1990s
1990s
90 Countdown to Our 35th Reunion
I was on a call with a client recently and she mentioned that one of her board members, James Dailey, lives in Seattle. I told her I had a classmate, James Dailey who lives in Seattle. Lo and behold … same guy! I reconnected with my fellow Bengal Bouter and asked for an update. Kristen and James Dailey celebrated 22 years of marriage and their son is off to college in the fall. James met Kristen playing ultimate frisbee and now the entire family competes or coaches. Their daughter is a sixth grader. James has also launched a number of open-source projects including Apache Fineract and openG2P and is active in software development. He co-founded a carbon credit company in 2007 to deliver improved energy products for the Global South, and he’s currently CEO of a banking software as a service company. He remains passionate about climate solutions and has served on boards for climate advocacy or solar education. He lives in Seattle but has traveled extensively — 56 countries so far. He also enjoys sailing offshore and inland waterways and races each year. Jamie Rademaker is an executive director for Wells Fargo IT in Winston-Salem NC, where he has worked since 1991. He loves that Notre Dame is in the ACC as he can drive less than two hours to Wake Forest/ Duke/ NC State/ UNC/ Virginia. He is married with two kids: Jake is in dental school at UNC and Melissa is a news reporter in Charleston SC. If you’re in Charleston, tune in to Live 5 News to see her in action. Anne Newett Lewis reported that her son Jack ’24 was the director of the Keenan Revue this year. Jean Van Brackel Ward and Jane Ricciardi joined Anne in VIP seating for the Revue and had a nice girls’ weekend. They had a great time swapping stories with Murf, the bartender at the Morris Inn, and then they hit the Linebacker Lounge — for the first time ever — with son Jack in tow! We have a limited supply of tickets for the Louisville football game, when the Class will have a mini-reunion. The tickets are on the lower sidelines and if you are interested, please contact Chris Broadhurst at 309-648-1268 or cmbroadhurst@gmail.com. Our Class is about to begin planning for our 35th Reunion. Our reunion has been the “measuring stick” for other Classes. But we could not enjoy such a connected reunion without the dedication of our reunion committee. The committee will likely meet quarterly through spring 2025 by conference call or Zoom. If you (a) would like to help us with the planning for our 2025 Class Reunion, or (b) would like to help with a specific project for the reunion, please contact our class president, Patrick Olmstead, at 317-884-8524 (office/mobile), at polmstead@patrickolmsteadlaw.com or through Facebook Messenger. Please keep track of us on Facebook at Notre Dame Irish Class of 1990 and at 1990.undclass.org. Go Irish! — Marty Falkenberg; 23 Casselton Road, Raymond ME 04071; 847-323-4717; martin.falkenberg@yahoo.com
90MBA Enjoying Life
I hope everyone is well and enjoying some relaxing time with family and friends this summer. Here are some recent updates from classmates: Chelley Vician and Larry Davis recently retired from their professorial careers (ending at U of St. Thomas in MN), relocating to Traverse City MI. Both are actively pursuing travel and hobbies in retirement. Chelley is volunteering with the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, as part of the local Air Station. She just finished qualifying as an air observer and loves flying missions with pilots to patrol the shoreline of our Great Lakes (Ben Ernst, your pre-MBA life has always been inspirational to her!). Larry is spending more time at the Upper Peninsula camp hunting grouse with their English Setter, Lucy; taking hunting trips to Africa; and volunteering time as a Bark Ranger at Sleeping Bear Dunes lakeshore. Their daughter Jessica completed a master’s in public history from American U and is beginning her career in the museum industry around Washington DC. Chelley says they are happily enjoying retirement life together and feel very blessed to do so. After a successful 20-plus-year run at NetApp, Rick Scurfield recently took on the role of chief revenue officer for VAST Data. VAST is a series E startup company that specializes as a data platform focused on AI/ML and big data markets. If your company needs to manage exabytes of data, or even 10s of petabytes, and you know what that means, give him a call. Rick and his wife, Michelle, have a son graduating this year from Bucknell, a daughter graduating high school and a son in Beijing doing a semester abroad from the College of the Holy Cross. Rick and Michelle are just working hard to pay all those bills and save up for the eventual weddings! Reiaz Somji is enjoying a very