2009 Colgate Alumni Council Election
The Nominations Committee of the Alumni Council has selected the following slate of alumni for election at Reunion 2009. The candidates, chosen from more than 300 nominees, have strong records of varied Colgate volunteer service, a consistent history of giving financial support to Colgate, and meaningful personal or professional accomplishments or contributions to the greater community.
    Complete information about the election and challenge petition process, as well as full biographies of the nominees listed here, is posted at www.colgatealumni.org. Paper copies are available by calling 315-228-7433, or by sending an e-mail to alumni@mail.colgate.edu.

Era I: Up to 1964   
Robert P. Quitzau ’55
A geophysical consultant who has worked with Shell Oil Company, Robert has served as class president and an advancement volunteer and co-edited his 50th reunion yearbook.

Era II: 1965–1975   
Thomas W. Dempsey Jr. ’72
Thomas is president of Utz Quality Foods Inc. A Maroon Citation recipient, he has been a tireless advisor to Delta Upsilon and has served on the Fraternity Sorority Alumni Initiative.

Era III: 1976–1982   
Jeffrey A. Oberg ’76
Vice president of private wealth management for Goldman Sachs, Jeffrey has served as a Presidents’ Club class chair and president of the Phi Kappa Tau alumni board.

Era IV: 1983–1989   
Joseph P. McGrath Jr. ’85
Joseph is managing director for Barclays Capital Inc. A Maroon Council member, he has also done extensive work in career advising, including recruiting and mentoring students interested in finance.

Era V: 1990–1996   
Amy L. Dapot ’96
Senior vice president of Marsh USA Inc., Amy has helped Colgate students make many career development connections and has been active with the Women’s Advisory Committee and class gift committee.

Era VI: 1997–2002   
William J. Sweeney III ’01
William is a real estate fund manager for Antheus Capital. Recipient of the Ann Yao ’80 Young Alumni Award, he is a past president of his district alumni club and has spearheaded young alumni initiatives.

Era VII: 2003–2008   
Amy Hargrave Leo ’03
Associate director of residential life and pre-college programs for Barnard College, Amy has been class president, reunion program committee co-chair, and an Ann Yao ’80 Young Alumni Award recipient.

At Large   
Sandra Braddy Hall ’76
Associate director of diabetes brand marketing for Novo Nordisk Inc., Sandra has provided career advice and mentoring for students and has been instrumental in Alumni of Color programming.

Lynn P. Winn ’77
The principal, owner, and CEO of Brand Centric LLC, Lynn has been an active career adviser and leadership program participant, and has taken a leadership role with the Women’s Advisory Committee.

• • • • •

Regional Vice President
In addition to the nine elected Alumni Council members, regional vice presidents are officially appointed by the Alumni Council at its spring meeting.

RVP, Upstate New York
Thomas F. Kirkpatrick ’61
The CEO, shareholder, and partner of several companies in real estate and construction, Tom has been a key leader and mentor for Phi Gamma Delta and Colgate’s Greek-letter house ownership transition.

Alumni in journalism discuss presidential election


60 Minutes correspondent; Andy Rooney ’42, 60 Minutes correspondent; Emily Bradley ’10; Howard Fineman ’70, Newsweek senior editor; Tim Byrnes, professor of political science; and Jeff Fager ’77, 60 Minutes executive producer. (Photo by Marty Heitner)

