1975

Thomas Fleeter may have followed one of the most unusual career paths in our graduating class. After graduating from Kellogg with a focus on hospital and healthcare administration (with a research paper on why HMOs were going to revolutionize and improve healthcare in the U.S.), he went to medical school and completed a residency in orthopedic surgery at George Washington University. Thomas started and runs an orthopedic practice in Reston, Va., with eight physicians and 75 employees. However, he constantly utilizes the skills he learned at Northwestern. He sits on the board of Congressional Bank, a strong community bank in the D.C. area, and co-directs a captive medical malpractice insurance company. He is also chair of the board of trustees at Reston Hospital, where he bases his orthopedic practice. His oldest son, Daniel, is following in Tom's footsteps as a second-year MBA student at Harvard Business School.

Following graduation from Kellogg, Bob Cahill joined Morton International until its acquisition by Rohm & Haas in 1996. He opened his own tax/accounting CPA firm, Cahill CPA, in Glen Ellyn, Ill., after acquiring his master's degree in taxation from DePaul University. In October, Bob started working with Genworth Financial and is offering financial advisory services to his tax and accounting clients. Bob's offices share the same floor as his wife's European/Asian antique store, giving his clients the opportunity to shop and get their taxes done at the same time.

Since July, Dirk Anderson has taken up full-time residence at Lindora, the largest medically directed weight management system in the U.S. It is a family-owned business with a minority-stake institutional investor and is also one of the leading woman-owned businesses in the country. Stay tuned to hear about the exciting developments that are beginning to unfold.

Like many of us, Mike Holland is still unable to retire. He has joined the faculty of Chapman University in Fairfield, Calif., in the organizational leadership masters program. Mike believes that teaching is a difficult muse to escape. It reminds us too much of our (relatively) carefree days at Leverone Hall.

Rick Arons read with nostalgia and amusement the summer issue of Kellogg World Class Notes and decided to write in. When Rick arrived at Kellogg in the fall of 1973, he was a native of New Jersey, fascinated by his newest peers, some of whom were from Europe or the Far East, but many of whom were of Midwestern stock. One of his first acquaintances was Art Wood. So when he read that Art was now retiring after 34 years with the same employer, he first reflected on just how fast the last 34 years have gone.

During the first days of our first semester at Kellogg, Art invited Rick to be his guest for a round of golf at his country club. All of Rick's early impressions might have easily been lifted from a Hollywood script: khakis and a sleeveless sweater, white-haired, bespectacled, tie-clad father sitting in an antique wing chair, antique-filled mansion in an exclusive North Shore community (and a classic jukebox). It was a culture shock that Rick never forgot. And it seems completely keeping with that initial impression that Art spent his career with the Northern Trust — and that his retirement will find him playing a lot of golf with two of his former classmates.