comfortable life in Toronto in a role at Info-Tech Research Group as an executive counselor. It allows him to provide daily advice along with just a touch of travel to the USA where he has the bulk of his clients. Reiaz says this helps him stay connected to the US having gone to not just ND, but also the American School of Kinshasa (DRC) for high school. Chris Craft is president and COO of the Specialty Finance Group (SFG) at 1st Source Bank in South Bend. He leads a team serving the financial needs of clients in commercial vehicle fleet and construction equipment in the USA and corporate turbine-powered aircraft/helicopters in the USA, Brazil, Mexico and Canada. Chris’ group has grown to $3.5B in loans outstanding and Monitor Magazine (the independent voice of the equipment finance industry) recently ranked SFG as the 20th largest bank-owned equipment financier in the USA (ranked No. 35 on overall basis), based on total loans. Monitor Magazine also named SFG one of the best companies in equipment finance, in their leadership category. Chris enjoys entertaining clients at various ND athletic events and mentoring the next generation of business leaders at 1st Source Bank. Chris’ wife of nearly 36 years, Kelly, is an active volunteer at the South Bend Ronald McDonald House where she has trained Domers like recent ND football quarterback Sam Hartman! Their oldest adult son, Collin, is in medical management in Indianapolis, and their youngest son is in sports facility management at TD Garden, supporting the Boston Celtics, Bruins and multiple concerts. Their daughter Katie is the youngest and is working at Notre Dame as a special events coordinator. Now we all know who to call for football tickets! Please keep those updates coming so we can stay connected and this space in Notre Dame Magazine isn’t left blank. — Jim Rogers; 1825 SouthPointe Dr., Morganton NC 28655; 336-413-2569; domer8490@gmail.com
90JD Class Secretary — Cathy (Pollock) Gregory;
cagregory.home@gmail.com
91 Class Secretary — Suzi (Criqui) Mueller;
suzi@cbglobalsearch.com
91MBA A Visit to Boston
Jordan Melick was in Boston visiting family at the beginning of the year and had lunch with John Ellard to catch up. I hope to hear from more of you over the summer for the fall magazine. Send updates. — Patty (Spiekermann) Lynch; pattylynch05@gmail.com
91JD Class Secretary — Martha (Boesen) Trout;
12823 Clark St., Clive IA 50325; 515-249-9235; marthatrout@gmail.com
92 The Next Generation
Here are the latest tidbits from the Sesqui class … Congrats to Hon. Margaret “Meg” Garnett. She was nominated by President Biden to be a US district judge in the Southern District of NY. Meg was confirmed by the Senate in November and sworn in this January. Her prior role was deputy US attorney for the Southern District, where Meg was responsible for the criminal and civil divisions of the court. Debby Reelitz has a calligraphy design studio in North Granby CT. She has been a professional calligrapher for more than 25 years. Debby does just about everything: marketing events, weddings, engraving, teaching and commissions in the private, corporate and institutional sectors. When on campus, you can see Debby’s work in the Liu Asian Institute office or the 1842 Club. Mark Salerno sends word that his nest is empty and ready for the next chapter. With two out of college and employed and the youngest headed to DeSales U, he told me it is time to retire and explore something new. From opportunities to give back to expanding their Beneficia Farm for horses, they are embracing the new chapter. Do any other empty nesters have ideas or stories to share? Katie McMahon caught up with Monique White in Chicago for last October’s marathon. Colleen (Malley) and Mike Nugent were on the cheer squad popping up along the route with “Run like a Champion Today” signs. Some of the Lyons girls met up in Winter Park FL when Tyler (Musleh) Minton hosted Jennifer (McRedmond) Ragsdale, Maureen (Nelligan) Fischer, Meg (Hobday) Bacigalupi, Karen (Hohberger) Gallagher and Victoria (Schneider) Temple for a weekend of boat rides, catching up and R&R. The next-generation Domers from this Lyons crew had a dinner hosted by Mary Kate Schneider ’23. The next-generation Domers include Patrick Fischer ’20, Anna Fischer ’22 and Mae Fischer, a rising senior; Quin Gallagher ’22 and Meredith Gallagher, a rising senior; and Collin Ragsdale ’21, Graham Ragsdale ’23 and rising junior Reid Ragsdale. College graduations: Jeremy Manier’s daughter Charlotte graduated from the U of Chicago in June with an undergrad degree in biology and law. Domer grads: After May graduation, Lynn (Willett) Nowak’s daughter Emily will attend MIT for grad school in data science with the Sloan Master of Business Analytics Program. Nacibe (Cadre) and