CLASS NOTES
WINTER 2013 | ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE 49
DebbieWrightTaube
writes,“Terry and I became
grandparents to Julia Dawn Taube on Oct. 2. She
was born to youngest son Rob’s wife, Anna. She
was a very special blessing for me to anticipate
as I was diagnosed with Stage 1 ovarian cancer
in March. I had major surgery, and a summer of
very aggressive chemo, lost all my hair, and it’s
coming back in probably a different color. My
PET scan was excellent, cancer was nailed, and I
am so thankful. I’m telling all women to have any
abdominal pain checked out by their gyn. Life is
very precious.”
Lorraine Westlye Olsen
reports that a horse
named Another Romance and trained by her
brother Ken Westlye ’85 at their Ocala, Fla., thor-
oughbred training facility, Nickajack Farms, re-
cently won the Azalea Stakes. That meant eligibil-
ity for this year’s Breeders Cup at Santa Anita.
Teri Podnorszki Gay
and John live in the coun-
try in Charlton, N.Y., and “enjoy working around
our ‘homestead’ - chopping wood, working out-
side, landscaping and gardening." She has three
sons – Benson, 23, married to Teisha; Viggo, 21;
and Marshall, 18, plus two step-daughters and
eight step-grandchildren. She has been a writ-
er and historian for many years, writing mostly
history-related books and articles. Her latest,
due out in May, is a memoir called
The Wife Who
Came With Workboots (And Other Stories of Life
and Love in Charlton Country).
Anne Elizabeth Langalis
has“One year down of
a three-year program on getting my Master Gar-
dener certification.” She traveled to Sharpsburg,
Md., to contribute handwritten family records to
the Antietam Battlefield Museum.
RickGreene
reports fromKabul, BagramAirbase,
and Helmand and Khandahar Provinces: “Spots in
Helmand Province arguably the most dangerous
places on the planet. We’re making a difference
daily and anyone with any time with actual boots
on thegroundwill convey that our effort is genuine
and effective. Son Blayre (Elon University ’10) is a
management apprentice with Bosch International
and Taylor (Clemson ’16) is a pre-med genetics
major and on the crew team. Deb and I celebrated
28
years of bliss in August and are creatively
dealing with‘almost empty-nest syndrome.’”
I had the toughest time editing
Mark Przyb-
ylak’s
entry. I am going to give you tidbits over
the next three years. I thus paraphrase,“I had the
honor of being inducted into the SLU Athletic Hall
of Fame along with the rest of my 1976 football
teammates; my babies are 20 and 16 and I’m not
done; have met some life-changing people as I
deliver McDonald’s burgers to the LA homeless;
amidst it all I’m a simple father with a lovely wife. I
run a baseball academy for kids in Southern Cali-
fornia. I gave up a high-end job with a Fortune
50
company years ago after my son asked why I
looked so sad when I got home from work each
day. I’m really doing what my heart and head say
to do. I was blessed to attend St. Lawrence and
it’s my turn to give back by providing encourage-
ment and good mentoring to those I teach.”
The University received word that the law firm
McCarter & English, LLP has announced that at-
torney
Heidi E. Opinsky
has joined the firm as a
partner. She will split her time between the firm’s
Stamford, Conn., and New York City offices. Her
specialty is family law matters, such as divorce,
alimony, child support, domestic violence and
property law issues. She earned her J.D. from
Hofstra University School of Law and is co-chair
of the Women in the Law Committee and the Al-
ternative Dispute Resolution Committee for the
Fairfield County Bar Association and a member of
the Committee on Children and the Law for the
NewYork State Bar Association.
Google the thought-provoking 2005 Kenyon
graduation speech by David Foster Wallace. It re-
minds me that taking the time to reflect on our
lives with focus is a useful experience.
1982
Karen Helle Nemiah ’82
58
Oldfield Road
Fairfield, CT 06824
203-256-1171
karen.nemiah@gmail.com
Next Reunion: 35
th
, 2016 (
cluster with ’80, ’81)
I know many of you have been there or are
there right now, so let’s just get this over with
now: “HOW is the freshman college student do-
ing?” The answers range from news to excite-
ment to drama. From complete social life pub-
lication via Facebook to texts requesting $500
deposits pronto, to impromptu lunch dates to
check in, everyone’s frosh seem to be coping
admirably. From our standpoint, all is quiet. The
son has been freighted, orientated, acclimated,
educated, tolerated, exasperated, ameliorated (all
on the way to being graduated!), but not much
has been communicated. The word from veteran
college parents is,“No news is good news.”We are
taking that to the bank.
Mark Wipper
and Jane have already been
through the freshman escapades; their daughter
Megan is a sophomore at Ohio University, where
she’s adroit at mingling fun and studies (some-
thing Mark indicates is not a skill she inherited
from him). Their son Matthew graduated from
high school in June and is playing Junior A hock-
ey for the Potomac Patriots in Northern Virginia.
He hopes to play college hockey, perhaps even
at St. Lawrence, where he will learn to text his
parents occasionally.
As if college/hockey life isn’t enough, Mark and
Jane became grandparents three years ago,
thanks to Jane’s eldest son, and recently wel-
comed a granddaughter as well. Meanwhile,
Mark gets his campus thrills at Case Western Re-
serve University in Cleveland, as the newest direc-
tor of development for the Kelvin Smith Library.
He reports reveling at being back on campus
after a 30-year career in the wealth management
industry. No stranger to CWRU, Mark received
an MBA in 1990 from the Weatherhead School of
Management, so he had a head start on the best
parking places and coffee haunts.
Ron Bacon
knows a thing or two about fresh-
man adaptation. With six kids, he and Barb“man-
aged”to get the oldest three through four years of
college, although one is still going to grad school
(
and yes, the eldest did go to SLU:Tricia Bacon Rai-
ti ‘05). The next two are in college and a 12-year-
old rules the roost at home. While he professes
empty pockets, Ron’s got two grandchildren to
entertain when he’s not hard at work as a vice
president in commercial banking with Commu-
nity Bank in Massena, N.Y. Barb works at St. Law-
rence in the Torrey Health Center (located in the
former Sig Pi house), so perhaps they’ll have one
more Laurentian grad yet!
To make up for my own lack of a St. Lawrence
student (at least at present; I’ve got one more
chance!), at a recent college fair I killed some
North Country reminiscing with a SUNY Pots-
dam admissions counselor and assistant basket-
ball coach, who turned out to be Josh Sharlow
’00.
We are EVERYWHERE!
A September weekend in Atlanta found these Laurentians convening to celebrate the 50th birthday of
Jim Den-
ny ’86
.
From left are
Michael Keigher '85, Sue Hunt McDowell '85, Colin Heffron '85, Stephanie Porta Eisele
'84,
Darryl Donohue '85,
Denny,
Carolyn Thompson Molingowski '86, Laura Danforth Barnes '85, Cary Re-
gan Keigher '85
and
Mark Harrington '85
.
On hand but missing from the photo were
Kate Merrell Denny '86
and her sister,
Louise Merrell Middleton '81
.