More than 400 people packed into New York City’s Axa Equitable Center in October to hear election analysis firsthand from a panel featuring Colgate alumni in the journalism field.
    Newsweek chief political correspondent and senior editor Howard Fineman ’70, who has interviewed every major presidential candidate since 1984, told the audience of alumni and friends that “this has been an election of a lifetime to cover.”
    Colgate’s 2008 Presidential Campaign: The Amazing Race, Part II event also included Jeff Fager ’77, 60 Minutes executive producer; Andy Rooney ’42, 60 Minutes correspondent; Tim Byrnes, professor of political science; and junior Emily Bradley, a political science major.
    The role of race in the election, political activism on college campuses, and negative ads also made for a lively discussion.    
    Sitting alongside the veteran journalists and her political science professor, Bradley was not afraid to toss her opinion into the mix. The first-time voter criticized the use of attack ads. “The fact that we are having an economic crisis and twenty to thirty minutes of the final debate were about who said what, I found to be incredibly disappointing,” she said.
    Bradley went on to describe political activism on Colgate’s campus: “I am heartened by students’ interest in the election. Watching the debates in Donovan’s Pub with 300 students reflects how engaged we are.”
    That comment sent Fineman and his former classmate Jim Smith ’70 down memory lane in a follow-up discussion. The recent gatherings in Donovan’s Pub, they said, are reminiscent of heated political discussions that took place in residence hall rooms in the ’60s.

— Anthony Adornato



Notes
Welcome to the City! San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, New York City, and Washington, D.C., welcomed 2008 Colgate graduates to their alumni clubs on Sept. 10, giving recent alumni the opportunity to network with fellow members and get involved with club events.

The Club of London spent an evening with art and art history professor Mary Ann Calo and 15 students from the London Study Group at the Cooper’s Arms restaurant on Sept. 10. Then, on Oct. 25, Professor Calo led a guided museum tour at Tate Modern.

LGBTQ alumni met over drinks at New York City’s Brass Monkey on October 2. Forty alumni also gathered at the home of Neal Rosenberg ’74 for a BBQ tailgate during 2008 Homecoming weekend.

The Club of Houston enjoyed an evening of celebration with Bruce Selleck ’71, H.O. Whitnall Professor of geology, and Jim ‘The Chief’ McLelland, professor of geology emeritus, at Massa’s Seafood Grill on Oct. 6. They learned about Colgate’s new interdisciplinary science building and programs, as well as celebrated ‘The Chief,’ who was honored at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting in Houston for his career contributions in the study of the Adirondacks and other mountain systems.

On Oct. 20, the Club of Cleveland listened to political science professor Stanley Brubaker discuss “Got Change? Reflections on the 2008 Presidential Campaign,” examining the role of “change” in the past and current elections. He also explained how the Institute for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics gives Colgate students and faculty a forum to discuss political issues on campus.

Margaret Maurer, William Henry Crawshaw Professor of literature, and five of her students participated in a discussion, “Romeo must die,” with the Club of Northern New Jersey before the group watched Romeo and Juliet at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey on Oct. 25.


Shaping Your Vision, Homecoming 2008 Yvonne Gyimah ’01 (third from right) and Thomas Campbell ’00 (second from right) spoke to multicultural students about careers in the finance sector during the Alumni of Color group’s Shaping Your Vision, Homecoming 2008, at the ALANA Cultural Center. Gyimah is a senior staff member in the Transaction Integration Group of Ernst & Young’s Transaction Advisory Services Practice in New York City. Campbell is pursuing a degree in real estate finance at Columbia Business School after spending several years working in finance and real estate. 

Club leaders
We welcome as new alumni club leaders: Virgilio ‘Vic’ Victoriano ’92 (vmvictoriano@yahoo.com), Steve Kopecky ’96 (steven.kopecky@usace.army.mil), and Dixie Henry ’96 (dhenry@mdp.state.md.us), Club of Baltimore; Benjamin Patt ’56 (pattb@bellsouth.net), president, and George Warburton ’56 (113fighter@comcast.net), vice president, Club of the Treasure Coast; and Sarah Dutton Monks ’79 (sarahmonks@carolina.rr.com), Club of Charlotte.
    A special thanks to outgoing club leaders: Dane Fraser ’01, Club of New York City; John Brouillard ’00, Club of Boston; Howard Sutliff ’50, Club of the Treasure Coast; Sheri Bontrager ’06, Club of Cleveland; Lynn Sommer ’95, Club of Southern California; Lisa Dubreuil ’89, Club of Lehigh Valley; Lynn Anderson ’76, Club of the Puget Sound; and R. Matthew Price ’01, Club of St. Louis.