Mark Nosek ’90 have daughter Nadia heading to Boston after graduation. Her neurosciences studies will be put to the test working in a lab to study traumatic brain injury at Boston Children’s Hospital. College bound: Sharon (Smith) Ribner’s son Garrett graduated HS in June and heads to Michigan State in the fall. ND bound: Kirsten (Brown) and Jim Greco ’90 have son Dylan joining ND’s Class of 2028. Joe Dimberio’s daughter Abby will be a first-year in the Mendoza College of Business studying finance. Suzanne (Schaffler) ’93SMC and Dan Bautch are excited to have son Austin join the Class of ’28 as well. Tailgating in the fall: Julie (Wright) and Kevin Patrick will host a tailgate at the Purdue game. If you are going to the football game, reach out and let them know! Condolences to the friends and family of Todd Henson. After a two-and-a-half-year fight against brain cancer, Todd passed away peacefully in January. Many classmates and friends gathered for his Celebration of Life. Attend any mini-reunions, trips or other family scoop? Please post on the Class Facebook page where scoops, ticket swaps and game meet-ups are shared. Check out my.nd.edu to update your contact info. Note the Class Facebook page: U of Notre Dame, Class of 1992. God bless and Go Irish! — Jill-Beth (JB) Hayes; ndclassof92@gmail.com
92MBA How’s It Going?
Kevin Snow launched a New York City-based company called R.P.M. Data & Analytics — a fixed-income infrastructure for data, pricing, analytics and trading corporate bonds and ETFs. Kevin’s twin boys are 18, attend Phillips Academy in Andover MA and will be college hunting soon. As always, send updates. — Julie Pendell; pendell.julie@gmail.com
92JD Class Secretary — Paul A. Drey; 6701 Westown Parkway, Suite 100, West Des Moines IA 50266; bus 515-271-1765; paul.drey@brickgentrylaw.com
93 A Life-Saving Donation
Will Johnson fulfilled a dream when he donated a kidney last December. Will has lived and worked for over 28 years in Germany. He initially worked as an English teacher before taking a job as a translator for a law firm. Unfortunately, Germany does not allow non-directed (or anonymous) kidney donation, so Will made separate trips to Portland OR for comprehensive screening and subsequent surgery at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center. He is happy to report that he is now fully recovered. His only regret is that he had to give up his (other) dream of someday becoming a professional stuntman. Seriously, the experience was especially gratifying and positive for him. Will would like to encourage others to visit the National Kidney Foundation’s website, kidney.org/transplantation, to learn more about this amazing and life-changing process. Josh Henderson and his wife, Katie, who met in law school at George Washington, live in Larkspur CA (Marin County) with their three kids. Sons Aidan and Liam attend UC Irvine. He tried to get them to apply to Notre Dame, but they were in South Bend during the ice and snow and felt that Newport Beach was more their style. He can’t say he blames them. Their youngest, Charlotte, is a freshman in high school. Josh hasn’t attended any Class reunions because they unfortunately conflicted with his son’s birthday. Now that Liam is in college, Josh expects to be at future reunions. Josh is a labor and employment partner at the firm Jackson Lewis in San Francisco. He’d love to connect with other ’93 alumni in CA! Matt Garberina, Mike DuBay and Steve Connolly recently convened for a hastily planned golf trip at an octogenarian-laden Orlando resort. Ensign Chad Baker insisted on the thrifty accommodations and then flaked two weeks prior, leaving his friends with the dreaded golf threesome. Their frequent links partner and good friend Ken McKinney, an Orlando resident, found it interesting that the trip was planned in his hometown the one week that he was away on business. The performance of Messrs. Connolly and Garberina on the course (the latter of whom did not know how to proceed through a breakfast buffet and wore uncomfortably snug golf attire for the duration of the trip) made it abundantly clear that both will need to find a new hobby in their golden years. Michelle (Bresnahan) Schaub is happy to share that she had two children’s books come out in March. A Place for Rain, published by Norton Young Readers, is the story of a classroom that builds a rain garden to mitigate stormwater runoff and create a habitat for pollinators. Leafy Landmarks: Travels with Trees, published by Sleeping Bear Press, is a family road trip through poems to visit famous and historic trees around the US. Jennifer Dean Durning, a pediatric nurse practitioner since 2000, teaches in the pediatric NP program at the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions. In