Last week, to mark both Memorial Day and our 96th full-length episode of Roads Taken, we presented the first in this two-part series in which we remember those classmates in Dartmouth’s Class of 1996 who have died. In this second of two memorial episodes, we remember nine of the nineteen classmates who have died. Although their roads were too short, their stories stay with us.
Last week, to mark both memorial day and our 96th full-length episode of Roads Taken, we presented the first in this two-part series in which we remember those classmates in Dartmouth’s Class of 1996 who have died. Although their roads were too short, their stories stay with us.
In this second of two episodes, we remember nine of the nineteen classmates who have died:
Katherine Domingo
Grier Laughlin
Leigh Warren
Pei Lynn Yee
Maribel Sanchez Souther
Tom McClure
Andre Junior
Jason York
Russell Dalferes
[A transcript of the brief remembrances is available.]
We remember our friends today and always.
If you have any additional words of remembrance for any of the classmates discussed on today’s episode, please visit the Roads Taken show page within Apple Podcasts and write a review filled with your memories. Or leave us a note through the Contact Us link at RoadsTakenShow.com.
May the memories of our time together and these lives that intertwined with ours be reminders to make the most of our time on Earth, and to be grateful for our own Roads Taken.
Leslie Jennings Rowley: Last week, to mark both memorial day and our 96th full-length episode of Roads Taken, we presented the first in this two-part series in which we remember those classmates in Dartmouth’s Class of 1996 who have died. If you have not yet listened to that episode, please go back to hear about the short but powerful lives of Sarah Devens, Phil Deloria, Heidi Hatchel, John Higgins, Dean Maragos, Chris Ostoj, Jeremiah Thompson, John Cocoziello, Kimberly Williams, and Tim Farrell. Today, we remember the remaining nine classmates who are no longer living.
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Fifteen years after we left Dartmouth, in 2011, Katherine Domingo—known variously as Kathy, Katy, or Kat—died following an eight-year battle with breast cancer. She will be remembered as a UGA in the River Cluster and as a chamber singer with a big smile and a huge heart. Born in the Philippines, Kat immediately moved to Bloomington, Indiana after our Dartmouth graduation, earning her master’s and doctoral degrees at the prestigious Jacobs School of Music at the University of Indiana, where she was also a full-time faculty member for four years. In 2004, she was a Fulbright Fellow in the Philippines, studying the choral music of her native country for her dissertation on Philippine nationalism and music. In the last couple of years of her life, she founded and directed the Bloomington Peace Choir. Her lifelong passion of helping to heal the planet through music, however, began when she was named the assistant director of the International Vocal Ensemble in 1999, for which she was appointed director in 2006. It is said that she considered her battle with cancer to a blessings, in that it provided her an enhanced perspective of the importance of life’s daily miracles and encounters with people. As quoted in Jill Bolte Taylor’s book My Stroke of Genius, Kat believed: “Enlightenment is not a process of learning, it is a process of unlearning.”
The same year as Kat’s death, we lost Grier Laughlin in an auto accident in his native Colorado. A philosophy major at Dartmouth who was social chair at the Psi Upsilon fraternity and captain of the swimming team, Greir was known for his large spirit. After college, he worked in the finance industry, ultimately becoming president of a firm he co-founded, Quintus Financial Services, in Englewood, Colorado. Though Dartmouth gave him his first exposure to water polo through his experience on the club team, he became a champion of the sport for youth in the greater Denver area, becoming a beloved swimming AND water polo coach and founder of Colorado Water Polo. Grier, a father of three, will be remembered for his love of hard work, humor, and movie quotes.
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Active in both Chamber Singers and the Wind Symphony, Leigh Warren was a chemistry major who later worked as a chemist for Roche Diagnostics before obtaining her Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2002. From there her career became more policy focused, when she obtained her J.D. from Columbia University’s School of Law in 2006 and moved into private practice with an emphasis on patent litigation and prosecution. She was awarded a master of laws in health law and policy from American University’s Washington College of Law in 2010. At the time of her death in 2014, she was living Rockville, Maryland, working within the office of general counsel at the public health division of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
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In 2016 we lost two well-loved female classmates to cancer.
Early in the year, Pei Lynn Yee lost a valiant battle with ovarian cancer. Coming to Hanover from Stuyvesant High School in New York City, Pei Lynn majored in both Asian studies and government while at Dartmouth, was a beloved sister of Sigma Delta and was an active member of our class senior executive committee. She went on to obtain a dual M.B.A. and a master’s of science in urban planning from Columbia University in 2001. She had been working as a business analyst in the Houston area for many years—with Motiva Enterprises for the six years prior to her passing and also four years prior with Shell Oil Products. Remembered most for her beaming smile and uplifting personality, Pei Lynn was a valued friend to many.
