CLASS NOTESJuly-August 2008

   Continuing what has emerged as the 2008 class column theme, more' 66s are happily migrating from one career to the next - with great success.

Take Jeff Gilbert, for example, who's been a lawyer, financier, entrepreneur, elected official and volunteer leader. And he's not through yet!

Jeff was a practicing business attorney for 14 years after Penn Law, then spent a number of years as a mergers and acquisitions investment banker. For about a decade he was the CEO of various retail businesses, including one with 80 outlets in 14 states. Now he's a principal of W.J.P. Development, which owns and manages community shopping centers.

Jeff and Penny live in Rye, New Hampshire, where he was a state representative from 2000 to 2005 (and plans to run again this year!). He currently serves on a number of state advisory groups for the port, housing and conservation planning and the park system. He's also VP of the board of the Housing Partnership, which provides affordable housing in the seacoast region and is chairman of the board of Strawbery Banke Museum, an outdoor history museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Jeff's two sons graduated from Dartmouth; Greg '00 is at Wharton and Courtland '03 is an Internet marketer with law school prospects, which, "of course, I have advised him against," Jeff reports. Daughter Caroline, an avid and talented equestrian, will be attending Bucknell.

Then there's James Lenfestey, who, after a career in advertising and journalism had become an award-winning member of the editorial board of the Star Tribune, the largest daily newspaper in Minnesota. Ten years ago, after he and Susan (whom Jim met at Dartmouth) watched their four kids leave the nest, he left the paper "to become the writer I'd wanted to be since Dartmouth and Tony Herbold's class." Since then he's published a book of essays and seven small collections of poems.

His latest work is Cartload of Scrolls: 100 Poems in the Manner of T'ang Dynasty Poet Hanshan, published last October by Holy Cow! Press. Reviewers have praised James for capturing the spirit of the 9th-century Chinese poet. He also cofounded the Ojai (California) Poetry Festival, chairs the Literary Witnesses poetry program in Minneapolis and is founder of the Mackinac Island Poetry Festival. Check out James' Web site, www.coyotepoet.com.

Also recently published is University of Alabama professor and history department chair Jim Tent. His book on the persecution of half- and quarter-Jews before and during World War II, In the Shadow of the Holocaust, has been published in Germany and received widespread publicity and acclaim.

It's photography that now absorbs Jim Lustenader, a marketing pro who has worked with the leading U.S. and international marketers in his stints at DVC; consumer packaged goods companies and ad agencies, including DDB and the fabled Wells Rich Green. While he remains a sought-after speaker and consultant, it's his new online photo gallery at www.clickpointphoto.com featuring a number of his best images, of which Jim is most proud.

A number of '66ers were on hand when the College officially cut the ribbon of the new soccer stadium and field house named after Alden "Whitey" Burnham, who coached three sports - soccer, wrestling and lacrosse - during our years in Hanover, all without an assistant! The state-of-the-art 3,000-seat facility was funded in large part by the generosity of Stan Smoyer '34 and his family. Pete and Mary Barber, Howie Dobbs, Bill and Barbara Duval, Larry Geiger and Bill Jevne were joined by hundreds of Whitey's former athletes, friends, family, Dartmouth staff and current students at the heartwarming dedication ceremony and spirited dinner that formally opened the much-needed and much appreciated facility. Burnham Field will be home for Dartmouth's nationally ranked men's and women's soccer teams for generations to come.

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