late March she successfully defended her dissertation for a Ph.D. in nursing from Villanova U’s M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing. Her study, “An Exploration of the Understanding and Experiences of Health in Urban Dominican American Adolescents,” focused on her patient population for the past 15 years in the Lawrence MA area. After some challenges finding a recruitment location for the study, she was lucky to connect with the Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School principal and vice principal, who both earned their M.Ed.’s at ND and were happy to help her out! Jennifer and her husband, Peter Durning, live in Newburyport MA, where they will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary in November. Kudos to Joseph J. McCarthy, who was named provost and senior vice chancellor of the U of Pittsburgh. A faculty member since 1998, Joe served as undergraduate coordinator and vice chair for education in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. As the chief academic officer, Joe will continue to lead the development and implementation of Pitt’s academic vision, supporting more than 5,900 faculty members and nearly 34,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students on all Pitt campuses. Prior to his appointment as provost, McCarthy served as vice provost for undergraduate studies since 2017. Joe holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Northwestern U. — Anne Marie (Krauza) Yuhas; 623-606-7000; yuhas93@gmail.com
93MBA Summer Update
I have been writing the last few years about Corky Vicker’s family goal to grow coffee trees. He said in his Christmas update that after 30 months in the ground, his coffee trees provided their first bloom followed by bearing cherries (fruit of the tree encasing the coffee bean inside), which should mature in the summer. Their family had many fun trips including Santa Fe NM with a 1,700-foot vertical drop on powder with no lift lines, a few weeks in Fair Haven and NYC, and camping in northern AZ. My family will be having a fun weekend in June when one of our daughters gets married at the Basilica at ND followed by the reception in the Downes Club in Corbett Family Hall, which is the football stadium. I pursued one of my passions these last 12 months and took a class to become a certified functional medicine health coach. Taking tests, studying and Zoom classes were not in my five-year plan in 2018. Life is funny. I am excited for this avenue to help people feel better. My next challenge is learning now to build a website. LOL. I hope you all are pursuing your passions. I never thought at 58 years old that I would have fun going back to school. Please send me any updates of visits with ND MBA friends or fun events. I look forward to hearing from you. My next deadline is July 20. — Tricia Hug Schorr; 317-987-5000; thugschorr@yahoo.com
93JD Better Late than Never
Despite my promise to attend, I did not make the Sun Bowl, because it was in El Paso and, in the words of REM, you can’t get there from here (at least not without a three-day travel commitment). But, others could and did. Erin Bartholomy, Dave Birks, Dave Haimes and Kate Smith were all spotted in El Paso for a mini-reunion in the Southwest watching an Irish blowout win. I returned to campus on President’s Day weekend for a tour with my high school junior. Unfortunately, a planned reunion with Jamie O’Brien was thwarted by illness, but I’m hoping a fall visit for football will allow for a raincheck. Mary Yu was this year’s recipient of the Graciela Olivarez Award. This award, which is named for the first woman and first Latina to graduate from Notre Dame Law School, is presented annually by the Notre Dame Hispanic Law Student Association to a Hispanic attorney or judge who exemplifies Ms. Olivarez’s ideals, including a strong commitment to community service, high ethical and moral standards and a dedication to justice. Congratulations to Justice Yu on her fine career and on this recognition. And a special thanks to Maureen Smith, who assisted in getting Mary to campus in time for the ceremony. Finally, I received an update on our late classmate Matt Breman’s family from his wife, Rhonda. Their children, Jack and Beth, are now 22 and 20 respectively. Jack is an engineering student at the U of Indianapolis, while Beth is studying elementary education with a minor in special education at Loyola U, Chicago. Rhonda is remarried and started her own firm six years ago, practicing trust and estate, guardianship, and elder law. She is also involved in keeping Matt’s memory alive, as she works to promote the Matt Breman Run 5K. This run is an event sponsored by The Villages (the successor to Prevent Child Abuse Indiana — an organization for which Matt