Vermont Quarterly Summer 2018 by University of Vermont

Vermont THE UNIVERSITY OF

Q UA RT E R LY

Into the jungles of Madagascar

STRONG AS SILK

in search of the toughest material on Earth

SUMMER 2018: QUANTIFYING HAPPINESS PAT BROWN FAREWELL MAGNIFICENT MORGANS SHAWNA WELLS â&#x20AC;&#x2122;04

Vermont Quarterly DEPARTMENTS

2 President’s Perspective 4 The Green 18 Catamount Sports 20 Student Voice 48 Class Notes 64 Extra Credit FEATURES

UVM PEOPLE: Shawna Wells ’04

A BREED APART

THE QUANTIFICATION OF HAPPINESS

STRONG AS SILK

BFFs IN BUSINESS

From teaching to leading a school to helping train more effective administrative leaders, Shawna Wells is committed to creating opportunities for kids. | BY JON REIDEL G’06 ’18

The UVM Morgan Horse Farm celebrates and enhances a sturdy breed with a fabled place in American history. | BY ANDREA ESTEY

Professors and grad students in UVM’s Computational Story Lab are drilling down into social media data to probe our collective state of mind. | BY ROWAN JACOBSEN

Better sutures for surgeons? Safer armor for police officers? Could a species of spider in Madagascar have the answers? A UVM scientist sets off into the jungle to find out. | BY JOSHUA BROWN

When your college roommate becomes your business partner, a look at four alumni ventures rooted in UVM friendships. | BY THOMAS WEAVER

SUMMER 2018

Contents photograph by Brett Simison Cover photo of Darwinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bark spider by Joshua Brown

| PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE

UVM’s Proud “Public Ivy” Designation the storied colleges and universities that carry the Ivy League imprimatur are recognized as some of the most prestigious and selective private institutions of higher education. In addition to their recognition for excellent undergraduate programs and preeminence in the liberal arts, the Ivy League schools are all of an age—many pre-dating the American Revolution— each with strong cultures carried on by students and alumni. All are well resourced and elicit the devoted support of alumni. In the 1980s, at a time when increases in private school tuition began far outpacing the climbs in cost of living, college admissions departments started to notice a trend: A growing number of high-school seniors accepted to their “first-choice” private schools were choosing to attend schools with lower tuition costs. With this trend as his starting point, Richard Moll, a nationally recognized dean of admissions set out on a nationwide search to identify eight public institutions—paralleling the number of Ivy League schools—that offered an academically rigorous liberal arts education and carried the gravitas of age, tradition, and resource (or resourcefulness). His book The Public Ivys: A Guide to America’s Best Public Undergraduate Colleges and Universities offered college-bound students and their families an inside look at these eight public universities of distinction. As one of Moll’s designated Public Ivy institutions, the University of Vermont shares distinguished company with the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Virginia, the College of William and Mary, Miami University of

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

Ohio, the University of Texas at Austin, and the various schools comprising the University of California. From his well-researched comparisons, Moll highlights UVM as being selective in its admissions; academically and socially vital; strong in both undergraduate teaching and research, as befits the state’s land-grant institution; and high in resourcefulness, being nimble and creative in the face of minimal state support. Moll’s was a decidedly subjective analysis. But now there are data—gathered in the form of a national survey of good practices—to measure quality in undergraduate education. The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), conceived in 1998 and supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts, invites undergraduates at colleges and universities across the country to report directly about their educational experience, measuring recognized practices that correlate with successful educational outcomes. The survey was created not only to measure quality in higher education—for the benefit of prospective students, parents, and high school admissions counselors—but also to provide colleges and universities with benchmarks to measure against in their commitment to fostering student success through proven educational practices. The National Survey of Student Engagement is administered at UVM every three years to first-year and senior-level students, and is benchmarked against 114 higher and highest research-activity universities. The 2017 NSSE results show UVM students in both the first-year and senior cohorts as scoring significantly higher than students at our peer universities in a number of

important engagement categories. These include reflective and integrative learning, collaborative learning, and supportive environment. Each of these categories indicating active learning, engagement with peers and faculty, and the quality of the learning environment map to student success in the classroom and in the college experience overall. Our UVM seniors also showed impressively greater involvement with the “high-impact” practices of participating in a learning community, internship, field experience, clinical placement, or study abroad program; working with a faculty member on a research project; or completing a capstone course, senior, research project, or thesis. In 2017, 92 percent of UVM seniors reported participating in at least one of these practices, and 76 percent participated in two or more of these highimpact learning opportunities during their four years at UVM. A student’s choice about where to attend college is a critically important decision. Families are rightly concerned that the value of their investment be realized in the strongest practices that will support their student’s success. The NSSE data lay a strong foundation under UVM’s Public Ivy reputation, putting objective markers to the vital learning environment that our teacher-scholars have been fostering for generations. As we invest in our students, staff, faculty, and campus infrastructure to support a 21st-century learning environment, we continue the urge toward excellence that has defined UVM since its founding in 1791. —Tom Sullivan SALLY MCCAY

VQ EDITOR Thomas Weaver

ART DIRECTOR Elise Whittemore CLASS NOTES EDITOR Kathy Erickson ’84 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Joshua Brown, Andrea Estey, Rowan Jacobsen, Jon Reidel G’06 ’18, Louisa Wakefield ’18, Jeffrey Wakefield, Basil Waugh PHOTOGRAPHY Joshua Brown, Tracey Buyce, Morgan Edwards, Andrea Estey, Corey Hendrickson ’98, Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist ’09, Brian Jenkins, Taylor Keating, Andy Lewis, Sally McCay, Tomoki Nomura ’20, Tilman Phleger, Richard Ross ’67, David Seaver, Brett Simison, Thomas Weaver ILLUSTRATION Glynnis Fawkes

Elegance

at the Alumni House. Available for public celebrations of all types.

ADVERTISING SALES Vermont Quarterly 86 South Williams Street Burlington, VT 05401 (802) 656-7996, tweaver@uvm.edu CORRESPONDENCE Editor, Vermont Quarterly 86 South Williams Street Burlington, VT 05401 (802) 656-2005, tweaver@uvm.edu ADDRESS CHANGES UVM Foundation 411 Main Street Burlington, VT 05401 (802) 656-9662, alumni@uvm.edu CLASS NOTES classnote@uvm.edu VERMONT QUARTERLY Produced by UVM Creative Communications Services Amanda Waite’02 G’04, Director Publishes March 1, July 1, November 1 PRINTED IN VERMONT Issue No. 81, July 2018 VERMONT QUARTERLY ONLINE uvm.edu/vq

instagram.com/universityofvermont

Alumni House 61 Summit St. Burlington, VT uvmalumnihouse.com Andrea.VanHoven@uvm.edu

twitter.com/uvmvermont facebook.com/universityofvermont youtube.com/universityofvermont

SUMMER 2018 |

YOU SHOULD KNOW “ FEED THE WORLD: SCIENTISTS HAVE A PLAN TO SAVE CHICKPEAS FROM DESTRUCTION” —Newsweek headline about UVM faculty research. See page 11

$89,724.29

UVM RALLYTHON dollars raised for the UVM Children’s Hospital. The year-long, student-led RALLYTHON closed with a twelve-hour dance marathon in honor of the length of a typical nurse’s shift.

HONORING ALUMNI

PAINTING A FIRST LADY

Four of the five honorary degree recipients at Commencement 2018 already had a UVM diploma at home. Congratulations to Frank Bolden ’63, Brooks Buxton ’56, Karen Nystrom Meyer ’70, and graduation speaker Alexander Nemerov ’85 on earning their second. ALBANIA, BOTSWANA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, EASTERN CARIBBEAN, ECUADOR, ETHIOPIA, GHANA, GUYANA, JAMAICA, MEXICO, MONGOLIA, MOZAMBIQUE, NAMIBIA, NEPAL, NICARAGUA, PARAGUAY, PERU, PHILIPPINES, RWANDA, SENEGAL, SOUTH AFRICA, TANZANIA, UKRAINE, GUINEA

PEACE CORPS

When Barbara Bush passed away in April, artist Candace Lovely ’75 reflected on her experience painting the First Lady’s portrait at the White House in 1991. Read more: go.uvm.edu/lovely

Countries where twenty-eight UVM alumni are currently serving in the Peace Corps. In total, 909 UVM grads have served with the Peace Corps since its founding in 1961.

MEDAL INFLATION On campus for an April event honoring UVM’s 2018 Winter Olympians, hockey alumna Amanda Pelkey ’15 brought along a new friend, her gold medal. We grabbed the opportunity to borrow Albert Gutterson’s 1912 Olympic medal from UVM’s Athletic Hall of Fame for a side-by-side look at the first Catamount gold and the latest. Read about how the 2018 Catamount Olympians fared: go.uvm.edu/olympians

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

LEFT: BRIAN JENKINS

THE GREEN News & Views

Sri Lanka Costa Rica Venezuela India Romania Sri Lanka Costa Rica Venezuela India Romania Sri Lanka Costa Rica Venezuela India Romania Sri Lanka Costa Rica Venezuela India Romania Sri Lanka Costa Rica Venezuela India Romania

MOUNTAIN VIEW TO THE MOON UVM students are working to help NASA prepare for a mission that will send rovers to the poles of the moon to mine for ice. In March, the team traveled to NASA Ames in Mountain View, California to present their progress on designing a rover wheel testing device. UVM is one of just eleven university teams NASA selected for the Exploration Systems and Habitation 2018 Academic Innovation Challenge. Pictured in the biggest wind tunnel in the world: senior Catherine Simpson; Ryan Vaughan and Paul Banicevic, systems engineers at NASA Ames; and seniors Liz Barrett, Thomas Durivage, Adam Potasiewicz, and Liam McAuliffe. Read more: go.uvm.edu/moon

SUMMER 2018 |

| THE GREEN

Fab Experience in Votey Lab ENGINEERING | From the moment Claudia Benito Alston first peeked into the Fab Lab—a Votey Hall room full of 3D printers, laser cutters, micro-controllers, and other high-tech gizmos—she was hooked. “It had so many instruments for creating things, it just really looked cool,” says the mechanical engineering major, who graduated in December. That first look turned out to be a window on Benito Alston’s future at UVM that the then-sophomore couldn’t have imagined. Following her initial encounter, Benito Alston landed a work-study job in the Fab Lab, where she took a particular interest in exploring the capabilities of 3D printers, which create dimensional objects by building up film-thin layers of plastic, directed by a computer design program. When a design project came along that would enable her to put her 3D printer chops to work and was related to an academic area she was interested in, biomedical engineering, she jumped at the chance. The project, to develop a type of 3D printer called a “bioprinter,” which used living material rather than plastic as its basic building block, had additional appeal for Benito Alston, allowing her to connect with faculty in UVM’s top-ranked Larner College of Medicine. The particular researcher was Dr. Dan Weiss, professor of medicine and a member of the Vermont Lung Center. His project was so provocative, it approached science fic-

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

tion. Weiss’s goal, in partnership with a colleague at the medical school, was to use a 3D printer to bio-print breast implants made from a living material like collagen for women who’d had mastectomies. The material would also serve as a scaffold, in future stages of the research, for stem cells that would differentiate inside the body into living breast tissue. Weiss also wanted the device to print a variety of other living materials, which could serve as scaffolding, for instance, for lung tissue in patients with lung cancer. Benito Alston was part of a student team, led by postdoctoral student Robert Pouliot, that successfully “designed and wired up” an off-the-shelf 3D printer so it would serve the new purpose. For Benito Alston, a dual citizen who grew up in an artistic household in Spain, the wonders of 3D printers and the Fab Lab extended beyond engineering to the courses she took as part of her minor in studio art. A true evangelist, Benito Alston reveled in showing her fellow art students how the Fab Lab could be used to make art— like a human skull she created with sections of corrugated cardboard cut by a laser printer, half covered with clay and half exposed, so her fellow students could behold the wonder of the Fab Lab-created architecture beneath. Ultimately, Benito Alston wants to attend graduate school and put her technical expertise to use in a biomedical engineering career, one for which UVM has given her unique preparation. JOSHUA BROWN, LEFT; DAVID SEAVER, RIGHT

Honoring the Kalkins’ Legacy of Leadership

ALUMNI | The impact of Eugene and Joan Kalkin upon the University of Vermont has spanned decades and touched many aspects of the institution, business education to the Fleming Museum of Arts. When the UVM Foundation created a Lifetime Distinguished Leadership Award this year, there was a clear choice as the award’s namesake and first recipient. On April 20, the Foundation made it official, presenting the inaugural Eugene and Joan Kalkin Lifetime Distinguished Leadership Award to the Kalkins. The Silver Pavilion at Alumni House was filled to capacity as UVM Foundation President and CEO Shane Jacobson presented the award. Guests included Bruce Lisman ’69, who served on the UVM Board of Trustees with Joan Kalkin in the late 1990s. He credits the Kalkins for getting him involved as an active UVM volunteer. “You recruited people like me back to the university,” Lisman said. “You sold it as if it mattered to you, as though it was a part of your family.” Lisman described the Kalkins as “the patron saints of our university. We would not be who we are and would not imagine who we might become if it weren’t for you.” The Kalkins’ multiple roles have included terms on the UVM Board of Trustees, advisory boards for several of UVM’s academic units and the Fleming Museum of Art, chairing major fundraising campaigns, recruiting volunteers, career networking with students and alumni, recommending student applicants, and providing transformative philanthropy for the University of Vermont. Eugene served as founding chair of the UVM Foundation Board of Directors, and Joan served on the UVM Foundation Leadership Council from its inception in 2011.

JOIN THE EFFORT | MOVEMOUNTAINS.UVM.EDU

UVM President Tom Sullivan The UVM Foundation’s new applauded the UVM Foundation’s top leadership award is decision to name its most prestinamed for Eugene and gious award for Eugene and Joan Joan Kalkin. Kalkin and credited the couple for elevating the University of Vermont’s stature. “As I look upon their record of generous philanthropy, dedicated service and exceptional leadership spanning more than three decades, there is no question that the success and prominence that the University of Vermont enjoys today may be attributed, in large measure, to Eugene and Joan Kalkin.” Eugene Kalkin received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from UVM in 1950, and the Kalkins received honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from the university in 1998.

Move Mountains Campaign Progress CAMPAIGN GOAL $500M CURRENT GIFTS

$486M

| THE GREEN

SEPTEMBER LGBTQA EVENT IN NYC PLANNED Staff and students at the university’s LGBTQA Center and alumni in the UVM LGBTQA Affinity Group are working together to plan a day in New York City for community, fun, and something of a short-course in gay and lesbian history and culture. On Saturday, September 15, the UVM gathering begins with a docent-led tour of the LeslieLohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. Located at 26 Wooster Street in SoHo, the museum’s mission is “to exhibit and preserve art that speaks directly to the many aspects of the LGBTQ experience, and foster the artists who create it.” The permanent collection includes works by David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethrope, Catherine Opie, Berenice Abbott, among many other artists. The tour will be followed by a reception, from 3 to 5 p.m., at the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village. The Stonewall riots of 1969 were a milestone moment in the fight for gay and lesbian rights in the United States. “We want to bring UVM alumni (LGBTQA or not), families and friends together for a fun day in NYC where they can socialize, network, learn more about LGBTQA art, culture, and history,” says Sanford Friedman ’73, one of the co-founders of UVM’s LGBTQA Alumni Affinity Group. More information and to register: alumni.uvm.edu/LGBTQAday

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

STUDENT FOCUS | Running for head of student government requires a certain degree of old school political campaigning. That means posters liberally stapled up around campus. Last year, it was hard to miss “Vote for Niko Wu” — a photo of the candidate gazing and pointing into the camera, eyebrow arched with a hint of mischief, Chinese international student as Uncle Sam, “I Want You.” Though he pledged to restore the reading day during exam week and build internship and student club opportunities, his run for office fell short. No worries, Wu says a semester later, his run was mostly about the experience. Working as a student senator with former president Jason Maulucci ’17 gave him a taste for how student government leaders can create change for students on campus. Thinking he wanted to step up and make his own mark, Wu talked with his friends, his parents, and his professors. “Based on encouragement and support, I decided that I just want to try,” he says about last year’s election. “Because no matter what the result will be, I will definitely do something that I have never done before.” Something that I have never done before is a familiar theme for Wu. It’s what brought him to UVM, where he studies with approximately 400 fellow undergrads from China. Drawing on advice from his father, he was interested in gaining an education from an American university that would develop his critical thinking and broaden his world view. It’s what motivates research projects he’s undertaken in his sociology major, working with professors Dale Jaffe and Thomas Macias. Wu is exploring how international students develop across their undergraduate years and also looking into how individuals leverage social networks in running an organization or event. Wu balances his academics with work as a resident advisor in Marsh-Austin-Tupper residential complex, where many of UVM’s international students live. Though his presidential ambitions didn’t pan out, Wu remains active working to improve the experience of his fellow students. He leads an effort to create an international club in the Grossman School of Business, where he studies for his minor. He says, “For international students, we want to give them an opportunity to understand more about business opportunities in the United States. For domestic students, it is trying to give them more ideas to understand global business. And we want to build our own social networks for business.” While many international students return home for the summer, Wu stayed in Burlington after his first year of school, working as a custodian for UVM Physical Plant, motivated by gaining the experience of a blue-collar job and earning money to help pay his tuition. “Also, successfully, I buy a gift for my mom and use my own wage,” he adds. “Niko is exuberant, unfiltered, full of life, and quite lovable,” says Thomas Dunn ’87, one of his teachers in the Global Gateway Program. “He’s really jumped into the UVM experience and taken full advantage of the opportunities here.”

STUDENT FOCUS |

Niko Wu has jumped in for the full experience— research to student government to residential life advisor—during his four years at UVM. He’s pictured in Marsh-Austin-Tupper residential complex, home to many of UVM’s international students.

SALLY MCCAY

SUMMER 2018 |

| THE GREEN

10 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

GLYNNIS FAWKES

Fortifying a Critical Crop AGRICULTURE | Perhaps you missed this winter’s news that the price of hummus spiked in Great Britain. The cause, as the New York Times reported on February 8: drought in India, resulting in a poor harvest of chickpeas. Far beyond making dips for pita bread, chickpeas are a legume of life-and-death importance—especially in India, Pakistan, and Ethiopia where one in five of the world’s people depend on them as their primary source of protein. As global climate change continues, scientists expect more droughts, heat stress, and insect pests—creating need for new varieties of agricultural plants with diverse qualities that will let them cope and adapt to quickly changing conditions. Where could those novel traits come from? “The wild relatives of crop plants are the most promising reserves of genetic diversity,” says Eric Bishop von Wettberg, a UVM plant biologist. He led a new research effort that took a deep look at the ecology and genetics of chickpea plants. The scientists discovered an extreme lack of genetic diversity and other threats to the future adaptability of domestic chickpeas. But they also collected wild relatives of chickpeas in southeastern Turkey that hold “great promise,” von Wettberg says, as a source of new genes for traits like drought-resistance, resistance to pod-boring beetles, and heat tolerance. “Despite their potential value in meeting the challenges of modern agriculture, few systematic, range-wide collections of wild relatives exist for any crop species,” JOSHUA BROWN

In 2013, UVM scientist Eric Bishop von Wettberg and international colleagues spent two months surveying parts of Turkey and Kurdistan, near the border of Syria, searching for the two wild plant species most closely related to domestic chickpeas.

the team of scientists wrote in the journal Nature Communications, “and even the available wild genetic resources are widely underutilized for crop improvement.” As part of the new study, the “The way we found a lot of these scientists explored a large part of populations was by driving around the geographic range of the two and asking shepherds on the side of chickpea relatives, “from the bot- the road, ‘yabani nohut?’ which means tom of the mountains to the top,” ‘wild chickpea,” von Wettberg says, von Wettberg say—seeking to “then they would take us out in the capture the diversity that differfields and show us the plants.” ing micro-habitats, soil types, and elevations had created in various strains of the species. Then they did extensive crossbreeding of these wild plants with domestic ones. The resulting backcrossed plants and information about their genomes, “shows a way forward for improving chickpeas and many other crops too,” says von Wettberg, a professor in UVM’s Department of Plant and Soil Science and affiliate in UVM’s Gund Institute for Environment. The genetic material the scientists extracted, and the seeds they collected, greatly expand the global stock of chickpea relatives available to science—and will now be part of international seed and germplasm banks that researchers and breeders can use indefinitely. But, the scientists note, there is an urgent need to collect and conserve the wild relatives of many crops. “They are threatened by habitat fragmentation and loss of native landscapes,” von Wettberg says. “Where we were collecting plants in 2013 is now a war zone.” SUMMER 2018 |

| THE GREEN

12 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

ARTIST AS ADVOCATE As an artist, Richard Ross ’67 has exhibited at London’s Tate Modern. As a photojournalist, his images have appeared on the cover of Time Magazine. But in a life and career that Ross describes as “working on four different burners at once with two ovens burning,” he now sees artist-activist as his most critical role. In particular, Ross trains his lens on the juvenile justice system in the United States, creating starkly honest photographs of young Americans, overwhelmingly people of color, punished beyond their crimes with lock-down in solitary confinement. Ross shared his work in an exhibit at the Davis Center during April and shared his thoughts in a campus talk, “Art as a Weapon of Social Change,” on April 2. The photographer said that showing his work in contexts where it can make a difference drives him. That means the halls of Congress, the Supreme Court, and colleges across the country. “The gallery isn’t the right home for the work that I’m doing, because it appeals to a very privileged few and they aren’t the ones who take the information and change the world,” Ross said. “I want to make beautiful trouble, that’s my goal.” Pictured: Hale Ho’omalu Juvenile Hall, Oahu, Hawaii.

SUMMER 2018 |

THE GREEN

Students Push for Enhanced Diversity, Justice CAMPUS LIFE | Early in the spring semester, a student group called NoNames for Justice launched a protest demanding that the university administration take stronger action on race-related issues, improve diversity courses and training for faculty and staff, and change the name of a campus building named for an individual linked to the Vermont eugenics movement of the 1930s.

“We’ve all been hard at work, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.”

