Class Notes

Shirley Wang ’64 and Doris Cheng

’64 met up for lunch at Chili’s in Tianmu over Chinese New Year in February 2019.

Gary Sherwood ’68 visited Taipei in December 2018. He is now retired from the federal government where he was a civilian employee and currently lives in Arlington, VA. He enjoys traveling in his retirement, and he and his wife Pi-Yuan visit Taipei on an annual basis.

Paul Divis ’77 attended TAS from 1973 to 1975 and was vice-president of his class in freshman year. After graduating from high school in El Paso, TX, he attended West Point Academy. He now works at Pratt & Whitney in the aerospace industry as Director of International Programs. He was delighted to visit Taipei and TAS for the first time in forty-five years in April 2019. George Smith ’77 is two years away from full retirement. He retired from the Army after 20 years and has been working for the federal government for 13 years. He and Jo, his wife of 40 years, attended their first reunion in 2010 in Taipei and look forward to moving to Tennessee soon. Friends are invited to connect with George on Facebook (George&JoSmith).

Lesley Hall ’79 and Jim Smith

’78 were married in Santa Fe, New Mexico in July 2018. They will be living in the Washington, D.C. area and look forward to their next visit to Taiwan.

Mona Lee ’80 gathered with friends Lincoln Lok ’83, Bianca Kong ’81, and Leo Wong ’81 for dinner in Hong Kong to celebrate the birthday of Mr. Richard Arnold in March 2019.

Siblings Missy Chow ’81 and Chris

Chow ’83 currently reside in Seattle, WA. They attended TAS from 1970 to 1978 when their father Shelton Chow taught English here. Missy and Chris visited TAS in mid-December 2018 to reunite with current and former faculty who remember Shelton fondly including Richard Arnold, Betty Sun ’72, and John Dankowski. They especially enjoyed seeing MS faculty Weston Cooper ’08 who student-taught at Garfield High School in Seattle, WA where Missy works. William Sheh '83 is a professional engineer. He runs his own company which manufactures high-current electrical connectors in China and Southeast Asia. He is currently based in southern California and is a highly engaged volunteer in the FIRST Robotics program at his local high school.

Michelle Bos-Lun (nee Bossard) ’84

enjoyed meeting up with two TAS teachers Dante Benson and Darby Sinclair and four TAS students in NYC for a social justice walking tour of Lower Manhattan in April 2019. The four students and two teachers were attending the Model UN Impact conference in NYC. Michelle is now a social studies teacher and enjoyed connecting with TAS students for this very interesting tour.

Christina Chang '89 visited Taipei in March 2019 with her family for the first time. Her mother, Ruth Chang, was a long-time counselor in the Lower School. Christina is a film and television actress and currently stars as a series regular in the ABC drama The Good Doctor.

Jerri So '89 has been a longtime docent at the National Palace Museum in Taipei and has guided many English-speaking VIPs including Bill Clinton. She gave an interview in February 2019 about her experiences and insights into the treasures at the Museum for HIT FM 107.7.

Annie Wu Su ’89 and husband Jonathan have been living in Kunming, Yunnan, China, for 19 years, raising three children, doing community development and seeing this city grow. Her daughter Olivia is finishing her third year at UBC, where her son Nathan is also a freshman, and her youngest daughter Joani is finishing her junior year. Their first Gap Year parenting book titled No work, No school—A Family’s Journey to the Ends of the Earth 《不上

班，不上學，陪孩子窮游到地級》was published in China in 2015. Annie is currently working on their second book, The Silk Road Journey— Transitioning Teens into Adulthood and hopes to have the book finished bilingually this year. The Silk Road Journey shares their lessons learned from parenting teens in China and on the road as backpackers trekking through the Silk Road for one year from 2015-2016. Mimi Ho '90 currently lives in Oakland, CA and works as Director for Movement Strategy Center. She came back to Taipei in February 2019 for the first time since graduation and reunited with Mr. Arnold. Mimi is the proud mother of two daughters, Olive and Juniper.

