonita Springs, Florida,
April 26, 2015.
Gerald Herbert Sevits ’56, of New York, New
York, May 14, 2015.
Dudley M. Baker MD’57, of Williamstown,
Massachusetts, July 2, 2015.
Richard J. Urie ’57, of Livingston, Montana, June
5, 2015.
Christopher Peter Acker, Sr. ’58, G’79, of Bristol,
Vermont, May 15, 2015.
Joseph T. Vitelli ’58, of Poughkeepsie, New York,
July 13, 2015.
John C. Darwin ’59, of Fairhaven, Massachusetts,
July 9, 2015.
John Douglas Detore ’60, G’71, of Valley
Springs, South Dakota, May 24, 2015.
Gloria S. Dugan ’60, of Falmouth, Maine,
May 2, 2015.
Ian G. Ferguson ’60, of Boulder, Colorado,
July 14, 2015.
Phyllis Hammond Finch ’61, of Middleburgh,
New York, May 7, 2015.
David Newton ’61, of Northampton,
Massachusetts, June 9, 2015.
Margaret Miles Waddington MD’61, of Rutland,
Vermont, June 21, 2015.
Arthur S. Ashton ’62, of Amory, Mississippi,
July 9, 2015.
Elliott M. Rosenbaum ’62, of Oceanside,
New York, June 23, 2015.
Jeffrey A. Falk ’63, of Highland, New York,
May 14, 2015.
John J. Salengo ’63, of Davis, California,
May 17, 2015.
James P. Reuschel ’65, of South Burlington,
Vermont, May 1, 2015.
Roscoe C. Stevenson ’65, of Williston, Vermont,
June 26, 2015.
Gilbert P. Connelly MD’66, of West Yarmouth,
Massachusetts, May 8, 2015.
Janet Ruth Hadda ’66, of Los Angeles, California,
June 23, 2015.
Alexander M. Clarke ’67, of Fernandina Beach,
Florida, June 16, 2015.
John Michael McKnight, Jr. ‘67, of Underhill
Center, Vermont, June 22, 2015.
Stephen H. Greenberg MD’68, of Indian Shores,
Florida, June 3, 2015.
Cynthia Whiting Peyerl ’68, of South Barre,
Vermont, August 12, 2015.
Nelson A. Shepard ’68, of Swanton, Vermont,
May 20, 2015.
James W. Sullivan ’68, of Vergennes, Vermont,
August 12, 2015.
Lucien Dennis Paquette ’69, of Middlebury,
Vermont, August 4, 2015.
Glenn R. Tosi ’69, of Montpelier, Vermont,
April 25, 2015.
Stephen John Furtado G’70, of Fairhaven,
Massachusetts, June 2, 2015.
Allan E. Marsceill ’70, of Savannah, Georgia,
May 1, 2015.
Dorothy Shupp McKeown ’70, of
Hendersonville, North Carolina, April 28, 2015.
Earle Bruce Nelson ’70, of Waterbury, Vermont,
July 25, 2015.
Mary Ann Merrill ’71, of Morrisville, Vermont,
April 23, 2015.
J. Michael Towner ’71, of Martin, Florida, April
21, 2015.
Susanna Hinman Clark ’72, of Ryegate, Vermont, June 15, 2015.
Jeffrey Thomas Smith ’72, of Burlington, Vermont, May 21, 2015.
Joyce Riley Davis ’73, of Scituate, Massachusetts,
June 16, 2015.
Carrie Towne Rhinelander ’73, of Putney,
Vermont, August 10, 2015.
Judith Ann Puck ’74, of Shelburne, Vermont,
May 20, 2015.
Jody Sherman ’74, of Montpelier, Vermont,
May 11, 2015.
Joyce D’Errico Ellison ’75, of Ludlow, Vermont,
July 26, 2015.
Stuart Gerald Hunt ’75, of West Charleston,
Vermont, May 5, 2015.
Gary R. Niles ’75, of North Bennington, Vermont,
June 13, 2015.
Edith White Perry G’75, of Logansport, Indiana,
June 9, 2015.
Ellen Elizabeth Mario ’76, of Vero Beach, Florida,
July 19, 2015.
