CLASS NOTES
CLASS NOTES
winter 2014 | St. Lawrence University Magazine 45
44 winter 2014 | St. Lawrence University Magazine
I ran into
Meg Friske Montgomery
, whose
son, Bob, aka “Monty,” is also a senior. None of us
can believe how quickly it has gone. Also,
Chris
Koski
was there with nephew Hunter. He is on a
semester in Canada but was able to come back
for the festivities.
The only low moment was the terrible fire on
Sunday morning at the chapel. We had just at-
tended a concert there the night before, so it was
quite a shock waking up the next day to the awful
sight. There’s more about this in the earlier pages
of this magazine.
I have enjoyed writing this column for many
years but feel it is time to give someone else a
chance. If anyone is interested, please see the in-
structions at the top of this column.
1980
Fran Russo-Cress ’80
273 Converse Street
Longmeadow, MA 01106
413-565-2620
Next Reunion: 35
th,
2016 (cluster with ’81, ’82)
I was allowing myself to be distracted while pre-
paring these notes by jumping to audible email
notifications when I received a sad photo frommy
daughter Eliza ’13 of the bell tower of Gunnison
Memorial Chapel engulfed in flames. The bells
were unscathed and the chapel windows undam-
aged. There’s much more on this sad incident in
the feature section of this magazine.
Earlier last summer, I received a copy of
Chris-
tine Bastedo Brunner’s
family Christmas letter
from the preceding December, with a handwrit-
ten note from Chris. She and her family reside in
Olympia, Wash. Her daughter Sarah is a sopho-
more at Emory University and is pursuing an in-
terest in international studies with an emphasis
on East Asian languages and cultures. The family
celebrated her high school graduation and Chris
and Rich’s 25tth wedding anniversary by travel-
ling to Australia in the summer of 2012. Upon
their return they had a visit from Jane Ingle Platt
’81 with her husband David.
Chris’ newest avocation has been volunteering
at a wildlife rehabilitation center near home. She
had the good fortune to visit the San Diego Zoo
in February, to see the young panda cub that was
born on her birthday in 2012.
Chris Abbott
sent a very thoughtful note in
late July when he forwarded a press release from
Lighthouse Technology Partners,
Brian Desrosi-
er’s
Greenwich, Conn., firm. Lighthouse earned
the distinction of ”Microsoft’s Top SMB East Re-
gion Partner of 2013” at the Microsoft Worldwide
Partner Conference in Houston. The company
“designed and provided innovative solutions for
the Sandy Relief Effort in New Jersey and Good-
will Industries across the country,” among other
projects, in the last year. If anyone is interested
in learning more about the firm’s intersection
with Microsoft, see
.
com. Brian was a campus last fall as a Laurentian
in Residence.
If you want to tear up, send a note to Brian and
ask him to send along a copy of the DVD “Re-
membering Robby” (
Rob Van Etten
). If you were
a soccer fan during our time at St. Lawrence, ask
whether he’ll share the Celebratory DVD which is
a current video, although more like a flashback to
1979, as the entire team is present, in their “best”
form and shockingly, the same“guys!”
Chris shared news of a spring visit to SLU with
his son, then a senior at Brooks School in North
Andover, Mass. Cornell and Colgate were also part
of that New York State sweep. Chris reports that
St Lawrence was the “standout” in many aspects,
among them the beauty of the campus and the
welcoming and attentive students and adminis-
trators. Chris commented that the old adage still
rings true,“If we can get candidates to Canton, the
rest is easy.”
Viggo Mortensen
received the fourth annual
Dennis Lee Hopper Award at this year’s inaugu-
ral AMFM Fest in California’s Cathedral City on
June 16. The award honors artists who work in
a number of fields and also advocate for social
change. Robert Galarza, co-director of Film 4
Change and AMFM Fest, explained, “Viggo has
his photography, painting, writing, poetry and
philosophical musings in addition to his acting
ability, and he has no great ego as an artist. He
allows the art to move through him like a vessel,
which is how Dennis saw the world.”Congratula-
tions, Viggo, on this recognition of the breadth
of your artistic work.
Roger Brandt
and I exchanged a flurry of emails
in early June regarding aging bodies and result-
ing injuries from things that would never have
taken us down a few years “back.”No pun intend-
ed, even though I broke my back in two places
while galloping on a beach in Kiawah in March.