Matt Davies '92 published his first novel This Thing of Darkness through Scholastic Australia in November 2018. This young adult novel is full of mystery, teenage angst, and love, and tells the story of eighteen-yearold Riley Benjamin, whose world has just been turned upside down by the sudden death of her younger sister. Matt has generously donated a copy to the TAS library. You can learn more about the book on Matt's website: https://www.mattdavies. com.au/

John Bishop ’95 currently works as an Editorial Officer at the IMF and lives in the DC area. He also teaches Business Writing and Creative Writing in the Innovation Lab at the IMF. In October 2018, John visited Taipei for the first time in more than 25 years and enjoyed speaking to current TAS students about creative writing in Simone Zhang’s upper school expository writing class. Angela Hwang ’95 is currently living in Los Angeles. She is married with two sons aged 10 and 6. She looks forward to connecting with old TAS friends if they are visiting the Los Angeles area. Alexander Chen ’98 held a Taipei fashion show in November 2018 in cooperation with Asus. The show, titled "Beauty, Power, Inheritance," included costumes designed by Alex and inspired by the Asus Zenbook.

Rachel Menka Purswaney ’98

visited Taipei in November 2018 to perform Kathak, a North Indian classical dance form, at Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. She also visited TAS to do a workshop for high school dance students. She currently lives in Hong Kong as a designer and a busy mother of two by day and a Kathak teacher and dancer by night. Anne Savitch (Chen) ’99 attended TAS for two years from 1989 to 1991, and currently lives in Orange County where she works in HR for KIA. She and her husband have two children.

Melissa Fraser-Arnott ’00 celebrated the birth of her second daughter Genevieve Marie in February 2019. She is currently on maternity leave from her position as Chief, Integrated Reference Services at the Library of Parliament in Ottawa, Canada. She is also currently pursuing her Master of Business Administration at the Australian Institute of Business (AIB).

Abraham Hurdle ’00 and Joshua

Hurdle ’03 attended TAS from 1992 to 1996. Both earned Bachelor of Engineering degrees. After college, Abe earned a master’s in environmental health and a law degree and currently works as a lawyer in Baltimore, MD. Josh continued on to earn an MBA and currently works in the Finance Department at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. Both have strong memories of the programs, teachers, sports, and schoolmates from TAS, as well as the Mandarin they learned.

Kathy Chang '01 currently lives in the Bay Area. In October, she began as Product Manager, Product Lead for Reporting & Analytics, at Stripe, an Internet payment company. Most recently, Kathy was Product Lead for Information Quality at Twitter.

Irene Fang ’01 and Eric Su

’01 welcomed baby boy Jake in June of 2018. Irene works at TAS in the Lower School as a Grade 4 Teacher.

Anne van Gessel ’02 finished a twelve-month Coaches Training program in July 2018 from Accomplishment Coaching program. She has recently started working with Accomplishment Coaching as a Team Effectiveness Consultant and Wellness Coach. She hopes to support people in being their most authentic selves, finding their intrinsic motivation, and improving corporate culture. Michelle Kao ’03 performed in TAPE, a one-act play by Stephen Belber, in August 2018 at the LAB Space in Taipei. TAPE follows the reunion of three old high school friends who pass the time in a Michigan motel room dissecting the painful memories of their high school years. #MeToo Tom Lam '03 currently works as a Research Scientist in San Francisco, attempting to make drugs for lung diseases. Mr. Orensky's "finger counting" method of determining hybrid orbitals has been greatly influential in his academic career. Congratulations to Tiffany Chang ’04, the 2017-18 winner of The American Prize in Conducting in the community opera division, selected from applications reviewed from all across the United States. Tiffany is currently conductor of the New England Repertory Orchestra and Music Director for the North End Music and Performing Arts Center’s Opera Project in Boston MA. As of fall 2018, she is conducting and teaching as Visiting Assistant Professor of Conducting at Oberlin Conservatory. Marissa Hou '04 has been in the hotel industry for the past 10 years and currently teaches hospitality at NYU SPS to freshmen as an adjunct professor in NYC. This is also where Marissa received her M.S. in Hospitality Industry Studies. After having attended a transformative retreat in Greece in September 2018 hosted by Eckhart Tolle, she is currently exploring business ideas where hospitality meets wellness. Marissa's main area of focus is bringing travelers to Taiwan and Japan for the purpose of finding inner peace and connecting with nature.

