1987

	Angela Streeter '87 with son Daniel, born November 12,

As I sat down to write this column, I realized that I had virtually nothing to write about. Usually I have at least three or four notes or letters to work with, but this time there was practically nothing. Fortunately, I had volunteered to make calls to classmates for the reunion, so I used the calls to gather some class news. Thanks to those of you who helped out. Speaking of the reunion, are you attending? It’s May 3-5. Try to make it at least for the dinner Saturday evening. We’re having our own Class of ’87 party at the Roxy Café in Evanston.

I spoke with Kay Branz about the reunion and she had lots of personal and classmate news to share. For over two years Kay and a partner have been operating the Center for Independent Futures assisting families who have young adults with disabilities create new ways of living independently as citizens within their communities. They operate out of Evanston and are currently launching a pilot project in the Chicago area with 15 families, testing a new concept of future planning and living supports for young adults living away from home for the first time. The organization gets its funding from families of the participants as well as other public and private sources. To learn more about this, you can contact Kay at: independentfutures@hotmail.com.

Kay was kind enough to provide me with some classmate news, too. Hilary Thornton is working for an interior designer in Chicago who also owns a 19th century antique gallery. As you can imagine, Hilary’s home is a reflection of her work, and according to Kay, we should expect to see it in the design magazines. Always eager to help out a fellow classmate, Hilary consulted with one of our classmates, Julie (Schmidt) Mokdessi, on her arts and crafts style home in Wilmette. Julie has three children — two girls and one boy. Kay and Julie are in a ‘book club’ together with another classmate — Laura Nadelhoffer. Occasionally they actually get around to reading a book and talking about it. Laura is one of those increasingly rare classmates who are still with the company she joined after graduation — Citibank. She has two children, one girl and one boy, and is living in Barrington, Ill. Hilary and Laura, we’d love to hear more about what you’re up to, so drop me a line.

Kay had some updates on several other classmates, but it would be great to hear from you personally. Betsy Fallon is living here in the Chicago area and working for Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Joel Ficks, in Oakland, Calif., is working for a cable TV start-up called Worldlink that brings programming from other countries into the Unite States Laurie Ostendorf is living in western Massachusetts. She’s earned her PhD in psychology and is working at the University of Mass. She has two young sons. Another classmate residing in Massachusetts is Jean Williams. She lives in Natick and has two children. Kay thinks Jean is working in the IT field. Again, please drop me a line with more details.

I caught up with Scott Brueggeman who won’t be able to attend the reunion because he’ll be in Hawaii. Before you criticize Scott for ditching us in favor of self-indulgence and sloth, you should know that he is going to Hawaii for training and teaching with an organization called Youth With A Mission which helps underprivileged youth around the world. Scott and thousands of others involved with YWAM share their faith through many different kinds of practical help — from agricultural training to running medical clinics. From Hawaii he’ll be heading off to China and the Philippines. If you’d like to learn more about what Scott’s doing you can visit www.uofnkona.edu and www.ywam.org.

Feb. 16 was a landmark date for Rick Rosenfeld. After 16 years, the original batteries in his Kellogg HP calculator died. So, responding to destiny’s call, Rick e-mailed me for an update on his business. Being in the travel business, things were difficult for Rick following 9/11, but volume is back to normal now, as upscale travelers have resumed international vacations. In an interesting marketing twist, Rick has newly branded a product called “Travel MBA” targeting top-ranked business schools (check out www.travelmba.com). Of course, he started with Kellogg, and in the past year have worked on five Global Initiatives In Management trips to Thailand/Vietnam, Spain/Sweden, China, Brazil, and Ghana. He has also helped coordinate international trips for Harvard Business School and University of Chicago GSB. Rick’s initial contact at U of C was with ’87 classmate Glenn Sykes, who has traded in his purple for maroon and is working for UC-GSB administration.

We have a birth announcement…Angela Streater and her husband Richard Skora had a baby boy on Nov. 12. His name is Daniel Erik Streater Skora. The arrival of Daniel was made even more special by the fact that Angela was working across the street from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Her escape from the building that day and her ‘commute’ home seven months pregnant were nothing short of amazing. When she’s not playing with Daniel Angela is a managing director at Scotia Capital Markets where she developed the structured equity derivatives business for the U.S. markets. If you’d like to catch up with Angela, she can be reached at angela.streater@skora.com.

