Mar/Apr 2006

It's hard to believe that by the time this column appears in your mailbox, the Class of '97 will be slightly more than a year away from its 10th Reunion. Time has certainly flown by as we've had our fun since taking leave of Cornell. Several classmates have written recently about their fond memories of swimming in the gorges in warm weather, and slightly less fond memories of hustling across the vast campus to class on chilly winter days. It's not too early to reach out to friends you've vowed to keep in better touch with; start thinking about heading back to Ithaca for Reunion 2007!

For many members of the Class of '97, it seems as though the wedding boom of the past few years is giving way to a baby boom. Steven Walter shared news of daughter Lindsey Brooke's birth on May 10, 2005. Ian Geller and wife Kira (Silverman) '95 also added a daughter, Chloe Drew, to their household. Ian is a product manager for Mobile Music at Virgin Mobile USA. Erica Eisenstein Lynett and husband Patrick, PhD '02, report that son Evan Joseph, born August 27, 2005, is already rooting for Big Red hockey! Classmate John Crego should take note of all these new arrivals: John reports that he moved to Geneva, Switzerland, in April 2005 to take a position forecasting demand for Procter & Gamble's baby wipes division. John has kept busy rowing, hiking, and sightseeing, and he met up with Jeff Goldman in Munich to celebrate Oktoberfest this past fall.

Wedding bells continue to ring for classmates.More than ten years after meeting at Risley Hall in 1994, Erik Mulet and Megan Heller '98 tied the knot on July 16, 2005 at the Monte Verde Inn in Forest Hill, CA. The couple lives in Los Angeles. Erik is an artist and designer in the entertainment industry, and Megan is pursuing a PhD in anthropology at UCLA. Jenn Houff got married on October 10, 2005 to Chris Johnson, an Indiana U. graduate. Amazingly enough, Jenn notes, there were no Cornellians in attendance at the wedding; it was a private family ceremony on Maui, with five American Airlines frequent flyer tickets redeemed for family members to attend ("priceless after our years in consulting," Jenn observes). Jenn and Chris, who both work for IBM, included college friends in the hometown postwedding celebrations, among them Jordan '95 and Elizabeth Schepp Berman. Rebecca Goldstein married Jeffrey Hobbs on September 17, 2005 in Brooklyn, NY. Rebecca is a partner in the Manhattan-based film production company No Hands Productions, and planned to act as a producer on Keith, a feature film that was slated to begin shooting last November. Jeffrey is executive director of the African Rainforest Conservancy, which promotes restoration of African rainforests through economic and educational programs.

Those long years of graduate education are coming to a close for many of us, while others continue to hit the books. Colin Cushing graduated from Georgetown's MBA program in May 2005 and started work as a senior marketing analyst for America Online in Northern Virginia.Wife Elizabeth (Soto-Seelig) plans to collect her MBA from Georgetown in May 2006. In August 2005, Pete and Melissa Carey Heissenbuttel visited Colin and Elizabeth with 3-month-old daughter Anne in tow. Seth Guikema wrapped up his post-doc work at Cornell in May 2005 and will be enjoying milder winters now that he has taken an assistant professor position in the civil engineering department at Texas A & M. April Bruning moved to Ocala, FL, from Boston and started her own landscaping design business specializing in personalized landscapes, therapeutic design, and children's, sensory, and memory gardens. April's after-hours activities include volunteering at a local church, where she works with preschoolers and uses her creative talents on set design.

Samantha Youngman Meiler is editor for Life & Style Weekly, the first celebrity lifestyle weekly magazine. Anjana Samant is an attorney practicing employment law at Outten & Golden; she collected her JD from NYU. Kate Nemens is a staff attorney at Clubhouse Family Legal Support Project, where she represents low-income people with mental illness in a variety of family law matters. Kate is active in the Boston Bar Association and in October was selected to participate in its Public Interest Leadership Program. Congratulations are also due to Kate for her September 4, 2005 marriage to Nicholas Decaneas in Peterborough, NH; Lee Hiram and Vanessa Margolis joined the celebration. Richard Baecher is a full-line diagnostic imaging account manager for Philips medical capital equipment sales in New York. In his free time, he's kept busy studying Mandarin Chinese language and culture, pursuing a master's in international management from Thunderbird in Phoenix, AZ, and traveling in British Columbia last summer.

A number of classmates continue to work in health care. Steven Froeschl is a chiropractor on the eastern end of Long Island.Mary Anna Denman finished her ob/gyn residency in Philadelphia and relocated to Portland, OR, where she is a urogynecology fellow in the ob/gyn department at Oregon Health Sciences U.Mary Anna says she's still getting used to having free time after finishing her residency! Jennifer Mattucci Santoro finished her psychiatry residency at NYU in June 2005, started a fellowship in psychosomatic medicine at George Washington U. in Washington, DC, and began part-time work in a private practice in Northern Virginia. Congrats to Jennifer on her April 2004 wedding to John Santoro. Classmates Robin Yates and Jennifer Halsey were bridesmaids.

New York City was the site of a few classmate get-togethers in 2005. Kathryn BonitiWallace sent in word that she met up with Laurie Rothenburg this summer in NYC for lunch. Chris Braceland said it was nice to reminisce about "the old days on the Hill"with Andy Cahalane, MBA '05,Mike Bock '98, Glenn Minerley '98, and Jake Hennemuth '98 during a business trip to New York last year.

Please take some time to share your news and let your classmates know how you've been keeping busy. -- Erica Broennle Nelson, ejb4@cornell.edu; Sarah Deardorff Carter, sjd5@cornell.edu. Class website, http://classof97.alumni.cornell.edu.