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1986

Anne Chorske Stuzin
akstuzin@comcast.net

Feeling “compelled to give his decade update,” Doug Werby checked in from Berkeley, CA. A member of the Directors Guild of America, he directs, produces, and edits TV programs and commercials for broadcast and the Web. He also is writing and doing voice-over work occasionally. Daughter Olive, 10, often works as an actress, grip, or set designer for him on shoots. Doug still spends lots of time with his close group of 1986 friends: Andy Goldberg is an accomplished pop musician, recording studio partner, and record-label owner with two children, a boy and a girl. Mark Pappas is a real-estate developer and “one of the most accomplished” businessmen Doug knows. Mark has three girls. Steve Stollerman lives in Paris, and is an online travel business expert. He recently got married and has a 2-year-old girl. Mike Petrillo is a New York and Connecticut owner of Village Wine Imports, specializing in European-based varieties. Les Samuels ’87 is a Montreal building developer, with a boy and a girl. Gerard O’Brien ’87 owns and operates the distinctive Los Angeles midcentury furniture gallery Reform. He has two boys and a girl. For the past 15 years Doug and his friends have made an annual pilgrimage to Utah to ski, hang out, and reconnect.

Lisa Buxbaum Berliner lives in Katonah, NY, with husband Mitch and sons Ben, a fourth-grader, and Dylan, a kindergartner. They recently bought “a really cute house” in the Berkshires, near Stockbridge, MA. Two years ago, on the way home from a week in Bolton Landing and Lake George, NY, Lisa insisted they stop in Saratoga. She couldn’t believe how it had changed. “Even Mrs. London’s made it onto Broadway, and who would have thought there would ever be a huge Borders bookstore in the middle of town!”

Stan Francois has experienced lots of exciting changes lately, noting, “I got a late start after college, but I’m in fifth gear now.” In August he and his wife, Sherri, welcomed son Noah, known affectionately to his parents as “the little prince.” He was born 10 weeks premature and spent eight weeks in the hospital getting bigger. Stan and Sheri love every minute of parenthood and try to catch naps whenever and wherever possible. Last summer, Stan reconnected with Skidmore friends, including Dana Mayo, Brand Livingstone, Ellen Hermann, and Dave Silveira. Over the holidays, Jim Friedland and his family, along with Dave and his new family, came over to Stan and Sherri’s house in Valhalla, NY, for an afternoon of guitar hero, pizza, and football. Stan welcomes friends in the vicinity to get in touch with him at stanfrancois@gmail.com. He is lacing up the old running shoes again and will try to take 2.5 minutes off his best marathon time, to go under three hours, in the NYC marathon next fall.

Steve Cress reports from London that, after a year and a half, he still cannot believe what a glorious and cultured city it is. He and his family have also vacationed in Greece, Rome, Paris, Brugge, Scotland, and Italy’s Lago Di Garda, whose distance from London “is not much greater than traveling from NYC to Boston, Baltimore, DC, or Chicago!” Despite the distance from Skidmore and Saratoga Springs, Steve is active as an admissions correspondent, interviewing prospective international candidates from London and attending college fairs on behalf of Skidmore.

After staying home with her kids the last four years, Aimee Ventura O’Brien will be picking up the textbooks again and heading back to school to pursue a degree in architecture at New York Institute of Technology. Aimee lives in Manhasset, NY, with husband Jeff and twin girls Logan and Blake, 6. She is looking forward to the challenges of school and hopes that after 22 years her brain “still works.”

Jeanne Cooney Dunn is a substitute teacher at a Montessori school in Palm City, FL. Next year son Tyler, 9, will transfer to the college-prep school that his brother Nick, 12, currently attends, so she’s not sure if she’ll continue teaching. Jeanne has taught everything from phys ed to music, art, and gardening, and has taken care of or taught infants to fifth-graders.

Ellen Hermann and boyfriend Steven voyaged on the high seas of the Baltic last summer, for part of the 2007 Tall Ships Festival organized by Sail Training International, which “promotes the development and education of young people of all nationalities, cultures, religions, and social backgrounds.” Fifty percent of the crew of all participating boats are people 25 years old or younger. Ellen and Steve participated in a 330-nautical-mile race from Stockholm to Szczecin. Despite some rain and seasickness the race was exciting, and Ellen celebrated her birthday in Szczecin with a traditional Polish dinner. She also enjoyed visits from Beth Demas Anderson and her family in July and August.

Phil Theoharides and wife Kacky welcomed daughter Lila on November 21. She joins brothers August, 6, Christian, 4, and Owen, 2. Phil has changed job roles, running the Texas Pacific Group’s structured-products portfolio for its distressed-investment hedge fund. Larry Pike is Phil’s sales coverage manager at Deutsche Bank. Phil and Kacky, who live in Wilton, CT, run into Diane Bigotte Kendall and her family from time to time and stay in touch with Clai Marshall and Titus Peterson.

Caroline Ralph Kenlon keeps busy raising four children and volunteering. She has served on the board of the Manhasset Women’s Coalition Against Breast Cancer for four years. She is also president of the local women’s club of Flower Hill and VP of the Manhasset Middle School SCA, where her oldest is enrolled. Caroline’s children are in seventh, sixth, fourth, and second grades. She takes dance classes whenever she gets a chance.

Bill Greenleaf married Laura Kitchin last summer. They welcomed their first child, a boy named Leland, on December 7. Bill was recently appointed by the governor to serve on the Virginia Climate Change Commission.

In Germany, Andreas Schneider (aps@chemacinc.com) still regrets he missed our 20th reunion. He was returning that week from a business trip to Korea when he fell ill. “I guess I ate too much kimchee,” he says. Last summer he met Lucas Horn for breakfast in NYC; they had “a perfect day in NYC” and enjoyed reminiscing. Andreas also heard from Chris Danielson and Dina Perruso Danielson and says, “Their kids are keeping them active, and the fresh Vermont air keeps them looking like recent grads!” Andreas heard that the “very talented and creative” Ben Green came out with a new CD that’s available on Amazon.com. Andreas connected with Leslie Rose while she was in Germany; she recently moved back to the US. Last year, while participating in a college night for Skidmore at a New Jersey high school, Andreas met Stan Francois’s nephew and says, “The kid was shocked when I told him I knew his uncle.”

Sacramento, CA, resident Dave Silveira became a father last June with the arrival of daughter Bailey. He is looking for West Coast projects for his branding business, Ad of Your Mind. His wife, Lisa, works for Sactown magazine.

Cindy Johnson Rogers and her family live in Rochester, NY. Son John, 13, plays travel hockey, and daughter Ashley, 11, is a travel soccer player. Both kids also play basketball. Cindy finds it hard to believe that John will be entering high school next year and Ashley junior high. “I am feeling a little old!” she says.

Herb Eidt and his family live in Virginia. He is a physician practicing orthopedics at Ft. Belvoir. Herb is plotting a Baltimore-Richmond reunion of Skidmore classmates, with a list that already includes Liz Cole Bemiss, me, and Roland Mackenzie ’85.

My family and I will mark 10 years in Baltimore this year, a new record for husband Ken and me since 1987 (the previous record was eight years in NYC for me). Last August we spent a wonderful vacation in the heart of the Adirondacks in Keene Valley, NY, in a very rustic cabin with no cell phone or Internet service—a real escape! While there we made our annual visit to the Saratoga racetrack. I enjoyed, as always, catching up with Jane Zoidis Quinn and her family at the Delaware shore last July. The Quinns remain in Tokyo, an experience that continues to enrich and challenge them. I loved the holiday cards several of you sent; everyone and their children look great.