If I’ve already announced Lisa (Danyluk) Eckstrom’s baby news I apologize, but it bears repeating. Last Aug. 14 Lisa and her husband Greg had twins — Matthew and Jack. Lisa and Greg are finding out what sleep deprivation is really like, but Lisa, never one to say no to a challenge, volunteered to help out with the reunion anyway. Thank you, Lisa!

Ken Bloom graciously responded to my plea for news with an update on himself and his buddy Steve Rosen. Steve’s business is going through some exciting times. His telecommunications company has recently formed a strategic partnership with ISI that will help his business really take off. It would be great to hear more Steve. Why don’t you drop me a line? Ken has avoided the Kellogg World spotlight for many years, but I managed to pry a small amount of personal information out of him. After helping to sell the American Girl company to Mattel (he was CFO and president of retail), Ken joined Maurice Sporting Goods, a distributor and manufacturer of outdoor equipment serving mass merchants like Walmart and a number of specialty retailers. Ken is the COO there. He and his wife have two kids – Aaron (11) and Julie (9).

John Bonczek has some great news. He just came back from Korea where he and his wife adopted a 6-month-old baby boy. His name is Peter Chun Bonczek. John and his wife Cathy and had a terrific trip and met some fabulous people. Everyone is doing very well especially since Peter is starting to get used to Eastern Standard Time (i.e. John and Cathy are finally getting some sleep). John reports that Jack Blackstock came by for a visit; he wanted to see what it was like to hold a baby since his wife, Susanne is expecting in March. Jack didn’t do a bad job for a rookie. But he is very skittish when comes to the subject changing diapers (maybe people can send an e-mail note to Jack at jblackstock@tyco.com with suggestions).

Peter Perez is serving as new senior vice president of human resources for Grainger. Congratulations, Peter!

Gary McCullough received some very nice press recently in the Chicago Tribune. In a business section cover story on Wrigley’s they featured a great picture of Gary and a lot of news about the company and Gary’s role there. William Wrigley Jr. brought Gary in from Procter & Gamble as vice president of the Americas two years ago. Now, new products are coming to market faster than ever. For example, Gary brought the company’s top-selling European brand, Orbit, to the U.S. last year to fill a gap in the companies sugar-free lineup. He’s also doing some interesting collaborating with his old employer. Wrigley and P&G will collaborate on Orbit White, a tooth whitening gum that sports P&G’s Crest logo. On the personal side, Gary and Kim are living in Oak Park with their three kids. Aaron, the oldest, is in high school now and looking towards college. In one of those ‘small world’ scenarios, Gary mentioned that Cathy Barr-Taylor is managing the Wrigley business on the agency side for BBDO, and that Geoff Adaire lives in his neighborhood in Oak Park.

Rich Mandel who has a huge group of friends from Kellogg came to my rescue. I think it’s interesting that Rich feels a stronger bond with Kellogg and has more friends from there than he does from college. I think most of you that I speak with would say your college ties are much stronger than the Kellogg ones. Business school is funny that way…it can simply be a means to an end, which is fine, or it can become a huge part of your personal life through the friends (and sometimes the spouse) you meet there.

Feb. 19 was an exciting day for Rich. The Japanese subsidiary of the firm he works for (Kennedy Wilson), which he launched some years back, went public on the Japanese NASDAQ today (stock symbol 4321). Congratulations Rich! I hope the offering goes well. When Rich isn’t travelling to Japan he’s spending time with his family in Short Hills, New Jersey. He tells me that a bunch of you are living over in London now…like Steve Bonebrake, Rab Ker and Tim Grell. Have you gotten to play golf at St. Andrews yet Tim? I can’t believe you’re still with Merrill. I still remember how you got your first interview there by striking up a golf conversation with their interviewer at the drinking fountain. Sheldon Reynolds is living in Bronxville and working for Morgan Stanley. Mike Haddad is working for Caxton Corporation, a large hedge fund. Paul Embree and his wife now have two kids. Dave Sherwood is living in Connecticut and working in NYC for Lehman, and Mike Holling is now with Bank One in Chicago. Judith Heagstedt is vice president for investment management and CIO at Princeton Theological Seminary. It would be great to hear more from you guys if you have the time.

Well, that’s it. Send me news for the next column…please! Hope to see you at the reunion.