While I was dealing with that, Roger was doc-
toring with a knee injury which resulted, he ex-
plained, “from a biking ‘tip over’ going two miles
an hour and sticking my leg out to brace the fall.”
He managed to recover sufficiently, pre-surgery,
to dance, without crutches, with his daughter Ky-
lie at her June 22 wedding. We hope he was back
to top form for the wedding of his second daugh-
ter, Allison, in November.
In September, at a memorial service in Green-
wich, Conn., for a friend’s father, I recognized
a fellow Laurentian: Chris Trompeter ’78, who I
probably hadn’t seen since his graduation. Chris
had been the investment advisor to my friend’s
parents for nearly 15 years. I had often heard talk
of this” great guy” who was so gently providing
guidance to aging parents with the management
of their portfolio. It was both strange and pleasant
to become reacquainted and to share our mutual
connection at that place and time.
Unfortunately, I must conclude with some very
sad news.
Sheila Toohey Blanchard Consi-
dine
passed away on August 17, 2013. She had
received her master’s degree from the Univer-
sity of Vermont and was a school psychologist for
the James-DeWitt Schools, near Syracuse. More
important, she was the loving mother to Julia
Blanchard Aloi and Emily Blanchard ’11. For those
who remember her, and I know there are many,
you no doubt recall what a breath of sunshine she
was to all of us during our years at St. Lawrence.
Her face lit up at seeing us; her eyes and ears al-
ways trained on what we had to share. No matter
the time or the place, when in Sheila’s company
we were awash in the warmth of her persona. Life
has inalterably changed and the sun seems to
shine a little less brightly without her ready smile.
For a memorial notice, please turn to“In Memory.”
From left,
Bob Cates ’82
, Tammy Gould ’14 and Tammy’s dad
Gerry Gould ’82
celebrate at the
finish line after crushing the Buffalo Tough Mudder last July. They overcame the 11.5 miles and 16
obstacles in three hours. For more, see the '82 Class Notes.
1981
Steve Lubrano ’81
30 Goodfellow Road
Hanover, NH 03755
603-275-5736
Next Reunion: 35
th
, 2016 (cluster with ’80 ’82)
I am still reeling from embarrassment at hav-
ing missed the last deadline. My written apology
does not assuage my guilt, and thus I pledge to
buy you all a round at our next reunion.
Charlene Manning
and husband Curtis Ellis
celebrated the kindergarten graduation of their
precious daughter, Sophia Grace, at the Albany
Academy for Girls. She's already a reader, speaks
Spanish and is beginning to learn Mandarin, too!
Joe Sullivan
writes that
Ray Celeste
drove
down from D.C. to Virginia Beach to visit and run
the local Rock in Roll Half-Marathon. Joe was re-
cently in Hungary working with their military. He
sent a photo of him sitting in the cockpit of an I
MI-24 Hind Attack helicopter and it looks like the
graphic package used to camouflage the aircraft
was the head of a camel. I guess that could work.
LorraineWestlye Olsen
reflected that she can't
believe how wicked old we are getting except
when she thinks of her times at SLU, when we’re
all forever 21! We were saddened to learn of the
passing of her father, John O. Westlye ’52, in May.
Lorraine writes,“One of the last things he did was
to name a thoroughbred race horse that I own.
Tai Pan's Quartet raced for the first time on June
12 at Evangeline Downs and took second place.
Pops would have been so proud.” Lorraine, keep
telling those stories; he stays alive every time a
tale is told.
Dr.
Pamela Starke-Reed
writes, “Our oldest,
Alexandra (also a Kappa), received her master’s
degree in special education / severe disabilities
and is certified to teach at all levels of disability.
Edward graduated from Hamilton College last
spring and wants to work for a few years before
returning to school for a degree in law.”He played
on the men’s lacrosse team with Anne Gray ’80
and Jeff Scuteri ’77’s son Jay and
Ellen McCurdy
Burchenal
’s son Henry. “Since they played SLU,”
she said, “we had a chance to see John Fowler
’80, whose son plays for SLU.” Their youngest is a
sophomore at Wesleyan University and also plays
lacrosse.
Pam is in her 26th year at the NIH, currently dep-
uty director of the Division of Nutrition Research
Coordination. Her husband is consulting in the
aviation business and is also teaching ESOL. They
are still living in Reston,Va.,“empty-nesters during
the school year but we still have three dogs and
two cats needing attention,”she said.
I still see Dr.