18th Annual Colgate/Ivy Polo Match On Oct. 12, the Club of Atlanta had a beautiful fall afternoon in the country enjoying the excitement of polo at Chukkar Farm & Polo Club owned by Jack Cashin ’49 (pictured right, in maroon). In its 18th year, this event is hosted by the Colgate and Yale Alumni Clubs of Atlanta and co-sponsored by TeamIvy, the Atlanta Business School Alliance, and the alumni clubs of Cornell, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, Columbia, Bucknell, and Mount Holyoke. Activities included a networking pavilion, children’s petting zoo and pumpkin painting, a spirited pre-match introduction to the sport, the traditional divot stomping between matches, and the polo match. Cashin, one of the oldest active polo players, provides his farm for the annual Colgate/Ivy Polo Match as a way to promote Colgate University to those in the Atlanta area.

Shortstop remembered for the long term
As former Rep. Lou Frey ’55 (R-Fla.) was sorting through his papers one day, he noticed that Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, called him the best player in the history of the annual congressional baseball games between the Republicans and Democrats. He then came across an article on its Hall of Fame and realized he was not in it. Frey decided to write a tongue-in-cheek letter to the editors telling them that “they ought to believe their own advertising” and asking why he had been overlooked. Thinking they’d just throw the letter away, Frey was surprised to receive a phone call from the newspaper telling him that they agreed he should be inducted.

    Last summer, at the 47th Annual Congressional Baseball Game at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., Frey donned his old uniform and was inducted into the Roll Call Congressional Baseball Hall of Fame. The article in the program ribbed Frey for his “one-man petition” to be inducted, but also lauded him for being “known to both sides of the aisle as a defensive force to be reckoned with at shortstop.”
    Playing in the congressional games from 1969 to 1979, Frey was named the Grand Old Party’s most valuable player three times and helped lead the Republican team to 8 victories in 10 games. As a Republican in those days, that was the only thing they won, Frey joked. On a more serious note, he added that things were different in Congress then. “We used to get along a lot better. We would fuss like heck on the floor, but when it was over, we would go out and have a beer,” he said.
    While they might have been friendly outside of the Capitol, the annual game was serious business. The players — most of whom had experience playing in college, the minor leagues, or semi-pro — practiced routinely at 6 a.m. for two months before the big game. “It was like the Super Bowl. If you did well, then people talked about it for a year, but if you did badly, you had to hide for a year,” Frey said.
    The baseball lover said the sport has helped him meet a lot of great people. In college, he was shortstop for Colgate, and he later played in the Hawaiian Major League for Barber’s Point Naval Air Station, the New Jersey semi-pro league, and for the Orange County Industrial League. In the congressional games, he remembers playing with the likes of George H.W. Bush, two-time Olympic champion Bob Mathias, and Sen. Thad Cochran. Frey even credits winning his congressional seat to baseball. “I was a young kid when I ran and I was a Republican in a heavy Democratic district, but one of the reasons I got to know so many people was through playing in the league. My wife ran the local Little League, so we were involved with a lot of people who normally wouldn’t have voted Republican,” he explained.
“I didn’t do it for that reason, but it turned out to be a political asset.”
    Now, the Florida lawyer and founder of the Frey Institute of Politics and Government at the University of Central Florida frequently travels to Washington for business, and he finds that people still remember him for his plays on the field. Recalling a trip to the Capitol with his daughters a few years ago, he tells the story of a doorman waving and telling him that he was missed. “My head was getting big and I thought, oh boy, he remembers that I was one of the five Republican leaders of the House,” Frey said, recalling that he was feeling particularly proud to be recognized in front of his daughters. The doorman then said, “We haven’t had a shortstop like you since you left,” Frey reported with chagrin.

