CLASS NOTES
CLASS NOTES
winter 2014 | St. Lawrence University Magazine 51
50 winter 2014 | St. Lawrence University Magazine
Samantha Semerad Guerry
, a member of
the St. Lawrence Board of Trustees, shared these
thoughts; “It's a real honor to serve with such a
great group of people. On the 25th anniversary
of our class’s graduation last May, I was onstage
looking out at all those young faces and marvel-
ing at how fast time flies. It was a profound expe-
rience. If you haven't been back to campus, you
should check it out! It's beautiful."
1989
Debbie Burdette Ritter ’89
525 Moorefield Road
Springfield, OH 45502
937-399-2516
Next Reunion: 25
th
, May 29-June 1, 2014
Last August,
Letitia Howland, JennyWaasdorp
Rouin
and Sandra Hauke Dickin ’88 met up with
me in central New York while my kids and I were
there visitingmy parents.We had awonderful time
catching up on each other’s lives. The conversation
often turned to the college search process, as three
of us have high schoolers who are either in their se-
nior year or quickly approaching it. I’m hoping one
of themwill choose St. Lawrence so that the rest of
us have the perfect excuse to visit campus.
The amazing power of technology allowed us
to connect via FaceTime with
Cindi Hull Brassil
,
Lisa Maura-Bracken ’88, Jeannine Kelsey Tocco
’88 and Ginny Minnich Peppler ’88 and their
families (and pets too!). Some of us had not seen
each other in years, so we really enjoyed the op-
portunity to reconnect and see the familiar faces
of old friends.
In June, Letitia went to Japan for a few days to
visit her host family. “Very hard to believe that it's
been over 25 years since I was a student there!”
she exclaimed. “I've been fortunate to visit with
them periodically over the years, and this year's
visit took us to Tokyo for a few days in addition
to spending time in Nagoya. They still live in the
same house they did in 1987, although the neigh-
borhood around it has changed tremendously,
and I didn't even recognize the train station from
which I commuted daily! Our conversations are
always interesting...they don't speak English, and
my Japanese is very, very rusty, but we always
manage to get by and get our points across!”
Jeannine Tocco and her family visited Letitia for
some July 4th festivities. “We had a perfect night
for fireworks over the ocean in front of my house
(in Lynn, Mass.), and this year's display did not dis-
appoint!” Letitia said. They explored Salem and
Marblehead “and had plenty of time to do some
catching up. I can't quite wrap my head around
the thought that her oldest, Evelyn, will be head-
ing off to college next fall. How is that possible??”
Belated Happy New Year to all. May 2014
bring many of us together on campus for our
25th reunion!
1990
Lynne Gilbert Agoston ’90
11805 Farmland Drive
Rockville, MD 20852
301-881-8331
Next Reunion: 25
th
, 2015
I received a note from
Kelly Kernaghan
, re-
porting that in September, a group of alums got
together for their 18th annual SLU golf week-
end. Coming from various areas of the country
were
Greg Smith, Fritz O’Connor, FK Grunert,
Jim Clifford, Butch Rose, Peter Cleary, Bob
Colucci,
Mike O’Neil ’89, Dave Divita ’89 and
Kelly, who all met in Lake George, N.Y. Kelly says
“everyone is doing great—perhaps a little older
and hopefully a little wiser, but when you com-
bine the Adirondacks, a little golf, some cards,
late nights, and a game of caps, it was like being
back on Park Street or at 17 Pine all over again.
Time and distance don’t seem to matter—you’re
never far from Canton.”
In August,
Todd Haskell
left
The New York Times
after nine
years to join the Hearst Corpo-
ration, the largest magazine
publisher in the world. Todd
came onboard as senior vice
president/chief revenue of-
ficer for Hearst Digital Media,
responsible for sales and mar-
keting leadership for Hearst's
20 magazine websites, plus four pure-play digi-
tal brands. Todd says, “It's a great opportunity to
help Hearst establish a digital leadership position
around its already strong brands reaching men
(
Esquire, Car & Driver, Road & Track, Popular Me-
chanics
), beauty and fashion (
Cosmopolitan, Marie
Claire, Redbook, Seventeen
), luxury (
Elle, Harper's
Bazaar, Town & Country
), women's lifestyle (
Good
Housekeeping, Women's Day, Country Living
) and
design (
House Beautiful, Elle Décor, Veranda
).” He
has an MBA from Fordham.