Elbert Kou '04 currently works as an anesthesiologist in the Los Angeles area. He recently completed his residency in Cleveland and he is now working in his first job postresidency. Allen Lee ’04 also reunited with his former volleyball coach Brian Tobey on a visit back to TAS in April 2019. Alice Liao ’04 currently lives in Boston. She returned to TAS in April 2019 and reunited with her former volleyball coach Kathy Cutler. Sisters Esther Veronin ’05 and Lara Veronin ’06 founded Meimeiwawa Multimedia in 2013 and have since created and released hundreds of videos on music, fashion, and feminism. Their most ambitious project yet is Tomorrow’s Star《明日之星》, a feature-length movie featuring eight of Lara’s new songs, seamlessly linked with a storyline written and directed by Esther. Alongside director of photography Laticia Fan ’09, the sisters presented this unique take on the visual album concept tackling the trials and tribulations of the entertainment industry. Tomorrow’s Star opened in theaters in Taipei on October 19, 2018. Richard Chen ’06 is the drummer for Quantum Split, a four-person rock and soul band from New York. Quantum Split’s original song "Say What You Gotta Say" was recently selected to feature in a McDonald’s commercial which premiered on MTV on November 4, 2018. Grace Sharples Cooke, who served as a TAS Board member from 1999 to 2002, reports that she is on the board of overseers at Penn Charter where her sons Todd and Philip graduated after attending TAS. Todd Cooke ’08 graduated from the University of Chicago and is now working on his Masters in Design and MBA at IIT Institute of Design, and his younger brother Philip Cooke ’11 who graduated from Princeton is a classical composer who will be starting a new job in Boston.

Greg Eusden '09 is currently based in Boston working for SimpliSafe, a company in home security, as a product manager. He visited Taipei in March 2019 with his girlfriend and was very excited to see all the renovations at TAS. Greg welcomes any TAS alumni who are passing through Boston. Caitlin Hall (née Beer) ’09 moved with her husband and her 15-monthold son to Michigan for a new job in October 2018. She is looking forward to getting involved with the theatre and education community there.

Monica Kuo '09 and Jesseca Lam

'14 opened up Neighbors Café 好 鄰居 near TAS in January 2019. Visit the café for their fresh baked goods, delicious food, and homey environment, as well as a TAS discount.

Jennifer Chiang '11 has published The Startup's Guide to Customer Success: How to Champion the Customer at Your Company. Jennifer Chiang is the CEO of DWDG Consulting and the Director of Customer Success at Yup Technologies where she founded the customer success team. Buy the book at tinyurl.com/guidetocs. Tiffany Chatham ’12 lives and works in Los Angeles. For the past two years, she has been working in motion graphics for the NFL, creating on-air graphics for shows through all the NFL networks. Tiffany also works at a sports design studio and freelances as a graphic designer. Eddie Painter '12 has started his first year as a Peace Corps volunteer in Chongqing, China, teaching academic writing at Southwest University. He is blogging about his experience at edwardpainter.com.

Nick Yeh ’13 is continuing to pursue his career in education after receiving his Master of Arts in Teaching in High School History from Tufts University in August 2018. He had engaged in a variety of positions including high school and elementary school librarian as well as a high school English teacher. He continues to enjoy living in Cambridge, MA and often meets up with fellow alums in the area. Lorraine Lin '14 is a professional touch rugby player playing for the Los Angeles Royals. She was recently selected to the final squad for the 2019 USA Touch Women's Open. She represented the United States at the FIT World Cup (April 29 – May 4, 2019) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Congratulations, Lorraine! Sunny Sheu '14 is a violinist and is currently working on her Master of Music degree at the Juilliard School, where she earned her undergraduate degree in 2018. Sunny performed in a Charity Concert for Alzheimer’s in November 2018 at the University of Santa Clara Recital Hall in Cupertino, California. Sunny also headlined a concert presented by New Art, Inc. at the National Concert Hall in downtown Taipei in May 2019.

Nina Hsu '15 is currently a senior at Istituto Lorenzo de'Medici in Florence, Italy, majoring in art conservation and art history. She is graduating in May 2019 and hopes to land her first job in related fields in Hong Kong or New York. Alumni with connections are welcome to contact Nina via the Alumni Online Directory.

Eric Lin ’16 is currently enrolled in Minerva Schools at KGI, studying business, philosophy and earth sciences. He spent the 2017-18 school year in South Korea and India, and the 2018-19 school year in Germany and Brazil.

