Notes from the Cornell Class of 1991 - 2017 January/February

Class Notes, 2017 January/February

January/February 2017

Greetings from Kennebunk, ME. We’ve just had a lovely but dry summer here in the Northeast, and a wonderfully warm October. It’s Halloween and I just got a cucumber from my garden! Just saying. This column will find you in the holiday season, hopefully enjoying the traditions that make you happy.

Speaking of things that make me happy, I was lucky enough to meet up with my freshman roommate and dear friend Julie Welch Alvarez ’92, her husband, Chuck, and her lovely daughter, Olivia, this summer for a glorious day on Lake George. They had been visiting their young- er son, Henry, who was attending a session for high school students at Cornell in the summer, and their older son, Andrew ’19, who started at Cornell last fall in the Engineering college.

We’ve heard from a number of classmates, so let’s get right to it. Timothy Reed is an anesthesiologist and medical director at Santa Fe Surgery Center in Lady Lake, FL. He has four children and is an avid triathlete, having completed his first full Ironman in Chattanooga, TN, in 2015. He looks forward to traveling when his kids are grown, and notes that Bob Cullen and Terry Cul­len, MBA ’66, lightweight football coaches, had a great impact on him at Cornell. Renee Exelbert (New City, NY) opened the Metamorphosis Center for Psychological and Physical Change to drive mind-body connections. Dianne Dilger Jacobson (Sebring, FL) writes that she loves to travel, especially to the Amazon and Australia. She’s just retired, and son Ben was married recently and lives in the UAE with new wife Audra. Dianne’s been in treatment for cancer and would love to hear from any classmates. She thanks Dr. Mover and Prof. Good from her time at Cornell.

Chan Roonprapunt wrote that he and his wife, Peggy, live in NYC. He is an assistant professor of neurosurgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (neurosurgery department) and Spine Inst. of New York. Alarik Myrin is busy raising and marketing grass-fed beef. His twin 14-year-old daughters, Ayla and Hannah, help on the farm, and Alarik notes he’d love to have more time to hunt and sail. Steve Hall—Alarik wonders if your offer to hunt white tails is still open. Also he thanks Prof. Wayne Knoblauch and his partial farm budgeting form, as they use it daily. Susan Rosenblatt and her husband, Chas Schumacher, live in Cambridge, MA.

Jeremy Sarachan is the department chair and associate professor of media and communication at St. John Fisher College. Robert Dunlap wants to reconnect with Stefan Zechowy. Robert is grateful for his time at Cornell as it taught him to run for his life, he says. We’ve heard recently from Beth Chartoff, who leads a group of mentors who try to bring women into financial fields. She puts her Cornell Economics degree and Wharton MBA to work as senior managing director at GSO Capital Partners, the credit investment arm of the Blackstone Group. “Finance is not rocket science,” Beth explains. “If you are a quick learner you can pick that up pretty quickly.”

Agnna Varinia Guzman lives in Toronto and works as a US immigration lawyer with Deloitte. She became a great-aunt in November 2015, with the birth of Greyson Trevor, her sister’s grandson. All that said, she’d like to be in Bora Bora. Tanya Ashley Lawson, JD ’91, says she feels blessed to live the life of her dreams. Since 2015, she’s been senior counsel at Florida Power & Light in Miami, FL. For many years, she was a partner in a national law firm. She has three children, two at Princeton and one in middle school. As to people who impacted her at Cornell, Tanya says she can’t recall her name, but the woman who was in charge of financial aid was empathetic and generous, and that made a big impression. Tanya would love to hear from her roommate Benji.

Jennifer Leeds writes that she’s still with Novartis (almost 14 years!), heading the antibacterial discovery group out in Emeryville, CA. Her husband, Rob Hess, commutes one mile by bicycle to his job a patent attorney with Leydig, Voit, and Mayer. Their older son, Tjaden ’20, is now a freshman in A&S! They are thrilled to share an alma mater. Additionally, Jennifer volunteers in several mentoring organizations, including East Bay College Fund, which was introduced to her by fellow alum and Cornell trustee Dale Rogers Marshall ’59. Jennifer had dinner with fellow Chi Omega sorority sister Katrine Bosley ’90 in Boston this summer. The most impactful people at Cornell for her were her Microbiology professors, her husband, and her best friends and housemates Julie Voveris Furtado and Amy Lawrence Flueck.

I hope you all have a great 2017! Best of luck and good fortune. Send news to: Wendy Milks Coburn, wmilkscoburn@me.com; Lori Woodring, lori.woodring@yahoo.com and Tim Vanini, lavanooche@icloud.com. Online news form.