—NoNames for Justice

Student actions included blocking Main Street for several hours beginning at 5 p.m. on February 22, staging a rally during an Admitted Student Day event in the Davis Center on February 23 and an afternoon and evening sit-in at the Waterman Building on February 26. John Mejia, assistant director of the Office of Student and Community Relations at UVM, went on a five-day hunger strike in solidarity with the students. President Tom Sullivan, Board of Trustees Chair David Daigle ’89, Vice President Wanda Heading-Grant ’87 G’03, and Vice Provost Annie Stevens, were among the UVM leaders who met with the students to address the issues. In a February 26 letter to the UVM community, Sul-

14 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

livan wrote: “Recent events on campus have focused our attention on important and pressing issues: racial equality, diversity, and justice. Any great university embraces open, critical discourse. As we discover and learn from each other, we often find ourselves engaged in vigorous debate and heartfelt disagreement. The process is often messy. It is important that we never lose sight of the core elements that make UVM a vibrant intellectual community of which we all can be proud: diverse perspectives, meaningful dialogue, mutual respect, and civility.” The president’s letter identified six action steps to improve the quality of diversity courses, build a more diverse faculty, and enhance faculty-wide professional development in diversity and cultural competency. In March, the Board of Trustees established a Renaming Advisory Committee, charged with evaluating proposals to remove a name from a building, academic unit, or academic program. The process draws from renaming principles and criteria developed and adopted by Yale University in 2016. Board Vice Chair Ron Lumbra ’83 chairs the advising committee of trustees and faculty. A proposal to remove Guy Bailey’s name from Bailey/ Howe Library is currently under consideration by the committee. Bailey, president of UVM from 1920 to 1940, served on Vermont’s Eugenics Advisory Committee and supported eugenics research at the university. TOMOKI NOMURA ’20

Class of 2018 Goes Forth GRADUATION | On a cool May morning, spring showers passing through Burlington, graduates, family, friends and faculty gathered on the University Green for Commencement 2018. UVM’s Class of 2018 includes an estimated 3,072 graduates, degree recipients hailing from 44 states and 36 countries. The graduates heard from one of their own, alumnus Alexander Nemerov, UVM Class of 1985, in a lyrical, visually evocative, and highly personal commencement address befitting one of the nation’s leading art historians and scholars of cultural history. Nemerov, the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and Humanities at Stanford University, earned his UVM bachelor’s degree in art history and English. At the outset, Nemerov anchored his words to the graduates in his own time at UVM and, more specifically, with recollected moments grounded in the setting where he spoke from the stage—facing Williams Hall, Waterman Building at his back. Nemerov recalled studying on the fourth floor of Williams, gazing out across the lake at a particular farm with “a red barn, a copper roof, a green field.” He described the Waterman classroom where he watched the movie of “Henry V” for a Shakespeare course, becoming entranced by the reflections of the film, medieval knights on horseback, playing across the classroom windows. These moments, and others from throughout Nemerov’s life, are united by his sense that they are “private illuminations” that “allow us—carefully, tentatively, but sometimes with great power and purpose—to move through the world.” Nemerov warned that too often society tells us, and we tell ourselves, that such moments are worthless, an affront to our mutual agreement as a culture “that we not ask big questions, that we not marvel at the very fact of being alive.” At their essence, Nemerov said, these fleeting experiences speak to the truth of goodness, beauty, and unity in the world. “These moments of good, of calm, which I believe we’ve all had in some form, are delicate. They are the moments when the world does not devour you, does not drown you, but instead raises you up, keeps you afloat, buoyant, in some strange awareness of the fragile balance of being alive. The moments are delicate, yes, but I’ve also noticed that they’re indestructible. Maybe they are even the most indestructible part of us.” Full text of Alex Nemerov’s address: go.uvm.edu/nemerov TILMAN PHLEGER

‘‘

Like on a brilliant day here in Vermont, when the

lake is blue or silver or gray. I sense all the boats that have ever floated on it, the schooners and sailboats and dories and side-wheelers; I feel all the times that have been. And I am down among the fishes, some hundreds of feet deep, there with the blips on the fisherman’s sonar screen that are the schools, the living creatures that for a while remain living still. And I am in some Adirondack valley, where a fox eats a mouse, the fox tilting its head back, the better to bring the back teeth into play. And I am at our near shore, looking at the moonlight glinting off the leaves in the trees, off the faces of the lovers as they kiss. I am all of these things. You are too.

’’

—closing words of Alex Nemerov’s Commencement address SUMMER 2018 |

| THE GREEN

EDUCATION | When education startup AltSchool expanded to Brooklyn, it turned to Mara Pauker to build it from the ground up. The 2007 UVM alumna had already launched a progressive preschool in New York City and was becoming known as an education innovator. Despite having an established core curriculum, AltSchool allowed Pauker to infuse some of her own pedagogical theories and practices— ones she learned while student teaching at UVM’s Campus Children’s School as an early childhood preK-3 major. “The early education program is where I understood that school did not have to be designed and delivered in the traditional way, but rather it could be a place of inquiry, joy, and wonder,” says Pauker. “The UVM Children’s School taught me to have profound respect for children, to listen to their words, to consider their points of view and to partner with them in their learning journey.” Pauker is part of a growing number of alumni applying what they learned at the Campus Children’s School to their current positions in childcare centers, elementary schools, and other educational settings. Many of them gathered at UVM’s Alumni House for an event celebrating the school’s eightieth anniversary. An exhibit on display offered a rich history of the school since its founding in 1937 by Sara Holbrook, a clinical psychologist and education professor. Across eight decades, the school has helped raise more than 2,200 children, and it provides critical field experience to students in early childhood education and related areas of study. A key decision was made in 1990 to transform the school into a full-time childcare center for children ages six weeks to five years old. Barbara Burrington, current interim director and head teacher form 1994-2007, Dee Smith, current pedagogical director of the school and head teacher from 1990-2015, and Jeanne Goldhaber, associate professor emerita in early childhood education, traveled

The Wonder Years

16 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

to Reggio Emilia, Italy, to study municipal preschools and infant toddler centers that were being hailed by some as the best in the world. “We were in for a complete shock when we went over there,” says Smith. “The intentionality, beauty, seriousness, attention to detail, aesthetics and the way they listened to children was just so impressive. They didn’t have a set philosophy, but rather a set of values that were very clear and a way of enacting them that I had definitely never seen before. It took a long time to develop something that was relevant to our own culture and context, but I feel like at this point it’s our model.” Dale Goldhaber, associate professor emeritus and school director from 1991-2009, says, “Historically, American education has viewed children in terms of what they can’t do, and their future potential. We respected kids by listening and looking at what they could do right then, rather than arbitrarily deciding next week to do a unit on farm animals when there isn’t a kid in the room who could care less about cows.” Through all of the advancements over the past eighty years, Jeanne Goldhaber notes that the original goal of sending education majors into the world with a “deep love and abiding respect for children” abides. “We want our students to be able to teach children how to be critical thinkers and look at them as full of wonder and curiosity.” THOMAS WEAVER

M E D I A

BRIEFS | Maria Hummel ’94, assistant professor of English, is the author of Still Lives, published this summer by Counterpoint. Hummel’s latest novel is a literary thriller set in the contemporary art world. “Still Lives is the kind of book we all hope to stumble upon: the perfect combination of terrific prose and compelling storytelling. Maria Hummel has delivered the smartest, most original page-turner I’ve read in a long time,” writes Maggie Shipstead.

Defining Democracy Jane Kent is well-practiced in connecting her visual art with the written word. A printmaker, painter, and professor in UVM’s Department of Art and Art History since 2004, Kent has also created artist’s books, collaborating with writers Richard Ford, Susan Orlean, and she is currently focused on a work-in-progress with UVM English Department professor and poet Major Jackson. Those projects involved taking a finished piece of writing and reacting to it independently with her own work. In the case of Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief, that morphed into The Orchid Thief Reimagined— eight unbound screen-printed pages, combining Kent’s art with Orlean’s words, all nestled in a silk-covered box. An edition of thirty-five, number six of which is at home in UVM Library Special Collections, was copublished by Grenfell Press and the Rhode Island School of Design. One of Kent’s most recent projects is featured in a work that is more collective than collaborative, the 2017 book It Occurs to Me That I Am America, which brings together more than fifty contemporary writers and artists to consider “the fundamental ideals of a free, just, and compassionate democracy.” Published in celebration and support of the American Civil Liberties Union, the book is fiercely relevant and timely as the headlines unfold a battle for our identity as a nation and as individual citizens. The collection, published by Simon & Schuster imprint Touchstone, was conceived and edited by artist/writer Jonathan Santlofer. The impressive list of contributors includes Russell Banks, Eric Fischl, Louise Erdrich, Roz Chast, Neil Gaiman, Joyce Carol Oates, Art Spiegelman, Alice Walker, Marilyn Minter, and UVM alumna Bliss Bro-

yard ’88. It’s a handsome publication with heft, both literal and moral. Picture your American civics text with a hip makeover, Jasper Johns’ “Three Flags” on the cover. When Santlofer, a longtime friend of Kent’s, asked her to contribute to the project, she was quick to sign on. She was also quick to find the direction she wanted to take with her work for the book. Kent had been working on making prints that blacked out text in documents, probing the concept of redaction. She says she was intrigued by the patterns of black and white and the visual examination of secrecy. “To me, the whole idea of redacting gets at, ‘What does secrecy look like?’ I’m always asking myself that question,” Kent says. Until Santlofer came calling on this project, her explorations of redaction had gone back in a drawer in her studio. The concept had found its moment. Kent’s piece in It Occurs to Me That I Am America, titled “Blackout,” is the first visual image in the book, placed midway through a short story by Russell Banks. Kent’s rough rectangles of etching obscure many of the words in a reproduction of the United States Constitution. Discussing the broad premise of the book, Kent says, “The whole point is what it is to make art and write in this contemporary moment—what it means to respond, to act, to do, and how important that actually is. To be able to do this in this small, quiet way is very, very gratifying.”

Doug DeLuca ’10, a Los Angelesbased musician, released his debut EP, Hit Your Mark, in April. His music has been featured by LA blogs such as Grimy Goods and Buzzbands. You can find his music anywhere music is sold/streamed with a twelve-inch record available for vinyphiles. Classmates from UVM days may remember DeLuca as a Topcat and founder of the UVM club football team. Amy Trubek, professor of nutrition and food science, is author of Making Modern Meals: How Americans Cook Today, University of California Press. Trubek, who trained as both a cultural anthropologist and a chef, spent three years chronicling randomly selected people as they cooked. She asserts that cooking isn’t a simple act of executing a recipe, of blending ingredients into a dish. Cooking involves a complex stew of personal relationships, knowledge, self-confidence, technique, tradition and cultural norms. Alan Bessette ’68 is co-author, with Michael Hopping, of A Field Guide to Mushrooms of the Carolinas, University of North Carolina Press. Author of numerous books and guides to the natural world, Bessette is a mycologist and professor emeritus of biology at Utica College. SUMMER 2018 |

| C ATA M O U N T S P O R T S

Catamount Lax on the Rise Life was good for Chris Feifs BY | JON REIDEL G’06 ’18

PHOTOGRAPH BY | ANDY LEWIS

18 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

in the spring of 2016. He had helped lead the University of North Carolina to a national championship as its defensive coordinator just down Tobacco Road from where he grew up and played high school lacrosse in Durham. Leaving friends and family and a team poised to repeat as national champions was the furthest thing from his mind. Then seven Division I head coaching jobs opened up, and Feifs, a college star himself at the University of Maryland, felt compelled to at least look into the possibilities. His only criterion: “That it was a place I thought we could win a national championship.” Conventional wisdom would have eliminated UVM from the conversation since it had never even qualified for an NCAA tournament. But a last-minute trip to Burlington on a sunny summer day in June convinced Feifs otherwise.

“I knew right away that this place could be special and felt confident that I could convince other people to see what I saw,” says Feifs. “I can sell it if I believe in it—and I did right away. UVM has a great academic profile, it’s the closest Division I lacrosse team to the Canadian border for recruiting, and it’s one of most beautiful college settings in America. I wouldn’t have left a national championship contender if I felt like I couldn’t compete for another one somewhere else. Lacrosse just fits here. This place is ripe for success.” Two seasons into his tenure, Feifs is looking prophetic. UVM opened the 2018 season with a school record seven-straight wins and a first-ever national ranking at No. 12. Their 12-4 mark at season’s end included a one-point loss to perennial power Virginia and a trip to the America East Championship game where they fell to Albany, ranked No. 4 in the country at the time. A major reason for the team’s success has been the performance of senior scoring machine Ian MacKay, who surpassed Craig Mygatt ’88 for the

UVMATHLETICS.COM | THE LATEST NEWS

Catamount career record for goals, notching 150. “Ian has molded himself into an elite-level player who would start on any top five team in the country,” says Feifs. “He’s a dynamic, game-changing player.” In some ways, the odds of MacKay coming to UVM were as improbable as Feifs’s. Growing up in tiny Port Elgin, Ontario (pop. 7,862)—home to the largest nuclear generation station in the world, where most of his friends went to work after high school—MacKay dreamt of following in the footsteps of the four hockey players from his hometown who made it to the NHL. But a breakout performance at a lacrosse showcase spurred recruiting calls from the likes of lacrosse power Syracuse and other top programs. Fortunately for UVM, it was the only Division I school to offer MacKay a scholarship prior to his all-star performance. “I wanted to remain loyal to UVM,” says MacKay, picked thirteenth by the Chesapeake Bayhawks in the 2018 National Lacrosse League draft. After two successful years under head coach Ryan Curtis, MacKay suffered a season-ending foot injury not long after Feifs’s arrival. The setback resulted in a lackluster 5-8 season, but allowed MacKay, as well as the rest of the team, to adjust to a new system and address some needed changes in team culture. “It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because it gave me time to reevaluate my own goals and also what we wanted to become as a team,” says MacKay, who along with teammates Rob Hudson, Liam Limoges, Dawes Milchling, and

Ben French have made UVM one of most prolific offenses in the country. MacKay and fellow co-captain James Leary, who spearheaded one of the nation’s stingiest defenses along with Andrew Simeon, Warren Jeffrey, and goalie Nick Washuta, met with teammates to identify ways to become better lacrosse players, and perhaps more importantly, better members of the campus and local community. “From a cultural standpoint, we wanted to make some on-the-field changes, but also things away from lacrosse like trying to contribute to society through community service,” says Leary, a 2017 America East Helping Hands team selection for his contributions to the local community. “Our team understands that there are a lot of people who are less fortunate than us and realize the importance of giving back. It has brought us closer together as a team, which I think is a big reason for our success on the field.” In 2017, the team raised $30,652—tops among all college squads—for Movember, which raises awareness for men’s health issues such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health, and suicide prevention. Junior Adam Chodos spearheaded this year’s fundraising efforts, having already raised $25,000. Other philanthropic and service efforts have helped support the Salvation Army, a local senior citizens’ center, the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf, and Special Olympics. “There’s such a negative perception of male lacrosse players right now in our society and we want to change that,” says Feifs, whose team posted an all-time-high GPA of 3.2 in the fall. “I want to use our influence in a positive way and show that we are valuable members of the community. Lacrosse is beautiful game, it’s a sharing game, it’s about giving back. I want to make sure we honor it every time we play it on the field, but also off it by being good members of the community.” VQ

RALLYING SUPPORT The second annual Catamount Challenge crushed this year’s fundraising goal by raising more than $80,000 to support thirteen teams and athletics programs. More than eight hundred students, alumni, parents, and friends joined the competition in April, pushing their favorite teams to fundraising victory. Prizes were awarded for attracting the largest number of donors, the largest number of alumni donors, and the most dollars raised. Victory went to the swimming and diving program in the donor categories and to the men’s lacrosse team in the dollars category. Thanks to all who participated in helping rally this critical support for our Catamount athletes. Read more: go.uvm.edu/gocatsgo

SUMMER 2018 |

| STUDENT VOICE

A Path to Devotion

BY | LOUISA WAKEFIELD ’19

PAINTING BY | BERYL GOSS

My grandmother lives in

a white, two-hundred-and-fifty-year-old farmhouse in Woodstock, New York. Rumor has it that it was once used by the Grateful Dead as a practice space. The stairs creak and slant slightly. It is always cold. I have memories of being little and bathing in the claw-foot tub, the lip of which remained cool outside the water. Getting out of it, even with the small space heater, felt to me like some necessary punishment. Her house is filled with paintings, and scratchy, loosely woven mohair throws draped over pillows on benched seats, and sleeping porches with the walls of windows curtained in light fabrics that allow in the light, and old farmhouse doors with iron latches. But the space that fascinated me most as a small child and still does to this day: her

20 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

studio on the second floor. It had large and wide-paneled windows projecting out into the woodsy Hudson Valley scenery. Then there was her tall, ancient-looking easel speckled in dried paint, and the long table filled with empty jars holding brushes, European cookie tins or boxes with animals and French words on the cover, each of which opened with a small tab of ribbon to reveal tubes of oil and acrylic paint. In the corner was a rocking chair with a velvet cushion and throw over the back, and a dog bed. Part of the fantasy of this room is that, to this day, I have never seen my grandmother paint. My parents’ house is filled with my grandmother’s paintings, and when I turned eighteen, she gave me my very own. But whenever we visited—crowding her quiet, reflective oasis with the stomping and rowdiness of my brother and myself, a dog or several, and my parents, she never painted while we were around, and I can understand that now. But it made the idea of art and the artist remain mysterious to me, something elusive that I never felt I could understand. My grandmother grew up in Paris, leaving in 1939 for New York while on vacation in Brittany with her family when news arrived that Poland had been invaded, and panic ensued. She was sixteen. They boarded a ship, leaving their country with

what they had packed for the beach vacation. Also on the vessel were the Kennedys—my grandmother liked to watch the boys play soccer on the deck of the ship— and a famous conductor, who slept on crates of champagne because the boat was so packed. Though she never moved back to France, the painting my grandmother has done now for nearly seven decades is Impressionist in style with themes focused on Paris or the French countryside, her subjects dressed in fashions that date to her childhood in Paris. I started writing stories when I was about six, but didn’t become serious about it until a few years later, when I had more command over the basic craft elements of handwriting and spelling. Sometimes I would orate and have my father write down what I said, but this felt cumbersome and too revealing, and plus, he was only available certain hours. In many ways, between the ages of nine and sometime in high school when I became too cool or embarrassed or ashamed about it, I was a more serious writer than I am now. My grandmother fostered the beginning of this: she took me to the art supply store in Woodstock, and bought me pens and notebooks, and we would spend afternoons, while my brother and parents and aunts and uncles and cousins would be off trampCOURTESY OF LOUISA WAKEFIELD

ing around some marsh losing their dogs and finding them again, sipping tea while I wrote and she read The New Yorker. I would look up and say, How do you spell…? And she would ask me, Do you think about your stories before you go to sleep? Do you dream about them? Studying a wood-carved panel from Australia that hung in her dining room depicting rows of identical aboriginal men with their hands clasped to their genitalia, I finally asked her, Why are they doing that? Why did someone make that art? I remember the twist of her smile as she tried to hide her amusement, as she answered me seriously. It was about power, she thought, and devotion, something about honoring their idea of God. I puzzled over that for many years in that dining room.

I always felt I could get my best writing done with her, surrounded by the quiet, peaceful stillness of Woodstock and encased inside her house that felt like a European villa out of another time, surrounded in the mystery of her art, and the simplicity of her paging slowly through a book on Vuillard, her finger tracing a part of the print on the page, and how she would sigh in admiration or knowingness, Yes, or say nothing at all, sometimes just ticking her tongue against her teeth, displaying something that I understood as deep reverence or devotion. In the absence of religion, this has been my route to belief. My grandmother does not go to church, though she likes religion. She has no Bible, but she has faith. I think

it’s possible that she derives her faith from the art she loves, the nature outside her window: the birds gathered on the feeder out the bay window of the dining room, the black bears that occasionally lope across her creek in the backyard, the degrees of light that shine through her studio. I think it’s possible she expresses this through painting, the way others express or devote themselves to God through prayer. I stopped writing for many years, mainly due to illness and the loss and disorientation of self that occurred in me. During this time, I studied paintings by Klimt and Monet, kept books of their prints by my bedside, taped postcards of my favorites around my apartment in New York. I came back to myself in the dark of a ballet theatre, reassembling my spirit slowly show by show and re-instilling a belief in art, and the power of raw human energy and faith that I hadn’t realized had gone missing somewhere during the previous years, or that I had been needing so much it had become painful. Returning to Vermont, and coming to UVM two years ago, I began to write again. I still have the feeling at times that I don’t understand art, or the purpose of a poem, or the underlying meaning of a novel, or the why of anything that is made in artistic pursuit (including the things I have made myself). Yet I feel closer to that devotional Yes my grandmother used to breathe past my ear as I sat on her lap and we peered down together at a page. In the best moments, I can even see her knobby finger brush lightly over a detail of shadow. Or light. VQ SUMMER 2018 |

UVM PEOPLE SHAWNA WELLS ’04 BUILDING SCHOOLS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Leveling the playing field for students in educationally underserved communities has been the driving force behind Shawna Wells’s fifteen-year career in education— from teaching middle school students how to read to her current job advising educational leaders across the country how to transform underperforming schools. “I was ambitious and thought I would solve the opportunity gap for students in a couple of years,” kids Wells ’04, a partner and coach with The Management Center, a non-profit dedicated to helping social justice leaders run more effective organizations through great management. “I’m still at it with some gray hair, but on a perfect day I’m helping educational leaders effectively impact a lot of students.” Though the desire to work with students in educationally underserved communities started as an education and English major at UVM, it was Wells’s first job with Teach For America in Las Vegas that stoked the fire. “I saw first-hand what not being able to read does to someone’s opportunity in life,” she says. “It set me on the path of figuring out what it would take for all students, no matter their zip code, to be on equal footing and have equal opportunity.” Early in her career, Wells returned to her hometown, Philadelphia, to teach through the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), a nationwide network of college preparatory schools in under-resourced communities. Teaching soon led to increased management roles in strategic planning, instructional leadership and fundraising, then the opportunity to lead a school as founding principal of KIPP West Philadelphia Preparatory. “I had to build an enterprise from scratch, and when you’ve never done something before it feels exhilarating and impossible all at the same time,” Wells recalls. Her success was measured by the students’ success. “Did I accomplish everything I wanted? No, but to see them walk across the stage at graduation knowing they had the choice to go to college was pretty incredible,” says Wells.

COME FOR THE COW, STAY FOR THE EDUCATION

On the all-time list of unique reasons for choosing UVM, Wells may have the winning entry: “I adopted a cow in Vermont as a kid living outside Philadelphia; so, I was fascinated with Vermont and wanted to be closer to my cow,” she says with a laugh. “We came up and visited and, you know, once you come to Burlington you have to go to school there. Gives me the chills to think about it, actually.”

