1984

Hi everyone! This is Indie, and unbelievably, by the time you get this article we will be in the fourth quarter of 2003! The big news for this column is that we, are headed for our 20th reunion. Is it possible that we could be that old?
The reunion is set for April 30-May 2. So please put it on your calendars now. Joan Bolz Cleary and Wendy Weiss Kritt are heading up the reunion committee and are looking for anyone interested in helping out. In the meantime they have this to share with us all:

A group of ’84 grads is working on concepts for our 20th reunion. By doing a little extra planning and involving our highly active classmates, we should be able to top our trend-setting predecessors, the Class of ’83. Last year’s reunion team upped the ante for 20-year reunions by tailoring reunion activities to our “40-something” crowd, and they significantly topped attendance and giving of that of other 20-year reunion groups. Additionally, the people who attended had a riot and reconnected with Kellogg ’83 friends from around the world. You can see info and photos on the Kellogg alumni Web site.

Classmates should keep an eye out for materials from Kellogg, including some “save the date” notices and a survey to help tailor the event itself. Our key contact at Kellogg is Hwashing Heyworth in the alumni office.
Please contact Joan, Wendy or Hwashing at Kellogg to get involved with the planning. They are looking forward to getting many people involved to make this a successful event.

Birgitta Hannan ’84 married John Domesick on June 2.

Now for the news from our classmates. We will start with great news from the East Coast. Wedding bells rang for Birgitta Hannan on June 2 when she married John Domesick in Westchester, N.Y. A large Kellogg contingent was there to wish her well. Long distance awards went to both Barb Vass and Bob Egan, who flew in from California. Lynette Barnes Hinch, her husband, Jeff, and Wendy Weiss Kritt made it in from Chicago. The NY/CT gang included Steve Zales and his wife, Cathy, David Lynn and his wife, Ginny Melvin, Dwight Hilson and his wife, Mindy, and Steve Palmer and his wife, Laura. During the reception Steve managed to get in touch with Leigh Stokes and Tom Gerlach, who live in Washington State. I am told that another mini-reunion happened then as his cell phone was passed around so everyone could say hi.

Rori Grosse writes that “this is the first time my real-life stuff overlaps my business life. I’m a Creative Memories leader. This is a direct sales company that focuses on teaching people the importance of preserving their family memories through the creation of safe, meaningful photo scrapbook albums. I’m busy growing my business and training others to do what I do. The job involves fun trips to Florida, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Palm Desert and Anaheim.”

From the West Coast, Jim and Jan Huston are still living on the farm in Sherwood, Ore., (just outside of Portland), but may have a move in their future. Jan is a “professional parent” (chauffeur, soccer coach, pony riding instructor, arts and crafts counselor, gardener, etc.) for Reed, 5, and Hannah, 9. The kids keep her busy, but she wants to do some work with grownups again. In addition to kids, Jan is also still riding horses and running to stay in shape. Jim is still at Intel (19 years, WOW!), having spent the last eight years in Intel Capital, the venture arm of the company. He is still running regularly, teaching business classes, mentoring college students locally and building what might just be the biggest tree house ever. The whole family gets involved. They recently had a lovely dinner with David Chen and his wife, and after talking about Kellogg spent most of the evening talking about the challenges of raising children.

Thad ’87 and Katie Seymour and their teenaged sons, T.G., 17, and Nate, 13, are just back from the mountains of the Dominican Republic where they worked to build houses in a very poor rural village as part of the Dreambuilders Project. The program helps future homeowners who contribute at least $800 and sweat-equity hours and work on construction. Katie has served on the steering committee of the project since its inception two years ago. The volunteer effort is coordinated from the mission office of the Catholic Diocese of Orlando. “Frankly, I am of more help to the project behind my computer than behind the power saw, as I almost buzzed through the saw horse more than once!” she writes. “But I really wanted to get back to Guayabal and introduce my family to the warm and generous people of the village.” Now it’s back to qualitative research for Katie, while Thad serves as president of business services for CFSE Inc., an accounting and management firm in Winter Park, Fla.

Lori Pivo writes that after 18 years with Eli Lilly and then Guidant Corp., she is happily working part-time as director of human resources for Guidant. She is lucky to have the best of both worlds, working and getting home when the kids come home from school. Her daughter, Danielle, is 13 and her son, Adam, is 10. They took a trip to Atlanta last spring and had the best time with Denice and Shawn and their girls. It had been 11 years since they had seen each other.

Jessie Herman reports that she started a new job as an account executive for eMag Inc. in Buckhead. They sell various data media for storage and backup services. She says that anyone who is in need of storage backup and recovery of lost or damaged tape, media and hard drives knows how important it is to have a good backup somewhere offsite. If you lose that backup or don’t have one, eMag can restore your data. She is going to continue to keep her mortgage loan origination business going on the side. She says she had been doing residential loans for the last two years, “since the x.coms became x.bombs.” Jessie is living in Alpharetta with her husband, Chick (NU Music MA ’82), the band director at Haynes Bridge Middle School, and their three children.

Mary Madick Morrow provided the following update on her blended family: “Rodger Morrow and I combined our families when we married Aug. 31, 2002. Our family now consists of Grant, 16, a junior at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey; Maggie, 13, an 8th-grade diva; and Eddie, 9, entering 4th grade. (That’s not including the three large dogs totaling 285 pounds and the rapidly aging house.) We live in a suburb of Pittsburgh, where I hold down the fort while Rodger commutes to his job as director of strategic communications for the Otis Elevator Co. in Farmington, Conn. I have remained in the customer service arena and am working for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, combining the service and communications operations for its 14 hospitals. It’s a busy, chaotic, but fulfilling life. Best regards to all.”

Gary Lynn ’84

Gary Lynn was recently named one of the nine leading management gurus in the country by Business 2.0 Magazine. Past selections include Peter Drucker and W. E. Deming. Gary is a tenured professor of marketing and innovation at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. His new book, Blockbusters (co-authored by Richard Reilly, HarperBusiness Publishers) was selected as one of the most important management publications in the world last year by Manager’s Executive Book Summaries of France and one of the best business books published this year by Soundview Executive Book Summaries. Blockbusters summarizes the results of the authors’ 10-year study of more than 700 new product teams, including nearly 50 of the most successful products ever launched, such as the Black & Decker Dustbuster, Colgate Total Toothpaste and Polycom Soundstation Conference Phone. The book has been translated into Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Russian. This is Gary’s fourth book — he wrote his first while finishing his degree at Kellogg. Gary currently lives in Millburn, N.J., with his wife and two young children.

Lynnette Barnes Hinch has retired from the corporate world to take on a new assignment: spending more time with children Blake, 4, and Tucker, 3. Lynnette writes: “I had been senior vice president of marketing for Solo Cup Co. for the last four years, so this change has been quite an adjustment. I love being home and find the experience very rewarding (and challenging).”