was the president of the board at the time of his death) and is a significant fundraiser for IN’s leading provider of foster care and family services. This information came to me too late to publish here before this year’s event (which took place in April), and I will not pretend to tell anyone how to spend their time or charitable dollars. However, if anyone is interested in participation and/or sponsorship information going forward, please reach out to me and I can put you in touch with Rhonda directly and/or provide you with the information I have on the run. I hope to have a trip to campus scheduled for the fall by the time you read this — likely Columbus Day weekend, but still unconfirmed — and would love to see any old friends who make the trip at the same time, so if you are planning a trip back, please let me know and provide me with an update — as full columns are good columns. Stay well, God bless and Go Irish! — Joe DiRienzo; DiRienzo & DiRienzo, 116 Saint Paul St., Westfield NJ 07090; res 908-812-2765; bus 908-233-6700; jd1@dirienzo-law.com
94 See You at Reunion 2029
Classmates! It was great to see those of you who attended Reunion 2024! We’ll be sharing Reunion updates in the next issue … until then, thanks for those who shared their latest news! Rob Leonard is a partner in Ernst & Young’s M&A practice. He has four children with his wife, Beth. Their oldest, Connor ’20, graduated from ND and is working at Evercore in NYC. Emma is a junior at UNC and is currently studying abroad in Milan, Matthew will play football for Middlebury College next year, and Katie is a sophomore in HS. Rob still maintains lifelong friendships with his ND classmates. His son has also found lifelong ND friendships as well as the deep connections he has made with Rob’s ND friends. John Bolger runs a hypnotherapy practice in Whippany NJ. He started North Jersey Hypnosis back in 2009 and continues to help people with an array of interventions. Keenan roommates Bryant Young and David Reinke both have sons (Bryce and Will, respectively) starting at Notre Dame as freshmen this fall — wouldn’t it be great if they were randomly paired up together in the cinder block palace? Joe Viglietta recently moved to Fort Lauderdale FL with his wife, Christy, where he serves as COO of Dimension Hospitality. His daughters Olivia, Frankie and Zoe live in Indianapolis where they are all focused on their career pursuits. Former Dillon Hall resident Matt Carver now has one granddaughter, Elle, and two grandsons, Ezra and Tate. Matt retired as a lieutenant colonel from the Iowa Army National Guard in 2019, and serves as the attorney for School Administrators of Iowa. Aimée Lafrenière is celebrating 30 years at News Center Maine, where she’s held various roles from programming to public events. Aimée is currently the program and promotion specialist and finds joy in every aspect of her work. Beyond her career, Aimée is a dedicated flutist in the Maine POPS Concert Band and Flute Choir, and fluent in French, Spanish and German. An avid reader, knitter and organic gardener, Aimée embraced sewing during the pandemic, and is now quilting and restoring vintage sewing machines. Aimée’s son, Luke, is a talented carpenter and photographer, while she and her partner, Will, savor simple pleasures like cooking together and exploring ME with their two German shepherds. Kevin Hui has been in Irvine CA for the past 16 years with his wife, Olivia. They have two sons, Isaiah (11) and Jonah (9), who this past fall got their first opportunity to attend a ND home football game and visit with their cousin, Kevin’s goddaughter/niece Madeline Huie ’26, on campus. Kevin currently serves as the executive director of educational equity and excellence at UC Irvine. His now 27-year career in higher education started at the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs at ND. After 11 years as the policy counsel at the Supreme Court of OH, Alicia Feehery Wolf will now take on the role of deputy director at the Ohio Public Defender. Keep the updates coming to ndclass1994@yahoo.com! — Elizabeth Macor Groupp; elizabethgroupp@gmail.com; Matt Cannizzo; mcannizz@nd.edu
94MBA Class Secretary — Rodger Laurite;
678-644-0422; rodgerlaurite@hotmail.com
94JD Save the Date
A reminder that our annual unofficial reunion will be the Florida State game Nov. 9. Please send any Class news. — Doug Duncan; pdouglasduncanjr@yahoo.com
95 Celebrating Milestones
