Notes from the Cornell Class of 1991 - 1993 March/April

Class Notes, 1993 March/April

March 1993

The name of the National Easter Seals Poster Child for 1993 was announced at the National Easter Seals Convention back in November. Classmate Nathaniel Jarvis's sister, Palani Thies, is the new poster child, and Nathaniel temporarily left his studies on a master's in mechanical engineering at The Cooper Union in New York City to travel to Tampa to attend the convention.

Hey, Evan Eldridge, we would sure like to hear the inside scoop about the weather forecast for the rest of this very cold winter. Evan is a meteorologist at WTOL-TV in Toledo, OH. He made his television debut on Jan. 4, '92 and since then has appeared on both the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. weekend weather forecasts and on some mornings and primetime weekday shows. Meanwhile, Aaron Bosworth has been raising Salmonidae at a remote hatchery near Sitka, Alaska. He writes that he has "gained valuable experience in the wilderness encounters that go along with remote living." Deborah Steuer Kotz is a science journalist at a new health magazine that is published by the Hearst Corp., while Michelle Lieber is a journalist at News Communications, and Amanda Murray is working in publishing and editorial at W. W. Norton & Co Inc., all in New York City. In addition to publishing and journalism, the fashion industry is another big market in New York, and Lori Oscher is working as an assistant designer at Nicole Miller.

Also in NYC and serving as a staff analyst at the Housing Authority is Christine Montenegro. She works in the planning department, assisting in the administration and implementation of the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development's new HOPE (Home Ownership for Public Housing residents) program. While Melisa Levitt helps plan conferences in the Big Apple through her job at ISDA, Gerald Lee is an assistant planning manager on the other side of the world for the Singapore Promotion Board. Loren Bosies is manager of the Palm Restaurant in Philadelphia, while Stephan Setran and Douglas Gamble are in the hotel industry in Los Angeles. Stephan is general manager at Brentwood Suites, Douglas is in franchise sales at Holiday Inn Worldwide. Douglas also writes that he frequently "wined and dined" with classmates Rob Wilson, Will Praether, Matt Myer, Pat Woodring '90, Kristen Krzyzewski, and H. Kate Lange, who are all in either Dallas or Houston, Texas.

Another classmate is enacting history. Rachel Teck is a history interpreter at Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, MA, but what she really does is "act" as Elizabeth Basset, a Pilgrim in the year 1627. For eight hours every day, she walks, talks, and relives Ms. Bassett's days on the Plantation for the thousands of tourists who flock to Plymouth to observe how the pilgrims used to live. Rachel urges that anyone interested in living history museums should please feel free to contact her for more specific information.

Four other peers are working in engineering. Andrew Chen is a hardware engineer for Stratus Computer in Marlboro, MA, while John Tagle is a product design engineer at Delco Electronics Corp. in Kokomo, IN. Vipul Bhatnagar is an engineer at Johns Hopkins's Applied Physics Lab., and Gregory Lambert works as an engineer at Ames Construction in Seattle, WA.

In the world of human resources, Catherine Irish works at Boboli Co. in Hazelton, PA as a human resources administrator, and Jason Smith works at Ingersoll Rand in Phillipsburg, NJ as the assistant manager of human resources. Jill Schiffhauer Baxter is a research technician at Repligen Corp. in Cambridge, MA; Kimberly Best is a research analyst at the Inst. for a Drug-Free Workplace in the nation's capital; and Brian Hyde is a market researcher at Lieberman Research Inc. in NYC.

While Gregory Dickhens is consulting on real estate at KPMG Peat Marwick in Honolulu, HI, Kirk Blaschke is designing landscape at Richard Price and Assoc. in San Juan Capistrano, CA. Just as these classmates are working full time, so is David Rickerby fully employed as a project coordinator at Connecticut Environment Roundtable. But, David is also attending law school, part time at night. Other '9lers in school are Lia Belanger who is a vet student at our alma mater. Med students already in their second year are Jason Wexler and Joelle Vlahakis. Jason is at SUNY Health Science Center, Brooklyn, and Joelle is at the U. of Miami. Joelle writes that her studies were "interrupted quite dramatically by Hurricane Andrew." She continues to write, "All of my classmates are alive and well, but several lost their homes. Please send prayers and support, moral, financial, etc. for the victims of this natural disaster." All the best to you and your friends Joelle, from the Class of '91. Students in PhD programs are Johanna Sagarin, at Clark U. in the clinical psychology program, and Kristen Billiar, at the U. of Pennsylvania in bioengineering, studying head injury and its prevention. That's all for now. Keep writing to me, so I can keep writing to you! *Melanie Bloom, 128 E. 85th St., #4B, NYC 10028.