— Aleta Mayne


Brad Engelsma ’07 wrote in about his experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador. In the photo above, Engelsma demonstrates dental hygiene to a group of children.
    “As a rural health and sanitation volunteer, I live in a small community in the department of Usulutan, El Salvador. There are just over 300 people, no electricity, no running water, and lots of farm animals. My work has been far more varied than I anticipated. I recently completed a health census and am educating families about water treatment in advance of a project set to arrive in November that will place filters in local homes. When not visiting families, I’m usually at the school, where I’m working on establishing a library with the help of Rotary International, teaching computer class, and helping out with English class. We also recently finished painting a map of El Salvador for Independence Day. After living here for six months, I can honestly say there isn’t anything else I would rather be doing right now. I live with a great family (I have seven Salvadoran siblings ranging in age from 8 to 23), play soccer with the guys in town a couple times a week, and, thanks to my diet, will almost certainly be able to win any rice and bean eating competition when I return to the United States.”

Maroon'd... in Costa Rica


Samantha Kohn ’99 lives in San José, Costa Rica, with her Costa Rican husband, Amedeo Gaggion. Her event-planning business, Events & Weddings Costa Rica, has given her the opportunity to see a lot of the country! Here are some of her adventure tips:

Don’t miss the… Zip-line tour
Also called the canopy tour, this activity involves swinging through the jungle.

Coolest nighttime adventure… Turtle watching
At night, sea turtles come to shore to deposit their eggs on the beach — an amazing spectacle to see.

Nicest national park… Manuel Antonio
Visitors can take hikes through the rain- forests and see a variety of tropical animals including multiple monkey species, birds, and insects, as well as spectacular views of the ocean.

Prettiest beach… Playa Conchal
Some of the nicest beaches are in the Guanacaste region. The mix of the rainforest and the beach makes Costa Rica’s beaches distinctive and beautiful.

Favorite day trip from San José…  Poas Volcano and La Paz waterfall gardens
Just 30 minutes from the international airport, you can see a volcano, hike the mountains, see exotic frogs and butterflies, and then try some gallo pinto (rice and beans) and other local fare.

Best place to stay…
• Relaxing beach vacation: Nosara
• Volcano and hot springs: choose a hotel near Arenal Volcano
• Beach and rainforest: Manuel Antonio
• For the very adventurous: Corcovado National Park (small plane or long bus ride required to get there)

Have tips for people who might be maroon’d in your town? Write us at scene@mail.colgate.edu and put maroon’d in the subject line.