Some of my fellow D.C. area alums and I got
together for an annual overnight in Annapo-
lis.
Karyn Edwards Niles, Jennifer Curley
Reichert
, Sarah LindsayWatkins ’91 and I enjoyed
a gorgeous day at the Maryland Seafood Festival
along the Chesapeake Bay, followed by dinner in
the downtown area.
And let us not forget
Will Avantaggio
, who sent
me a somewhat cryptic message for the last issue,
simply stating that he had fallen in love. Well, he
did not want to leave us hanging and reported
back: he is still in love…andwas due to bemarried
in December! Congratulations, Will!
University Inaugurates Online Lecture Series for Alumni
You don’t have to return to campus to sit in on a faculty lecture any more. You don’t even need
to be in the same room. All you need is your computer.
Last year, St. Lawrence inaugurated its online Laurentian Lecture Series “to provide alumni,
parents and friends the opportunity to experience today’s St. Lawrence first-hand,”says Execu-
tive Director of Annual Giving & Laurentian Engagement Kim Robinson Hissong ’94.
The lectures are conducted by faculty on a topic of their choosing. Leading off, last spring, was
Dana Professor of Psychology Alan Searleman, who discussed his research on left-handedness,
with 110 listeners.
“I considered this an honor,”Searleman said.“I really like to play off the reactions my audience
is giving me, so the Q&A at the end was nice. I was able to connect with many alumni, some re-
cent and some from decades ago. Afterward I received emails from people who had questions,
or heard my talk and just wanted to say ‘hi’ and to reconnect. That was probably the best part
of the whole thing for me.”
Professor of History Elizabeth Regosin, who spoke on“Abraham Lincoln and
Emancipation” to 95 participants last September, expressed a similar reac-
tion. “I loved the idea of connecting to the broader St. Lawrence community
through technology,”she said.“It was fun to be able to break down the walls
of the classroom and interact with so many different people, including for-
mer students. I have had email exchanges with some terrific folks since, in-
cluding the parents of my current students who tuned in, and I have really
enjoyed the opportunity to keep the conversation going.”
“Student” reaction has been positive. Typical are comments from Gary Wolgang ’71, of Man-
hattan Beach, Calif., who called Regosin’s webinar“Well organized (including study materials in
advance) and well presented. This was my first time back in the ‘classroom’ (albeit a 21st -cen-
tury virtual one) since 1976, when I took a couple of night classes,”Wolgang said. “I always tell
people that themost important benefit of going to St. Lawrence, and of a liberal arts education,
is that it really taught me to think, and that that came from being able to interact with both
faculty and classmates more readily than at a larger school.”
Other Laurentian Lecturers scheduled for last fall, after this magazine’s deadline, were Profes-
sor of English Peter Bailey, on Woody Allen’s films, and Matt Carotenuto, of history and African
studies, on the politics of ethnicity in Kenya. More lectures are planned; for information, please
visit alumni.stlawu.edu/laurentianlectures.
—NSB
1991
Ken Polk ’91
34 Rana Court
Williamsville NY 14221
716-830-6438 (cell)
716-626-6120 (work)
Fax: 716-626-6099
Next Reunion: 25
th
, 2016
When I signed up to write these Class Notes
upon graduation 22 years ago, I thought it would
be a fun way to keep in touch with classmates
and share news about jobs, weddings, and our
whereabouts. Who knew that FaceBook, Twitter
and LinkedIn would exist, help us all stay in touch
so easily and make my job of actually finding and
reporting on news when we all have so much in-
formation at our fingertips so difficult?
To help with the cause, the University sends in-
formation from time to time: news clippings, press
releases and other information that helps class re-
porters deliver news that might be of interest.
Well, in September, in preparing for this column, I
received an obituary from St. Lawrence that made
me stop in my tracks. It was from Canton and was
about a classmate. More than a classmate, this
was about a friend from my freshman year who,
although I hadn't seen her in 25 years, taught me
to love women’s hockey, to love Canadians (even
more than I already had) and to cherish life. I hope
that this column stays away from news like this
in the future:
Lisa Arcand Hoy
, 45, died August
24, 2013, at her home, surrounded by her family,
including her husband, Pete, St. Lawrence’s head
men’s baseball coach, and two young daughters.