22 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

by Jon Reidel G’06 ’18 Photograph by Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist ’09

Beyond the classroom, Wells got deeply involved with student government, Greek life, volunteering at local schools and youth programs. Key influences included Pat Brown in Student Life, the late Janet Bossange, faculty member in the College of Education and Social Services, and the then president and provost, Ed Colodny and John Bramley, whom she credits for giving her a place at the leadership table as a woman of color. She also was influenced by Gary Margolis ’91 G’96 ’01, then chief of UVM Police, working with him on bringing emergency blue lights to campus. “UVM changed my trajectory as a person because I got the opportunity to work with a lot of people who really cared about humanity,” she says. “I love UVM. I would do anything for it.”

NEXT GENERATION LEADERS

In her current position at The Management Center, Wells trains educational leaders and executives of non-profits how to lead successful organizations. She held a similar position at the non-profit Building Excellent Schools, assisting with hiring decisions, curriculum development, and balancing budgets. “We give our principals and educational leaders a heck of a lot of responsibility but don’t always give them the support and skills they need to effectively lead and impact students,” she says. In particular, Wells is passionate about creating more opportunities for women and people of color in the leadership ranks. “I think we have a different perspective to contribute, particularly to schools that educate black and brown children,” she says. “It’s impactful for students to see examples of successful leaders that have a similar life experience and have learned to navigate in a world that isn’t always in your favor. That’s real, right?” VQ

SUMMER 2018 |

A BREED

Morgan Horse Farm celebrates and perpetuates Vermont’s horse

APART

By Andrea Estey

ne Friday in April, at 5:30 a.m., Kim Demars got a phone call from a horse. A sensor attached to the mare triggered the call, a “foal alert,” signaling that the mare had gone into labor. The team assembled at the barn; soon after, the foal arrived, longlegged and healthy at more than 100 pounds. This new addition has old roots, a descendent of the first horses bred on the same land 140 years ago. Set on a winding road in Weybridge, the UVM Morgan Horse Farm’s 215 acres unfold as a mix of rolling pastures and woods. The focal point: a commanding Victorian-style barn, just behind a towering bronze of the first Morgan horse. Looking at the sculpture, it’s obvious that the Morgans of the early twentieth century were stocky and strong. That, explains farm operations coordinator Margot Smithson, was by design. “They were true workhorses,” she says, and would do any job. Plus, muses Smithson, “Vermonters are thrifty and always have been,” making this tractable, do-everything breed a natural fit for the rugged Green Mountain State. And while today’s Morgans appear different, more svelte and “refined,” their bloodline is strong; this is believed to be the oldest continuous Morgan horse breeding program in the world.

24 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

Photograph by Brett Simison

Right, Kim Demars, farm manager, with UVM Valencia; left, equine specialist Sarah Fauver â&#x20AC;&#x2122;16 with UVM Westerly.

The horses at the UVM Morgan Farm today are the descendants of the line established by Colonel Joseph Battle in the 1870s. Pictured: UVM Halcyon with chestnut filly.

26 |

The Morgan is Vermont’s state animal, but the influence of the breed extends far beyond state lines. “Morgans were the horses that Americans used to move west,” says Ronda Moore ’72, DVM, chair of the farm’s board. Morgans were long the preferred mount of the military; legendary generals Phillip Sheridan, Stonewall Jackson, and George Armstrong Custer rode them. “They took soldiers into battle up until World War I. They were a troop carrier, not unlike the Jeeps, Humvees, and tanks of today, Morgans are their flesh and blood counterpart. And this is the place where the parts were made,” Moore says. So, just how did these animals come to be in Weybridge? Those familiar with Vermont history might recognize the name Colonel Joseph Battell (he was a legislator and helped preserve the land that would eventually become Camel’s Hump State Park). In 1878, Battell built the barn to house and breed his Morgans; in 1906, Battell gave it all to the government, a move many credit with saving the breed. The USDA operated the farm until 1951, establishing what’s today called the “government line” of Morgans for cavalry use and research. In the 1950s, the USDA gave twenty-five horses, and the property, to UVM (the other horses went to fellow land-grant universities, including UMass and UConn, which still have Morgan programs). Battell’s horses are the ancestors of the thirty-two or so strolling the farm today. It’s a common refrain among the staff that the farm is home to spirits, or “ghosts,” depending who you ask. “This place, you feel it when you walk around the grounds, there’s

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

living history,” says Smithson. The skeleton of a stallion, Black Hawk, on display in the visitor’s center, also helps. Today, the farm is poised to enter a new chapter under new leadership. It’s the first time the farm has a woman at its helm; Kim Demars was named farm manager in 2017, when longtime director Steve Davis ’72 retired. Demars, who grew up in Addison County on a dairy farm, remembers visiting the Morgan Horse Farm when she was ten years old. Equine specialist Sarah Fauver did an apprenticeship at the farm before earning her undergrad degree in animal science from UVM in 2016. “This farm actually brought me to Vermont from New Hampshire,” says Fauver. “There’s something magical about this place that keeps people connected to the area.” Fauver is now earning her master’s in education from UVM. “This is now my dream, to overlap education and horses.” Smithson has been at the farm the longest, four years, and is now focused on building a strategic plan for the future. “The trifecta of women is something you don’t see on farms very often,” says Demars. But she’s quick to note that this is not a typical farm; it’s also a tourist attraction, and a place of higher education. “We’re an anomaly in that sense,” says Demars, so though the three women work in very different roles, they’re all focused on the same goals. Demars’s main challenge as farm manager: to “integrate the old style of doing things with newage thinking,” one small step at a time. The team feels the weight of historical significance resting TRACEY BUYCE

SANE, SMART, SOUND heavy on their shoulders. “When the average person thinks of UVM, they think of Burlington,” explains Fauver. “But when you talk about UVM in the Morgan world, they just hear this farm. That’s a tradition to uphold, and a bit of pressure for us.” One clear opportunity for the future: “This could be UVM’s Addison County campus,” says Steph Dion ’00, assistant dean in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Dion has worked to build links between Burlington and Weybridge, helping to bring administration and faculty down to the farm to experience it in person. Already, it’s opened doors to funds for badly needed infrastructure improvements, like new pasture fencing. President Sullivan and his wife, Leslie Black Sullivan ’77, have become frequent visitors, and have even named a foal, UVM Zealous Advocate. “Some of the experiences I remember as an undergrad are what I’d love to see happen here,” says animal science chair Dave Townson. Townson, who came to UVM from the University of New Hampshire in 2016, knows these hands-on experiences are vital for landing jobs post-graduation. In addition to classes and clinics that serve animal science majors, the team envisions reaching a broader cross-section of students in disciplines such as community development or communications. As they chart the future, Townson is confident he has the right team to take the farm forward. “It’s an honor to be here and perpetuate the breed,” says Demars. “To be spearheading this place is pretty special and pretty important. And we’re going to do it right.” VQ ANDREA ESTEY

“I think the Morgan is a largely underrated breed,” says farm equine specialist Sarah Fauver ’16. Some know them best as show horses, but Fauver says they’re more versatile. “Morgans are incredibly tractable, so easy to teach, willing to learn, and they like to have a job.” UVM Morgans, by and large, are bred to be athletic. “Sometimes people go looking for a big seventeen-hand horse, but what they really need is a sane, smart, sound little Morgan.” It’s not only their physicality that sets them apart. “They really bond to people and have a lot of personality. Sometimes too much personality,” laughs Fauver. “Morgans have a way of connecting to a piece of you.” The Morgan Horse Farm is open for visitors every day May-October, 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. Guided tours are offered every hour, on the hour. Special events include the annual Vermont Day open house, August 4, and the Day of the Morgan, October 27, when a foal is raffled off. uvm.edu/morgan

SUMMER 2018 |

THE QUANTIFICATION OF HAPPINESS

In Mississippi, people tweet about cake and cookies an awful lot; in Colorado, it’s noodles. In Mississippi, the most-tweeted activity is eating; in Colorado, it’s running, skiing, hiking, snowboarding, and biking, in that order. In other words, the two states fall on opposite ends of the behavior spectrum. If you were to assign a caloric value to every food mentioned in every tweet by the citizens of the United States and a calories-burned value to every activity, and then totaled them up, you would find that Colorado tweets the best caloric ratio in the country and Mississippi the worst. Sure, you’d be forgiven for doubting people’s honesty on Twitter. On those rare occasions when I destroy an entire pint of Ben and Jerry’s, I most assuredly do not tweet about it. Likewise, I don’t reach for my phone every time I strap on a pair of skis. And yet there’s this: Mississippi has the worst rate of diabetes and heart disease in the country and Colorado has the best. Mississippi has the second-highest percentage of obesity; Colorado has the lowest. Mississippi has the worst life expectancy in the country; Colorado is near the top. Perhaps we are being more honest on social media than we think. And perhaps social media has more to tell us about the state of the country than we realize.

by Rowan Jacobsen

28 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

oooooh

pleasure rainbow laughter christmas winner

or how

MATHEMATICIANS in UVMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

kitten congrats

delicious

grandmafried vacation participate

Computational gift discussion

strategy plea

possibly

are reading politicians discrimination

your

limitations opposition

LAB

deficiency

TWEETS

denial weapon trigger

risk

without

inflation

bacteria

diss

monsters

goals

vulnerable

& learning a lot gossip

legitimate

easier

STORY logic

cupcakes

nobody

aboutlitigation our anxious

COLLECTIVEwellbeing. crushed

shoot

paranoid

invasion

refuse

indicted

cardiac opponent terrorist

SUMMER 2018 |

That’s the proposition of Peter Dodds and Chris Danforth, who co-direct the University of Vermont’s Computational Story Lab, a warren of whiteboards and grad students in a handsome brick building near the shores of Lake Champlain. Dodds and Danforth are applied mathematicians, but they would make a pretty good comedy duo. When I stopped by the lab recently, both were in running clothes and cracking jokes. They have an abundance of curls between them and the wiry energy of chronic thinkers. They came to UVM in 2006 to start the Vermont Complex Systems Center, which crunches big numbers from big systems and looks for patterns. Out of that, they hatched the Computational Story Lab, which sifts through some of that public data to discern the stories we’re telling ourselves. “It took us a while to come up with the name,” Dodds told me as we shotgunned espresso and gazed into his MacBook. “We were going to be the Department of Recreational Truth.”

“People leave so much of

their id

made the biggest difference in that state’s calorie counts. In Louisiana (#48 in caloric balance), everybody’s eating chocolate, cookies, shrimp, and cake. Everybody’s eating, period. It’s one of the only activities frequently mentioned. In California (#12), they dance, run, hike, and bike, but they rarely sit or lie down. In my home state of Vermont, the food on the tip of everybody’s thumbs is bacon, which is probably a big part of why we consume slightly more calories than the average state. (In our defense, we also spend an inordinate amount of time tweeting about beets, broccoli, and bananas.) Despite that, we are fairly exercise obsessed, with—you guessed it—skiing leading the way. (We crush it on sledding, too.) All this gives us the third-best caloric ratio in the nation, behind Colorado and Wyoming. And sure enough, the health numbers match: We have some of the lowest rates of diabetes and obesity and one of the highest life expectancies. In general, all states are more alike than we might

on the web,

and they share it openly.” This year, they teamed up with their PhD student Andy Reagan to launch the Lexicocalorimeter, an online tool that uses tweets to compute the calories in and calories out for every state. It’s no mere party trick; the Story Labbers believe the Lexicocalorimeter has important advantages over slower, more traditional methods of gathering health data. “We don’t have to wait to look at statistics at the end of the year,” Danforth says. “This sort of data is available every day. We can tell if a public health campaign to invest in school nutrition is changing the way people talk about food or engage in activities.” For example, what if Michael Bloomberg’s proposed ban on sodas larger than sixteen ounces had gone through in New York? Using traditional surveys and hospital reports, it would have taken years to measure the impact. But if the Lexicocalorimeter was tuned finely enough to accurately measure the changes in soda habits by neighborhood, then public health officials could use it to target investments and adjust the campaign to reduce obesity far more effectively. Playing around with the Lexicocalorimeter is illuminating and occasionally horrifying—a glimpse of the unvarnished American character. Click on a state, and it displays the 200 words that

30 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

like to believe. “Watching TV or movie” is the mosttweeted activity for every single state in the union, and “pizza” is the most-tweeted food for every state except Wyoming (cookies) and Mississippi (ice cream). Where a state’s individual character really shines is in the foods and activities mentioned far more or less than average. Texas (#36) can’t stop tweeting about doughnuts; Maine (#5) is hooked on lobster. In activities, the mountain states do a lot of running, the South is a solid block of eating, New Jersey is all about “getting my nails done,” and Delaware distinguishes itself with “talking on the phone.” Dodds and Danforth acknowledge their methods are not perfect. The butter on the lobster doesn’t get counted. There’s no way of calculating if somebody ran one mile or ten. But when you’re talking tens of millions of tweets per day over the full range of demographics, the inaccuracies even out—at least as much as they do compared to the other, equally flawed ways of measuring society’s eating and exercising habits. As Dodds points out, the numbers speak for themselves: The Lexicocalorimeter correlates extremely well with rates of diabetes and obesity. “The ridiculous thing about this,” he says, “is that it works.” COREY HENDRICKSON

We live in strange times. “People leave so much of their id on the web,” Danforth marveled to me, “and they share it openly. That’s enabled a whole host of new instruments to try to understand what’s predictable about our behavior. And it turns out a lot is. As much as we think we’re really complex, people have very structured ways of behaving. The way we move around the Earth is very predictable. The way we use language is very predictable.” For example, Barack Obama’s approval ratings

over his presidency strongly correlate with the sentiment of tweets about him three months in advance of the approval polls. In other words, if you’d been a savvy politico with a tool for measuring tweets, you’d have had valuable intel months ahead of anyone else. “It’s an amazing time in social science because of the data available,” Dodds says. “It’s opened up a window that we absolutely did not have access to before.” That’s the idea behind the UVM team’s Hedonometer, which surveys the country’s tweets each day and calculates a happiness score for each. The team had people rate 10,000 words on a happiness scale of one (sad) to nine (happy). Most words are neutral.

“It’s an amazing time in social science because of the data available,” says Peter Dodds, right, pictured with colleague Chris Danforth.

SUMMER 2018 |

A “topic network” associated with hashtags that appeared in tweets containing #WomensMarch for the January 2017 Women’s March on Washington. Circle sizes are proportional to the number of times the hashtag was used.

32 |

The happiest words are “laughter” (8.50), “happiness” (8.44), and “love” (8.42). “Hahaha” gets a 7.94, putting it a bit higher than “kisses” (7.74). The biggest negatives are “terrorist” (1.30), “suicide” (1.30), and “rape” (1.44). “Shit” gets a 2.50, “bitch” a 3.14, and “fuck” a surprisingly respectable 4.14. “Swearing is really important,” Dodds says. All this adds up to a mesmerizing sine wave tracking the nation’s mood from 2009 (the fledging of Twitter) to the present. “One of our goals was to provide a snapshot of the public’s response to something,” Danforth explains, “the texture of the day.” Most regular days fall into a narrow band with an average happiness level around six, though Saturdays are consistently the happiest days of the week and Tuesdays the grumpiest. There’s also a daily pattern, with happiness levels soaring around 5 and 6 a.m., when we’re all newly optimistic about the day, and then plunging throughout the morning and evening as reality sets in, reaching a trough of despair around 11 p.m. “The wheels kind of come off,” says Dodds. “We call it the daily unraveling of the human mind.” You can also parse this by state. The happiest state is—unsurprisingly—Hawaii. The bottom dwellers are, once again, Mississippi and Louisiana, though Delaware gets a surprising bronze for melancholy. The West is happy, both coastal and mountains, while the South and Midwest are unhappy. Only Tennessee bucks the trend, an island of smiles in a sea of Southern gloom. The happiest day of the year is always Christ-

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

mas, when the Hedonometer spikes as words like “Christmas,” “happy,” “family,” and “love” flood the ether. The five unhappiest days since 2009: the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the Boston Marathon bombings, the Orlando nightclub attack, the shooting of Dallas police officers, and the election of Donald Trump. National happiness is not consistent. We were quite happy from 2009 to 2011, despite the Great Recession. Then our mood darkened from 2011 to 2014, but we came out of it: The Hedonometer surged! The year 2015 was a relatively joyful one, and the good feelings kept going in 2016—until the election took over. Since then, signs have been growing that something terrible is happening to the American psyche. We’ve never been so erratic, with the normally smooth blips of the Hedonometer starting to twitch like someone failing a liedetector test. And as of this writing, we’re sinking into an unprecedented malaise. That is, if you believe the Hedonometer. On the face of it, measuring something as intangible as happiness sounds absurd. Yet, as with the Lexicocalorimeter, the Hedonometer matches “real world” measures such as the Gallup Well-Being Index (which polls people on things like life satisfaction and personal health) and the Peace Index (which surveys rates of homicides, violent crime, and incarceration). History is full of concepts—from longitude to time—that seemed imprecise until the right instrument came along. Even temperature, which

to us seems objective, was considered unmeasurable for centuries. “People thought you couldn’t do it,” Dodds says. “Because it’s too multifaceted, and the first thermometers were awful.” But eventually our instruments improved. Dodds and Danforth see no reason why happiness can’t also be quantifiable. “We’re carrying around these phones that are sensing so much of our behavior,” says Danforth. “Tone of voice. Who we talk to. The types of words we use. We’re trying to push on a few areas and see what’s predictable, both on the population scale and for individuals.” And what they’re finding is that our phones have become surprisingly good instruments for taking our emotional temperatures. “Can we tell you’re about to experience an episode of depression based on your social media behavior? Maybe your friends can’t see it, maybe you don’t even realize it, but you’ve started to communicate with a smaller group socially, or you’re not moving around the Earth as much.” By analyzing the tweets of both depressed and healthy individuals, the Story Lab has developed algorithms that can accurately identify depression months before actual diagnoses by mental health practitioners. They’ve even done it with Instagram, discovering that depressed individuals are more likely to post photos that are bluer, grayer, and darker. Their method outperformed professional practitioners at identifying previously undiagnosed depression. The lab is now partnering with a psychiatrist at UVM who hopes to use the algorithm to

search the social media history of ER visitors (who give their consent) to predict suicidal behavior. One of the clearest signs that the Hedonometer is onto something is how well it works with media besides Twitter. The Story Lab has analyzed the words in 10,000 books and 1,000 movie scripts, and it accurately sorts the feel-goods from the nihilists. Sex and the City is the cheeriest film of all, powered by words like love, smiles, wedding, beautiful, and, yes, sex. At the bottom of the list we have grim fare like Commando, Day of the Dead, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Omega Man. Riffing off Kurt Vonnegut’s famous talk on the shapes of archetypal stories, the Story Labbers came up with six arcs that stories tend to follow: Rags-to-Riches (rise), Tragedy (fall), Man-in-a-Hole (fall-rise), Icarus (rise-fall), Cinderella (rise-fallrise), and Oedipus (fall-rise-fall). Encouragingly, an analysis of the bestseller lists found that the more complex narratives (Cinderella and Oedipus) tend to sell better than the simpler ones. The UVM team will be working on teasing even more stories out of the data we share: Can financial crashes be predicted ahead of time? When does fake news trump real news? How does a society settle on the story it tells about itself? The questions are far from trivial. “Humans are storytelling organisms,” Dodds says. It’s how we learn who we are. As the Story Lab gets even better at finding the signals in our noise, let’s hope we like what we discover. VQ

The UVM Story Lab explored the relationship between color tones of Instagram pics and mental health.

This article originally appeared in Outside Online. SUMMER 2018 |

STRONG AS SILK Into the jungles of Madagascar in search of the toughest material on Earth

Photography & story by Joshua Brown

34 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

DECEMBER 3, 2017 Southwestern border of the Analamazaotra Special Reserve, Andasibe-Mantadia National Park Ingi Agnarsson’s close-shaved head glints in the midafternoon sunshine as he scans along a stream where it flows out to a grassy river. From high in the trees on the other side of the water, the howls of indri, the largest lemurs in Madagascar, float down like arboreal whale song. But Agnarsson and four other scientists stand on the streambank in silence. They slowly look up and down the waterway for five, ten, fifteen seconds. “I must say I’m a little worried,” Agnarsson finally says, raising his eyebrows, his blue eyes growing wide behind his glasses. “Usually, we would see twenty of them already.” But the spiders are not here. “There aren’t any,” says Matjaž Kuntner, his mouth opening to say something salty, until he notices my voice recorder and catches himself. “Golly,” he says. “Bleep.”