A group of Farley’s Finest gathered from all corners of the US to celebrate their big 5-0. Molly (Crosby) Curran (Portland OR), Christy (Peters) Hoeft (San Diego CA), Susan (Maher) Junker (Fredericksburg TX), Susie (Atchinson) Lohman (Roswell GA), Cara (Conway) Hermacinski (Zionsville IN), Marybeth (Ficco) Connolly (Needham MA), Kelly (O’Neill) Moller (St. Paul MN) and Rebecca (Law) Kell (Durham NH) all gathered for a weekend celebrating fun and friendship in La Jolla CA. This group has produced five next-generation Domers and has met virtually every year since graduation. A group from Grace celebrated their 50th birthdays in Phoenix with golf, hiking and pickleball. Eric Wozniak, Dave Ring, John Long, Scott Stearns, Mike Van der Ven, Charlie Hanger, Andy Caspersen and Kevin Baumer attended. John Baer and Luke Anderson were missing due to injury/illness. They had fun and reminisced about storming the field in 1993, Late Night Olympics and CJ’s. Last summer, Brian Flanagan organized a golf trip to Ireland for a group of Alumni Dawgs, to celebrate their milestone birthdays. Tommy Elke, Michael Hanley, Mike Iorio, Christopher Onderdonk, Patrick Sackley, Pat Bloom, Brendan Rowe, Tom War, Bill Cooney, Mark Frigon and Brian McCarthy all made the trip. It was an amazing trip and the group treasured the lifelong ND friendships. Mandy (Cully) Niekamp recently got together with PW roommates Beth (Fehring) Tezak and Elizabeth (Fennen) Beem and their families for skiing and snowmobiling in MT. They are planning on attending the ND-Miami game. Bridget (Graham) ’94 and Dan Thuente and Jean Marie (McElroy) and Scott Buccellato met up over St. Patrick’s Day weekend in NYC. Nick Thuente ’27 joined them. Dan shared that it was great catching up with old friends and just like old times, they were kicked out of the restaurant because they were chatting too much! John Cowan writes that he is still a US Navy SEAL and has been serving as the US Special Operations officer at the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, for the last two years with his wife and daughter. He may finally have to grow up, and he is looking for opportunities to stay on in Africa until his daughter finishes school! John, thank you for your service! Sean Maurer continues to live on the beach in Castelldefels, Spain. His twins, Sofia and Matías, are starting to look at colleges this summer without any undue influence whatsoever. He continues to operate his consulting firm with select projects mainly during the winter. Most importantly, he is ready to welcome visitors, like Mike Van der Ven and Eddie Jamieson, anyone from our Class, or even anyone’s kids backpacking around. Katie (Baimbridge) and Sean Meehan’s daughter Hattie Meehan ’23 graduated last May. Their younger daughter Penny will be attending Notre Dame as part of the Class of 2028! They are thrilled that both girls will get to experience life as a Domer. Kathryn Turner has been a full-time professional artist for 20 years, and this year she is the featured artist in Thomasville GA for their Wildlife Arts Festival on Nov. 15-17 supporting the Thomasville Center for the Arts. Currently her painting of a hummingbird is on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post! Thank you for sharing all the wonderful updates. Stay tuned for more updates next quarter. Go Irish! — Molly Donius Boscarino; 745 LeBrun Road, Amherst NY 14226; 412-304-8469; mdboscarino@alumni.nd.edu
95MBA Class Secretary — Renee Werner;
134 Willow Blvd., Willow Springs IL 60480; 773-528-3929; renee.werner@alumni.nd.edu
95JD Class Secretary — Julia Meister;
meister@taftlaw.com
96 Summer Updates
Kudos to Brian McCaffrey, who recently received the Engineer of the Year award from the Long Island chapter of the NY State Society of Professional Engineers. Brian is presently the chief engineer of the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island. Tom Lynch is currently living in The Hague and serving as the senior adviser to the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, where Tom has been integrally involved with the conflicts in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza over the past two years. Bryan Connolly writes that Alex Montoya and Cort Peters traveled to Boston last November, where Alex was the keynote speaker at the Diversity & Inclusion Day event at law firm DLA Piper (Bryan is the managing partner of the firm’s Boston office). Bryan noted that he would highly recommend Alex to any classmates who have opportunities for speakers at DEI events held by their workplaces. Alex has written eight books and his company, A-Motivational Communications, creates inspiring in-person and virtual talks. In 2020, he also launched a podcast, as well as the Alex Montoya Foundation to promote the inclusion of disability and immigrant communities. You can learn more — and support Alex’s work — at alexmontoya.org. Cort Peters also provided updates on himself and a number of our classmates. Cort is living in San Diego, where he owns a business called Senior Helpers, which provides in-home elder care. He is also the godfather to