April 1993

Helllo Again, and welcome to this month's installment. As I write this, the Presidential inauguration has just passed, as Ariane Schreiber can tell us. I just go letter from Ariane reporting that she "was lucky enough to attend the swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol and to attend one of the official Inaugural balls." Ariane calls the experience "unforgettable"--made her "year and a half working on Capitol Hill very worthwhile!" I also just received a letter from Kevin Lemanowicz, who writes that he just started a new job with the New England Weather Service in Hartford, CT. He does the morning weather on "various AM and FM stations," also the evening weather on TV once a week. Kevin also writes that he was married to his high school sweetheart, Alina Gutierrez, in October 1992. Wedding attendees included Best Man Sebastian Ciancio; Ushers Darin Feldman, Tom Bruno '90, MEng '91, and Paul Marashlian '92. Others in attendance: Steve DelRosso, Ernest Joynt, Alex Flueck '91, MEng '92, Liz Mirabile, Amy Lawrence, Simon Atkins, Eric Zarahn, Doug '90 and Ann Dierckes Kirkpatrick '90, Doug Levens '92, Andrew Cuthill '89, Todd Oravitz '90, Rod Gallagher '90, and Rob Ahrens '92. Congratulations and best wishes!

Continuing on, we find Chiara Puffer working as an editorial assistant for a college textbook publisher (the books "we used to hate to study from!" she writes). Chiara writes that Sunish Shah, Jurgen Luwald, and Andrew Ramsey '90 are working in telecommunications sales together in New York City. Kimberly Rugala is also in NYC, working as a health-care consultant with The Wilkerson Group. Other classmates in NYC who are involved in the financial services industry include Celeste Tambaro, a Latin American financial markets equity researcher for Smith New Court, and Warren Grady, who works at Paine Webber. Jeanette Lavasta is also there, working as a lab technician at Columbia medical school. Jeanette writes that many Cornellians are "hanging around Columbia trying to finish up pre-med requirements." Melisa Levitt has a position as a conference planner at the International Swap Dealers Assn. in NYC, which involves a lot of international contact with Europe and the Far East.

Also on the international front, Martin McCall writes that after graduation he attended a summer program at the U. of Regensburg in Germany, then spent several months traveling around Europe before settling down to a job as an English teacher at a private language institute in Leipzig. Martin says it is fascinating to observe the changes taking place as the former East Germany moves to a capitalist economy.

Back on the home front, Susan Sidner is the sales and marketing manager for Harvey Hotels, a chain based in Texas. Shannon Bessette is also in the Southwest, studying native American studies at the U. of Oklahoma. Shannon taught two semesters of freshman English last year. Sonya Savkar is also in school, studying law at the U. of Pennsylvania. She spent last summer working at a law firm in Albany, NY, and writes, "I definitely miss Cornell!" As the alumni verse of "Song of the Classes" puts it, "Oh, to be 20 and back at Cornell!"

I would like to close this month with a few announcements: a letter from university development reports on the students being helped by our senior class gift, the Class of '91 Cornell Tradition Fellowship. Valerie Alipio '95 is in Human Ecology, in human service studies, and Paul Braun '93 is in Engineering, studying materials science. Both plan to go to graduate school. It's nice to see that our gift will perpetuate the mission of Cornell by allowing others to have the same opportunities we had. The other announcement concerns what will be the largest alumni event of the year, CU in Philadelphia. This event will be held Nov. 1821, '93 and will include receptions, symposia, and the 100th Cornell-Penn football game. To receive more information, contact: Barbara Hirsch Kaplan '59/L. William Kay '74, Co-Chairs, Philadelphia '93, 303 Day Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-2801. This promises to be an exciting event. I hope to see you there. *Howard Stein, 600 Warren Rd., #3-2D, Ithaca, NY 14850; (607) 257-3922.