Shewas born in Brockville, Ontario, and grewup in
Prescott, Ontario, just across the St. Lawrence from
Ogdensburg. She was a captain of the women's
hockey team, and later earned a master’s degree
in environmental toxicology fromTrent University.
She is remembered for her courageous six-year
battle with cancer. There’s a brief notice in “In
Memory.”
Luckily, I do have some good news to share.
Although
Joe
and
Laura Bicknell Carbone
couldn’t attend the wedding, they told me that
Peter Santos
got married in August 3, in Stowe,
Vt. Joe said that
Jack Oestreicher
and
Chip
Tucker
attended and that Pete and Adrienne live
in State College, Pa.
I hope that you will send me a message on Face-
Book or via email to share some news about you,
your family or your job. If you ever need news on
St. Lawrence, make sure to check out their revised
website with good information always available
about the new residence hall on campus, athlet-
ics, alumni events, and admissions (for those of us
with soon-to-be college-aged children)!
1992
Lisa Kiene ’92
427West 66th Terrace
Kansas City, MO 64113
816-885-5911
Facebook: SLU ’92
Next Reunion: 25
th
, 2017
Justin Scott
sent the magazine this picture of
himself (left) and Simon Watson '05, M'06, ex-
plaining that last summer he attended a hockey
camp run by the Missouri Mavericks, a minor
league team in Kansas City affiliated with the
ChicagoWolves, who feed into the St. Louis Blues.
Justin said., “I had the privilege to be coached for
the week by (Watson), former Saints and Maver-
icks hockey player and the assistant coach for the
Mavericks. The photo was taken before we hit the
ice for our end-of-camp scrimmage. We're in Si-
mon's office holding a puck from the St. Lawrence
men's 1,000th win.” President of Scott Communi-
cations LLC, Justin sees Class Reporter
Lisa Kiene
and Don Trigg '93. “It was great to represent St.
Lawrence hockey with Simon out here in the
heartland,”he said.
1993
Chris Gardner ’93
4 Mt. Pleasant Terrace
Newtown, CT 06470
203-364-0822 (home)
203-264-5554 (work)
Fax: 203-264-7098
Next Reunion: 25
th
, 2018
1994
Kieran M. Killeen '94
11 Beacon Street
South Burlington, VT 05403
802-951-1946 (home)
802-656-3250 (work)
Next Reunion: 20
th
, 2015 (cluster with ’95, ’96)
Enjoy this update and please continue to be in
touch.
Several classmates wrote in noting their impres-
sive roles as advocates in education, the environ-
ment, social policy and animal rescue.
Married in 2012,
Laura Brink
lives with hus-
band Jim in Arlington, Mass. She continues
to work in fundraising for Simmons College
as an associate vice president of advance-
ment. In September of 2012, while at a col-
lege fundraising conference, she bumped into
Gretchen von Schlegell Dwyer,
director of
leadership giving at Amherst College. Laura wrote
that she sees
Michelle Tobin Hoagland
regular-
ly; Michelle lives in Westford, Mass., with her hus-
band and two boys. She also sees a lot of Amanda
Pearson ’92, who lives in Lexington, Mass.
Whitney Kirk
wrote an enviable update while
vacationing on Hvar Island, Croatia (had to
Google-map that one). Whitney has worked ex-
tensively in the wind energy industry, helping to
build huge turbine farms in the North Country
of New York and parts of Canada. While on travel
she was able to catch up with
Laura Goddard
,
Duff Amour
,
Connie Scharff
(in Texas) and Brian
Gardel ’93 (in Colorado). On sabbatical now, Whit-
ney is enjoying hiking in the Himalayas (October
2012), teaching yoga, and leading retreats—all
activities she largely picked up at St. Lawrence 20
years ago.
These new“Chips” (children of Laurentians) and their parent/s answered the call for a portrait in
Sullivan Student Center during Orientation last August. From left are Nicole Jewett ’16 (
Steve ’87
and
Jacqueline Reifler Jewett ’87
), Will Mayer ’17 (
Elisabeth “Betsy” Warner Mayer ’86
), Page
Phillips ’17 (
Lynne Ledger ’87
and
Geoff Phillips ’88
), Monica Bedford ’17 (
Frederick “Fritz” ’85
and
Linda Purinton Bedford ’85
) and Keenan Weischedel ’17 (
Garry Weischedel ’79
). The Class
of ’17 numbers 64 Chips, including 11 who are also Twigs.
David Pynchon '13
