class notes
Denny Emerson Jr. ’55 Denny Emerson Jr. ’55 wrote and published the book Know Better to Do Better: Mistakes I Made with Horses (So You Don’t Have To).
Keep in Touch! Recent marriage? Exciting adventure? New baby? Keep your classmates updated on the latest happenings in your life. All Class Notes also appear in the magazine’s online version. To report your entry, you can visit bement.org/alumni or contact us via phone or email. PHONE 413.774.3021 EMAIL alumni@bement.org
B E M E N T. O R G
Richard Coon ’65 Richard Coon ’65 writes: “Aloha oe, Bement! After 30-plus years in Hawaii, I’ve now moved to Thailand and may not come back. I live in a tiny hamlet and am known to everyone as ‘LoongLick,’ or ’Uncle Rick,’ and I’m quite happy with my life, my wife, and her daughter. I remember Bement well and fondly. Thank you for the good times.” Phil Barreda ’82
Constituency Codes* ’GB Alumna/us from Grace Bement era (1925–1947) ’00 Alumna/us Class Year TT Trustee PTT Past Trustee P Parent GP Grandparent GGP Great Grandparent FA Current Faculty or Staff PF Past Faculty or Staff FR Friend of Bement HOS Head of School FHS Former Head of School IHOS Interim Head of School
*Constituents are listed with their Bement affiliation following each name. For example, John ’72 and Alice PF Smith P’95 means that John is an alum from the Class of 1972, and Alice is a past faculty member. Together, they are parents of a student who attended Bement Class of 1995.
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Richard Coon ’65
Felipe “Phil” Barreda ’82
Phil Barreda ’82 writes: “I was happy to participate in the Alumni Pen Pal Project and exchange letters with a fifth grader. I found the experience very rewarding, and I look forward to continuing to participate in this project. In the last three months, I have been able to reconnect with two classmates from Bement, Joe Elias ’82 and Bill Eng ’82. We even organized, with the help of another alumnus, a few Zoom chats with other fellow Bement alumni from the 1980s. It was nice to see people that I had not seen in 38 years.”
Barak Blackburn ’85 In 2019, Barak Blackburn ‘85 was a finalist in the annual game design competition Game Chef. Game Chef contestants have 10 days to design a game following a theme and using “ingredients.” Barak created the twoperson game Ekphrasis, which uses blackout poetry to create a surreal narrative. In early 2020, he also participated in a Make 100 Kickstarter initiative, which asked creators to make up to 100 limited-edition pieces of art and sell them. He worked on mounted blackout poetry, turning a page from a book into both narrative and visual art, suitable for framing. Barak developed his passion for games while a student at Bement playing Dungeons & Dragons with friends during an elective time, and this year he brought that passion to Bement by running a game for a group of over 10 enthusiastic students. To learn more about Barak’s quirky games, visit https://zine.games.