CLASS NOTES Former Faculty

Michael and Jill Damplo who formerly taught at TAS now live in Memphis, TN. Both are now retired and are exploring more hobbies and artistic pursuits. Their older daughter Danica ’08 is working for a human rights NGO in New York City, and younger daughter Brianna ’11 is working in Ohio toward a full-time teaching opportunity. They would be happy to hear from alumni and fellow faculty at TAS. Laura Lewis taught in the English department at TAS as a student teacher in 1982. In 2018, she retired after 34 years at Sunset Middle School in Longmont, Colorado where she taught language arts, science, and drama.

Rick McDonald taught English in the Upper School for more than 20 years and has since retired in 2015 with his wife Patricia to Bend, Oregon in the U.S. He reports that they have been taking full advantage of the Cascade Mountains, large nature preserves, and forests to fill their days with hiking, snowshoeing, camping, playing pickleball, and biking. For the last three years, they have visited San Miguel de Allende in Mexico during the winter, and also visited their son Tommy who is a chef in Des Moines with their grandson, Anthony. They look forward to an extended trip to the UK in 2019 and living a life of continued learning. Tracey Su, who taught strings at TAS from 2004 through 2016, is in her third year as the Orchestra Director at the American School in Japan. Some of her former students at TAS were able to greet her last year at the AMIS music festival in Singapore, and may see her again this year when AMIS is in Salzburg, Austria. Her husband, Mark Lipsey, was a teacher in the US Mathematics department at TAS from 2009 through 2016. He is enjoying life in the Tokyo area, sometimes substitutes at ASIJ, and often visits TAS friends in Taipei. Ross Rodby Bankson ’60 passed away Friday, January 18, 2019, near his home in Fairfax, Virginia. He died at Fairfax Hospital after a cardiac arrest. His children were by his side. Ross relished his time at TAS and the friends he made there—close friends he kept over a lifetime. When he recounted those days to his children it always brought a smile to his face. Ross was a writer and editor who worked for the US Department of State, The Washington Post, and National Geographic during his long career. Ross will be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

George Daniel Chow ’60 passed away on Tuesday, July 17, 2018 at the age of 75. Dan graduated from TAS in 1960 and received his undergraduate and his masters degrees from MIT. He also earned his MBA from Stanford University. He married twice; once to Judith Shepherd, with whom he had two children, Kate and Nick; and later to Sandra Goozee ‘61, with whom he helped raise another daughter, Gabrielle. Dan was known to be a man of many passions, from music and art to food and soccer. Perhaps most recognizable, he had an incredible passion for literature, especially historical and science fiction. He was a regular visitor to many museums like the Anderson Collection at his alma mater, and concerts, like those by the American Bach Soloists, where he volunteered. He kept spreadsheets of restaurants he wanted to visit and created delicious creations himself, as an excellent home cook. He played soccer for much of his life and when he couldn’t keep up with playing, he stayed an avid fan. However, his favorite pastime was to explore used bookstores, where he would buy and sell books for his ever-changing collection. He imparted everything he learned on any of these subjects to anyone who spoke with him.

Martin (Marty) James O’Malley

‘63 of Albuquerque, NM passed away on Tuesday, January 8, 2019 at the age of 73 after a 5-year battle with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Born in Devon, England in 1945, Marty was an Army brat who lived all over the world including Germany, Taiwan, Chicago, New Jersey, San Francisco, Seattle, and Albuquerque. He was the oldest of his 5 siblings and a big brother to Mike, John, Caryn, and Brian. He loved and admired each of his siblings so much, and spoke of them often in his final days. He left behind his much beloved wife of 46 years Linda, and his twin sons Colin and Derek. Marty had a passion for aviation and joined the Air Force with plans to become a fighter pilot. When he was medically disqualified during pilot training, he became an RF-4C aircraft maintenance officer, and after his military service, he built a very successful career in the insurance industry, ultimately retiring as the Chief Operating Officer of Builders Trust of New Mexico. He was an artistic and creative soul, who was passionate about music. He loved to collaborate with his son Colin and to play percussion with local bands, including Los Radiators and the Moon Dogs. Occasionally, he also felt compelled to sing in public, which was truly, truly unfortunate. Marty had an incredible sense of humor, which he maintained through the final minutes of his life. He was a one of a kind, hall of fame father, friend, and husband.

Thomas “TL” Boyd ’64 passed away on July 15, 2018 after a brave struggle with Parkinson’s Disease. He and his family moved to Taipei in 1963