1994

	Bill Geyer Hara '94 and wife Jannette Eng with their new son

Greetings 1994s! I hope all is well. Here is some news from our classmates: Ned Ward sent some exciting news from his life at Mattel where he is working on entertainment development of Mattel brands as well as content distribution and partnerships. In addition to his day job, Ned plays for Mattel’s in-house band, The Toys. Ned writes: “Mattel is all about play. Our own in-house band, The Toys (I had to do something after The Distractions broke up after graduation), has been around at Mattel since 1995 with all-Mattel people. We entered into Fortune magazine’s Battle of the Corporate Bands, and just played June 18 at the regional semi-finals in San Francisco. My wife Noriko Sato Ward ‘96 was there, as well as Wendy Limburg Parmett, Bill Kaufman ‘96, Eileen Gallagher ‘96 and Julie Yamato ‘96. You can follow us on Facebook at our band page for The Toys at: facebook.com/thetoysband (join the Musician/Band page, not the groups) and there’s more info on the event at rockhall.com/events/battle-of-the-corporate-bands.”

Ned’s band was one of the two finalists selected to go to the finals, held Sept. 30-Oct. 1 in Cleveland, Ohio, at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. They played against seven other bands and took third place out of eight finalists and 32 entrants. Kevin Lee, Lisa Bradner and Tim Davis and their spouses drove from Chicago to see them play. It was a super fun weekend.

Susan (Osbourne) Baskin writes in with news from hot Texas where she and her husband own and run a camp near Austin. Susan writes that camp is going great. This summer, six Kellogg offspring attended camp, including kids of Lousie Meyers, Bill Rustico and Dan Ebert. They had a terrific time and it was great to reconnect with old friends. Right after camp ended, Susan, her husband Steve and their four kids headed out on an adventure, backpacking around the world for six months! Along with the adventure of travel itself, they will be homeschooling along the way. Susan said that they mourn the fact that they never have summers off, so the trip is an attempt to reclaim lost time. They will return in time to get ready for camp next summer and are blogging through the Camp Champions website (campchampions.com).

Bruce Angus has started a new venture, MoGo Sport, that makes flavored performance mouthguards for athletes of all ages. Profiled in the NFL preview issue of ESPN Magazine, the company currently offers a range of flavored mouthguards that multiple professional athletes are choosing to wear. The idea is that if a flavored mouthguard completely changes the user experience from a “need to” to a “want to” — when the mouthguard tastes good, athletes will wear them properly in their mouths. Who among us has not had not either had an unpleasant mouthguard experience or an argument with their kids about keeping their mouthguard in (and not chewing it or losing it) . Check it out at mogosport.com or facebook.com/mogo.sport.

Hugh Ekberg has been appointed as Kohler Co.’s executive vice president of the Kitchen & Bath Americas division. In this position, Ekberg is responsible for the kitchen and bathing business teams, sales, fixtures engineering, and Sterling brand business team.

Bill Geyer Hara writes that he and wife Jannette Eng celebrated the birth of their baby boy,Tadaaki David Hara, on May 3. Bill comments: “Tadaaki surprised us by arriving a few of days early. He’s a fantastic eater and sleeper so we feel doubly blessed! The three of us are enjoying San Francisco, but admittedly the calls from “burbs” are growing a little bit louder now. I am with Wells Fargo Merchant Services in the eCommerce / electronic payments space. Jannette left her position with Dreamworks Animation to devote time to her latest production — our son — at home. Would love to hear from classmates near and far.”

That’s it for this time around. If you have any news you would like to include, bring it on!