Intergalactic 50th Birthday Party Reports - 03/16/2007

Intergalactic 50th Birthday Party Reports
Boston

With the biggest snowstorm of the season on its way, the organizers entertained the notion of postponing
the Intergalactic Birthday Party Boston Edition…the Libby reminded us that we didn’t spend 4 years
in Hanover to wimp out due to a little weather. Based on RSVPs we had been projecting a crowd of
over 20, but when Beth and I arrived there was already 6 inches on the ground and it looked like it
might be a hosts-only affair. Then the gang came through and we soon found our numbers swelling.
Joining with Ames Abbot, Libby Roberts, Beth and me were Walter Chick, Andy Cole, Karen Thompson
Dale, and finally, Meg Clayton, who drove from Barnet, VT almost 5 hours through heavy snow.
Good fun, good cheer…not a lot of dwelling on the 50 thing. We all look forward to next year.
Phil Odence

Chicago

The multi-talented, most attractive, intellectually stimulating 79s from Chicago had a scintillating,
alcohol-sloshing (actually not too bad), absolutely terrific night of reminiscing, catching up and
great conversation on the evening of March 15th. In attendance were: Arch King, Mark Rader,
Peter Greulich, Nancy Wilder, Tom Taylor, Julie Lange Varga and Louisa Guthrie. We met at
Jak’s Tap - a local multi-tap restaurant and bar with a focus on March Madness at this time of
year. We were thrilled with 2 newcomers to the group: Tom Taylor who is a mortgage broker and
Julie Lange Varga who is an ER physician. With us, in spirit, were Jon Peabody, Marlow Hicks
and Lafayette Ford, who have all been a part of this group in the past. Jon was in South Carolina
on business; Marlow was in China - where he has been living and working for the past year; and
Lafayette is working for Bank of America in a large midwestern city (can’t remember which one),
but no longer in Chicago. We also heard from Matty and Phil Coffin who were not able to show
this year, and missed Russ Campion who attended last year. We marveled at the special bond we
share and how lucky we are to have the common background of The Big Green to allow us to jump
right in to a night of fun without need for ice-breaking or small talk. We enjoyed ourselves to
much that we are thinking of having a summer reunion, as well. Thanks again, Phil, for the oversight
of us all.Our lovely mugs - both facial and drink-wise - are included on the attached photo.
Luisa Guthrie

Colorado

A four day Mini was held at Crestted Butte with Rick “Cowboy” Swanson, Tom French, Carl
Yerkovich and Bags. While the turnout wasn’t quite as large as hoped, we never acted our age so
something positive was accomplished. We want to lay claim to the highest Mini-Reunion as evidenced
by the first picture taken at 12,000 feet (had you suspected something else?) We did a ton
of skiing (including sending the youngster Mark Fisher ’80 to the showers early on Day 1) told copious
amounts of lies and toasted a few to the granite in our brains. The last pic includes Carl’s
brother and nephew and the Mitchell clan (including Eli ’10, returning for her spring term after a
term in Biloxi Miss. Helping rebuild the Gulf Coast)

New York City

Dartmouth Class of 1979 in NYC 50th Birthday Mini-reunion March 21, 2007 left to right:
Tim Craig, Judy Ornstein, Chip Fauver, Carol Andersen Shaw, Lizanne Galbreath Megrue,
Elizabeth Puddie Hauge Sword, Otho Kerr, Custis Spencer Glover, Peggy Epstein Tanner,
Mark Winkler. Beth Blatt joined us later.
The New York Metro Chapter of the Dartmouth Class of ‘79 held a classic 50-year birthday
celebration on 51st Street and Fifth Avenue on Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Festivities started at 6:00 pm with a reception of wine and Greek food at the Olympic Tower’s
Atrium Café. At 6:45, the group was expertly guided through the Onassis Cultural Center’s
Athens-Sparta exhibit by Todd Davis who is a Ph.D. candidate in the Classics Department at
Columbia. We saw the 2,500 year marble statue of Leonidas, the king of Sparta who fell at
Thermopylae. Todd noted that this was the first time in history that this statue had ever been
shown outside of Greece. Our tour group was constantly surrounded by three attentive guards
to ensure that we did not get into any mischief in the exhibit.
Classmates who attended the evening’s events include Beth Blatt, Tim Craig, Chip Fauver,
Custis Spencer Glover, Otho Kerr, Lizanne Galbreath Megrue, Judy Ornstein, Carol Andersen
Shaw, Elizabeth Puddie Hauge Sword, Peggy Epstein Tanner and Mark Winkler. While most
of us were from the New York metro area, Carol Andersen Shaw joined us while in town visiting
from her home in Seattle. Besides the eleven classmates, three additional guests attended:
Tim Craig’s wife, Teresa; Custis Golver’s daughter, Amy ‘08 and Mark Winkler’s daughter,
Emily ‘08. Amy just returned from foreign study in New Zealand. Amy and Emily were about
to head back to Hanover for their spring term.
After the tour, the group of 50-year-olds walked west along 51st street to a private room reception
at Cité Restaurant and Grill where beer, wine, and passed dinner hors doeuvres were
provided including goat cheese with seasonal fruit, smoked salmon roulade, chicken salad
canapé, filet mignon skewers, creamed spinach tarts, and mini cheeseburgers. The gathering
broke up at about 9:15pm.