Ryan Schroeder’s youngest son, Colin, who had a role on Days of Our Lives. Cort reports that Pat Carroll recently moved back to San Diego after living on a dairy farm in Ireland while working for the Vatican the past three years. Amanda (Briggs) Angaiak also recently moved to San Diego, where she is a school principal, after spending the last 25 years in Fairbanks AK. Other San Diego visitors include Anne Stricherz and Pat ’99 and Tim Mousaw. Sara Montrose is a program officer with the Weingart Foundation, which is a private grantmaking foundation advancing racial, social and economic justice in Southern CA. She is also the godmother to Cort’s oldest child. Several Indianapolis-based classmates, including Tom Boyce, JB Boyd, Tom Bradshaw and Chris Wu, visited Dean Wikenheiser in MN for the Colts/Vikings game. In February, Analise Taylor met Patrick Brereton ’04, in Krakow, Poland, for the first time. Both are residents of this gorgeous European city. Peggy Barber ’85 of Grand Rapids MI stopped by the first week of March and left with a suitcase full of Polish food items. Thank you so much to all of you who sent updates — I hope you all are well! — Kate Crisham; catherine.crisham@usdoj.gov
96MBA Class Secretary — Maureen Maher;
ndmba96news@hotmail.com
96JD Home, Work and Play
Joy Smith ’89, ’96JD and her husband, Michael Lieberth ’90, continue to enjoy life in Glens Falls NY. Their oldest daughter, Katherine, is a freshman at Notre Dame and loves campus life. Tim Gerend was elected by Northwestern Mutual’s board of trustees to serve as the company’s next CEO, effective Jan. 1, 2025. Tim will transition from his current role of executive VP, chief distribution officer. Chris Spataro attended a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field in early April. It was 36 degrees with a mix of sleet and rain. He was reminded of the frigid Class trip to Wrigley Field in April of 1994! If you have any personal or professional updates to share for our next issue, please contact me. — Chris Spataro; 57027 Wedgefield Court, Elkhart IN 46516; 574-596-2417; chrisjspataro@gmail.com
97 Traveling the US
It sounds like our Class has been doing some exciting travel around the USA to catch up with fellow classmates. None other than our very own Frank Berry has a book coming out on June 4 about an RV trip his wife, Laurel, and he took across the old Lincoln Highway, from NYC to San Francisco, during the fall of 2020. It’s called Back Roads and Better Angels: A Journey Into the Heart of American Democracy. It’s a mix of politics, history and culture — and a road trip adventure that ended up lasting for more than seven months — that draws on the spirit of Lincoln to examine how we can hold the country together through deeply divided times. And since the Lincoln Highway runs directly through South Bend (right past CJ’s), there is some important ND history in it, too. They also visited with a few Domers along the way, and the chapter about their time in Denver includes a visit with Ryan Smith ’98 and his wife, Tennaly Fortier, and their three boys. It’s gotten some very positive praise, including from Ken Burns and Walter Isaacson. Please check out the link to see all the excitement about the book: penguinrandomhouse.com/books/748708. Former Howard Ducks Kelly Garrone, Amy (Shulkowski) Cusack, Bridget (Davin) Fesenmeier, Sarah (Lynch) Tardiff, Nicole Deddens and Amy Martin Winhoven traveled from NY, NJ, Cincinnati, Chicago, LA and San Diego to meet up for the first time as a group since graduation. Their trip to Scottsdale AZ was an amazing opportunity to catch up, laugh, eat fabulous tacos and start making plans for their next trip to see each other again. Please stay safe and healthy. Please send all updates to — Kate (Fisher) Murray; 1840 Huntingdon Road, Huntingdon Valley PA 19006; kmurraynd@yahoo.com
97MBA Another Fun, Fact-Filled Update
Joy Gaffud-Vase emailed to say she enjoys reading the Class Notes updates each quarter. Joy spent spring break in Singapore and loved it. Her husband, Suhas, had a work project for two weeks there, and Joy and her son spent a week just exploring the city and all the hawker food markets. On the job front, her bank expanded her area for supervision and Joy is now managing a new team and a new product as well. Joy’s son is 12, plays a lot of tennis and is patient with all of Joy’s questions about his school. Anthony Jowid is on the move again! Anthony has left LA and moved back to Denver. He recently had dinner and drinks at the home of Paola (Gonzalez) and Paul Silva ’98MBA. Ant-Man was texting me his update from Vietnam, where he was hanging out with Paul and Chuck O’Neal ’98MBA. Tim Coff, one of my most reliable and consistent travel journalists over the years, reports that he met up with