In particular, we’re in search of Darwin’s bark spiders—a gobstoppingly creative animal that only lives here, in the montane rainforests of eastern Madagascar. Or, more precisely, lives over water in these forests. In 2001, Agnarsson—a native of Iceland and now a professor of biology at UVM—and Kuntner, his Slovenian friend, now the director of the National Institute of Biology in Slovenia, were graduate students at George Washington University. They were making a trek across Madagascar to hunt for social spiders— when they noticed some enormous, orb-shaped webs stretching across a river near where we now stand. They’d never heard of spiders that live over rivers, and they were impressed with the long silk lines stretching between trees on either bank. How did a spider the size of a quarter cast a strand of silk as long as a blue whale? They waded into the water, collected some of the black spiders and their webs, and went back to school. It turns out they had discovered a new species,

unknown to science. But it wasn’t until 2010, after another trip to Madagascar, that they published their results. They gave the spiders the scientific name Caerostris darwini on November 24, 2009, in honor of the naturalist Charles Darwin—exactly 150 years after the publication of On The Origin of Species. Their research shows that Darwin’s bark spiders are unique in their ability to make webs over rivers (and even small lakes), and that they build the biggest webs in the world, suspended below a hair-thin dragline cable that can extend more than eighty feet. Lab measurements also revealed that this silk is the toughest organic material in nature—an exquisitely tuned combination of strength and stretchiness—requiring much more energy to break than hightensile steel, ten times tougher than the Kevlar fiber used to make bullet-proof vests, twice as tough as any other known spider silk. In just a few million years, in what Darwin called the “frequently recurring struggle for existence,” these

SUMMER 2018 |

animals have evolved a stunning biotechnology that lets them hunt where no other spider can—the insect flyway above a river—using their webs, like fishing nets of the air, to absorb the impact of dragonflies and beetles bombing over the water, stopping, snaring, and sticking them with several types of silk. “I think we should explore some more,” says Kuntner, looking up at a quickly brewing storm cloud, “before the rain comes.” This is the first day of field work at the beginning of a two-week expedition that Agnarsson is leading to collect Darwin’s bark spiders and five closely related species, to sample their webs, and collect their silk. He and two other co-investigators back in the United States have secured more than $900,000 in grant funding from the National Science Foundation—and several permits from the government of Madagascar—to gather and study what they hope will be hundreds of spider and silk samples. They know that millions of Darwin’s bark spiders live in these forests, but on this December afternoon they seem as elusive as Sasquatch. What is their super-silk made of? How do the spiders produce it? How did it evolve? To try to better understand these questions, the team has spent nearly three days traveling here, flying from Vermont, Philadelphia, and Slovenia, over the Sahara

36 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

Desert, down the coast of East Africa and four hundred miles out into the Indian Ocean to Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world. In the middle of the night, Paul Babb, a genetics expert from the University of Pennsylvania, and I landed at Ivato International Airport and traveled into the unlit, cobbled streets of the capital city, Antananarivo. Eight-year-old children knocked on the windows of our van at 1 a.m. asking for money. Young men changed tires holding flashlights between their teeth. In the morning, we joined the rest of the team and drove east in a scrum of bicycle rickshaws and wagons pulled by zebu-oxen mixing with Citroen taxis and sleek double-tank oil trucks. Barefoot workmen, pulling hand carts stacked high with office chairs, jostled with teenagers in crisp white shirts and black ties walking to school. We passed tiny market stalls piled with luscious-smelling pineapples. Down alleys, merchants under umbrellas sold bread, Coke, worn pants, cell phones. Heading out of the city, boulders were draped with bright sheets as people washed their clothes at river’s edge. Old women filled bags with charcoal. We drove for three hours, our driver gunning and zig-zagging over a rutted highway, while electricgreen rice paddies gave way to tan mud-and-wood

houses and scrub-covered hills with scorched patches burned to prepare for crops. “Imagine this was all forest for thousands of years,” said Matjaž Gregoric— another Slovenian spider expert and Matjaž Kuntner’s former grad student who the older scientists simply call Junior. He swept his hand across a pitted valley of raw red soil. But in the afternoon we began to see more trees. “We’re about to enter primary forest,” Agnarsson said. “Most of it is gone,”—and it’s in these remaining pockets that much of Madagascar’s wildlife persists—critically endangered lemurs, golden mantilla frogs, nose-horned chameleons, the cat-like carnivorous fossa, streaked tenrecs covered with yellow spines, and thousands of others—including Darwin’s bark spiders. Agnarsson, Kuntner, and Gregoric have each made several trips here over the years to study these spiders. But never at the beginning of Madagascar’s summer, awaiting the arrival of the rainy season as we are on this first day of fieldwork. The scientists

start talking about how the stream looks drier than they have seen it and that there might not be as many aquatic insects as other times of year to support adult spiders. “Everything will be fine,” says Gregoric. “It’s just a moramora start,” he says, invoking a local expression that literally means “slow,” but could be translated as “things will happen when they happen.” Onja Raberahona smiles broadly and repeats “moramora” with an authentic Malagasy accent. At twenty-eight, he’s the youngest member of the expedition, and, for now, the only native Malagasy. He’s recently completed his master’s degree in entomology at the University of Antantanarivo. His English is more spirited than advanced, but he and Ingi have already started chatting about how they might arrange for him to come to Vermont to start a doctorate. “In three or four days we’ll have data points,” says Agnarsson. “Right guys?” “Yes, we like spider,” says Raberahona.

Madagascar split from India about 88 million years ago. Now an astonishing ninety percent of its plants and wildlife are endemic—they live only on this island—including Darwin’s bark spiders. Scientists search for their webs over a stream in Andasibe-Mantadia National Park.

SUMMER 2018 |

DECEMBER 6 Hiking upstream in the northern portion of the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park Tear-shaped leaves the size of canoes and a riotous geometry of vines, bamboo, and palm hang over a stream, making a dappled green canyon. “Let’s try this one,” says Agnarsson. He and our keen-eyed park guide Hononé Rabarison—who everyone calls Nono and who joined the team a few days ago — slide down a steep embankment covered with ferns. The scientists have been hunting spiders for three days and into the night with headlamps. They now have data—including sightings of ogre-faced Deinopis spiders that cast their webs like snares with their front legs; bags of Gastrocanthus spiders they spotted in bushes by the side of a jeep road exhibiting a brand-new-to-science form of colonial web building (“Never seen anything remotely like it,” Agnarsson said); collections of dozens of adult and juvenile relatives of the Darwin’s bark spider. But, still, very few Darwin’s bark spiders themselves. “The lack of darwini is amazing,” Kuntner had said in a stream yesterday, where in previous

38 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

years they had seen them round every corner. “Stunning,” Agnarsson said. Today, we’ve been traveling along a track so rough that it took two hours to drive nine miles to this spot in the more remote northern portion of the national park. The rest of us follow Ingi and Nono down the bank, grasping branches and vines like the troop of white-sock-and-sandal-wearing primates that we are. The scientists begin walking upstream, ducking under logs, holding their dry bags above the clear, calf-deep water. Ahead, a gorgeous web on the undercut bank glows and disappears as a breeze pushes it into the sunlight and then back into shade. “It’s just another extrusa!” Kuntner calls out. “Do we even want to stop for this?” They have collected a prodigious—and now, to them, annoying—number of Caesrostris extrusa, a beautiful yellow-andblack relative of the Darwin’s bark spider, including the first-ever-seen males of this species, as well as another male in the genus, probably a spider called Caerostris boyani. (Finding males in this family of spiders has been tricky because of what the scientists call extreme sexual dimorphism, meaning the

females are many times larger than the tiny males— who are often on the losing end of spectacularly violent sexual behaviors, including mate cannibalism and genital removal. We’ll cede the particulars to the scientific journals.) “Never in the history of arachnology have the males of these species been seen before,” Agnarsson told me last night over our second bottle of Three Horses, the local brew. Spirits were running high much of the day. “It’s possible it’s a new species. Anything is possible in a place like this,” Kuntner had said. “And how will you know if it’s a new species?” I asked. “We’ll start with the microscope,” Agnarsson said. But more definitive proof will have to wait until they can get their samples back to the United States for genetic analysis. “Ingi likes to say, ‘luckily, God invented DNA,’” explained Gregoric. “Yes,” Agnarsson said. “So we’ll be able to check.” “It was a smart move by God,” said Kuntner. “Too bad he didn’t teach people early on how to use the DNA.” “Adam was clueless,” Agnarsson said. “No, Adam was more of a field biologist,” said Kuntner, “He went around picking up fruit, saying, ‘what is this?’”

This afternoon, the group is dragging. Gregoric stands in the stream, cutting single strands of silk out of a large web. He snips them with a hot soldering iron and attaches the ends of each strand with superglue over a window in a cardboard microscope slide. Snip after snip, slide after slide, web after web: repeat hundreds of times over two weeks. David Attenborough and Wild Kratts would be off the air if they showed how ploddingly repeti-

tive so much field science really is. “Junior, how many darwini have we caught?” Agnarsson asks. “Three or four adults,” Gregoric says. “That’s it?” Agnarsson says. To successfully complete their experiments, they’ll need at least ten webs from each of the Caerostris species, and a lot more adult female Darwin’s bark spiders than they have now. DECEMBER 7 Feon’ny Ala Lodge, Andasibe The scientists’ field laboratory is also Matjaž Kuntner’s bedroom. The small cabin, in a row of identical cabins, is thatched with palm leaves and held up with bamboo poles. The door and open-air window

Fieldwork is a painstaking process of gently cutting webs, affixing silks to microscope slides, and collecting spiders with a rubber tube. UVM scientist Ingi Agnarsson collects specimens with the assistance of Onja Raberahona.

SUMMER 2018 |

Ingi Agnarsson examines Darwin’s spiders in a makeshift field lab. The UVM biologist hopes to unravel the secrets of their silk—and inspire a new generation of superstrong biomaterials.

40 |

look out onto a tidy cobbled path, gorgeous pink flowers, and the breathing rainforest. Inside, Agnarsson looks down through a small Nikon microscope. Gregoric adjusts a whining Black & Decker electric drill that winds round and round, drawing meter after meter of silk out of a spider in a plastic bag on the table. There are piles and rows of spiders everywhere, some preserved in ethanol, some living in vials. Kuntner and Babb sit on the bed, entering data into laptops. On the bed and floor and table is a skim of stuff: tweezers, jars with foam plugs, a box of doxycycline pills (against both malaria and plague), waterproof notebooks, yellow surveyor’s tape, black duct tape, white grease pencils, a copy of Nature, a hand lens, ibuprofen, Altoids, ear plugs for swimming, sneakers, a Canon camera with a macro lens, hard drives, a cooler for storing specimens, bottled water—and lengths of rubber tubing for sucking up small spiders in the forest. (Yes, with the mouth, but, no, the little critters don’t get in the scientists’ mouths; they blow them back into vials before they get very far.) “Things are going much slower than I expected and we need more darwini,” Agnarsson says “But we are finding every species that we expected to find and making some new discoveries.” “The biggest deal of this trip is to get the speci-

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

mens back home, to the lab. To guarantee the success of the project, we need to get the proper genomic and genetic and RNA data from these specimens,” he says, opening his hands over the room full of arachnids. The scientists hypothesize that at some point in its recent history—“certainly less than ten million years,” says Kuntner—the Darwin’s bark spider evolved a novel gene in its DNA. And that this bit of code shapes a unique protein—known by the poetic name MaSp3—and that this protein is the secret sauce in the spider’s super-silk, combining both “stiffening crystalline regions with highly extensible amorphous regions,” they write. In other words, it’s strong and stretchy together. But an end-product view of this silk as simply a material misses a deeper physiological and evolutionary story. It’s long been known that spiders make a variety of silks for various needs—like capturing prey, building cocoons, wrapping food. Darwin’s bark spiders have seven different glands, six for silk and one for glue. But only one—the major ampullate gland—produces the super-silk that they use for their main cables and lifelines. When dissecting spiders collected on earlier trips here, scientists were intrigued to discover within this gland a strange loop and long nozzle-like duct, unlike any they had

seen in other spiders. They believe that the evolution of this loop-and-duct system was crucial to the evolution of super-silk. That’s because the shape of the long duct lets the animal apply shear forces to the nanocrystals forming in the MaSp3 proteins— while they’re still in a liquidy dope inside the spider—lining them up just before they come streaming out. In other words, its not just the chemical composition that matters—it’s the biomechanical action of the living spider that allows the world’s toughest fiber to form, and get carried over the water in the wind. “There’s a very sharp transition zone where the silk goes from dope to fiber. And that’s where this valve is,” Agnarsson told me. “Nobody knows exactly what happens there. There’s a change in pressure, a change in pH, an uptake of water, and the molecules line up. That’s the magic thing. We’d like to know exactly what happens in that tiny space.” It’s midday and we’re waiting for Onja Raberahona and Nono Rabarison to return from another effort to find more Darwin’s bark spiders. The team has collected plenty of juveniles, but the scientists think that at this time of year there are low numbers of adults—and that we haven’t looked in the right spots yet. Nono spotted some webs over a larger river farther east yesterday, so they’ve gone to look, while the rest of the team has a day in the lab. One of the occupational hazards of being an entomologist is having to counter the narrative that collecting insects and spiders endangers their populations. If we need to protect every lemur, why not the spiders too? “It’s just a different scale and most people don’t understand it,” Kuntner says. “If we take a few specimens out of a population of millions and millions, the impact is not measurable,” says Agnarsson. “Each Caerostris egg sack con-

tains more eggs than the entire number of spiders we hope to collect on this whole trip.” “I estimated 600 eggs in one egg sack,” says Gregoric. “We’ve collected 150 spiders so far,” Agnarsson says—and every acre of forest can sustain thousands of spiders and provide a home for millions of invertebrates, from butterflies to beetles. “In order to develop conservation plans you have to know what’s living there and how it lives,” says Kuntner. If Agnarsson can bring a tiny fraction of these spiders back to his lab to test, to use to train his students, to deposit in UVM’s Vermont Natural History Museum, where he’s the curator of invertebrates, and in the Smithsonian Museum where he is a research associate, he believes he’s building the scientific foundation for conservation. Just a few years ago, scientists didn’t know about the Darwin’s bark spider. Now Agnarsson and the other researchers think they may yield profound insights into the evolution of silk and radical design principles for a new generation of biologically inspired fibers, from better sutures for surgeons to safer armor for police officers. Later, as the rest of the team eats lunch under the bamboo pavilion, Onja Raberahona and Nono Rabarison return from the jungle, their legs covered in mud but wearing big smiles. Nono opens his bag and out tumbles a small cascade of vials. “Lots of darwini!” he declares. Kuntner holds one up toward the light. “These are gravid females. These are beautiful!” he says. “Getting darwini in such number is good.” “How many are there?” I ask. “A bunch,” says Kuntner. “A ton,” says Agnarsson. “A golly-load,” says Gregoric, eyeing my voice recorder. VQ

Video of Darwin’s bark spiders spinning silk: go.uvm.edu/ spidershow

SUMMER 2018 |

Into the jungles of Madagascar in search of silk secrets.

42 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

BFFS IN

BUSINESS

When UVM friendships become business partnerships

ROME SNOWBOARD DESIGN SYNDICATE

L By Thomas Weaver Principal photography by Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist ’09

Mid-1980s, when Paul Maravetz, left, spotted Josh Reid on campus with a snowboard, it was a rare sighting that led to a quick bond.

ooking back, Paul Maravetz ’89 and Josh Reid ’89 find early evidence in trips to Tuckerman’s Ravine that their college friendship was up to the rigors of a business partnership. Many ski or snowboard this fabled face of Mt. Washington in spring. But in the early nineties the UVM alumni pair raised the risk factor by riding Tuckerman’s in winter. Two guys in tough conditions, reliant on one another to save the day if something went wrong, those outings were a sign that they had the nerve— and trust in one another—to leave behind solid jobs and start their own company. Founded in 2001, Rome Snowboard Design Syndicate has the hallmarks of a classic, twenty-firstcentury-style Vermont business. Their product meshes with the history and landscape of the state; headquarters are in a well-worn, rambling building by the railroad tracks in Waterbury—casual, big-dogfriendly, and just up the road from an epic network of mountain bike trails. You can almost miss Rome’s rusted metal sign by the door, but it belies an operation with sixteen employees in Vermont, several more at their European office in Munich, Germany, and manufacturing in Quebec and Asia.

SUMMER 2018 |

In 1985, when one snowboarder spotted another it was buds-at-first-sight. Maravetz For a young married couple, just a laughs, suggests his recollection might be few years past graduation with their new duds degrees in studio art, launching a busislightly fictionalized, but recalls looking out his residence hall window freshman year, seeness together in the depth of a recesing Reid and a mutual friend loading up the car for sion must have been, uh, terrifying. a trip to the mountain. “Holy shit, they’ve got snow“Our families were a little concerned for us,” boards!” They later met through friends, shared Tessa (Auwater) Valyou ’05 acknowledges. Torrey apartments on Mansfield Avenue, and rode when Valyou ’07 interjects they weren’t the only ones— they could at the areas where they could. “we definitely had some nervousness of our own.” Post-graduation, engineering major Maravetz But ten years later their vision for New Duds, a and philosophy/political science double major Reid commercial screen-printing and apparel business took different directions. Maravetz returned to his with its roots in Torrey’s original illustrations and home state of New Jersey and worked as an engineer. Tessa’s hand-sewn products, supports them, their Reid embarked on what he describes as a “more vag- two kids, five full-time employees, and 5,500 square abondish” path—snowboard bumming out west, feet of production/retail space in Winooski. teaching in Japan, and the Peace Corps in Sri Lanka. The couple’s and New Duds’ origin story traces The two friends stayed in touch, joining up most to UVM cross-country team gatherings. Tessa was years for an annual snowboard trip. Maravetz had a varsity distance runner; Torrey tagged along with moved back up to Vermont and into an engineering friends on the team from his hometown of Milton, design role at Burton a couple of years past gradua- Vermont. Thinking back, they joke about the “wild” tion. When Reid was deciding what was next, Mara- parties. “Popcorn and juice boxes!” Torrey says with vetz suggested he apply for a job heading up Chill, a wide smile. a Burton program introducing low-income kids to Torrey found his affinity for screen-printing snowboarding. That job soon led to product testing, in classes with professor/printmaker Jane Kent. A copywriting, and marketing roles. couple of post-UVM jobs with local screen-printBy 2001, Reid and Maravetz had a deep and broad ers helped him hone his craft and learn about the combination of skill and experience. Motivation to equipment required to start a business, while Tessa go out on their own came, in part, from the influx coached cross-country at Burlington High School of European ski companies into snowboarding, seiz- and worked retail. ing on a growing market without knowledge of the In 2008, an accountant friend advised them that sport or even with an edge of contempt for it. a recession wasn’t such a bad time to start a business. “We thought that we can create a company “Everything is on the cheap and it can only go up that aligns to what we care about, pushes product from here.” design and pushes the community of snowboardAs New Duds has evolved, the commercial printing to engage in ways we think is valuable. We ing aspect of the business has grown into their priwanted to bring the non-Burton share of the market mary revenue source. But their own designs abide into the roots of snowboarding,” Reid says. They with the seventies-retro-look Burlington shirt, Cambought a pair of Compaq computers and launched el’s Hump in silhouette, a perennial bestseller. New Rome. Mission in a nutshell: by snowboarders for Duds is a fixture at the Burlington Farmers’ Market, snowboarders. which they say has cross benefits as advertising, Rome quickly found their niche as the market business network, and product feedback loop. grew rapidly in the early years. But the founders are Looking back, the Valyous seriously doubt they frank about the bumps and challenges along the could have successfully launched New Duds had way—hit of the 2008 recession, online revolution in they waited. The financial and time responsibilities retail, inevitable crises that arise in factory produc- of having a family and a house would have been too tion. “We’ve muscled through,” Maravetz says. much. They were better off going all in during those They acknowledge that leading a business can simpler, very low overhead, times. be tough on a friendship. For the first ten years of Anyone who runs their own business and/or has Rome those stresses were all the tougher because two preschoolers can relate, work and life are a seritheir work came to define their relationship. “We’ve ous juggling act. But both Tessa and Torrey say days done a whole lot better job of that the last five or six that require them to fill a variety of roles is a central years,” Reid says. The solution, much like Rome SDS, appeal of what they’re doing, grounded in the cremeant returning to their roots, making the time out- ativity at the core of the enterprise. “I need that,” side of work to ride together. Tessa says. “My hands need to be doing something.”

44 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

Studio art grads Tessa Auwater Valyou and Torrey Valyou have built New Duds, their commercial screen-printing and apparel business, from roots in Torrey’s original illustration and Tessa’s hand-sewn products.

Jeff Rosenblum ’93 and Jordan Berg ’93 have built a bi-coastal, forty-some employee marketing firm with offices questus in San Francisco, Manhattan, and Orange County, California. They have a documentary film, The Naked Brand, a book, Friction, and a TedX talk that share the business philosophy they’ve evolved in a communications world advancing at a blinding pace. But on a campus visit a couple of years back, as Rosenblum told of his life and career stories—rapidfire, candid, liberally punctuated with “dude”—it was anchored in lessons learned as a student entrepreneur in Burlington, Vermont. One a success, designing and selling t-shirts to fellow students.

One a failure, establishing a satellite food cart for the Kountry Kart Deli. The lesson in both, hard work and hustling works; the other option, not so much. Also key to Rosenblum’s UVM years, the long friendship with Jordan Berg that would become a business partnership. It began when he knocked on Berg’s door in Simpson Hall during their first semester. The music was blasting, but Rosenblum wasn’t there to complain. He wanted in. They both remember the song in the dorm, The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” it was about all Berg listened to that year. Rosenblum even remembers what Berg was wearing—“that Greg Brady shirt, blue turtleneck with a red stripe.” The friends joke that they would kill it on “The Newlywed Game.” (Actually, the UVM connection continSUMMER 2018 |

Jeff Rosenblum, left, lives and works in New York City and business partner Jordan Berg, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Frequent communication keeps their bi-coastal marketing firm humming and friendship strong.

46 |

bottom of the Grand Canyon, returning resolved to call up his friend Jordan Berg and propose they make a bold leap with their own advertising/ marketing agency. As Questus has grown from two friends with two desks and one chair in Berg’s living room, it has thriven due to a yin-yang friendship kept healthy through frequent communication. The firm’s focus today is on helping brands tell their story with authenticity and connected storytelling. “It’s about empowering the audience, delivering it through social media, immersive experiences, web sites, and paid media. For us, it’s mostly about creating great content,” Rosenblum says. Telling Questus’s own story, he is typically up front: “My recollection is that we went from drinking a beer and daydreaming to pulling the trigger on this thing in a handful of weeks and now it is nineteen years later and it’s like, ‘I don’t remember that being a protracted discussion, do you?’ I don’t know how the hell we would have pulled this off over that many years if we weren’t best friends.”

ues with their spouses, Christine (Irwin) Berg ’94 and Jena Marchione ’93.) A few years past college, Berg, who studied studio art and history, was finding traction as a painter, selling to the likes of actor Johnny Depp. But he felt a pull elsewhere. “Ultimately my love is in mass media communications,” Berg says. He was particularly intrigued by brand messaging. “I realized pretty quickly that I wanted to be building those brands, helping craft those stories, so Even if you aren’t familiar with made the switch over to advertising, graphic MealTrain.com, you know the lifemeal train situation the website simplifies. A design, and never looked back.” Meanwhile, Rosenblum, a business grad, neighbor has a new baby or a friend is was finding his path in market research as this thing undergoing chemo or a colleague broke her jaw in called the Internet took hold. Early on, he saw the a bike accident; their network of friends organizes opportunity to leverage it as a market research tool. dinner drop-offs. More than a meal, it’s an emotional “Next thing I knew, I went from entry-level guy to show of support. pioneering internet research with clients including In 2009, Mike ’98 and Kathleen White Laramee Microsoft, Netscape, Sun MicroSystems, Walt Disney, ’00 had two young kids with many neighbors in BurLevi Strauss, all as my clients,” Rosenblum says. lington’s South End also starting families. Within Knowing he was on the cusp of something big, a neighborhood playgroup, Kathleen had taken Rosenblum went on a soul-searching hike to the on the job of organizing the effort, she called it a

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

MORGAN EDWARDS

“meal train,” to make dinners for families with newborns. Many participants, many meals, picky eaters, dietary restrictions, and so on. It was complicated For Mike Laramee, it was a lightbulb moment. Surely, his wife wasn’t alone in organizing something like this, and, just as surely, there must be a tech solution to smooth the process. Mike worked as a physical therapist at the time, but had been talking with Stephen DePasquale ’98, friends since they met in Harris Hall during their first semesters at UVM, about launching a business together. Mike had added a UVM MBA to his undergrad degree; Steve was a software engineer who studied management information systems in UVM’s business school. Like Mike and Kathleen, Steve and his wife, Kathryn Pelletier DePasquale’03, are also a UVM couple. The evening after Mike Laramee’s first thought that this could be something, they met for pizza and talk. Where better than Mr. Mike’s, corner of Main and Winooski, for two UVM college buddies to begin sketching a business model on a napkin? Within four months, the Meal Train website was live. Nearly a decade later, Laramee and DePasquale are both full-time on Meal Train with a success story simply told by the numbers—used in forty countries, 9,000 meals delivered each day, more than eight million total meals organized. NBC Nightly News featured the business and Meal Train references pop up here and there on television sit-coms. The site has become part of the culture. That was the idea from the outset, says DePasquale, to make the name Meal Train and their site part of the fabric of organizing dinners. They’ve built their income with a diversified revenue stream. Meal

Train is free to use, but multiple revenue streams include the paid Meal Train Plus, advertising, and links to partners. They attribute their success to a mutual commitment to slow and careful growth. The steady business plan is a match for their even-keel personalities. It’s not hard to see why they became friends and have found it easy to remain friends while building a business together. Equal partners, DePasquale is focused on product development and Laramee on product design. They communicate daily, but weekly discussions over lunch at New World Tortilla are key. More than the efficiency of their website, the business partners take pride and satisfaction in its social impact, the real world action it facilitates. DePasquale says, “Millions of people thought about their friend, went out and bought ingredients, cooked a meal, took it over to that person’s house, had an interaction. When we think about those people mobilized and doing something as a result of this, that’s exciting.” VQ

Dinner time! Stephen DePasquale, left, and Mike Laramee’s MealTrain.com has become part of the cultural fabric, synonymous with friends helping friends.