Doug Noordsy
all over town. He’s
an associate professor of psychiatry at the Geisel
School of Medicine at Dartmouth and still as ami-
able now as he was then. I know a lot of head doc-
tors and Nordy is the sanest of them all!
What a joy to see
Carolyn Streett Simpson
at
the Colby College freshman reception. Her son
Teddy was starting at this SLU-wannabe institu-
tion with my daughter, Georgia. It was really the
SLU weekend at Colby College, as I saw
Duncan
Balsbaugh
and his charming family send their
last off. We caught each other’s eyes across the
chapel. It’s funny how I can mix up my daughter’s
and dog’s names, and even though I had not ut-
tered the name“Balsbaugh”in 35 years it leapt off
my tongue faster than a long-tailed cat in a room
full of rocking chairs. Noordsy – any thoughts on
that memory fluke?
Jeff Viglielmo
writes that their son Kealey is in
the first-year class at St. Lawrence. “I was as ex-
cited as he was as we found his room inWhitman,”
Jeff said.
Scott Carpenter
joined People’s United Bank as
senior vice president, director of wealth manage-
ment and private banking in Vermont last spring.
Scott and Lisa also have a son at Colby, graduat-
ing this year ... well, maybe!
Scott and Lisa made an appearance in Wash-
ington, D.C., and managed to wrangle
Shawn
Smeallie
out of the halls of government for a
quick catch-up. Shawn had plenty of insights into
how to solve the woes of Congress, but could not
share them lest Carps signed all sorts of agree-
ments, contracts, nondisclosures. They shared
stories of times in Canton and abroad during ju-
nior year.
Amy Todd DeRieux
writes that she and
Beth
Stirling Suarez
get together about once a
month for lunch, to catch up on life.“Our children
are about the same ages and we always have lots
to talk about,” she said. They live one block from
Dave Smith
and his family in Arlington, Va. She’s
worked in the government contracting arena
“forever and currently for Honeywell. It has been
a good career area and fits well with parenting.
Recently I started working from home full-time.”
She visits the campus at least once a year when in
the area for family reunions.
Jennifer Torrey Catanzaro
and her family
made a trek to Alaska last year. She writes, “We
went for a land/cruise. Did the land part but the
cruise was cancelled. Took two days to get out of
Alaska after all sorts of snafus.”
Karen Heller
writes that some of her fondest
memories can be summarized as “Bean boots,
Bean blue sweaters with white dots, farewell to
Disco (except in Kenya), being a tried-and-true
designated driver before it was cool, making
friends at sunrise on the steps of Carnegie Hall
(y'all know who you are), Northern Lights, incred-
ible stars, cold crisp tannin-filled but clean rivers.”
Scott “Benzo” Bening
writes that he thinks
about SLU all the time and is increasingly expe-
riencing vivid flashbacks with images of excru-
ciating detail the older he gets. He writes, “
Bill
Baird
,
Bruce Sozzi
and
Charlie Izard
are more
prominent now than the reality we actually ex-
perienced. I am not sure how to make it all stop.”
He goes on, “My second son, Billy, graduated and
the younger Benzo boys are following in the foot-
steps of their older brothers at Butler University.
Mary and I are getting mentally prepared for the
big empty house, traveling a bit more together
and weekending as we wish to Florida. I started
teaching as professor at the University of Illinois
at Chicago (UIC) in their MBA program (for fun
and fulfillment). It's neat giving back a bit. Takes
more time than I thought. Hard to believe other
adults would listen to my advice. After selling the
company to Kuraray Japan last year, I thought
I would slow down, but it seems the business
growth keeps me ever so busy – just weird having
a boss in Japan but also nice knowing‘sayonara’is
whenever I want.”
Benzo and I agreed to a small wager on the out-
come of the Bruins vs. Blackhawks showdown for
the Stanley Cup last spring. I have paid the debt
in full (darn!)
A group of St. Lawrence alumni from the classes of '82 and '83 gathered at the lakeside home of
Dan and Mary Pat Fatti Suits in Skaneateles, N.Y., last July. Four of the five couples have children who
are current or just-graduated students at St. Lawrence. Clockwise from left are
Dick Taggart ’83,
Lissa Scull Short ’83, Rob Frese ’83, Karen Follett Taggart ’83, Dan Suits ’83, Mary Pat Fatti
Suits ’83, Scott Craighead ’82, Gail LaMontagne Frese ’82, Dave Short ’83
and
Lisa Pridgeon
Craighead ’83.
