Class Notes

NEWS OF 1996

From Deb Yuengling Ferhat:

I’m happy to announce that I am a mom again. My husband, Joe, and I had a girl, Lauren Deborah, on May 18.

Melissa Manco is engaged to T. J. Cummings, and their wedding is set for October 16.

Jenna MacDonald was married August 21, and the new couple has broken ground for the home they’re building.

Carissa Barillari Wright received her master’s degree in school counseling in May.

J. P. Orlando and his wife, Missy, added twin girls to their family: Madison and Natalie, born April 26. J. P. told me that Kevin Edwards is head golf pro at Riverview Country Club in Easton.

Tara Jardine works for Marshall Retail Group in Las Vegas. Tammy Tracy Peek and Michael Peek ’95 are moving back east from Utah. Michael is on the faculty at William Patterson University in Wayne, N.J.

Darren Hoch and his wife, Aleta, are doing well in Los Angeles. They live near the beach in El Segundo. Darren works for Accenture in technical training. He also started a large nonprofit computer consulting organization, which has shipped more than 40 computers to hospitals in Vietnam as well as donating computers locally.

From the Alumni House:

Catherine Vrsan Johns adopted a Great Dane, Obi, and began to help the adoption group Mid-Atlantic Great Dane Rescue League. She became its media team-leader, and her degree in journalism with a minor in graphic design has helped the league find good homes for these animals. In addition, she is involved in a community awareness campaign whose spokeswoman, Drea de Matteo, is better known for her role on The Sopranos.

Tennant Magee has left the State’s Attorney’s Office for Baltimore City, where he has been a prosecutor in the felony narcotics division, to become a partner in the law firm of Swain, Westreicht & Magee in Wall, N.J. He has also become engaged to Bryn Lacey from Wall. The wedding is set for January 8 at St. Catherine’s Church in Spring Lake, N.J.

NEWS OF 1995

From Krisa Murray Arzayus:

From the Alumni House: Philip Grohe and Catherine Shiels ’94 are engaged and plan a 2005 wedding. Cathy is an attorney and partner in the law firm of Golden, Rothschild, Spagnola, Lundell, Levitt & Boylan.

NEWS OF 1994

From Ann Schlottmann:

Michele Fritz wrote in February. She is attending graduate school in social work at Bryn Mawr College, in addition to working for Lehigh County Children and Youth Services. Michele lives in Emmaus.

Joan Vargo Krem dropped me a note in mid-March to say she and her husband, Christopher, have a new son, Gabriel Joseph, born February 20.

Melanie Ruberg Bigsby also sent word in March that she and James welcomed Mark Samuel, born November 21, 2003.

Elizabeth Bruzda DeLarato and her husband, Matthew DeLarato ’93, celebrated the birth of their first child, Ava Bruzda, on May 4.

As for me, I can’t believe that I’ll be in my fifth year as sports information director at Randolph- Macon College. This will be my eighth year overall as a full-time SID. I’m very lucky. It’s a crazy life, but I love my job. I had the pleasure of seeing the Lady Greyhounds softball team play in the Division III finals in May, and I was so proud of my alma mater!

Please note that I am using a new e-mail address to save on my business e-mail.

From the Alumni House:

Nancy Sophy’s art work was exhibited in the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts in the spring.

NEWS OF 1993

From the Alumni House:

Michael Pierce received a Ph.D. in biochemistry and spent a postdoctoral year at Princeton University. Now he is establishing a biotech firm.

Todd Zaninelli married his fiancée, Jessica, May 21 in Allaire State Park Chapel, Farmington, N.J. The reception was held at the Breakers on the Ocean in Spring Lake, N.J. and they honeymooned in St. Lucia. Moravians in attendance included Martin Marion, Jim ’94 and Michelle Morrison, Jeff Altemose ’91, Frank Esposito ’94, and Lisa Veran ’94.

NEWS OF 1992

From the Alumni House:

Tracey Rabbitt is engaged to Keith Peterson, and they plan a wedding early in 2005.

Catherine Argyros lives in Philadelphia but spends time in Clearwater, Fla., during the winter months. She has two daughters and a granddaughter. Her daughter, Nicole Nye, married an Australian, Frank Azzoperdi, and both are attorneys on Wall Street. Her other daughter, Alexis, is a curator in Cherry Hills, Colo. She is married to Dr. Scott McGlynn, and they have one daughter, Grace Catherine.