Edith Kyle Templin G’76, of Burlington, Vermont,
August 3, 2015.
Judith Bronsveldt Callander ’78, of Bluffton,
South Carolina, June 25, 2015.
Mark William Weber ’78, of Westerly, Rhode
Island, July 9, 2015.
Margot Rose Fletcher ’80, of Las Vegas, Nevada,
May 28, 2015.
Michael N. Heffernan ’80, of Montpelier,
Vermont, August 8, 2015.
Richard Alan Kirsch, Jr. ’80, of Briarcliff Manor,
New York, May 20, 2015.
Kenneth Earl Najarian MD’80, of Charlotte,
Vermont, June 17, 2015.
P. Kay Barbour-Schmokel G’83, of Waterbury,
Vermont, April 24, 2015.
Kris Lewis Carlson ’85, of Williston, Vermont,
May 1, 2015.
Phyllis Brand Merritt G’85, of Montpelier,
Vermont, August 2, 2015.
Jon Conrad Zdechlik ’86, of Frisco, Colorado,
July 18, 2015.
Barbara J. DuBois G’88, of Burlington, Vermont,
July 05 2015.
Lara K. Sobel-Faryniarz ’89, G’02, of East
Montpelier, Vermont, August 7, 2015.
Jere M. Scanlon G’91, of Essex Junction,
Vermont, May 31, 2015.
Robyn L. Darling ’92, of Windham, New
Hampshire, July 4, 2015.
Elaine Keen Harrington G’92, of Montpelier,
Vermont, July 16, 2015.
Diane Wolk, EdD G’97, of Castleton, Vermont,
July 4, 2015.
William Wiley Warrick, IV ’00, of Stamford,
Connecticut, August 3, 2015.
Jesse Blair Smith ’07, of Astoria, New York,
January 12, 2015.
Maria Dolores Berard G’08, of Saint Albans,
Vermont, August 4, 2015.
Andrew James Howe ’09, of Shelburne,
Vermont, May 16, 2015.
Mark Russo Weber G’11, of Charlottesville,
Virginia, January 21, 2015.
Daniel W. Gade, professor
emeritus of geography, passed away in
June. Professor Gade joined the UVM
community in 1966, one of the first
faculty members to establish geography
as an academic focus at the university.
Beyond his teaching, through the years
he served as chair of the Latin American
studies program. As a field geographer,
Professor Gade’s research took him to
Latin America, France, Italy, Madagascar,
Ethiopia, Spain, Portugal and Quebec.
Elaine Keen Harrington g’92,
lecturer in English and a past staff writer
in UVM Communications, passed away
in July after a long illness. A journalist for
the Times Argus and Rutland Herald before
her years at UVM, Harrington brought
that experience to journalism courses in
the English Department, where she also
taught expository writing and American
literature.
William Lewis, professor emeritus
of sociology, passed away in July. Professor
Lewis joined the UVM faculty in 1954 as
a professor in the department of communication. He was the founder and first
station manager of WRUV, and the director of a project report sponsored by the
Ford Foundation that was instrumental in
bringing public television to the state of
Vermont.
Professor Lewis was also noted for his
work as a naturalist with the National
Park Service. His book Interpreting for
Park Visitors is considered a classic in the
field of interpretation and communication. In 1989, the year of his retirement
from UVM, Professor Lewis received the
Alumni Association’s George V. Kidder
Award for excellence in teaching.
David Morency, mathematics lecturer from 1973 to 2001, passed away in
June. In addition to teaching undergraduate courses, Morency oversaw the College
of Technology Co-op Program, was
involved in the Vermont Math Institute,
and helped to conduct the annual Math
Prize Exam held by the Math Department.
Richard Musty, professor emeritus of psychology, passed away in July.
He joined the UVM faculty in 1968 and
would serve the university as an exceptional teacher, scholar, and colleague for
thirty-seven years. Professor Musty was
chair of the Department of Psychology for
twelve years. His pioneering research on
cannabinoids for therapeutic applications
contributed to the development of two
new drugs, one for neuropathic pain and
one for weight loss in obesity.