Katie (Wolsfeld) Moll near O’Hare earlier this year. Tim also hung out with Raissa (Dietrich) Carvatta and husband Tony as well as Jenn and Stu Fortener in Chicago. As proof of this encounter, Tim sent me a photo. If you would like to see the photo, just text me at the cell number below and I will share it with you. Tim also informed me that Mike Dion has been rallying support for a caravan trip to Purdue next season, just like the famous 1995 West Lafayette Excursion Extravaganza you may all fondly recall. Or perhaps, like me, your memory of this trip is a bit foggy. Either way, feel free to reach out to Mike directly if interested in joining the caravan. I had the opportunity to catch up with J.J. Evans. J.J. was reminiscing about places we used to hang out at during our time at ND. One of the food establishments we laughed about was Fazoli’s, and their marketing of “unlimited breadsticks.” Fazoli’s never ventured into the NY market, probably unable to compete in the already oversaturated Italian eatery market here. However, I was surprised to learn they have 31 locations in IN, with their Mishawaka location still going strong. In total Fazoli’s has 206 restaurants in the US. But I digress. It would be great to hear from some of our other MBA alumni such as Weigang-Bo, Rich Crandall, Tom Traynor, Joe Foppiano, Joe Fanning, Vanessa Hobbs, Bill Asch, Rishi Sadarangani, Chris Ludwig, Paul Pertusi, Brad Caraway, Al Taboada and Adam Jones. Here in NY things are good. Many of the venues we partner with continue to see an increase in audience attendance. Last year we launched a series of shows out on the east end of Long Island in the Hamptons, and this summer we are working on relaunching a series of shows in the Berkshires after a four-year hiatus after the pandemic. As always, no AI was used in the editing of this class column, although I am planning on testing out Copilot in a future edition of this column. Feel free to text, email or dial me up. You can find me on LinkedIn as Paul Anthony, cell: 646-584-7340, email at paulanthonymba@gmail.com. Thanks to all the MBAs that helped make this column possible. It is always great to hear from you all. Stay well and let’s keep in touch! Your faithful Class Secretary, — Paul Anthony Mongelluzzo; 646-584-7340; paulanthonymba@gmail.com
97JD Recent Promotions
Mike Whatley was named the Republican National Committee’s new chair in March. Also in March, Bill Lehman was promoted to the position of senior vice president and general counsel at Cambia Health Solutions based in Portland OR. Congratulations to Mike and Bill! Jack and I recently enjoyed speaking with Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Jesse Barrett ’96, ’99JD at an event in DC. Please send me any updates as I’m always looking for material for Class Notes. Go Irish! — Julie Vales; cell 973-727-5767; juliemvales@gmail.com; john.vales@dentons.com
98 Football 2024
Please keep an eye out for a communication from Beth Nolan and the Class of ’98 regarding a block of tickets that were reserved for our Class for a game this upcoming season. We do not know which game it will be yet, but wanted to put it on your radar. If you have any questions and want to reach out directly regarding this, please email Beth (bnolan1679@gmail.com) or me. Have a wonderful summer and Go Irish! — Bob Flannery; rflannery98@gmail.com
98MBA A Few Updates from the Boys
Dan Marchetti’s daughter Belle graduated from Notre Dame in May with a degree in science business and has gone to work for Eli Lilly down in Indianapolis. Dan himself is the CFO at Urschel, the global leader in food-cutting technology. Doug Rosien wrote in from his new home in Hampden MA, where he recently moved for a promotion to director of managed care at Baystate Health. Mike Riegel started in a new role as CEO of ScaleHub in January. The company is an AI startup that was based in Berlin but wanted their new CEO in the USA as they grow their North American market presence. Liz Riegel also started a new role last fall as the head of campus ministry at UNC Chapel Hill’s Newman Catholic Center, and now that they are empty nesters, both of them are enjoying hanging out on a college campus again! So, let’s go, MBA ’98 ladies … we need news! Your turn. Remember the next unofficial ND MBA ’98 gathering is Oct. 26 at MetLife Stadium in NJ as the Irish take on Navy. Contact Katelyn Dyer for deets! — Mark Holloway; mholloway@alumni.nd.edu
98JD Class Secretary — Chris Putt;
mobile 574-514-3703; crputt@gmail.com
99 Class Secretary — Ryan D. Costantini;
414 S. Notre Dame Ave., South Bend IN 46617; mobile: 574-339-8050; ryan.costantini@gmail.com
99MBA Class Secretary — Christy (Hayes) King;
christyking@alumni.nd.edu
99JD Class Secretary — Steve Boettinger;
boettinger@alumni.nd.edu