On the last day of the year, Maribel Sanchez Souther died of complications from breast cancer. Maribel was a standout runner from her arrival at Dartmouth, generally responsible for rebuilding the women’s distance team. She won the 1994 US Junior Cross Country Championship & represented the United States at the Junior World Championships in Hungary. She won two Ivy League titles in Cross Country, three in Indoor Track, three in Outdoor Track and led the 1996 cross country team to a fifth place NCAA finish—for which she had a roadrunner tattoo to prove. She was the first Dartmouth female runner to be an All-American in Cross Country and was a 4-time All American, making her one of Dartmouth’s most outstanding female athletes.Upon graduation she stayed in Hanover running professionally, teaching and coaching the Hanover high school track team. Maribel left the Upper Valley in 1998 to run professionally in Boston and qualified for the 2000 Olympic Trials. An injury forced her not to compete, but she came home with gold anyway, in the form of the love of her life to whom she was married for 13 years and with whom she had three children. In 2002, she accepted an assistant coaching position at Dartmouth and ultimately became the Head Cross Country and Assistant Track Coach in 2003, a position she held until 2010 when she decided to step down to make more time for her family. In remaining active in recreational sports and volunteering with her children’s schools, civic organizations, her church, and the Montshire Museum, she wove an extensive network across the Upper Valley. She will be remembered not just for her athletic achievements but for her giant heart and indomitable spirit.
In 2016, we also lost Tom McClure, to liver disease. At Dartmouth, Tom was involved in track and field, particularly excelling at the high jump with a personal record of 6’9”. He was a double major in Chemistry and English and continued to the University of Texas at Dallas for graduate school in English. He relocated to Seattle to work in IT sales and customer support and became a recognized authority in his field and a consultant to leading corporations nationwide. Tom was born and raised in Richardson, Texas, with the spirit of an outdoorsman who continued throughout his life to spend many hours gardening and sharing his love of fishing. He was described as kind and generous with a keen wit, he was a loyal friend to many
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A classmate said to have been a “man of integrity” was Andre Junior, who died in 2018 in Washington, D.C., as a victim of gun violence. Born and raised in Allendale, South Carolina, Dre—as he was known—ultimately settled in Maryland where he was living with his wife and daughter at the time of his death. He was a sociology major at Dartmouth and secretary of the Afro-American Society. As anyone who met him knew, he was a people person who could walk beside just about anyone as a friend. As one classmate said “This son of Dartmouth had a razor-sharp intellect, beautiful smile, and easygoing personality. It’s telling that many of his friends from all points of his life remembered him as ‘good people.’ That was Dre, good, good people.”
Another unexpected death came the following year when Jason York died after suffering a heart attack. Jason, who had been a government major and member of Native Americans at Dartmouth, resided in Madison, Mississippi, where he was an executive at Pearl River Resort in Choctaw, his employer for nearly 22 years. He left behind his wife and six adopted children. Long-time friend and fellow member of the Tabard Shervyn von Hoerl remembers fondly visiting Jason on his reservation lands in Mississippi to experience the Choktaw annual festival. “He was so proud of his heritage and so welcoming to me there. Not a week goes by that I don’t think of him.”
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Just last month, another classmate, Russell Dalferes, joined this list of classmates taken from us too soon. Known to friends as “Rusty” and for giving some of the warmest, longest hugs, he passed away at his home in North Carolina. As he was originally from New Orleans, everyone knew he was destined to return home, and he did end up going to law school at Tulane. He was a practicing lawyer but found one of his strongest professional communities after becoming a dedicated volunteer with the International Law Students Association and a longtime judges coordinator for the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, where he developed a comprehensive judge recruitment and assignment system and built a global judging corps. Rusty was the best man at the wedding of Aaron Brooks, fellow ’96, his SAE fraternity brother, fellow law-school mate and even roommate. He remarks that Rusty was “One of my best friends ever and absolutely horrendous to live with. We could not go for more than 3 minutes without insulting each other because that is how we told each other that we cared. We would argue about the most ridiculous stuff ever and love every moment of it. We once missed our exit and drove 2 hours past Hanover because we were arguing about the exploration of third-word countries by multi-national corporations. I have such a big hole in my heart right now that I can't express it.”
Aaron, we all have holes in our hearts—for Rusty and the other classmates who are no longer with us. But as a little-sung verse of the Dartmouth alma mater reminds us: “The mother keeps them in her heart And guards their altar flame; The still north remembers them, The hillwinds know their name, And the granite of new Hampshire Keeps the record of their fame; And the granite of new Hampshire Keeps the record of their fame.”
Their roads might have been short, but their stories and their lives will live on with us. If you have any additional words of remembrance for any of our departed classmates, please visit the Roads Taken show page within Apple Podcasts and write a review filled with your memories. Or leave us a note through the Contact Us link at RoadsTakenShow.com.
May the memories of our time together and these lives that intertwined with ours be reminders to make the most of our time on Earth, and to be grateful for our own ROADS TAKEN.