Brava, bella


In Eiger Dreams, John Krakauer described Chamonix, France, as “the death-sport capital of the world.” Lyndsay Meyer ’96 lives and works there part time for just that reason. Wanting to live abroad and pursue her interest in winter sports, Meyer took advantage of the town’s sister city status with Aspen, Colo. (where she spends the rest of the year). The freelance writer has made a name for herself as one of only a few American women to compete in ski mountaineering, races that involve uphill climbing and steep backcountry skiing.    
    Meyer and her partner, Nina Silitch, were the first U.S. women’s team to compete in the Pierra Menta in France, and the first U.S. women to finish the Tour du Rutor in Italy and Patrouille des Glaciers in Switzerland — three big races.
    The sport is traditionally dominated by the French, Italian, and Swiss, who typically start training as youth in their local alpine clubs. For Meyer and her fellow American teammate to become strong competitors in just two years has gained them recognition among other teams. Meyer and Silitch are not only in the minority as Americans, they are also among the few women who compete in the elite courses.
    In the Patrouille, for example, Meyer’s was one of only 26 female teams, compared with 300 male teams, competing in the A course, or elite division. “There’s no chivalry, that’s for sure,” Meyer said. “Mass starts are pretty chaotic because there are poles everywhere, and guys will just shove you out of the way.”
    Meyer wrote about the mass start of the Patrouille in an article on fasterskier.com: “At 11:45 p.m. we headed out into the street. The gun sounded and suddenly we were a herd of ski freaks running down Zermatt’s main street, people cheering from hotel windows and bar stools.” Competitors race 32 miles from Zermatt to Verbier on foot and skis, climbing from 5,315 feet to 12,218 feet, further down and then up again to the finish. At 12:30 p.m. the next day, the pair crossed the finish line in seventh place for women, greeted by deafening clangs. “Instead of clapping or cheering, they use cowbells, and huge ones,” she explained.
    Meyer said that ski mountaineering can be a grueling physical and mental battle, but 10 minutes after finishing a race, it feels like the greatest thing she’s ever done. The allure of the sport includes scaling incredible peaks in different parts of the Alps. “It’s like a beautiful backcountry tour, and the stuff you get to do and see in a short period of time takes some people two to three days to get to,” Meyer said. The energy generated by the spectators is another aspect that makes competitors feel like they’re part of something special. One of Meyer’s favorite memories is going over the summit in the Pierra Menta and suddenly seeing 3,000 fans who rode the cable car up the back side of the ridge and skied up the rest of the way to fondue (their version of barbecue). “It’s their culture, like we sit and tailgate for a football game.”
    Experiences like this inspire Meyer’s writings for sports websites. On fasterskier.com she wrote about another memorable event, in France. During the race, which was held completely off piste (away from any ski trails), Meyer and Silitch came across an elderly man who was sitting and playing the accordion as racers went by at 8 a.m. — a startling sight because the septuagenarian must have skied up 4,921 feet with his instrument to get there.
    “So many crazy things happen that you need to write them down,” she said, which is one of the reasons she is developing her own site. Another is the time she devotes to answering people’s e-mails asking for advice on various sports. “I thought, I spend so much time giving out this information, and I love to inspire people to get out there, primarily women because that’s the demographic I come across more,” she explained. Meyer’s website, Bravabella.com, is geared toward women and will provide information on athletic trips, advice, and a support network.
    Additionally, Meyer will blog about her activities and her athletic friends, “who should be celebrated for all the cool things they do,” she explained. “It is my goal to empower and encourage women to achieve their athletic ambitions with the support of their female peers while being inspired by others.” The name for the site came to Meyer as she and Silitch were finishing a race in Italy. As they were passing other, predominantly male, teams, spectators cheered “Brava, Bella!” as they ran past. “I thought to myself, this is fantastic, being recognized for our athleticism and being respected as strong females,” she said. “The phrase stuck with me.”

— Aleta Mayne

Info, please:

If you know of the whereabouts — home address, phone, fax, or e-mail — of anyone on this list, please contact alumni records: 315-228-7435; 228-7699 (fax); alumnirecords@mail.colgate.edu. Thanks for your help!

David C. Starkey ’49
Clay C. Fuller ’60    
Edward H. Miller Jr. ’62    
Raymond S. Grimm ’84    
Antonio Azar ’85    
Kathleen Whelan Bothfeld ’87
Jasmin Perez ’89
Jeremy Chai Yuen Lee ’90    
Neleen M. Eisinger ’94    
Chinatsu Kaneko ’94    
Bei Shen ’02    
Maho A. Ishiguro ’04    
Stephanie A. Sambeat ’06

Front row: Sabrina Applegate, Debra Jones, Helen Mueller Geyer P’71, Sylvia Boyce,
Joan Eichhorn P’05; Second row: Chris Clifford ’67, Brion Applegate ’76, Robert Jones ’72,
President Rebecca Chopp, Keven Maher ’65, Gary Eichhorn ’75, and Malcolm Boyce ’54.

Reasons to Give


“You are connected to Colgate and you don’t shake it”
– John LeFevre ’41

Although John pumps iron in Huntington Gym at noontime every day, he is planning ahead for Colgate’s healthy financial future. In his will, he has provided for a gift to the John M. and Marian LeFevre Scholarship, which he and his wife created in 1985. The fund provides financial aid to Colgate students, with preference to those from New York State.

Make Colgate a part of your long-term financial plans. Information online at www.colgate.plannedgifts.org
Or call 1-800-813-1819