SoCal

I am forwarding the group photo from our ‘79 get together on March 30 at the Casa Del Mar
in Santa Monica.
We had an excellent group this year. From left to right Larry Mills, Donna Mills, Steven
O’Neill, Bob Foster, Ted O. Winterer, Beck Taylor Winterer, Rich Pugh and Beth Pugh. We
were disappointed that Foster’s bride, Jody, didn’t show up. It would have been truly a starstudded
evening in the finest tradition of Hollywood if both Donna Mills and Jody Foster
had been present.
Conversation ranged from children (big surprise) to skiing (how about that Dartmouth ski
team winning the NCAA’s for the first time since buckle boots and step in bindings were invented)
to European vacations (O’Neills in England and Ireland for Spring break and Pughs
in Italy after school gets out in June). This group has a diverse group of young uns. Blaine
O’Neill, the elder statesman, is heading off to college in the fall. Steele Winterer is learning
to crawl and play beer pong at 9 months of age. Larry and Donna have twin 3 year olds
(ouch!). All in all it was a fine evening and a great excuse to hoist a few beverages with
good friends.
Rich Pugh

San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO 79’S CELEBRATE THEIR 50TH AT HARRY’S STARLIGHT ROOF
Krups gathered some fellow 79’s at our good friend Harry Denton’s Startlight Roof in San
Francisco to celebrate 50th B-days. He said the event was the best 79th Day event he has
attended (in his humble opinion). The group included Sue and Kevin Felch (applying physics
to better our culture), Rick Racic and friend Deb (dropped in while rambling across country
to LA), Laura Robertson (compassionately curing our ills), and David
“Buzzy” Campisano (making the dough early for great ZA). Krups reported they could feel
Harry’s presence (beautiful waitresses all around) although Harry was unfortunately not in
the house by the time the group wrapped up.

Washington, D.C.

The party started as all ’79 Dartmouth parties in the D.C. Metropolitan area start: with the arrival
of T. Weymouth, Bill Conway and Paul Centenari, along with their lovely wives, Lucy,
Diana, and Elizabeth. (Elizabeth arrived slightly later after helping with separate St. Patrick’s
Day festivities earlier that evening. Very nice overlap of green that day (March 17)). Party
hosts, Burr & Liz Gray, proved to be extremely gracious, keeping their overly friendly golden
retriever in the car for most of the evening. Also present at the event were Doug Egan (who
has a son in the military), Stephen and Drusilla Hufford (Steve does information technology
stuff for EPA), Roger Sullivan, Tim and Marsha Ehrsam, Barb Murphy (law firm partner –
note the big green feather boa – feathers still showing up in odd places at the Gray’s house),
Paul Berryman, Da’aga Hill Bowman and her husband Quinton (a West Point grad who tolerated
and yes, enjoyed an evening of Big Green), and Tim (former Big Green swimmer now an
FBI dude) & Laura Gent. Food was prepared by an excellent middle-eastern restaurant, Lebanese
Taverna. Here in D.C., while we do not present the sophisticated atmosphere of the New
York event, the conversation was excellent and lasted into the wee hours of the following day.
Bill had scoured the internet to give us all some perspective and read various quotations much
to the enjoyment (and dismay in some cases) of the partygoers. At that point, we toasted ourselves
with great gusto, using the most excellent champagne obtained by Dr. Weymouth. The
e-mails following the next several days used terms like “convalescing”, “recuperating”, etc.
You get the picture. Very fun event. Our thanks go to Mini-reunion chair Phil Odence for
nudging us upward and onward.