Welcome to the next installment of the Alumni Newsletter. This edition, Alumni News and Notes, offers updates from members of our Alumni Community. We invite you to write your own update in the comments section of the blog post via the Pemi website.

CONGRATULATIONS

Austin Blumenfeld was just named campaign manager for Ed Perlmutter’s re-election campaign for the 7th Congressional District of Colorado. Austin had previously interned with him in Washington D.C. Austin also noted that his former Lake Tent cabin-mate Jay McChesney is the Field Director for Walker Stapleton’s campaign for Governor of Colorado. Amazing, two former cabin-mates working in the trenches of Colorado politics!

Thibaut Delage, and his wife Adriane, live in Northwest Arkansas where he has been since leaving NYC eight years ago. They had a little girl, Éloïse, born in August 2017. After 6 years working in various roles with Wal-Mart, Thibaut now works in sales and logistics consulting for different brands currently at Wal-Mart or aspiring to do business with the retailer. Thibaut still plays tennis and soccer once a week, sports he enjoyed very much as a camper at Pemi 99-01.  A graduate of Pemi West (2002), Thibaut enjoys exploring the Natural State and the many state parks that surround his home. He is looking forward to his daughter turning 6 months old and bringing her to swim lessons in 2018!

Campbell Levy is marrying his fiancé Courtney in Zermatt, Switzerland on 1/18/18. Campbell writes, “Should be fun!”

Owen Ritter graduated from the University of Southern California with a bachelor’s degree in political science & economics. Prior to starting his job in the live music industry, Owen plans to travel for two weeks in Japan.

PEMI ENCOUNTERS

Patrick Clare moved to Tampa with his wife Holly after accepting a job at Berkeley Preparatory School. Pat is teaching history and the head boys’ varsity lacrosse coach. He ran into Pemi camper Reed Cecil on his first day on the job despite having no idea that Reed was a student there.

Leif Dormsjo visited Austin, Texas and reconnected with fellow Alumnus Gramae Waitzkin and Gramae’s three boys. Leif was visiting a Texas Department of Transportation highway project south of Austin on behalf of his new company, Louis Berger, who was hired to operate and maintain the 40-mile toll road. Leif is leading a team that provides management services to owners of highways, toll roads, and airports.

At a recent wedding, Papa Jerry Slafsky had the great pleasure of meeting the Macfarlane brothers, Pater and Noble, who are the cousins of Hannah Geese. Hannah married Jerry’s grandson Michael Slafsky. It was a beautiful wedding and a great weekend in Concord, NH.

Pemi Staffers JP Gorman, Nick Hurn, Harry Cooke, and Andrew MacDonald held the first official four nationalities summit in a big ol’ tower in Scotland.

IN MEMORIAM

Former Pemi camper and counselor Chris Johnson died unexpectedly of natural causes on October 5, 2017 in Portland, Oregon. Chris spent two summers as a camper in 1986 & 1987 and was a recipient of the Fauver Baseball Trophy during his first summer. An avid baseball enthusiast, Chris went on to coach baseball at Pemi during his four summers as a counselor. In 1992, Bean Soup awarded Chris and his best friend, Phil Bixby, the Counselor of the Year Award, with the following note as part of the article:

These two are exemplary within their cabins. They were not the most gregarious on the staff, but the amount of work they put in within their cabins is remarkable. They do not have to make a big noise and get noticed. They just get on with their work, helping their campers sort any problems out and making each and every camper that they deal with have a great season.

Details of a service will be announced as they become available. To read the obituary, follow this link.

ALUMNI NEWS

After 34 years of service to the Boy Scouts of America, John Carman is planning his retirement by the end of June 2018. In retirement, John hopes to be more regularly involved at Pemi assisting with the Alumni Work Weekend and the Rittner Run.

Will Clare lives in Brooklyn with Kelsey Wensberg and works as a CPA for Novak Francella LLC. Will was just promoted to Senior Auditor.

Frank Connor writes “To anyone who was at Pemi from 1943 – 1946 inclusive, perhaps you will remember me, Frank Connor. I’m married and we had two daughters, one deceased. My wife, Karen, and I, moved into an old peoples home 10 months ago in Denton, Texas, the city where we have lived since 1970. My wife has beginning Alzheimer’s so we don’t get out a lot, but my main problem now is a new hip, which in another month or so should be back to normal. I still stay active in water polo, refereeing the Dallas Water Polo Club’s scrimmages twice a week. That all started at Pemi where I had my first taste of competitive swimming. To make a long story short, I started playing water polo in college (and later for the Illinois Athletic Club), and ended up in the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame. I was a mathematician, although in terms of research, not a very good one. So, I primarily taught mathematics in universities.  Not a bad life.”