John Page ’50, UVM Agricultural
Extension agent in Bennington County
from 1952 to 1986, passed away in September. For more than three decades, Page
promoted sound agricultural practices on
Bennington County farms. He was also
very active in the community, serving
as president of the Board of Directors of
Merck Forest and on the board at Camp
Ondowa. He also served on the State
Environmental Board and on the Regional
Planning Commission, among other pursuits. The UVM College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences recently
presented the Sinclair Cup to Page in
honor of his years of distinguished
service.
Sondra Solomon, associate
professor of psychology and psychiatry,
passed away in September. In addition
to her teaching appointments, Professor
Solomon directed UVM’s Fall Institute on
Racism, Heterosexism, Bias and Oppression, chaired the Diversity Curriculum
Review Committee, and was committed
to mentoring undergraduate and graduate students from diverse backgrounds.
She was director of the undergraduate
program in the Department of Psychological Science, as well as an affiliate faculty
member of the Gender, Sexuality, and
Women’s Studies and Critical Race and
Ethnic Studies programs.
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63
UVM
CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE IN OUR COMMUNITY
| EXTRA CREDIT
Alumni Association Awards
CONGRATULATIONS
2015 AWARD WINNERS
OUTSTANDING YOUNG
ALUMNI AWARD
Joseph Thomas ’08
ALUMNI
ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Jackie Noonan MD ’54
Nominate today
for the 2016
Alumni
Association
Fred Mandell ’61, MD ’64
DRESSING MAURA
Alumna Wins
Emmy for
“Transparent”
Costume Design
BY
THOMAS
WEAVER
64 |
Marie Schley, UVM Class of 1994, won a 2015 Emmy
Award for her costume design on “Transparent.”
Schley and her colleague Nancy Jarzynko were honored for their work on the Amazon Studios comedydrama that revolves around a transgender character
played by actor Jeffrey Tambor, who also won a 2015
Emmy. We caught up with Schley via e-mail.
Q. Tell me about the particular challenges or opportunities dressing transgender characters for “Transparent.” What have you tried to achieve in your
costuming of Maura Pfefferman?
A. Ultimately, I was dressing a fully rounded person,
not just someone whose only facet is that they are
transgender. Maura is in her late sixties. She has a bad
knee. She was a professor who taught at Berkeley in
the seventies. She’s from an upper middle class background. She is liberal and well traveled. She has a
beautiful mid-century house in the Pacific Palisades.
These were all factors that I took into consideration
when thinking about what Maura would like and
how she would like to present herself to the world.
Q. Is it an interactive process working with Jeffrey Tambor on the show? Does he have costumes
V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY
he prefers, thoughts on ways the character should
dress?
A. It is definitely an interactive process. Jeffery and
I talked about who would have influenced Maura’s
style choices. Maura was a young adult in the seventies, and we decided she would have been influenced
by some of the women of that time like Stevie Nicks
and Mama Cass. But some costume choices were
made in a less cerebral way and were more visceral.
For instance, during the pilot and in my first fitting
with Jeffrey, I tried dangling earrings on him, and he
immediately said, “Oh, that’s nice! I don’t know why,
but I like the movement.” He began to feel Maura
come alive. After that we tried some flowing pants
and a top. The sensuality and comfort made him feel
like Maura. It made sense because of where Maura
was in her life and in her transition to a woman.
Q. Congratulations on the Emmy. What does that
achievement mean to you?
A. Of course it’s amazing and wonderful to win
the Emmy, but especially for this show, which has
so much heart and love and passion at its core. The
show has a profound message for the world about
authenticity and acceptance of one’s true self. I am
honored to have been a part of that message.
MARIE SCHLEY: JB LACROIX/GETTY IMAGES
Elizabeth Burke Bryant ’79
With over 105,000 UVM alumni
worldwide, we’re relying on you,
DISTINGUISHED
SERVICE AWARD
Robert F. Cioffi ’90
our constituents, to help us identify
the outstanding members among us. Help us shine
the spotlight in 2016 by nominating a deserving alum
or faculty member today.
John & Janet G’95,
’99 Bramley
Nominate by the end of 2015, for all
2016 award winners. Visit alumni.uvm.edu/awards
for more information on nominating a fellow Catamount!
GEORGE V. KIDDER
OUTSTANDING
FACULTY AWARD
Dr. Barry Guitar
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