SUMMER 2018 |

CLASS NOTES Life beyond graduation MAIL YOUR CLASS NOTES:

UVM Alumni Association 61 Summit Street, Burlington, VT 05401

SUBMIT YOUR CLASS NOTES: alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

Green & Gold Reunion October 5-7, 2018

For the most up-to-date plans: alumni.uvm.edu/ greenandgold. Condolences to the family of Dr. Jean Davison ’44 who passed away on November 23, 2017. She was a brilliant scholar and was named the Lyman-Roberts Professor of Classical Languages and Literature in 1972 at her alma mater, a position she held until her retirement in 1992. On a personal note, I remember Jean well, her keen intellect, boundless curiosity, high energy, and her passion for learning. It has recently come to my attention that an outstanding member of our class, Dr. Milt Kaufman, passed away about six years ago. He was a fine athlete involved in several sports, including baseball and track under Archie Post, and basketball all four years under Fuzzie Evans. Milt was also a member of Key and Serpent, Boulder, and ROTC. We belatedly offer our sincere condolences to his wife, Rhoda "Chickie" Kaufman, and his family. Recently I have been in communication with his son, Dr. Jeff Kaufman ’74 , whose daughter has recently given birth to a little girl named Eloise, which I can't resist mentioning. After all, she is Milt’s great grandchild. Warm wishes to all! Send your news to— June Hoffman Dorion 16 Elmwood Drive Rutland, VT 05701 junedorion@gmail.com

Rose Eisman Boyarsky writes, Saul Boyarsky MD ’46 and I have been living at a retirement center since 2013. Penelope Easton is also here. How many others from the class of ’44 are still around? Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 11 Main Street Burlington, VT 05401 Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

48 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

Send your news to— Mrs. Harriet Bristol Saville 468 Church Road, #118 Colchester, VT 05446 hattiesaville@comcast.net

Send your news to— Louise Jordan Harper 573 Northampton Street Holyoke, MA 01040 louisejordanharper@gmail.com

Green & Gold Reunion October 5-7, 2018

For the most up-to-date plans: alumni.uvm.edu/ greenandgold. Frances Kidder Stiles ’55 tells us that Gwendolyn Stiles Ball passed away on Sunday, March 18th. She died at home with hospice care following a small celebration of her 91st birthday in the hospital. Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street Burlington, VT 05401 Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

Pat Hunt writes, “All is well. I have spent my time, playing cards twice a week in a couple of duplicate bridge leagues. I’ve been in Kansas, New York , and Connecticut this past year. I’m hoping to get in some golf if the snow ever leaves. Family was here for Christmas, my 90th birthday, and Easter. Always room if you want to come visit. Next month one of my former French students, Sylvie Redon, is coming for a visit with her three teenage children. Please keep in touch. My love to you and God bless you all.” Send your news to— Gladys Clark Severance 2179 Roosevelt Highway, Colchester, VT 05446 severance@bsad.uvm.edu

Sylvia Hoisington shared that on April 5, the New York Choral Society honored her at its spring gala for her fifty years of active participation.This is the big fund raiser of the society, and includes an online auction. In June, Sylvia, her sister, and a close friend, Elaine, attended their 70th Springfield High School reunion in Vermont. On this trip Sylvia and her sister visited the Hoisington farm in Weatersfield, where the new owners were delighted to see them, and took them on a tour of places where the sisters had played as children. In July, Sylvia and her sister went on a cruise of the Snake and Columbia rivers following much of the route Lewis and Clark traveled. This year the sisters also visited Portland, Oregon; Olympia, Washington; Ludlow, Vermont; and a variety of places in New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. Sylvia sure gets around! Dick Fink's wife, Claire, wrote that many of his health issues have occured on the tennis court. That includes two rotator cuff surgeries. But Dick still plays tennis three days a week. In his spare time, Dick is on the computer checking their investments, or reading. Claire suffers from arthritis and severe spinal stenosis so she uses a walker to get around. Probably several of us can relate to that. Send your news to— Valerie Meyer Chamberlain 52 Crabapple Drive, Shelburne, VT 05482 valchamber@aol.com

Jon Duncan Hagar shared the passing of his mother, Susan James Glenn (aka Susan G. Hagar or Susan G. Ewing), on June 20, 2018. She always wanted to live near a ski area and spent the last three years of her life at the base of Mount Werner, in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401 Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

Green & Gold Reunion October 5-7, 2018

For the most up-to-date plans: alumni.uvm.edu/ greenandgold. Robert Woodworth writes, “Our 65th reunion is coming up this fall. Do we want to schedule a class dinner? Please let me or the alumni office know. After ten years at Wake Robin Retirement Community, I will become president of the Residents' Association this summer.” David Prince is working full time as a professor of neurolgy and neuroscience at Stanford, where he has been since 1963. He founded and headed the Department of Neurology from 1970-89. After this long period of doing patient care, administration and basic research in epilepsy, he stepped down in 1989 to work full time in his lab. He writes, “My life's love, Reva, died in 2005. We raised three children who live in Boston and Oregon, and I have five grandchildren, who have all promised not to retire before I do. My scientific family includes many successful trainees in neurology and neuroscience research. All-in-all, life has been a pleasure, with the inevitable mix of joy and sadness. I've lost touch with most of my UVM friends from my years as an undergraduate and medical student, and contacts would be welcomed. I can be reached at daprince@stanford.edu.” Bernice Berger Miller, “Binky,” sent a marvelous documentary about her life after graduation from UVM. She continued her education and received a PhD from the University of Florida. Since then she has published seven novels, the last two have just become “live,” which means they are available on the market. The titles are Abuse and It’s All About a Name. She continues writing in several genres: novels, personal works, and children’s stories. Binky is the mother of two children, fathered by her husband Leonard Miller ’51, who passed away a few years ago. Binky still lives in Florida, but has a summer home in Vermont. As she says “Vermont stays in one’s gut.” Jean Post Lamphear let us know about the passing of Jean Millis Gilpin, on October 3, 2017. Jean Millis was an outstanding scholar, teacher, and devoted friend of classmates Bobbi Demarest Robinson, and Marylin Hinsdale Fletcher ’55. Jean moved to Burlington in 1941, when her father began his tenure as president of UVM. Jean was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, and served on the Student Government Association. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Mortar Board at UVM, and worked at the United Nations prior to marrying Bob Gilpin ’52. Fond memories of an outstanding classmate carry on. Husband Bob is now living at the Shelburne Bay Community with family nearby. Send your news to— Nancy Hoyt Burnett 729 Stendhal Lane, Cupertino, CA 95014

Nancy Preston Johnson writes, “With the advent of Facebook and other social media platforms, I suppose that Class Notes are becoming less important. However, when I check our class and see that no one has submitted anything, I guess I just want to jump into the breach. Moving forward, I hope others will join me

in sharing some news with our class. I was a transfer student who came to UVM from Lawrence College in order to be closer to Dartmouth, where my high school boyfriend, Bill Johnson, was a student. I loved every minute of my time at our university. I had great teachers, most memorable was history professor Paul Evans. I loved Vermont and I married Bill. We had fifty-five years together. We ran political campaigns, created several small businesses, and raised two daughters. Bill was a Harvard trained lawyer who practiced in Hanover, New Hampshire and became a Superior Court Judge, and later a Supreme Court Judge in New Hampshire. I am retired and living in Florida. I owe so much to UVM and continue to be grateful for the fine education I received.” Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street Burlington, VT 05401 Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

Johanna Wislocki Mckenzie devotes her energies to oil painting, mainly New England coastal landscapes. She and her husband have two talented children and two wonderful grandchildren—one of whom she hopes will apply to UVM. She occasionally sees classmate Babette Nichols. Johanna writes, “If any adventurous UVM folk wish to come, I will be having an open studio this summer on July 21 and 22, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. My address, 15 S. Of Commons, Little Compton, Rhode Island, The Mollynook Studio.” Mary Geraldine Dankowski reports that leaving Vermont for Florida in January was easy. She got together with Diane Eastman Jones and also Elaine Wittenstein Rohlin. Carol Jane Sutherland is healthy and happy in Denver, sharing her apartment with a 12-year-old cat. Carol is busy with many friends and as an active member of the Unitarian Universalist church. Alfred John Purcell, Jr. ’55, passed away on January 28, 2018. A graduate of the college of engineering and math.Al was President of Heald Division of Cincinnatti Milacron, where he had worked for thirty years. He was also a Past Chairman of the Board of Associated Industries of Massachusetts. Al is survived by his wife of fifty-nine years, Carolyn (Aldrich). Finally, from class secretary Jane: Hi, everyone! Must've been all those wicked hard storms over the winter that so many of us endured that prevented so little news sent my way this time around! Hope many of you were able to flee to southern shores… await to hear from you! Send your news to— Jane Morrison Battles Apt. 125A 500 East Lancaster Avenue Wayne, PA 19087 janebattles@yahoo.com Hal Lee Greenfader Apt. 1 805 South Le Doux Road Los Angeles, CA 90035 halisco@att.net

Nancy McGoughran Blanchet enjoys reading in Vermont Quarterly “about all the wonderful things happening at UVM and the outstanding young people who are in attendance.” As a proud alumna, she expresses disappointment that none of her children or grandchildren followed her to UVM. She’s still in touch with many friends and notes that the Tri-Delts are planning their 60th get-together this year in Nashville. Bruce Hausser shares that one of his grandsons, Reed Hausser ’16, loves UVM, where he is completing his first year of med school. Ralph Winer continues to reside in retirement on the east coast of Florida. He’s visited with Fred Solomon and Jerome Kobre, and continues to be in contact with roommate, Dr. Mel Wolk. He’d love to hear from other classmates in the area. David Spector reports that after years of visiting Florida from NYC, he’s now full-time in the Sunshine State. He still gets back to Burlington for Fleming Advisory Board meetings and enjoyed our 65th reunion. Send your news to— Jane K. Stickney 32 Hickory Hill Road, Williston, VT 05495 stickneyjane@gmail.com

Anne Gordon lives in Shelburne, Vermont, where she enjoys gardening and painting. This year, she had a painting in the New England Watercolor Society Signature Members Show in Boston. She’ll be applying for admission to their Biennial North American Open Show later this year. Anne would enjoy hearing from classmates and old friends. Susan Wakefield Cochran is running for state delegate in the Maryland primary. “Crazy perhaps,” she writes, she pledges to make time in her campaign schedule for a week at Lake Champlain. Margaret Daronco says she and her husband, Paul, are “well, and lucky to be together.” They enjoy their children, grandchildren, and a new great granddaughter. They also enjoy travel with a regular vacation spot in Sanibel Harbour Resort and plans for a trip to San Antonio. They’re keeping busy as co-chairs of their upcoming 65th high school reunion in Pelham, New York. June Squiers Sherwin fondly recalls her home economics education under the mentorship of Marion Brown Thorpe ’38, and she loved teaching home ec. in Connecticut and Missouri. Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401 Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

Green & Gold Reunion October 5-7, 2018

For the most up-to-date plans: alumni.uvm.edu/ greenandgold. Steve Rozen just got his Florida Dental License for charity services at a clinic and also volunteers at Rookery Bay Preserve. He and wife, Midge—married for fifty-seven years—mentor a high school student from Immokalee through the Guadalupe program. “I have to say that we are living in paradise, and loving every minute of it,” Steve writes. He regrets they can’t make our 60th, SUMMER 2018 |

| CLASS NOTES but have their sites on the 65th. Ronald Downer reports that he came across his beloved freshman class beanie as he was doing some downsizing. It brought back fond memories of living in Wills Hall, making new friends, celebrating a form of independence from home, and embarking on a new and untried adventure. One of his new friends, Mike Zacchilli, became his best man five years later! Ron, looking for a new home for his beanie, sent it to the Alumni Association office. Judy Rosenblum Cohen and her husband, Dick, have been doing a lot of traveling in celebration of their 60th wedding anniversary in June 2018. They have been to all seven continents, above the Arctic Circle, below the Antarctic Circle, and most recently to Churchill, Canada, to see polar bears, Iceland, and Costa Rica. The alumni website photo gallery features a photo of Judy with her brothers, Norman Rosenblum ’66, immediate past Mayor of Mamaroneck, New York and FDNY28 team owner, and Jim Rosenblum ’62 at the NASCAR truck race in Daytona in February. Judy writes that she is looking forward to seeing many classmates at the 60th reunion in October. Richard Turron and his wife still live in Shingle Springs, California, growing grapes and making wine. Family draws them back to Vermont at least once a year. Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street Burlington, VT 05401 Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

Lloyd Tamarin is living happily in Delray, Florida with his wife of fiftysix years, Gail. They were in California in April for the wedding of one of their grandson’s. Their other grandkids are in grad school at Princeton, undergrad at Ohio State, and pursuing a career in screenwriting. Karl Raab coordinated several events honoring Austrian/Vermont composer Richard Stoehr (1874-1967) in Vienna. His daughter, Hedi Stoehr Ballantyne ’50, and other family relatives including daughters Janet Ballantyne ’77 and Jean were there. Hedi spoke at several local schools about her life as a child refugee in England during World War II. Regrettably, after a short illness Hedi passed away on January 27, back at home in Montpelier. Ann Nevin PhD ’80 passed peacefully on January 30th, surrounded by her family, music, and love. Ann exemplified “I can do it, and joyfully”—encouraging her generations of students and colleagues to do the same. She graduated Magna Cum Laude while mothering two small children back when colleges thought doing both impossible. Work teaching led Ann back to college, accumulating MEd, EdS, and a PhD while co-parenting four children. Throughout her forty-five year university and publishing career, Ann regularly brought new practices into use by teachers, focusing on those with the most vulnerable students. She was a tenured professor at the University of Vermont and Arizona State University, and a visiting professor at three other universities after her first retirement. Send your news to— Henry Shaw, Jr.

50 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

112 Pebble Creek Road, Columbia, SC 29223 hshaw@sc.rr.com

Kay Sabens Ellis and husband, Durward, are still working four days a week, volunteering, and enjoying life in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Durward drives for Rural Community Transportation and Kay is secretary, organist, and bell choir director at Grace UMC. Gene Parent writes, “We are enjoying our childrens’ successes, drawing and painting, reading, enjoying good friends, and good health after all these years. We are looking forward to many more” Ira Raff lives in Boynton Beach, Florida, where he still practices urology. He lived in Danbury, Connecticut for thirtysix years before the move south in 2007. Ira is very active biking, playing pickle ball tennis, swimming, kayaking, and playing NY-style stickball. He and his wife, Tobi, have traveled to Mongolia, most of the Far East, and Cuba. They recently celebrated fiftythree years of marriage. Their son is executive producer of America Has Talent, and their daughter works as a social worker in Massachussetts. Joan Dickson writes that Anne Gulick Heck and Joan Billington Dickson and spouses helped Jeannie Young Weaver celebrate her 80th birthday in Largo, Florida. A good time was had by all. Also, the three ladies and Joanie Birmingham have been getting together for many years. Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401 Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

Carol Overton Blanchard has moved to the adult living community Brookdale of Vero, soon to be renamed as Sonata. Though she has serious health issues, her two “kittybrats,” Butter Beautiful and Mimzi Bee, help keep her smiling. Katherine Brother Allen and Rolly Allen recently enjoyed a fun mini-UVM and Theta reunion in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Caroline Tyler Nordquist and husband, Don, hosted. Also in attendance were Carol Suhr Gater and Malcolm, Judy Morse Baxter and George Baxter ’60. “We had a lot of good laughs and yummy eats with friends of almost sixty years. It was like we had never left UVM,” Katherine writes. She and Rolly are looking forward to the Fourth of July when they’ll be at their home on Lake George, celebrating with fellow Catamounts, son David Allen ’90 and niece Tina Allen ’03. Ann Wakefield Ohnmacht married Fred Ohnmacht at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe on November 17. Her sister, Susan Wakefield Cochran ’57 and her husband helped celebrate, along with two of her sons and her daughter-in-law. Fran Grossman taught a knitting class at John C Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina at the end of June. John Simonds heads up a task force investigating the feasibility of purchasing an automatic emergency defibrillator for the Village Chicago. He escaped the ravages of Chicago weather this winter by finding refuge in an old haunt in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. “This is year twelve, and it is getting harder for us to walk the cobblestone streets where the danger of fall-

ing lurks around every corner,” John writes. He had an essay about San Miguel published in Chicago Classic Magazine in April. Frank Chupka wrote that he was sorry to hear about the passing of Daniel Simpson, a former classmate in chemistry courses. Frank is now retired, living with his wife, Bonnie, in Columbia, Tennessee, after working in industry for forty-three years. Send your news to— Steve Berry 8 Oakmount Circle, Lexington, MA 02420 steveberrydhs@gmail.com

Steve Roy Burzon survived Hurricane Irma on the French side of St. Martin. “Horrific storm and conditions, but with the love of our family and our glorious Antillian neighbors, we made the best of it and have moved forward to a new home on the Dutch side of the island,” he writes. Steve is in contact with classmates John Lazarus, and Jules Older and Effin Older ’64. Steve is now fully retired and doing not-for-profit work, mostly with their local yacht club, where he’s involved in youth sailing and sailboat racing. Granddaughter Lily Mandl begins UVM Nursing School in the summer of 2018. “All is good and thank you to UVM for having been a wonderful part of my life,” Steve says. Jules Older writes, “Do-Gooders, the word do-gooder evokes bad feelings: silly, unrealistic, interfering. To me, it’s a good word; I wear the do-gooder mantle with pride. Our two most recent mini-movies are all about dogooding—one from San Francisco, March for Our Lives, and one from New Zealand, New Zealand Pride.” Joann Trolinger is still working as a family nurse practitioner at Sutter where she is involved in teaching and clinical work. Her husband, Don, is recovering from a TAV procedure and doing well. Both daughters are again working on further degrees—her granddaughter just took MCATs, and life is good. Sandy Burnap White and husband Henry have been married fifty-six years, and have lived in Hinesburg, Vermont for the last fortyfour years. Both their children, Mark White ’85 and Cindy White Blumen ’87, and their spouses, graduated from UVM. Sandy and Henry keep busy volunteering in Hinesburg for a number of organizations. Rena Gusmai Baker continues teaching English as a second language to immigrants in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. She also trains volunteer teachers as part of Catholic Charities Immigrant Services. Send your news to— Patricia Hoskiewicz Allen 14 Stony Brook Drive, Rexford, NY 12148 traileka@aol.com

Green & Gold Reunion October 5-7, 2018

For the most up-to-date plans: alumni.uvm.edu/ greenandgold. Randi Pickel Rosenstein retired in Charlotte, North Carolina, but still returns to beautiful Lake Willoughby for a summer retreat. George Fortier and wife, Helena recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. “Boy did time fly. UVM

gave me my start in life and I thank you,” George writes. Judith Simonds Shea moved to Florida and is enjoying the warm weather. She golfs, takes gym classes, plays Mahjong, and takes day trip excursions to Tampa and Sarasota. Her son, Tucker Shea ’94, is living in Charleston, South Carolina, and Patrick is in Portland, Oregon. She travels to see them and their families and also spends time with old Pi Phi friends. Abraham (Abe) Daudelin and Sylvia have three children, twenty grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. He retired from AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1994, where he had responsibility for operator services, research and development, and deployment. He holds five patents in interactive speech recognition, and conversion between text and speech. Send your news to— Toni Citarella Mullins 210 Conover Lane Red Bank, NJ 07701 tonicmullins@verizon.net

Jane H. Butler shared that her husband, Robert Ramsey, MD, retired two years ago and now drives her to and from the metro, where she commutes to work at the Pentagon as the Nurse Case Manager for 7,000 enrollees. “I also manage our preventive health care, and our clinic is currently the best in the NCR,” Jane writes. Ilene Toni Hofbinder Rosenthal’s husband of fifty years passed away in 2015. Ilene says he always enjoyed meeting her UVM friends at reunions. “It was a difficult few years of adjustment for me, but things have been

moving along,” Ilene writes. She still teaches periodically at Commack High School and travels, with recent trips to Seattle, as well as India and Nepal. Art continues to be a passion and she’s taken some recent classes in pastels. And, whenever possible, Ilene says, the group from AEPhi gets together. Send your news to— Susan Barber 1 Oak Hill Road, P.O. Box 63, Harvard, MA 01451 suebarbersue@gmail.com