Rick Coles and his wife Diana will celebrate their 12th Wedding Anniversary in April, with their daughter Luisa and son William. In 2017, the Coles family did a good amount of traveling. Rick and Diana spent a few weeks in Spain, visiting Barcelona and Madrid, and the whole family went on a Disney Cruise through the Baltic Sea over the summer. The cruise visited Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Russia and Estonia. Luisa spent her summer at Camp Coniston just down the road in NH.

Rick recently founded a company, Greentech, which is beginning to hit its stride. He sells low voltage lighting systems for commercial and government use. In the beginning, he concentrated on perimeter lighting on fencing at large properties, like military bases or airports. With his system, Rick can light up a five hundred foot fence line at the same cost as a sixty watt light bulb in your house. One of his most prestigious projects included Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington DC. Last year, Greentech launched a new system for warehouses, parking garages, and other indoor systems. Check out www.greentechsecure.com to see his products.

Teddy Gales lives in the Uptown Neighborhood in Chicago, and is staying busy with his acting. In the fall, he traveled around Illinois acting in educational theater and just closed a run of a sketch comedy show at Second City. You might have seen him in a new Toyota Commercial, Mall Terrain.

Teddy writes, “Over the past year and a half since my graduation from Chicago College of Performing Arts, I’ve been in a few smaller plays in the Chicago store front theater scene and have booked principle roles in some independent films. One of which, titled, The Annual Taylor Family Thanksgiving Day Ping Pong Tournament, received an official selection at the 2017 Cannes Film festival.

Fred Fauver is in his second year as president of Royal River Conservation Trust, which includes the twelve towns in the Royal River watershed in Maine. Fred has just fired up his new sauna, a two and a half year project that he built himself. The Facebook page “Traditional Sauna” has several albums of 5-10 photos each by Garrett Conover, who has been documenting the construction for a chapter in a sauna book he’s writing. Fred’s new granddaughter, Frankie Jane Fauver lives in Switzerland, daughter of Jonathan and Vanessa!

2017 was a very busy year for Matthew Norman and his wife Sarah as they both began new jobs. Matthew transitioned within US Bank to be a Product Manager and Sarah started a new job at 3M. They traveled to Orlando in May to celebrate Matthew’s fathers 75th birthday, and then to London in September for a vacation. They met up with fellow Pemi alumni Owen Murphy and David Wilkinson.

After spending 2 enjoyable years working in Salt Lake City, Utah, Andrew McChesney moved back to the east coast, Lower East Side of Manhattan, to continue a career in finance. He is very much looking forward to being back east and participating in alumni events!

Bridger McGaw writes in, “I loved seeing a lot of old pals and mentors at the Reunion. I am so grateful for my counselors and cabin mates who provided and drove into my life so much of the important inner power of Pemi. I’m working in Boston for Athena Health as their Global Security and Business Continuity Lead protecting 5,000 employees and our cloud-based health care network. I live in Lexington, MA and recently was elected to our local Town Meeting. So I’m enjoying the change from national to local politics…for now. Cheers to you all!”

Last year, Stephen Funk Pearson moved from Cambridge, MA to historic Butternut Farm in Belmont, NH. He is in New Hampshire full time now with his rescue dog, Gunnar, and two rescue cats, Clio and Orio. He rents outs Ephraim’s Cove cabins on Lake Winnisquam. His brother, Tim Pearson, and sister-in-law live with their three children fifteen minutes away in Tilton.

Peter Rapelye travelled to the UK this past October to see his nephew at the University of St. Andrews, followed by a week in London, visiting a dozen British schools on behalf of Princeton University, where his wife Janet, a Camp Wawenock alumna, is half way through her 15th year as Dean of Admission. In retirement, Pete continues to serve on three independent school boards, audit classes at Princeton, and teach history courses part-time in Princeton and in Duxbury, MA during the summer. He is still playing tennis, a little golf, and enjoying Duxbury Bay with family and friends. Peter reminisces, “I have fond memories of Baker Pond, hiking trips, camp fires, and Tecumseh Day.”

Richard Scullin is teaching English and doing some technology integration at Miss Hall’s School. He used to teach at Kent Denver School, then NMH. His daughter Hazel, aged 14, runs cross country and skis Nordic. Richard, his wife Karin, and Hazel live in Williamstown, Mass and he’d love to hear from Pemi folks!

Lee Roth has a new website – check it out!

Matt Sherman recently moved to Reno, NV where he’s working as an engineer at Tesla’s Gigafactory. He notes, “It’s very different from the east coast but still has a lot of great hiking and skiing nearby that Pemi Alumni would love.”

Eli Stonberg had a great year professionally. He co-directed the video for Portugal. The Man’s “Feel It Still,” which is now the biggest rock crossover hit in the past five years, and peaked at #4 on the Billboard charts. The video currently has eighty million views and won a bronze lion at Cannes. Check out the interactive version of the music video too!

William and Caroline Wigglesworth moved on November 6th to Shaker Heights, Ohio.

— Kenny Moore