Class of 1988 Alumni Notes
January / February 2001
Lots of weddings to report this month! Steve Gaffney sent news of the wedding of David Downie and Laura Gasiorowski (a graduate of Williams and Tulane Law) on September 9, 2000 in Rumson, NJ. In attendance were Steve and fellow '88s Chris Armacost, John Wilcox, Andy Wilson, and Ed Atanda as well as David's brother, Chris, a Dartmouth '91. Dave and Laura are residing in New York. Dave received his JD from Columbia, has practiced corporate law in New York and Singapore, and is now in the Global CDO Group at Merrill Lynch in New York. Following the wedding, Dave and Laura spent two weeks on safari in the Okavango Delta in Botswana for their honeymoon, an experience which was "surreal." ("As you know," writes Dave, "Steve spent many years in Africa and was instrumental in putting the trip together.")
Jessica Parham Seessel married Richard James Larson in New York in August. Prior to the wedding, she was a vice president and the national sales director at Columbia Artists Management in Manhattan, which represents classical musicians, dance companies and orchestras. In September, she began teaching literature at Vanguard High School in Manhattan. Following Dartmouth, she received her doctorate in modern thought and literature from Stanford. Richard is the director of H.I.V. and AIDS programs at the Citizens Advice Bureau, a nonprofit community social service organization in the Bronx. He graduated from Hamilton College and received a master's degree in social work from Columbia.
Pauline Joan Garris married Marshall William Brown III in September in New York. Pauline received her MBA from the University of Pennsylvania and is the vice president of strategic planning and business development at the Estee Lauder Companies in New York. Marshall, also a Dartmouth grad, received his master's in English from the University of Chicago and is now an account manager in New York for Alliant Technologies, an internet consulting company.
Mike Wilner was recently appointed as a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles. His title is Special Assistant United States Attorney, and he is responsible for prosecuting white collar criminal cases. Mike previously spent five years as an enforcement attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission investigating insider trading and other securities fraud cases. Mike's wife, Jayne, and his two daughters, Maddie and Katy, spend most of their time at the beach -- the girls have never seen snow or anything like a New Hampshire winter. Also in California is Rick Collari, who works as an attorney in private practice in the Bay Area. Rick is married to Louise and has two beautiful little boys and an enormous dog.
Don Kempf and his brother Steve have just produced the celebrated IMAX tribute to the world's most famous athlete -- Michael Jordan. According to the Chicago Tribune, Don and Steve launched the project with no background in film and no connections to the NBA or Jordan himself. But their research and business plan convinced a number of investors, including a lawyer whose other clients included a part owner of the Bulls. They reserved rare IMAX cameras for the playoffs, took the risk of filming Jordan before reaching final agreement with his agent, and hoped for a Bulls victory. When Jordan's agent saw excerpts at the Smithsonian IMAX theater in Washington, the deal was closed. Before launching his film career, Don taught high school history, was a ski instructor, earned an MBA from the University of Chicago and then worked in management development. The next project of his company, Giant Screen Sports, is "The World's Game," an IMAX soccer film.