Rose Levy Beranbaum’s twelfth cookbook, Rose's Baking Basics— with over 600 step-by-step photos— is on advance order on Amazon and will be published in September. Albert (Albie) Ira Pristaw is enjoying retirement in Vermont after practicing optometry for forty-seven years in the northeast. He looks back on the many years he spent bringing eye care to the prison inmates of the northeast. Albie has four grandchildren, and he keeps in touch with his UVM roommate. Joe Pogar of Wilder, Vermont, looks forward to fly fishing season. “UVM was the best experience of my life. It was a gift my family gave to me,” he writes. Barbara Hoffman Mow still travels a lot for her husband's activities. Van is now emeritus distinguished chair professor at Columbia. Barbara is playing tennis, but knee issues keep her from skiing. The couple spends lots of time in La Jolla, Coconut Grove, and Hong Kong, often visiting family. They have two grandchildren in college. Barbara still loves the snow and thinks fondly of

Vermont and her old friends. Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401 Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

Art Fromer was in Boston with his wife, Sheelagh, to visit their newest grandchild. They joined Mike Unger and wife Susan, as well as Myron Fox and wife Phyllis, for lunch. Having lived out a life-long wish of living in France, after five years on the French Riviera, Stephan Schulte and his wife, Jane Rossiter-Smith have now relocated to Cambridge in the UK. They loved their time in the small town of Beaulieu-sur-Mer. “Cambridge is a real college town, with hordes of young people on bicycles,” Stephan writes. “It has an atmosphere that makes you feel young at every turn. It reminds me a little of Burlington, only without the hills and the lake.” While living overseas, they have welcomed many UVMers, including Daniel Goldberg ’67, Roy Zuckerman ’67, Jean Halpern, Gordon Josephson ’67, Jeffrey Shapiro ’67, Dennis Baum, Nadine Glasband ’67, Bob Mirman ’67, Aaron Schildhaus ’65, Cheryl Gadoci ’69, and hope that will continue. Joyce Smith is now fully retired as emeritus faculty at The Ohio State University. Her post-retirement occasional job is as a third-party independent inspector with Underwriters Laboratories. Joyce volunteers at OSU's Historic Costume Collection, in the handbell choir, and as a lector and collection counter at her church. She western-

Green Living At Wake Robin, residents have designed and built over four miles of walking trails. Each Spring, they make maple syrup in the community sugar house, and each Fall they harvest honey from our beehives. Residents compost, plant gardens, use locally grown foods, and work with staff to follow earth-friendly practices. And—we’re growing! Maple, our new independent living apartment building is scheduled for completion in Fall 2018. Live the life you choose—in a vibrant lifeplan community. Visit our website or give us a call today to schedule a personal consultation. 802.264.5100 / wakerobin.com

2 0 0 WA K E R O B I N D R I V E , S H E L B U R N E , V E R M O N T

| CLASS NOTES style square dances for both physical and mental exercise—“some of those square dance calls can be complicated.” Refinishing furniture and travel are also focuses. But during autumn, few activities take precedence over Buckeye football games," she says. Betty Morse enjoyed another great season of UVM men's basketball, seated behind classmate Claire Berka Willis and her husband, Frank Willis ’64. Maestro Giuseppe Albanese continues to provide opera education to “youth Floridians,” having added a number of new clients this year—among them The Sinai Residence, Morse Life, and Vi Residences. In addition, he has been asked to provide pre-performance lectures at Silverspot Theater before showings of the Met Opera HD presentations. This may be the only movie theater in the U.S. to provide such an amenity. He and his partner, Barbara, plan to visit Maine in September. Bonnie Murray Riddle and her husband retired in southern Maine. The couple co-founded OperaMaine, which is now in its 24th season. Between them, they have four children and two grandchildren. Send your news to— Kathleen Nunan McGuckin 416 San Nicolas Way, St Augustine, FL 32080 kmcguckin@comcast.net

Ken Klonsky was a guest of honor at the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association’s (BCCLA) Liberty Awards Gala, to celebrate his selection as the 2018 winner of the Excellence in the Arts award. The foremost legal advocacy group in Canada, the BCCLA, awarded this honor based on Ken’s work fighting unjust incarceration. His books Eye of the Hurricane, co-authored with Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, and Freeing David McCallum, document the struggle these men endured in their fight against a deeply flawed criminal justice system. Bruce Rosen recently stepped down as chair of psychiatry at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center. He was named by Long Island Pulse Magazine as a Doctor of Distinction and The Castle Connolly Guide named him as one of the Best Doctors in the New York Metropolitan Area for the twentieth straight year. Send your news to— Jane Kleinberg Carroll 44 Halsey Street, Apt. 3, Providence, RI 02906 jane.carroll@cox.net

50th Reunion October 5-7, 2018

For the most up-to-date plans: alumni.uvm. edu/50yearreunion. Bill Schubart’s fourth novel, Lila & Theron, is among four finalists to win the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Popular Fiction. Karin Schumacher shares that her Peace Corps work in the Philippines after graduation led her to a long career in physical therapy, from which she just retired. International travel, including some PT stints overseas, is a high priority. Karin has lived in Colorado since 1985 and loves the state’s beauty, “but miss Vermont, my home state, and get back when I can to see family and friends.”

52 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

Karin’s adopted daughter from India is twentyone, and together they enjoy South Asian friends, culture, and travel in India. Jack Rosenberg’s work was recently selected for the Maryland Federation of Art's Focal Point: The Art of Digital Media exhibition. His photograph, “Blocks and Shadows,” was one of sixty-three selections out of 619 entries. Additionally, his photograph, “Shadow Lily,” was selected for the Federation of Art's Winter Member Show. We're all expecting you to document us as looking twenty-one, prosperous, and exciting at Reunion, Jack! Send your news to— Diane Duley Glew 23 Franklin Street, 2 Wheeler Farm Westerly, RI 02891 ddglew@gmail.com

After forty-eight plus years in the pigments industry, Ralph Edelman has retired and continues to live in Charlotte, North Carolina. Ralph enjoys traveling, (Panama Canal and South America), with wife Elaine. Mike King, Sgt at Arms, Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 102, Fort St John, BC, has served thirteen years in the Canadian Army Reserve, in both the CIC and Canadian Rangers. He asks if there are fellow alumni who have served in the Canadian Armed Forces. Stephen Kunken looks forward to our 50th Class Reunion in 2019. He and his wife, Nicky, recently visited the Galapagos and have other trips ahead. Stephen still practices law, with an emphasis on criminal defense, but is trying to reduce his trial schedule. This summer he’s playing baseball again and managing his 45-plus adult team. Contact Stephen if you’d like to help with reunion planning. Send your news to— Mary Moninger-Elia 1 Templeton Street, West Haven, CT 06516 maryeliawh@gmail.com

Brian LeClair and his wife visited their daughter in Vail this winter. Brian, unfortunately, broke a bone in his lower leg the day before his 70th birthday, so is recovering to be ready for sailboat season, cruising in Down East Maine, the Cape, and the Islands. He invites friends to look them up in Marblehead— “We are always looking for an excuse to go sailing for the day.” Bryant Dorsch sends greetings from Switzerland. He reports that his CKD and financial constraints limit his traveling, but he makes it to London, where his first granddaughter was born last May. “I miss my very great classmates,” Bryant adds. Send your news to— Douglas Arnold 11608 Quail Village Way, Naples, FL 34119 darnold@arnold-co.com

David Nussbaum and his wife, Laurie, enjoyed the Westminster Dog Show with fellow Phi Sig brother and longtime friend Roy Greenman ’70. Facebook reconnected them with Richie Segal and Jeff Barnes

’69. David stays active as an engaged board member with the Monmouth County SPCA after a long career as a non-profit executive. Your class secretary has had the pleasure of reconnecting with a number of classmates lately, including Michael Lash at a Burlington Rotary Club meeting. After thirty-eight years as CEO and President of Carriage House Furniture/dba Ethan Allen Design Center, Michael is now advisor to start up, incubator, and small businesses—a natural next step for him with all of his years starting and running businesses in retail. I also connected with Walt Blasberg before and after he traveled to Honduras where he met dear friends, Al and Linda Gilbert, who are a part of the Hands2-Honduras non-profit that Liz Mead Foster and I have volunteered with for a number of years. Walt was in Tela, Honduras in February where he met Linda and Al who have worked tirelessly for many years helping that community. Walt is also involved in the Islands Business Bureau in Vermont, and he recently hosted his mother’s 100th birthday at the North Hero House Inn with friends and family. Liz Mead Foster reports that she saw Mary Shaw Sondgeroth and her husband in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Mary and her husband, Dan, are permanent residents there, having moved from Austin, Texas. Mary is an expert on knowing all the great things going on in town, from music, to art, to great restaurants. Liz was there spending time with her daughter and grandson, who were at a local language school. Liz also tells me that Jimmy Taylor and Barbara Potter ’76 are working on another documentary about the Constitution—a huge project. Annie Viets continues to teach in the Middle East—she has been teaching there going on five years. Though her teaching schedule limits her travels, she has gotten to a number of “off-the-beatentrack” countries. “While I have been warmly received in all, the Bangladeshis get my vote for being the friendliest and most optimistic,” Annie says. After a life-changing six years abroad, Annie will be leaving in June to semi-retire in Burlington. She says, “I’ll miss Saudi and the hospitable Saudis, especially my smart and spirited female college students.” Update on Owen Jenkins, and wonderful Wendy Reilly Jenkins ’73: Owen is still practicing law, and he and Wendy spend some time in Florida during the winter. They also plan to travel to South Africa later in the spring. Your class secretary is delighted to report that I have my first granddaughter, Charlotte Regen, who was born January 12th. Since my daughter, Mary, is local, it’s been a pure joy to spend time with her new family. Send your news to— Sarah Wilbur Sprayregen 145 Cliff Street, Burlington, VT 05401 sarah.sprayregen@uvm.edu

Christopher Blair continues his work as a leading acoustical designer, recently completing the renovation of Cincinnati's historic Music Hall, and the new Teatro Placido Domingo in Guadalajara, Mexico. His current projects include major renovations to David Geffen Hall, at the Lincoln Center for the New York Philharmonic. Never completely aban-

UVM

doning his music activities, Chris conducted a concert in February with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Falcon, in Coro, Venezuela, and has been invited to return for two programs in November 2018. Helen Scheidecker Riehle is retired, enjoying travel, visiting grandchildren in Salt Lake City. and chairing the South Burlington City Council. She had a bout with breast cancer, but caught it early and it’s in the rearview mirror. “Women: get your mammograms regularly, it saved my life! Life is good with Ted Riehle ’70 and our three golden retrievers,” Helen writes. Bruce Taylor celebrated forty-five years of marriage to Nancy Matteson Taylor. Bruce is a former prosecutor, non-profit advocate, and is now serving as a judge in U.S. Immigration Court in Florence, Arizona. He and Nancy have six grandkids. Noting that it has been fifty years since his Rutland High graduation, Bruce shares, “The days are long, but the years are short.” Send your news to— Debbie Koslow Stern 198 Bluebird Drive, Colchester, VT 05446 debbie2907@gmail.com

Douglas Wolinsky is an attorney/ director at Primmer Piper Eggleston & Cramer PC in Burlington. He walks his dog through Redstone campus daily—“It still feels like home.” Julie “Pip” Klein writes that her husband Bob Grawi's Gravikord, an electric double harp based on the African kora, is now on display in the permanent musical instrument collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Pip and Bob have been married and performing together as the Gravikord Duo for thirty years, with Pip on flute, and sometimes their son Ben on percussion. Ben graduates from RIT in May and will be heading to Silicon Valley. Pip is enjoying a new career in real estate in the Hudson Valley. “I truly cherish the lifelong friendships with great folks who I met at UVM back in ’69 and early ’70s, and of course love returning to Vermont,” she writes. Susi Taylor shares a reminder to all Experimental Program Alumni: “After our EP reunion gathering in 2016 it was decided we should gather again in 2018 during the UVM Alumni Weekend, October 5- 7. We are not sure of the details, so there is no sign up yet. We would appreciate hearing ideas from people, as well as an indication of your interest in attending. And let us know if you are interested in helping to organize and promote! Email me: staylor178@aol.com. We had a blast last year!” Deborah Mesce shares that Tri-Delta sorority will commemorate 125 years on the UVM campus at a banquet on October 20th at the Alumni House. Other activities are planned for that weekend, so save the date and plan to join the fun. Send your news to— Deborah Layne Mesce 2227 Observatory Place N.W. Washington, DC 20007 dmesce@prb.org

William Spina is semi-retired from an orthopaedic surgery career in the Kingdom, living the Vermont life, hunt-

EXPERI

MENTAL PROGRAM REUNION

October 5–7, 2018

Gather with classmates and faculty who participated in the 60s and 70s.

alumni.uvm.edu/ experimental ing, fishing, growing apples. He’d love to hear from Nancy Baker ’73. Paul Kenny’s commercial real estate brokerage in Sun Valley just closed the sale of Bruce Willis's night club, The Mint, in Hailey, Idaho. Anne DeStefano recently retired as project manager, implementing hospital clinical information systems, a career that spanned twenty years at Philips Healthcare. Work travel took her to all fifty states. Prior to that, Anne was a nurse manager in critical care in Boston. “I enjoyed my work immensely, and am now enjoying this new flexibility,” Anne writes. She and her husband, Dr. Toby Alterman, live in Jamestown, Rhode Island and Jupiter, Florida. She would love to hear from College of Nursing classmates! Your class secretary, Emily Manders, sends out a call to all Tri Delta sisters. Eta Chapter is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. There will be a weekend celebration on October 20-21, 2018. Activities include an Open House at 143 S. Willard Street, and a banquet at the Alumni House on Saturday, Oct. 20. As space is limited at the Alumni House, tickets will be offered on a first-come, first- served basis, and only to Tri Delta sisters. All other activities will be open to additional guests. These activities will be either pay-as-you-go (What Ales You, Friday dinners, cocktails at the banquet), or have no cost (open house, yoga, run, tours, bagels and coffee on Sunday). Please email questions to Etaddd125@ gmail.com. Send your news to— Emily Schnaper Manders 104 Walnut Street, Framingham, MA 01702 esmanders@gmail.com

M. Joseph Clement has been elected to partnership in Wisler Pearlstine, LLP in Greater Philadelphia. He concentrates his practice in the areas of municipal law, zoning, and land development, business law, intellectual property, and civil litigation. Will Gordon is alive and well and living in Westport, Connecticut. Will has owned his own market research business since 2012. His son, Nathan Gorder ’09, works for LinkedIn in San Francisco, and speaks fondly of his years at UVM. Gary Moreau has retired from fortyone years teaching middle school music. He continues to be an active professional vocal musician, and is enjoying his granddaughter with a second grandchild expected this summer. John Mahoney left nearly three decades of full-time teaching,

middle school social studies in Vermont, a few years ago. Since, he has been doing some substitute teaching, and other part-time work, including shifts as a deckhand on the Lake Champlain Ferries. John has also been getting into masters swimming and ran into former teammate Kevin Fisher at a recent meet. John and his wife hosted a social gathering at the Alumni House recently, and hope to be able to do more of the same in the future. Paula Oppenheim Cope is now a full-time faculty member in UVM’s Grossman School of Business, teaching three courses, doing career development with the MBA students, and coaching international case competition teams. “My consulting practice continues to thrive with my incredible staff. Hope to see everyone at the next EP Reunion,” she writes. John Krowka, owner of Kensho Farms in Boonsboro, Maryland, is preparing for the growing season and is a candidate for the Washington County Board of Education. In addition, John is currently working with the UVM LGBTQA Center and others in the planning of an event for alumni, family and friends in NYC on September 15th. The event will feature tours of the Leslie-Lohmann (LGBTQ) Museum, and a reception at the historic Stonewall Inn. John can be contacted at johnkrowka@gmail. com. Lori Serratelli finished her appointment to the Dauphin County Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas in the Family Law Division. She was appointed Judge by the Governor to fill a vacancy on the court. Lori has returned to her law practice and has opened a mediation/arbitration service, Serratelli Dispute Resolutions LLC. Send your news to— Dina Dwyer Child 102 North Jefferson Rd South Burlington, VT 05403 dinachild@aol.com

Jacqueline Baldwin Dowling writes, “proud first time grandparents to Madison Mary Dowling, born in February to son JJ and daughter-in-law Jenn.” Judy Holmes has moved her winter address to Montana, the Yellowstone and Big Sky area, after thirty-two winters in Colorado—“Great skiing, no crowds, come make some turns!” Shelley Richardson is enjoying retirement, with a little consulting on the side, and is really enjoying being a grandmother to Calvin, who just turned one year. Shelley spent an afternoon with two Tri-Delts recently, Joanne Puente and Mary Dumas Holden. They hope their sisters will join them on campus for the ETA Chapter 125th Celebration in the new Alumni House, Saturday, October 20. To get updates on this event contact Etaddd125@gmail.com. Jackie Levine shares a reminder to all Experimental Program Alumni, classes of ’74-’77. “After our EP reunion in 2016, it was decided we should gather again in 2018, during the UVM Alumni Weekend, October 5-7. We're not sure of the details so there is no sign up yet. We would appreciate hearing ideas from you, as well as an indication of interest in attending. Also let us know if you want to help organize and promote! Email Susi Taylor ’74: staylor178@aol.com. We'll put updates on our SUMMER 2018 |

| CLASS NOTES facebook page: UVM EP/Experimental Program Alumni.” Send your news to— Pete Beekman 2 Elm Street Canton, NY 13617 pbeekman19@gmail.com

Susan Loitherstein Glovsky enjoyed skiing Sugarbush this winter and thought back to UVM. Donna Cummings Agnew retires this summer from Champlain Valley Educational Services in Plattsburgh, New York, and looks forward to traveling with her husband, Paul C. Agnew ’74 G’77. They’ll likely move west to be closer to their children, now in Colorado and Montana. They happily celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in October 2017, gathered with family and friends at their son Scott’s wedding. Joan Lawrence-Studebaker writes, “it is still almost too much fun being alive.” Joan works within the judiciary in Vermont as a guardian ad litem. “We advocate for children who come into custody of the Division of Children and Families. I attempt to temper the wind to the shorn lambs,” Joan says, with the opioid crisis presenting particular challenges. Joan is proud to report that her own kids have become responsible caring adults, including one who is finishing a master's of social work degree at UVM. George Fjeld and Carol Fjeld '77 MS'79 have two more UVM graduates in the family—Hannah Fjeld ’09 in library science, and Christian Fjeld ’18 in microbiology. Their youngest, Kalle Fjeld ’12, is a first-year medical student. The family total will rise to ten UVM diplomas. Thomas Peltz continues to work in private practice mental health care north of Boston, offering treatment for adults with addictions, mental, and spiritual health issues. “Thank you UVM for the solid undergrad Comparative Religion, and grad program, Community Counseling Education,” he writes. Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401 Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

40th Reunion October 5-7, 2018

For the most up-to-date plans: alumni.uvm.edu/ 40yearreunion. Cindy Cole retired from teaching a class in psychological assessment and is devoting time to her work as school psychologist for Champlain Valley School District, Vermont. Marjorie Cohen shares that her mother, Adele Kaye ’49, just celebrated her 90th birthday. Marjorie recently reconnected with some old buddies Dave McCahan and Erica Reichart Young, and forwarded the emails to Libbie Carney Manahan and Sue Spies. Stan Przybylinski is trying to line up some friends to come to the reunion. “I miss Vermont,” says Stan. Eric Thum is an Officer at Bow Open Spaces Land Trust. He is also a Volunteer Land Steward for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. Send your news to—

54 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

UVM Alumni Association 411 Main Street , Burlington, VT 05401 Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

Mary Tautkus Winslow shared news of another gathering with friends from physical therapy. They met up at Lisa Fernandez's home in Boise, Idaho. The group included Sandy Meyer Wilcox, Paula Jenkins Larose, Liz Maccini Millard, Jenny Yonkers Lind, Linda Potash Marchese, and Mary Tautkus Winslow. Activities included whitewater rafting on the Payette River, viewing the Caldwell Night Rodeo on championship night, solving the Escape Room clues, and having dinner at an outdoor amphitheater while watching the musical, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. “Laughing and reminiscing were the real highlights of the weekend,” Mary says. Lori Brandon Rennels caught up with news that, after several moves in the past ten years, her family is settled in the Cleveland area. Her spouse, Kelly Rennels, grew up in Ohio, so she’s trying hard to become a Browns fan, “but New England holds a special place in my heart.” Lori works part-time as a chiropractor's assistant. She and Kelly’s kids have all graduated college and are in various phases of life. The oldest, Spencer, is married and has now gone back to seminary school to become a minister. Their second child, Parker, is currently living at home while holding down a full-time job at an insurance company and working as a bartender. Youngest child, Mitchell, lives in Maine and is a Wilderness Guide for the Appalachian Mountain Club. Lori says, “Life is good and I am starting to think about what to do when we retire! (If we ever do, that is.)” William Maisel is a musician with five CDs of improvisational piano, which you can find on iTunes, under William Michael Maisel. They are The Blissful Unknown, Serenea, Lulubelle and Other Sweet Songs, Miracles of the Colorless Blue-Black Sea, and The Luminous Sea of Lovingness. William lives in Redondo Beach, California. A picture of him at the piano of Agape Spiritual Center is posted in the alumni photo gallery online. “I loved my time at UVM, especially classes with Dr. Betty Boller,” William writes. Caroline Arlen took third place in the 2017 LAURA Short Fiction Award Winners for 2017 with her story “The Tent.” Caroline recently moved to San Luis Obispo, California, from Durango, Colorado, where she had lived for twenty years. Bill Miller works as a contractor and in barn restoration in Vermont. After time in Denver, Bill now lives in Mallets Bay, where he used to visit almost forty years ago. Bill enjoys the lake, Bolton, Stowe, Mad River, and golf at Kwini. Lianna Percy works as a PA at the Community Health Care Center in Burlington—“I feel so privileged to live and work back in my hometown!” Send your news to— Beth Gamache 58 Grey Meadow Drive , Burlington, VT 05401 bethgamache@burlingtontelecom.net

Dale Rocheleau surprised Michelle Duchame Rocheleau with her 60th birthday celebration at the Alumni House on New Year's Day. Family and friends enjoyed brunch and a slideshow accompanied by surprises and memories from Ed McGarry, Janet Feldman, Sue Patterson Souther, and Kathy Kearney, who all met on Wing 3rd over forty years ago. Lynn Ann Surprenant moved to Florida five years ago. Her son works for Morgan Stanley in private client, and her daughter works for Wells Fargo in investment banking. Rip Warendorf, Kevin Hanlon, Garret Vreeland and J. Barnes recently traveled with their wives to Scottsdale, Arizona for a few days of R&R. Rip and Lori live in Seattle, J and Sarah in L.A., Kevin and Denise in Syracuse, and Garret and Betsy Lucas Vreeland ’88 in Short Hills, New Jersey—“we covered some ground for this get together! Lots of good UVM stories from back in the day.” Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association Alumni.uvm.edu/classnotes

