Megan (Rafferty) Barnes writes, “My sons are now 13, 11, and 6. As the child of generations of teen moms, it's jarring to think I was at Kenyon when my Mom was my age and her Mom was already a grandma! Those both seem so far away for me, but I'm sure they'll be here in what seems like the blink of an eye. My husband Matthew and I recently celebrated our 15th anniversary. I volunteer at a local community food bank and moderate matches for students at the International Academic Competitions for history.”
Joe Beilein continues his trek towards bringing Hollywood and academia together by discussing genealogy and historical context with celebrities on national television. Rumor has it he also recently signed a lucrative hand modeling contract and even retained a hand stuntman for those heavy book passing scenes.
John Campbell has taken up an interest in chess lately and is debating with himself about purchasing some Birkenstocks to round out his new office look. He's also still trying out for the Pro Hydro Rowing circuit. If you have insight on the Birks, please reach out to John.
Eric Christiansen shares, “My family and I still live just outside of hot and humid Atlanta, where I've gotten used to doing yardwork ten months out of the year. I've been working as a pilot for JetBlue for six years now, enjoying almost every minute of it. The best perk might be grabbing dinner with fellow Kenyon alumni during work trips:
Monica Gastelumendi, Isaac Gilman, Nathan Hara, and
Ben Hildebrand, thanks for making time for me during my layovers this past year!”
Dave Contrada recently welcomed a son into his family. He and his wife, Amelia, are enjoying parenthood and The Natures. Dave's fence and deck building skills have developed at a rapid rate and Camp Contrada is looking magnificent these days. Dave loves Detroit Lions Football. Just ask the 11 people on his text chain.
Tom Evans is working out the details for his new cooking show:
Saturday Cooking with Tom. It's like Iron Chef, except Tom is decidedly not a chef, and most of the meals revolve around combining past leftovers with whatever is being cooked for breakfast in an attempt to reduce the net total of leftover presence in the fridge. The "Last Night's Chicken w/ Taco Cheese cooked in today's pancake batter" episode was a hit (serve with hot sauce, avocado slices, scallions and a small dab of sour cream).
Nick and
BJ ’04 Fedor are riding the emotional rollercoaster that is the Cleveland Browns season thus far while rooting for the Cleveland Guardians to keep winning. Nick enjoys the feeling of walking on cloudy marshmallows that comes from wearing Hokas and he loves keeping things icy cold with his various Yeti models.
Jesse Gregory is the proud owner of a new Suburban and remains the odds-on favorite for “most athletic” should his students choose to challenge him. He's also thinking about entering the professional sports mascot field to see how he stacks up at a national level.
Nathan Hara writes, “My family and I had an amazing trip to Peru in June and we were lucky enough to spend some quality time with
Monica Gastelumendi and visit her amazing vocal music school. I’m also happy to announce that we’re headed back to Mexico this summer as I’ve accepted a position at the U.S. Consulate.”
Andrew Joyce keeps traveling from place to place. Last seen frequenting Iceland....or was it Norway? Days later he was seen in the Canadian countryside making poolside pizzas with
Jon Kopy. While this sounds like a mundane activity for most of us, given the rural location Andrew's current facial hair puts him at risk if any enthused Sasquatch hunters are in the area.
Justin Karpinos and
Ashley (Rowatt) Karpinos “are still in Nashville, TN with fourth-grade and second-grade boys keeping us busy!” Ashley recently accepted the Program Director position for the Vanderbilt Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Residency Program and will begin on July 1. Justin is back in the classroom teaching more and acclimating to the first year not coaching high school swimming, but has become a USA swimming official and is happy to stay involved in the sport in some capacity. “We are aspiring to complete the trifecta of hearing
Doran Danoff, Justin Conn ’00, and
Chris Meyers ’02 perform live in concert here in Music City this year.”
Jon Kopy has a new Ford Bronco on order and was recently seen in
Andrew Joyce's pool with an oversized inflatable flamingo. This evidence, coupled with the size of the television he brings to U of Michigan Football games reveals he is still living his best life and spreading joy far and wide. Look for the shiny Bronco outside his nephews' football games and stop by to say hello. If you need a conversation topic, ask him about the Detroit Lions and their head coach, Dan Campbell.
Josh Karren is up and at 'em for those 6:00 AM little league games and loving it. A strict no sleeves policy is enforced on his teams and it's been hypothesized that he is so focused on the season that he has missed a lot of the crucial insights into the Detriot Lions provided by
Jon Kopy and
Dave Contrada.
Matt Latuchie recently joined
Jon Kopy for a Michigan fueled Football Fest. He attended both a Lions game AND a U of M game. He's also had fun joining the ex-Mrs. Carrottop and the ex-Mrs. Nic Cage for dinner in his hometown of Las Vegas.
Josh and
Beth ’04 Pike took the family up to see
Dave Contrada in Vermont at Camp Contrada this summer. They report that the pool temp is ideal and the company is delightful. Back home Josh upgraded his home office situation to something a little less "dungeon-y" and still enjoys his Peloton workouts. The Pikes have a shared new hobby of mailbox security device development.
Daniel Johnson shares, “My husband, Vidur, and I recently moved to Fort Greene, Brooklyn, after living in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan for the past six years (we stayed through the pandemic). I’m currently working as a lawyer at the firm Leader Berkon Colao & Silverstein, focusing on commercial litigation. In other news, I'm doing a podcast called
Phi Fic where a few contributors and I discuss literature from a philosophical perspective. You can find us on Apple and Google podcasts if you search for
Phi Fic. You can also follow us on Twitter at
@PhiFicpodcast.”
Morgan Ogilvie reports, “My husband,
Joel Rice ’01 and I are loving life in Franklin, TN (a Cheeveresque-enclave not unlike Kenyon with fewer anachronists). We lived in California for two years while I earned my MFA at CALARTS in 2020 where I had to live amongst the youth. We are happy to be back home but return regularly to LA to visit professors and friends.”
Natalie Philpot is living the proverbial dream in Southern Vermont and is stoked to be heading back to Gambier for our 20th Reunion this Spring. She is currently still the Programs Coordinator at a local nonprofit that provides substance misuse education to over 300 young people and their caring adults in the beautiful Green Mountains. Apparently, she's pretty good at her job, as she's won some awards recently for her work, which is pretty sweet. Her daughters still tolerate her, although her fifth grader is soon getting to the point of mom being completely embarrassing all the time. She's still a single mom with two cats and is currently trying to figure out the right combination of wit and candor for her online profile in an effort to meet her next ex-husband.
Rose (Talbert) Morse writes, “While in Maryland this spring, I went to the Maryland Chicken Wing Festival. I entered the Chicken Wing Eating Contest, and came in second place.
Megan Rafferty Barnes was there with her family to film the whole thing. (Oh, and I got married in October, with
Xander Piper ’04 as my officiant, but that's less important).
Bob Snow writes, “I'm currently working as Head Writer for a new Skydance show that will premiere on Apple TV+ called
The Search for WondLa. I live in Los Angeles with my wife, Ruth, and we are expecting our third daughter in December.”
