Class of 1983

Class Secretary: Leigh Peltier, 451 Williams Crossing, Coventry, RI 02816, leigh@intap.com

Class President: Mary Couillard Schneller, 65 Salem Rd., Billerica, MA 01821, mschneller@lightbridge.com

Next Reunion in 2008. Got news? Tap out a note to magazine@bates.edu! The Univ. of Southern Maine appointed Susie Bock the new director of the school’s Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine. She will administer the overall mission of the center to continue to collect primary resources on diverse groups in Maine and ensure the creation of knowledge by supporting research as well as developing educational and public programs. Its special collections include materials on African Americans, Franco Americans, and gays and lesbians in Maine. The center is named for the late Jean Sampson, a Mainer active in the fields of education, civil liberties, and civil rights who passed away in 1996. She was the wife of Richard Sampson, professor emeritus of mathematics at Bates…. Diana Boyd and her son made a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France, in October 2002. She is the director of stewardship and baptism ministry at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport, Iowa. She bought her first home last summer…. For the past 10 years, Kurt Brown has been on the faculty in the department of pediatrics at the Univ. of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He works as a pediatric gastroenterologist in the division of gastroenterology at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). He also runs his own basic science laboratory investigating inflammatory bowel diseases in children. Recently, his research was featured on a segment of the Discovery Channel…. Andrea Gelfuso works half time as an environmental litigator at the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of the Solicitor. She also teaches environmental law at the Univ. of Denver, and says her humorous article about pregnancy called “Deliverance” was published in Child magazine’s winter 2002 issue…. Karen George moved to Hanover, N.H., from New Mexico and works at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. She is the residency program director in ob/gyn. Her husband, Rob Gougelet, is in emergency medicine and is the director of emergency preparedness at Dartmouth…. “Greetings from Florida,” writes Susan Hay Godley, who claims to still be very much a Yankee at heart. She says she is an extremely busy single mom with Liz (13) and Peter (9). She works for the state as a health inspector seeing that schools and residential facilities are in compliance. She is both a Girl Scout and Cub Scout leader, and wonders if there is life after children…. In Providence, Karen Holler is on the faculty of the Brown Medical School for neuropsychology. She and her partner have rehabbed an historic house and are now working on their second one for her partner to use as a studio…. Sue LaLumia formed her own pool league in 2002 and now has 60 members from the Washington, D.C., area…. Dave Liegeot finds that his advertising company in West Chester, Pa., is growing steadily. He says he may have to take 12-year-old daughter Kate up for Homecoming in 2003 because “she’s already getting pressure from her grandmother and stepfather to take a look at Colby and we just can’t have that.”… Tom Main is the head of school at the King and Low-Heywood Thomas School, an independent, PK-12, co-ed, day school for 650 students, in Stamford, Conn…. Sally Nutting Somes is president of the nursery school co-op where Sarah (4) is in her second year. She continues to volunteer regularly in Hannah’s (7) school. She’s also teaching Sunday school…. Archontis Pantsios has been at the American College of Thessaloniki for the past seven years, teaching economics in the business department. Since 2000, he has held the position of the assistant dean for academic affairs at the college…. Martha Pigot Donelan has been the marketing and communications manager at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art for almost three years. Recently, a New York Times story featured the museum’s acquisition of the only intact mural in the United States by David Alfaro Siqueiros, one of Mexico’s three great muralists…. Although his race for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District was unsuccessful, Kevin Raye received more than 107,000 votes, more than any Republican since Olympia Snowe’s last election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992, before she became a senator…. Kathy Rose is a physician’s assistant working in a dermatology practice in Worcester, Mass. She recently traveled to Aruba, Sedona, Ariz., and Navaho reservations in South Dakota, Arizona, and Texas…. Sharon Saltzgiver Wright appeared on Nightly Business Report last year in an award-winning video about bond investing based on her book, Getting Started in Bonds. The book’s second edition was slated for February 2003 publication. She also appeared in The Washington Post and USAA Magazine. She’s looking for a publisher for her novel and is working to establish an arts center in Byfield, Mass., where she lives…. Susan Schnapper Lanning lives with her husband and six children in England. The children keep her very busy, she says, but she has found the time to take some psychology classes and pursue her interest in homeopathy and herbal medicines…. Gary Silverman started his own e-security consultancy in November 2001 (ARX Partners Inc.)…. Dean Slocum recently relocated back to Boxborough, Mass., from Texas where he’d lived for nine years. After Arthur D. Little was sold, he and other ADL partners started a new consulting group at Battelle Memorial Institute…. Lisa Sofis has transitioned to a new position at Children’s Hospital in Boston. She is the associate program manager for an initiative that funds 10 residency programs around the country to add a component on advocacy and community pediatrics to their curriculum…. Mark Stevens reports that his company, Technical Point Resources, continues to grow and offer new challenges. It manufactures software tools for developers to use…. Patty Strohla recently transitioned from managing in the direct patient care arena to become the manager of clinical informatics at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston…. Ellen Weiss Falkner moved to Ashland, Ore., after almost 40 years in Cleveland. Her new home is an alternative medicine Mecca, which is great for her husband, Doug, a homeopathic doctor. Ellen was in a four-person figure drawing show at a local gallery recently and is active in “our renegade Jewish community and home schooling scene.”… “After living in Virginia for three years for Mark’s job, we realize how truly special New England is,” says Jennifer Wohlers Bentley, who now lives in Andover, Mass. They have three children, Emma (7), Grace (4), and Mark Jr. (1). Jennifer says that she is very fortunate to be home with them…. William Zafirson is now senior vice president at Banknorth Mortgage Group in Portland, a division of Banknorth, NA, a subsidiary of Banknorth Group Inc., one of the country’s 35 largest commercial banking companies. He lives in Saco and is vice chair of the board of directors at Sweetser, the oldest child welfare/mental health organization in Maine…. George Zeller is a teacher/coordinator for an alternative school suspension program in Warrensville, N.C.