Linda Johnson Norris shares that their eldest daughter is a senior playing lacrosse at St. Lawrence. Fellow shoebox UVMer Tom Pynchon, is a VP at the university and he and his wife, Carol, have graciously hosted them many times in their home over the last four years. When the SLU lax team competed in Florida over spring break, Linda got to see Sheila Whalen Cook and text with Gail LeBaron and Hilary Klein ’84 (Vermont Hall of Famer). “Ladies we need a soccer reunion of that late ’70s, early ’80s bunch! Go CATS!” Linda says. Karen Kaplan lives in Washington, DC, where she is the editor of a section in the scientific journal Nature that covers international science policy and the global scientific workforce, in and outside of academia. Karen travels often, most frequently on an annual trip to London, where her journal is headquartered. When she isn't commissioning or editing feature articles and other content, Karen likes to check out blues and jazz bands in metro DC. She vows to head back up to Burlington one of these days on a recon mission. Claudia Smith Davenport is practicing law in Kingston, New York. Her daughter, Aubrie is now a freshman at UVM majoring in Political Science. Mark Epstein and his wife, Lori, live in Walnut Creek, California. Mark became a California-licensed attorney in 1990, and has since practiced general civil and commercial litigation. Since 2009, he’s had his own firm, Law Office of Mark P. Epstein in Walnut Creek. Mark and Lori have raised three beautiful daughters, Sara, Julia, and Hannah. Mark is particularly proud that Julia Epstein ’19 is a UVM junior. Mark says many of the same things that drew him to UVM also drew Julia. “She has been blazing her own path in psychology and French studies. Julia lived in the L/LC’s La Maison Francaise for her first two years at UVM, she was its student program director last year, and has now transitioned to an RA position in Jeanne Mance Hall,” Mark writes. On a visit back to Vermont last fall, Mark caught up with classmate

Matthew Beck, classmate Christopher “Topher” Emmet Chandler, and several of his past professors. Mark was particularly grateful to reconnect with Chris, who passed away from a rare disease a month later. Mark welcomes correspondence from UVM friends: epstein@mpelawoffice.com. Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association alumni@uvm.edu/classnotes

Jamie Fagan and his wife, Katie, have three grown girls and one new grandaughter from their oldest daughter, who lives in Jackson Hole. Jamie and Katie live in Beacon Hill, ski at Cannon in the winter, and spend summers in Cape Breton. They see John Carter ’81 and his wife Annie Stires ’81 as much as they can. Their second daughter was married this summer and their third daughter placed fourth in the women's national doubles squash championships. Jamie notes that they continue to support the Professor Bates Scholarship at UVM. Catherine Cover Willson shares that six classmates from Robinson Hall, the Environmental Dorm in 1978, joined together to celebrate Sue Dixon’s 60th birthday. Mary Crane, Karen Yacos, Barb Rosenthal Ebenstein, and Catherine gathered at Sue’s home in Shelburne for dinner and an overnight. This year marks forty years of continuing friendship that began at UVM. Mary Foehring Maydosz lives in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. She married Jeffrey Maydosz in 2008. She works as

a nurse practitioner at the Inova Heart Transplant Center and travels as a national speaker. Send your news to— John Peter Scambos pteron@verizon.net

are you?” and Seth Blitzer—“Do you read these? Hope you are both well!” Send your news to— Lisa Greenwood Crozier lcrozier@triad.rr.com

David Platt is happy to get to Burlington periodically to visit his daughter, Sawyer Platt ’20, who is a sophomore majoring in psychology at UVM. Dave lives in Chester, Connecticut, and enjoys his work as VP and associate general counsel, EH&S/Real Estate, at United Technologies Corporation. Sandy Jones is thrilled to be affiliated with a non-profit, Project Bike Tech, and spending time with the executive director, and ’83 class buddy, Mercedes Henrich. André Stark shares that his company, OCD Associates, has recently started the Children's Hospital International Film Festival. This new kind of festival was created by OCD for the non-profit, Flickers-RI, to bring amazing new short films from around the globe to the young patients in hospital rooms. This program will be an annual event at each hospital, with encore screenings during the year. The kids get to decide which films win the awards. They are currently working with Boston Children's, and Wiletts Hospital in Savannah, Georgia. UVM Children's Hospital is coming up— stay tuned, Andre says. Robin Edelstein sends a call out to Jan Duncan Hale and Marc DeNuccio—“Thank you for being the best friends I could wish for!” And to David Fletcher Oakes—“Where

Martha E. Marrapese, partner in Wiley Rein’s Environment & Safety and Consumer Product Regulation practices, has been recognized as one of the nation’s top “Energy & Environment Trailblazers” for 2018 by The National Law Journal. David White was recently inducted into the American Institute of Certified Planners College of Fellows. Fellows of AICP are honored in recognition of work as a model planner who has made significant contributions to planning and society. For the past decade, David has been director of Planning & Zoning for the City of Burlington. Pamela Hoyt Cheever is happily retired from the Army after 30 years as a Colonel. Husband of thirty-two years, Bruce Hoyt, died in 2016 after a battle with cancer. Recently remarried, Pamela divides time between Florida and Vermont to ski. Meg Keeshan McGovern is proud to have her son, Peter McGovern ’18, graduate from UVM's Grossman School of Business. Meg says she has lived vicariously through him these last four years and loved spending time visiting Burlington. She adds that her dad, Bill Keeshan ’57, a UVM alum who passed away in 2016, would be proud, too. Meg has written a non-fiction memoir titled We’re Good. It is avail-

Announcing: New 2019 Tours

Tahiti |Tanzania | Celtic Lands | Greece | Blue Danube

For information on our new tours visit alumni.uvm.edu/travel

| CLASS NOTES able for pre-order on Amazon. Dianna Cole Driller shares that she moved to Tahoe in December of 1984 with Maggie McGuire Bockius and is still there. Dianna and her husband, Rob, have two children, both of whom graduated from and skied for Montana State. “Loving it here and still coaching little kids at Diamond Peak and teaching nursery school. Enjoy seeing all the Vermont plates and all the Vermonters out here. Maggie is still here, as well, and is a big wig in our school district,” Dianna writes. Send your news to— Abby Goldberg Kelley kelleyabbyvt@gmail.com Kelly McDonald jasna-vt@hotmail.com Shelley Carpenter Spillane scspillane@aol.com

Josh Powers and Amy Sieger Daniels summited Mt. Kilimanjaro on September 18. Both are educators— Josh is an associate vice president at Indiana State University, and Amy is the head of an educational foundation in California. They linked the climb to aid their two organizations, Amy for the foundation, and Josh for a first-generation student completion fund. Their blogs describe this amazing experience: www.kiliclimbjosh.wordpress.com, and www.amydanielsclimbs.com. See the picture posted on the Alumni Flicker photo gallery of these two proud UVMers on the summit. Steve Sudduth recently received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Camp Association of New England after sixteen years as a member of the Board of Directors. Steve continues to direct Wyonegonic Camps in Denmark, Maine, a family owned children's resident summer camp celebrating it's 117th summer in 2018. David Dixon is now a full-time faculty member in economics at the University of New Mexico. Lily deJongh Downing has been living and working in Stamford, Connecticut, since 2012. She and her husband, Dave, run an art gallery and advisory business out of a 19th-century barn, buying and selling 20th-century masterworks and representing contemporary artists. Prior to this, Lily directed Gerald Peters Gallery in New York for close to twenty-five years. Their children, Libby and Jackson Burke, are twins, graduating from UCLA and McGill this spring. Lily and Dave’s homestead also includes five large dogs and three horses. Send your news to— Barbara Roth roth_barb@yahoo.com

Paul Apfelbaum and wife Marianne Apfelbaum ’87 have launched Event Moguls, a Vermontbased company producing festivals, expos, and trade shows throughout the Northeast. Many of the events are close to campus, including Winter Brewfest, Winter Winefest, Halloween Express, Vermont Kids Day, and Stowe Brewers Festival. Their

56 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

daughter, Hannah Apfelbaum ’16, is attending University of Pittsburgh Medical School on a full scholarship. Maria Heck Swanson has retired from work and now has an empty nest. She is filling her days with travel, especially to visit her children scattered around the country. Maria serves on the state soccer referee committee and volunteers at her local library. Diane Proffitt shares, “UVM and professors profoundly opened my heart. Attending Dr. Joe Dispenza workshops. Sending Love and Light.” Send your news to— Lawrence Gorkun vtlfg@msn.com

Gunnar Hubbard has been appointed to the American Institute of Architect’s 2018 Committee on the Environment Advisory Group. Gunnar is a leader in green building and has more than twenty-five years of experience as an architect, consultant, educator and advocate for sustainable building projects worldwide. Erica Antonelli is excited to run around Colorado with Dot Colagiovanni, touring colleges (skiing) with our sons! More memory making for the class of ’87. Gay Godfrey shares that she is in South Burlington, working for MVP Health Care as a stop loss case manager, as well as working as an RN at UVMMC on the mother-baby unit. She is proud to share that her daughter, Nora B. King ’16, loves being the director of marketing and fan engagement in athletics at our wonderful alma mater. Gay loves watching the teams, especially the men’s basketball. She writes, “What a fantastic group of young men. Great accomplishments on and off the court. Go Cats Go!” Carol Bailey was hiking in the canyon with her daughter, Rebecca Potter ’17, and met Paul Schnaittacher, Class of “1973 and ½.” All shared an instant bond as UVM alumni. Send your news to— Sarah Reynolds Sarahreynolds10708@gmail.com

Julie Michaels Gelman and Lee Gelman ’86 celebrated their 20th anniversary last summer. Julie works as an OB hospitalist and Lee is an attorney, mediator, and arbitrator in Denver. They have two children—Josh will be pursuing a BFA in acting and Sydney is a high school sophomore at a performing arts school, studying stage craft and design. Deb Lewis Taylor is working as a PT and running analysis specialist in Elkridge, Maryland. She continues to compete in Ironman triathlons (six thus far), marathons (with five Bostons to date), and other endurance events. She’s excited for the Worlds 70.3 Triathlon in South Africa in September. She adds, “My son is a freshman at UMBC (yes...THAT UMBC).” Charles Spofford and Sherin Spofford ’90 are almost empty nesters in Concord, Massachusetts. Their daughter Knowles Spofford ’18 just graduated from UVM with a degree in civil engineering and math. Daughter Heather is a sophomore at St. Lawrence and is a coxswain on the women's eight. Daughter Maisie

is a sophomore at Concord Carlisle High School and a member of the swim team. Charles has been leading customer marketing for a Human Capital Management SaaS firm called PeopleFluent since 2015. Sherin is a consultant for Beautycounter, a B-Corp that is transforming the beauty industry. They invite friends visitng Boston to get in touch: cspofford538@gmail.com. Send your news to— Cathy Selinka Levison crlevison@comcast.net

Dr. Lisa B Bernstein-Perl and Arthur Perl were recently guests of honor at the HAFTR Dinner in Lawrence, New York, where their children Eliana, Serena, and Benjamin, attend school. Lisa is chair of the school’s Board of Education. Nate Prentice is still living in the Philadelphia suburbs, enjoying his family, and watching his own kids head off to college. He was recently promoted to clinical director of a psychotherapy private practice where he ministers through clinical social work and pastoral counseling. He continues to enjoy playing many musical instruments for church—mandolin to djembe to kazoo. He also volunteers for Give an Hour and disaster management organizations. Donald Fox was excited to visit UVM in March with his oldest daughter, Claudia, who is considering attending. He’s keeping his fingers crossed! Pamela Eldridge Lucci and her husband, Robert, were excited to attend Commencement 2018, where son Aaron Lucci ’18 graduated with his degree in environmental science, minor in jazz performance. Aaron was also an integral member of Catamount cross-country and track. Ray Quesnel and his wife, Wendy Tayler Quesnel, are both class of 1989, and were married in Ira Allen Chapel in August of that year. They moved to North Carolina and have lived there since. Wendy is a high school math teacher and Ray is the Head of School at Fayetteville Academy, a PreK-12th, independent day school. Ray is also president of the Kiwanis Club of Fayetteville. One of the fun traditions at the ninety-eight year old club, Ray shares, is that the club’s annual roster book features the colors of the current president’s alma mater. Ray writes, “I am not sure, but I doubt that the book has ever looked as good as it does in the UVM green and gold.” Send your news to— Maureen Kelly Gonsalves moe.dave@verizon.net

Sean Martin has recently headed up FMC GlobalSat Acquisition Corporation, successfully closing two financings and a merger. Sean shares that Kymeta Corporation, out of Seattle, is a game changer in satellite communications for maritime, oil, gas, solar, and wind. He encourages all to look for an IPO soon. Richard Doran was named marketing and communications manager at the American Public Gardens Association last November. Ruth Henry says, “Celebrating 50 is pretty fabulous when surrounded by great UVM friends.” Joining her for the big day were Erin Murphy Kehoe, Sheila Smith Diestel, Meg Schwartz Smith, and

Jane Works Tarsy. Her summer plans include celebrations in Maine, with Carolyn O'Connor Rainville, Lisa Palvino Curran, and Marjie McKone. Ruth report that Dave Bartlett is back in Vermont, and celebrated the big 5-0 in Hong Kong. Ruth shares “Happy 50th Class of '90—it's the new 30!” Richard First skied at Stowe with Scott Mathieu and ran into JD (class of '88?). Look for photos on the Alumni Association Flickr page. Maury Smith and Alexandra (Boo) Smith are thrilled that their son, Moss Smith ’22, will be a freshman at UVM this fall. They are also celebrating turning 50 with classmates Signe Jensen Daly, Betsy O'Neil Cabrerra, Margo Duschenes Austin, and Carolyn Chafee Howard. Maury has worked for Cushman & Wakefield in Hartford for almost twenty years. He hopes his younger son Tim, 14, will join his brother at UVM in a few years. Hilary Grace Leonhard wishes her classmates who turn 50 this year a very happy birthday. Hilary lives in York Harbor, Maine with her husband Todd, daughter Lilly, and horse Willy. Hilary works in fundraising and development for a hospital on the seacoast. Send your news to— Tessa Donohoe Fontaine tessafontaine@gmail.com

Johanna Polsenberg has, very happily, returned permanently to Vermont with her family—which includes two sons, eight and ten years old—to a farm in the Northeast Kingdom. She writes, “My sons acted as though we'd been neglecting them up until now for having ever lived anywhere else!” Tim Diette is moving from being associate dean of the Williams School of Commerce to the role of senior advisor to the president for strategic analysis at Washington and Lee University. Tim welcomes visitors to historic Lexington in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. David Kelly congratulates his son Jonathan (JD) Kelly ’18 on graduation from the Grossman School of Business. Send news to— Karen Heller Lightman khlightman@gmail.com

92 93

Send your news to— Lisa Kanter jslbk@mac.com

25th Reunion October 5-7, 2018

For the most up-to-date plans: alumni.uvm.edu/ 25yearreunion. Damon Walsh and wife, Carolyn Schoeppner Walsh, welcomed their first child, a son, Connor Charles Walsh, on Dec 20, 2017. The family lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, where Damon works as a wealth management lending officer for Bank of America, along with his brother, Derek. Sean Gaffney led his corporate team at Thomson Reuters to another top five finish in the Cycle for Survival charity league tables, raising more than $35,000 for Memorial Sloan Kettering. Tracy Persson McCarthy closed her publishing company in November, where she had been for for the past

twenty-three years. In December, she joined Sylvester Manor Educational Farm in Shelter Island, New York as director of operations. Sylvester Manor is a 1,652 homestead that has embarked on a new era as a non-profit organic farm, historic plantation, and vibrant arts and education center, with programs open to all. Tracy writes, “I was surprised to learn that there are other UVM alumni on the team here at Sylvester Manor (Cynthia Flynt ’81, Stephen Searl ’09 and Katie Herbst ’15). If anyone is ever on the East End of Long Island, stop by.” Send your news to— Gretchen Haffermehl Brainard gretchenbrainard@gmail.com

Clare Conway started a new job as corporate event manager at the Gemological Institute of America in Carlsbad, California. GIA is the country's largest diamond grader and sets the gem/jewelry industry standards that protect consumer interests. She had a recent visit from Michelle Angelich, who lives in the San Francisco. Send your news to— Cynthia Bohlin Abbott cyndiabbott@hotmail.com

Jason Eckhoff recently enrolled in John Wesley's online Christian ministry degree program, following his faith after a twenty-year career in hospitality and real estate development. Send your news to— Valeri Susan Pappas vpappas@davisandceriani.com

Grey Lee will finish a Master's of Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School in May. Current colleauges in the program include Kesha Ram ’08, another former SGA president. He crossed pistes in Banff with Adam Hyde ’97 and Neil Dalal ’97. Merrill Lynch financial advisor Danielle Gilbert-Richard was named on Forbes’ Best-in-State Wealth Advisors Inaugural List for Burlington. She has been a part of Merrill Lynch’s local office for eighteen years. Send your news to— Jill Cohen Gent jcgent@roadrunner.com Michelle Richards Peters mpeters@eagleeyes.biz

Congratulations to Mike M. Lizotte Jr., recipient of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ 2018 Outstanding Alumni Award. Dean Tom Vogelmann ’74 and many others honored him on May 12 at the college’s 25th Annual Alumni and Friends Dinner. Other alumni award recipients include: Outstanding Alumni Award, James R. Carpenter ’67; New Achiever Alumni Award, Lindsey E. King ’04; Robert O. Sinclair Cup Award; Kathleen ‘Kate’ H. Baldwin ’78. Brian Earley graduated from the New England School of Law in 2004 and began work with

the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2005. He and his wife, Sumavathey, will be moving back to Washington, DC, in July. They spent the past three years in Brussels, Belgium, where Brian has served as liaison officer to the U.S. Military Delegation at NATO. Brian will continue to work for the DIA in Washington. Send your news to— Elizabeth Carstensen Genung leegenung@me.com

Alice Orrell shares that Álvaro García Gorbeña, Alice (Slovic) Orrell, Lisa (Steckley) Martinez, Oak Williams, Jim Plumpton, and Greg Paraskos met in Brooklyn, New York on April 6 for a twenty-year mechanical engineering class reunion. The group came from Spain, Washington, Ohio, Massachusetts, and Vermont to reunite for a steak dinner at the Peter Luger restaurant. Send news to— Ben Stockman bestockman@gmail.com

Catherine Theis recently got married and has published her second book. Catherine’s book, MEDEA, is an adaptation of the Euripides story set in the mountains of Montana, circa 2001. In October 2017, she married Aaron Minas in Tucson, Arizona. Both are fellows in the USC English Department. Send news to— Sarah Pitlak Tiber spitlak@hotmail.com

Ed Berman and Heather Warchalowski, both CREAM as well as UVM alumni, were married at Red Rocks in Morrison, Colorado in 2014. The couple moved from Boulder to the south shore of Boston where they own and operate South River Veterinary Hospital. Ed is medical director, and Heather is the practice manager. Ed earned his DVM from Colorado State and Heather completed her master’s at Frostberg University. Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association alumni@uvm.edu/classnotes

01 02

Send your news to— Erin Wilson ewilson41@gmail.com

Burke Doria and Edwin Owusu ’05 have two children, Joseph and Justice. Andrew McDonnell and his wife, Jackie, welcomed their third child, daughter June, born August 23, 2017. Andrew adds, “It was great to connect with UVM Alumni at the January Career Night in Boston, and I look forward to the next one.” After navigating her own way through a debilitating mystery illness, Lyme Disease, Sharon Leggio Falchuk has become a functional medicine certified health coach and has started her own business, InTended Holistic Wellness. Her speciality is chronic and/or “mystery illnesses,” including Lyme, Fibromyalgia, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. SUMMER 2018 |

C ATAMOUNT NATION

58 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

Maureen Beck ’09 NOW: Banff Mountain Film Festival audiences around the world have consistently voted Stumped, a film about World Champion para-climber Maureen (Whalley) Beck, as a fan favorite. The film’s narrative is built around Beck’s quest to conquer a 5.12 climb and, more broadly, explores perceptions around para-athletes. Beck, who was born without a left hand, is equal parts gritty and irreverent, a self-effacing heroine. Living near Boulder, Colorado, with her husband, Brian Beck ’09, her day job is linked to her passion for climbing. She works in sales for Eldorado Climbing Walls. UVM: A forestry major in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, Beck was also deeply involved in UVM’s Outing Club. IN HER WORDS: “I like that the rock doesn’t care that you have one hand or that you’re short or you’re tall or you’re male or you’re female. It’s a rock, it doesn’t care. It’s not going to change for you. It’s not going to feel bad for you. It’s just there for you to climb.” Read more: go.uvm.edu/beck

TAYLOR KEATING SUMMER 2018 |

| CLASS NOTES Send your news to— Jennifer Khouri Godin jenniferkhouri@yahoo.com

Diana Carlino was named partner at the law firm of Rosenblum Newfield, LLC. Diana represents health care providers in New York and Connecticut, and would like to expand her practice into representation of alternative and complementary care providers. She lives in Redding, Connecticut with her husband, Andrew Coffey, who works in finance for Pernod Ricard USA. Bonnie Cardillo Smith and Garnet Smith reconnected after thirteen years and were married in June 2016. On December 5, 2018, their daughter, Lolita Anne Smith, was born at the UVM Medical Center. Garnet is a teacher and runs the boys’ lacrosse program for South Burlington High School, and Bonnie is a manager at Ecco Clothes. Sandy Bermanzohn is a financial analyst in the UVM College of Arts & Sciences Dean’s Office. She is mother to a five-year-old and an almost three-year-old. Send your news to— Korinne Moore Berenson korinne.d.moore@gmail.com

In August, Roy Tuscany will be starting the position of Spinal Cord Injury Program manager for Renown Hospital in Reno, Nevada. He will also serve as chair of

the Foundation for High Fives Non-Profit. Nicole Fortune was awarded the Outstanding Dental Hygienist in Vermont for 2017. She was the first clinician to perform periodontal endoscopy in Vermont. Thomas Corr will be restoring the steps on the west facade of Ira Allen Chapel this summer. His company, Hawk & Trowel Restoration and Masonry, has worked with UVM on many historical restoration projects. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, UVM Alpha, Thomas will soon complete a master’s in civil engineering, with a structural engineering focus, at Norwich University. Craig Waugh has been elected to shareholder of the national law firm, Polsinelli. Craig is a commercial and securities litigator who assists clients in state and federal court actions, arbitrations, and enforcement actions. He practices in the firm’s Phoenix office. Send your news to— Kelly Kisiday kelly.kisiday@gmail.com

Alex Rigney and Alyssa Vine ’04 were married in Killington, Vermont, in July 2016. The ceremony included Miranda Applebaum Hoffner ’04, who introduced the couple. Alyssa is associate communications director for The City University of New York's Office of Academic Affairs, and Alex is a college and guidance counselor at a high school in NYC. They welcomed baby Colvin, (name inspired by their hikes in the Adirondacks),

POWERING THE UVM NET WORK

10th Reunion October 5-7, 2018

UVM Connect is your community and is exclusive to the UVM family—grads, students and parents.