NEWS OF 1991

From the Alumni House:

Suzanne Kmet Diaz and her husband, Bill, are delighted to announce the arrival of Victoria Ann, born July 26. She has a 3 year-old brother, Nicholas Joseph. Kate Bochnak Burke ’91 is thrilled to be her godmother.

Mark Fielding sent this: “It is with great sadness that I write to inform you of the untimely passing of Matthew R. McGill, who succumbed to cancer on October 31. He is survived by his wife, Lisa Garger McGill, and three children, Zachary, 8, Megan, 4, and Justin, 3. Please keep them and his friends and co-workers in your thoughts and prayers in the coming months.” Lisa is a past member of the Alumni Association board of directors. She can be reached at mfieldingmath@msn.com.

NEWS OF 1990

From the Alumni House:

Bryon Grigsby participated in Harvard University’s Institute for Educational Management this summer. This is an intensive four-week program for senior executives of colleges and universities to assist them in developing leadership and management skills.

NEWS OF 1989

From Kerri Selland Pepoy:

I am in the process of relocating to Auburn, Maine, because my husband accepted a new job with his company. My new home address will appear in the Winter 2005 issue of the magazine. In the meantime, please send your news and updates to my e-mail address, which remains the same.

From the Alumni House:

Audrey Bartholomew Hooper has been living in Huntington Beach, Calif., for the past four years. She married Don Hooper on December 29, 2003. Don is in the Marine Corps, and they will be living in Japan for the next three years.

NEWS OF 1988

From the Alumni House:

Kim Dunphy Scott recently went back to work full-time and just finished her first year as the director of admissions and public relations at Gwynedd Mercy Academy in Gwynedd Valley. Her husband, Peter, has fully recovered from surgery last year. Their twins, Shannon and Mary Kate, turned 7 this past summer and started first grade.

NEWS OF 1987

From Diane Hvizdak Taylor:

I received a letter from Lisa Hellinger Baldwin. She and her husband, Mike, moved to Vermont last year so Mike could attend law school. Lisa recently joined Coldwell Banker in nearby Quechee as a real estate agent.

NEWS OF 1986

From the Alumni House:

Rev. William C. Sibert Jr. has been named executive director of the Board of World Mission for the Moravian Church in North America. Among his many positions with the church, he has worked as a missionary in Honduras. As the holder of a master’s degree in information science from the University of North Carolina, he helped the Seminary with its distance learning and information sharing programs with Latin American theological institutions. He and his wife, Kim, have two daughters, Maria and Anna.

NEWS OF 1985

In the real world, Jens Scott is sitting on a couch in the Radisson Hotel Bethlehem on a gray October afternoon, a few hours before receiving the Young Alumni Achievement Award.

In his professional world, the raindrops spider-webbing down the lobby windows don't exist. The walls of the hotel are computer animations. The floor is just a figment of technological imagination.

A 1994 graduate with a B.A. in studio art, William Jens Scott is head of one of the few computer-graphics companies in the world involved with virtual sets, a technology that improves the graphics in movies, video games, and television.

Scott's company, 3D General, combines real-life objects, such as puppets, and films them in front of a green screen.

After the film has been recorded, the virtual sets, which are 360-degree virtual worlds, are inserted behind the characters, giving an uncanny realism and crispness to what used to be a choppy endeavor.

"If you look at a movie such as Toy Story, the backgrounds are constantly reproduced each time the camera pans around the environment," said Scott, who obtained his M.F.A. in computer art and animation at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. "With virtual sets, much like in a video game, the sets don't have to be redrawn with each new camera angle, as they are already in place."

Scott has had small computer-animation sequences in The Matrix and Starship Troopers, and he served as computer-graphics supervisor for the Nickelodeon program Lazy Town. His work appears in 52 episodes of the Disney Channel's Book of Pooh, and he's currently working on a pilot for the PBS program Big, Big World.

For Scott, configuring beautifully landscaped virtual worlds and integrating them with real-life objects is as easy as training secret agents in anti-terrorism driving.

No, really.

His father, the senior William Scott, is a former racecar driver and owner of Bill Scott Racing in West Virginia, which is responsible for training FBI and CIA agents, among others, in some pretty nifty automobile stunts. When he needs a break from 3D General, Jens heads to BSR to help train. "We teach agents how to attack, evade, or ram," he said. "What I would really like to do is be able to bring virtual sets into anti-terrorism training."

In the real world, Jens steps on firm ground, walks across real carpet, and heads to Payne Gallery under genuine cold rain. But if he had his way, you'd feel the rain--even if it had been made on his own laptop. Some of Jens Scott's work can be found on his website, www.jwhs.com.

-George R. E. Wacker '03