Find and reminisce with fellow Catamounts, see what they have been up to, stay in touch.

2. Offer Support

Connect, mentor and advise students and young professionals. Share job opportunities.

LinkedIn (preferred),

3. Network

or Email

Leverage personal and professional connections to network with UVM's worldwide community.

4. Advance Your Career Explore career opportunities and job postings open to members of UVMConnect.

uvmconnect.org

Jessica Kowalewski Dietrich and her husband, Ryan Dietrich, welcomed a baby boy, Patrick Ryan Dietrich, on October 17, 2017. Future Catamount! Amanda Sawicki Broder and her family recently moved back to the Burlington area after joining the College of Medicine as the teaching academy coordinator. Ashley (Orenberg) Waterberg and Rhian (Waters) Waterberg celebrated the birth of their first child, Cameron, in January. Ashley works as a school social worker outside of Boston, and Rhian serves as the coordinator of transfer affairs and articulation at a Massachusetts Community College. Send your news to— Katherine Murphy kateandbri@gmail.com Gabrielle Liza Young has opened an optometry clinic, Green Mountain Vision, in South Burlington with her husband, Dr. Douglas Franz. Send your news to— Elizabeth Bitterman bittermane@jgua.com

UVMconnect 1. Reconnect

this past October and live in Brooklyn. Kent Martin and Kate Watson ’07 have opened Plume Coffee Bar in Silver Plume, Colorado. Jonathan West worked for FidoTrack, LLC of South Burlington, which was purchased by Noble Systems Corporation of Atlanta. He was one of the founding developers of their software, which is now part of a platform used by some of the top corporations in America. Jonathan now serves as Chief Technology Officer of Noble Systems Gaming Solutions. Send your news to— Kristin Dobbs Schulman Kristin.schulman@gmail.com

Facebook Profile

RECONNECT. GIVE BACK. NETWORK. ADVANCE YOUR CAREER. Questions, feedback: alumni@uvm.edu

For the most up-to-date plans: alumni.uvm.edu/ 10yearreunion. Julia Drost is looking forward to celebrating her ten-year anniversary with Anne Coleman and Caroline Donahue. Friends for twelve years, they’ve kept in close touch despite different cities. Charlotte Born Tallon and Sean Tallon welcomed a baby boy, Henry Hylen Tallon, to their Catamount family. Joy Giamalva Nastasi and Dan Nastasi married August 5, 2017 in New York City. Chelsea Wessberg and her wife welcomed a son, Jasper Thomas Wessberg, on January 5, 2018. Emma Grady is excited to be planning the 10th reunion with the committee. She hopes to see everyone up in Burlington on October 6. Stay up-to-date by following our Facebook page: UVM Class of 2008 10th Reunion. Send your news to— Elizabeth Bearese ebearese@gmail.com Emma Grady gradyemma@gmail.com

Nick Light is currently working on a PhD in marketing (consumer behavior) at the University of Colorado. He and his wife, Sylvie, whom he met while studying abroad in Greece, are expecting their first baby in August. Aubrey Edson Carpenter received her PhD in clinical psychology from Boston University in 2017. She welcomed Bowen Carpenter, born Christmas 2017, with husband Conor Carpenter MD ’14. They are excited to move back to the Burlington area this fall. Nick Harberg and his wife Abby welcomed their son, Tucker, on February 24th. Both Nick and Abby work for Balfour, the company that supplies graduation products to UVM (and other schools). The happy couple has a home office in Bridport, Vermont. Send your news to— David Volain david.volain@gmail.com

C ATAMOUNT NATION Chas Smith G’15

Lisa Rosenberg graduated May 2018 with a master’s in business administration from Fordham University's Gabelli School of Business. Lisa also holds a master’s in food science from North Carolina State University. Melissa Chiozzi and Larry Fleming ’09 were married on May 19, 2018 at Migis Lodge on Sebago Lake in Maine. Emily Clifford shares that last year was full of celebrations for the ladies of the Buell Street Gang. Hannah Lemieux married Edward Hall in April 2017. She is working for the Boston Public Schools and lives in East Boston. Caitlin Bricker married Zachary Shapiro in Petaluma, California in September 2017. She works in advertising and currently resides in San Francisco. Karia Young Eagle ’11 married Dan Riley ’11 at Mad River Barn in Waitsfield. They're both working and living full lives in San Francisco. Leigh Galligan is engaged to Jason Robinson and is planning a June 2018 wedding in Topsfield, Massachusetts. She is an RN at Tufts Medical Center and lives in Watertown. Victoria Pulie is engaged to Adam Carron and is planning an August 2018 wedding in Chittenden, Vermont. She is an RN and living in Stamford, Connecticut. Olivia writes, “Present for all occasions were dear friends Anna Bresnick Kosiba, who married Jesse Kosiba in November 2016, Emily Clifford, Jennifer Lucchesi, and Taylor Trudeau ’11. Although bicoastal, we try to see one another as much as possible to relive our Burlington days. Go Cats Go!” Send your news to— Daron Raleigh raleighdaron@gmail.com

dent trustee at UVM, Adam has spent much of the last decade serving the UVM and Burlington community. Katherine Galterio is now a partner/broker at Breckenridge Associates Real Estate in Breckenridge, Colorado. She writes, “The next time you're skiing or biking in the Rockies, stop by to say hello.” Send your news to— Troy McNamara Troy.mcnamara4@gmail.com

Sarah Wilson Miles was selected as a Grand Prize Session II winner of the John Lennon, songwriting contest, for her original country song, “Stay.” You can hear her most recent song, “Heartbeat” on Sirius XM’s, The Pulse. Samantha Van Hoven Lednicky joined the Burlington firm Murdoch Hughes & Twarog in January. Her focuses are family law, criminal law, and landlord tenant matters. Adam Roof was re-elected to the Burlington City Council in early March to represent Ward 8, an area that is home to thousands of UVM students and recent graduates. A former stu-

NOW: An appearance on a January episode of “Shark Tank,” ABC’s hit venture capi-

tal/entrepreneur pitch program, has helped boost sales and visibility for Vermont maple beverage company SAP! The soft drink is the brainchild of Chas Smith (right), a graduate of the Sustainable Innovation MBA program in UVM’s Grossman School of Business, and his cousin Nikita Salmon. Though they turned down $600,000, for a 30 percent stake, from Robert Herjavec, SAP! tallied more than $100,000 in new online sales within ten days of the show’s broadcast. UVM: During his time in the MBA program, Smith and his cousin nudged along their ideas for creating and marketing a maple-based drink. Smith credits the program for honing his business skills and was also shaped by the guiding ethos to craft a virtuous business model. IN HIS WORDS: “If our product can ascend and be really successful, it could be a second outlet for maple sap in the State of Vermont, which could help stabilize maple prices and create prosperity throughout the rural Vermont economy. The social aspect of providing healthier products for people to consume is important to us. It’s really about how to create business models that create mutual value.” Read more: go.uvm.edu/sap

Abbie Jefferis and Erik Jefferis ’11 recently started a website to help families whose children have food allergies. Their site, ollergy.com, was inspired by their own experiences parenting their almost three-year-old, who has multiple, life-threatening food allergies. Send your news to— Patrick Dowd patrickdowd2012@gmail.com

5th Reunion October 5-7, 2018

For the most up-to-date plans: alumni.uvm.edu/ 5yearreunion. Emily Schwartz is a licensed veterinary technician at the Chattanooga Zoo in Tennessee. Abigail Roleau married in 2012. She has three children and started a farm business in 2016. After living in Chicago for almost three years, Dan Suder and Addie Chris ’12 moved back to Vermont in 2015. They are both happy to be working on campus. Dan writes, “I want to give a shout out to our upcoming 5th Reunion, our first milestone in the real world! We hope to see you all on Saturday, October 6th!” Send your news to— Katharine Hawes Katharine.hawes2@gmail.com

Jacob Lahne was named assistant professor of food science and technology in the Virginia Tech College of AgriculSUMMER 2018 |

C ATAMOUNT NATION

| CLASS NOTES ture and Life Sciences. Jacob received his doctorate in animal, nutrition, and food sciences from UVM. In February, Fiona Byrne joined a Women's Health and OBGYN focused medical mission to Beqaa Valley with the Syrian American Medical Society. Fiona writes, “I encourage anyone with medical training, or that can help by translating, to consider volunteering with SAMS. They are a non-profit medical relief organization working on the front lines of crisis relief in Syria.” CharlieDan Sheffy and Amy Sercel ’14, G’16 will be married in August in Vermont. The couple met at UVM in 2012 and are thankful for the role UVM has played in their lives. They are happily living and working in Burlington. This spring, Lauren Schlanger began occupational therapy graduate school in Los Angeles. She writes, “I’m thankful for my supportive UVM friends, especially Tess and Becca.” Send your news to— Grace Buckles Eaton glbuckles@gmail.com

Randi Diabo Jaramillo works for Global Foundries in Malta, New York, where she has been promoted to senior engineer. Post graduation, she reconnected with her high school sweetheart and they now have a daughter. Alex Farrell recently announced his candidacy for the Vermont State Senate, and will be seeking one of the six seats for Chittenden County. You can visit his website to learn more about his platform: AlexFarrell.org. Flora Su completed a master’s in civil and environmental engineering from MIT. During her time at MIT, she helped create an online training course to teach the MIT community how to properly recycle, compost, and dispose of electronics, and other specialty waste streams. The course is now one of the highest-ranked online training courses at MIT. Hannah Frering has been a research coordinator for the last three years and is finishing her master’s of public health. Ben Jensen is currently working in Eldorado National Forest as a forest restoration technician and trail monitor. Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association alumni@uvm.edu/classnotes

Aleksandra Traczyk and Owen Brady ’10 have been inseparable since the day they met in the dance studio of Patrick Gym. Aleksandra is working as a nuclear medicine specialist at the Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute at Mount Sinai. Owen is a program manager at National Grid, responsible for leading gas demand response efforts. He was admitted into the Global Executive MBA program run by Columbia University and the London Business School. On their second anniversary, Owen proposed and the couple is now happily engaged. They reside in New York City. Jacqueline Cardoza graduated April 2018 from the University of Michigan School of Public Health with a master’s of public health degree in occupational environmental epidemiology. She accepted a position with the CDC to work on disaster epidemiology issues. Natalie Tocco is currently finishing up her second year of

62 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

Casey Brinkman ’17 NOW: A 2017 internship with the Berkeley SETI Research Center, which studies

extraterrestrial intelligence, gave Casey Brinkman the opportunity to participate in research that led to her inclusion as a co-author on a paper published in the journal Nature. In explanation of energy bursts from space, the study points away from extraterrestrial spacecraft and toward more natural explanations, like a neutron star near a black hole, a highly magnetized pulsar-wind nebula, or perhaps the remnants of an exploded star. Next step, Brinkman begins a doctoral program in astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa this fall. UVM: A physics major, she focused on astronomy and astrobiology with Professor Joanna Rankin, studying an exotic type of star called a pulsar and taking two trips with Rankin to study them at the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico. IN HER WORDS: “Mathematically speaking, there's almost no way that we’re alone in this universe. That's what really drew me to SETI. There are hundreds of billions of stars in our one galaxy. Even if one percent of those have planets that are habitable and one percent of those have life, that’s still thousands of civilizations that could be out there.” Read more: go.uvm.edu/brinkman

veterinary school at the Atlantic Veterinary College of the University of Prince Edward Island in Canada. She will be spending the summer on Prince Edward Island as part of a research project. Jacob Dubois writes, “Send me the best part of your day, I'd love to hear it - tbpoyd@gmail.com.” Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association alumni@uvm.edu/classnotes

Bailey Kimball moved to Boston and began work in advertising. She was elected volunteer PR and marketing adviser for the Alpha Chi Omega chapter at the University of New Hampshire. James Rambone traveled to Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia for six weeks post graduation. He then moved to Denver to work at Altitude Land Consultants and enjoy the ski season. Megan Gesell is currently a restaurant supervisor at Juniper in the Hotel Vermont—“I’ve landed in a place I’ve never expected

to be, and I’m thrilled.” Lindsay Kelsey traveled to Indonesia, Thailand, and worked as yoga teacher in Vietnam in the fall of 2017. She is head of Action Air Parachutes, living and working at SkyDance SkyDiving in California. After graduating with a bachelor’s in environmental studies, Cara Stapleford has been serving in the ECO AmeriCorps, run by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation. She is serving at the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District as their community zero waste assistant. Andrew Duffy is an associate broker at Newmark Knight Frank. Jamie Dimond was accepted to the National University of Natural Medicine's master’s in nutrition program and will be starting in the fall. Ian McHale started a new job as a clinical research coordinator at the UVM Medical Center in the Office of Clinical Trials Research. Send your news to— UVM Alumni Association alumni@uvm.edu/classnotes

| IN MEMORIAM 1935 1939 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954

Katherine O'Brien O'Connor Joyce Bates Daniels Virginia Kimball Howard James David Sawyer MD'44 Charles A. Wilmot Thelma Schoeneman Bolen Palmina Frabotta Cawley Maurice Chartoff Gloria Farrell Foley Hilton W. Jones Milton R. Kaufman MD'48 Elaine Burns Little Jean M. Davison Dwight K. Eddy G'68 Evelyn Adams Monte Helen Murray DeVoid Bernard M. Kaye MD'47 Robert B. Michaud Pearl Weissbard Lewis Rachael Giddings Van Coevering John Bard Durfee Gwendolyn Stiles Ball Nevia Emilia Campi Cecil Harry Kimball MD'48 Michael G. Marra MD'48 Leo John Cain Hedi Stoehr Ballantyne Foster H. Chase Floyd Orville McPhetres Hamilton J. Ploof Ugo Joseph Sartorelli Willis Albert Spaulding G'63 Sidney J. Zabar Frank L. Farrell Gilbert James Gallup Edward Robert Guiliani Francis P. Reidy Ralph A. Bianchi Ann Pelletier Churchill Richard Kenneth Dunn Susan Glenn Ewing Robert H. Leavitt Margaret Ross MacPherson Phyllis Lyster Gale Frederick Albert Gardner Jean Millis Gilpin Marvin Howe Kinsman William Edward Allard, Jr. MD'57 Geraldine Johnson Chalmers G'72 Andrew J. Gerber Dr. Ray E. Gleason Warren N. Lazelle, Jr. Wallace-Mae Mellor Perkins Sarah Cobb Philbrook Charles Snow

1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1966 1967 1968 1969

Marion Sallah Bartlett Bertie R. Boyce G'58 H. Curtiss Burrell Madlyn McKee Cook Marilyn Griffen Lindmark Bruce A. Martin Alfred John Purcell, Jr. Eleanor Levin Trachtenberg Joseph J. Heald Betty May LaGrange G'57, G'75 Helen Harris Sands Ellen Pirie Wark Mario Anthony Ellero Carolyn Knapp Foster Stanley A. Scheiner Jason A. Wark Bernard R. Blais MD'58 Sally Sparks Boyd Mary Agnew Midlige David F. Wentworth Donald Clyde Hunt Ann Irene Nevin G'59, MD '70 Marsha Eisen Schorr Richard M. Baraw John Patrick Bulger G'62 Neil H. Crandall Hannah Hinman Gibson John P. McGreevy Robert Jay Roffman Douglas I. Scott Adeline Tallau-Brady Gilles M. Blais Nancy Kurlbaum Dorrity Martha Wahl Leeman David J. Merrill Gerard E. O'Brien Daniel Lester Simpson John W. Collins G'62 Charles E. Goudey G'67 Laurence C. Cashion Robert L. Howard Franklin R. Kellogg G'63 Jean Beckley Crane Alan O. Creaser John F. Barrett, Jr. Robert P. Clarke, II G'66 Holly Pember Franz Peter B. Hollis Leslie Grossmann Magrath Merrill Thoresen, Jr. Barbara Williams Dengler Suzanne Forest Ferland G'72 Sandra Bisbee Mix Sylvia Sessions Zimmerman Douglas I. Guy

1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1984 1985 1986 1988 1991 1993 1995 1998 2002 2004 2007 2010

Anne Dalton Knox G'69 Linda McMeekin Peter D. Hoden MD '70 Joanne Benis Iris Baron Lash G'72 L. David Minsk Dorothy M. Seale-Brown G'71, G'75 Claire Lamb Carpenter Nancy Griffith Cathcart Hon. Michael Peter Harty Ellen Joyce Secord G'72 J. Roderick Stackelberg G'72 Paul Kenneth Lewis, Jr. MD'77 Sandra Monette Rexford Robert D. Bannon G'74 James P. Burns G'74 Stephen James Cain Gary Martin Haslam Loretta P. Schwab Lynn Hammond Smith Dawn Robbins Al-Khatib Charles D. Tiedemann Prof. Robert Wendell Haberman Alverta Leighty Perkins Paul M. Spannbauer G'76 Eileen Giguere Donovan Michael Seward Harvey Joan Belisle Wertz Michael John Elliott Kathleen O'Neil Stanley C. Wright Edward W. Colleran Christopher Emmet Chandler Pamela Sue Savely Rita Baillargeon Tetreault Charles A. Thweatt Pamela Susan Watson-Hogan Charles T. Wilson G'81 Joann Sweetland Lum Katherine Hansen Guerin Timothy Lindsay Kasten G'84 Gary Alan Klinefelter Gwendolyn Caswell Cameron Sarah Jean McDonald Brian Weldon Eaddy G'91 Michael Brian Lavan Daniel Morton Weale Lise Bornstein-Malter Monwabisi David Lali MD'93 Lisa Ann Stevens Christina Cathleen Caturano Dorothy Butler Adams G'08 Eric A. Hutchinson G'04 Ari John Diaconis Jack Buchanan Tabor

| UVM COMMUNITY DR. ROBERT PARSONS passed away on February 16, 2018. Bob was known to many, not only in the university community but throughout the agricultural community in the states of Vermont and Pennsylvania, nationally, and internationally. As an agricultural economics professor in the Department of Community Development and Applied Economics in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, he worked

with untold numbers of students in many different capacities. As an Extension professor, Parsons conducted educational outreach into the agricultural communities. To support the work he was so passionate about, memorial gifts may be sent to the UVM Foundation, with â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bob Parsons Memorial Fundâ&#x20AC;? written on the memo line. UVM Foundation, 411 Main Street, Burlington VT 05401. SUMMER 2018 |

| EXTRA CREDIT

Mahalo right back at you, PB Pat Brown pauses to consider a question about

how he has changed across thirty-nine years at UVM. Outside the windows of his Davis Center office, the sidewalks begin to fill with students at class change. “My hair is shorter; I still haven’t shaved,” he concludes. Indeed, the thousands of students/now alumni Brown influenced across his decades leading UVM Student Life (four years as assistant director, thirty-five as director) would still recognize him by his scruffy beard, now more white than red. If not that, then his John Lennon wire-rims and the Hawaiian shirt of a Fort Lauderdale born-and-raised surfer whose heart never left the beach. Brown retired in June and is likely harvesting a sizable garlic crop in his Williston garden right about now. Throughout his career at Student Life, Brown fostered and led a track of learning complementary to the undergrad academic experience. What is Student Life? Outing Club, WRUV, The Vermont Cynic, Greek Life, Program Board, Alternative Spring Break, and the Student Government Association, to name just a few. These are places where students find fun and

64 |

V E R M O N T Q U A R T E R LY

friendship, yes, but many also discover a career path or a broadening of perspective that shapes the rest of their lives. “The work that we do in our office, we can put all kinds of names to it…” Brown says. Retirement on the horizon will make a guy mist up; he reaches for a Kleenex, then continues. “We’re all teachers. We’re educators. If we’re doing our jobs right, we do some programs for students, but we do a heck of a lot of work with students who are creating their own programs.” Finding the sweet spot between guidance and empowerment is what it’s all about. “I don’t know if any of that philosophy or approach has changed over thirty-nine years,” Brown says. “That’s part of the reason I’ve stayed. I think that UVM is a pretty cool environment for putting a lot of expectations on students, asking them to respond at a level that is sometimes really challenging, but hopefully they are going to learn from that.” As alumni and colleagues shared thoughts about Brown this spring, many mentioned his humor, wisdom, patience, and skill at gently opening minds, nudging a think and a re-think. Seth Moeller ’89 put it simply: “Pat was one of the first people to treat me as an adult.” —Thomas Weaver SALLY MCCAY

UVM 2018 ALUMNI WEEKEND OCT 5-7

FIND YOUR WAY HOME. Campus, downtown, the lake. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re all right where you left them. Come home to Burlington with your fellow alumni this fall and make new memories. Special celebrations planned for Green & Gold classes and the classes of 1968, 1978, 1993, 2008, 2013 and 2018. alumni.uvm.edu/alumniweekend

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR PRESENTING SPONSOR:

NON-PROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID BURLINGTON VT 05401

VERMONT QUARTERLY

PERMIT NO. 143

86 South Williams Street Burlington VT 05401

INDIVIDUAL GRADUATES PICTURED: MEGHAN NANAN AND NISHANI KESSLER ; EMILY DILLON; HAILEY KLINE; MITCH COHEN; AYLA STERN; RUBY DAVIS WITH HER DAD JERRY DAVIS; BASKETBALL PLAYERS DAVID URSO, TRAE BELL-HAYNES, NATE ROHRER, DREW URQUHART, PAYTON HENSON, CAM WARD. PHOTOGRAPHS BY: @UNIVERSITYOFVERMONT, @DOINGSTUFFTOGETHER, @MARYBETHW1104, @HAILSKLINE, @SCOOTEREOS, @AYLASTERN, @BACKCOUNTRYROOB, @UVMATHLETICS, @AROUNDPORTSMOUTH