CLASS NOTES | SUMMER 2024 | 63 class correspondents. So, I must say thank you for reading this column, and if you have enjoyed it, please contribute. We want to hear your life stories, new stories about you, your family, your friends, our classmates. As of this writing, Reunion is coming up soon, and I hope to meet you there with stories of your wonderful lives and some old Lehigh stories as well. Until then … ’85 Jennifer Sheehan, (240) 401-3724, jksheehan@aol.com Congratulations to Sue Coursen, who was elected to the Lehigh Athletics Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2024. From the announcement: “A defensive standout, Sue Coursen was one of the top performers on Lehigh’s outstanding women’s lacrosse teams in the early 1980s. A three-time ECC All-Star, Coursen was recognized as a second-team IWLCA All-American in each of her final two seasons. As a senior in 1985, Coursen captained the Brown and White to a 13-3 season that included an East Coast Conference championship and a No. 8 national ranking. In her junior season, Coursen was a member of the Lehigh team that defeated Loyola in double overtime in the NCAA tournament and advanced to the quarterfinals. A 1985 Lehigh graduate, Coursen received the Mary O. Hurley Leadership Award, given to Lehigh’s outstanding senior female leader. After graduation, Coursen spent more than a quarter-century working for Bristol Meyers Squibb before retiring last June.” I went back to our good-old Epitome yearbook from 1985 and see that Sue is the second woman on that stellar lacrosse team to be elected to the Hall of Fame. Karyn Yost-Thomson was also recently named. The three captains our year were Karyn, Sue and Missy Miller. Each was named multiple times to the ECC all-star team. I had a chance during Mike’s reunion to visit the Athletic Hall of Fame space in Taylor Gym and highly recommend it. There are so many stellar athletes from our time there; we are well represented! I’ve got trips planned in the next couple of months to New York and North Carolina to visit friends from Lehigh. If you have any upcoming reunions, please let me know how you all are doing and what you are up to. I would appreciate it, and I know our classmates would as well. ’86 Dave Polakoff, 400 E. 71st St., #3K, New York, NY 10021. david@ dpolakoff.com. “I know something, it might be nothing. I know something that you don’t know.” (Modern English) Gayle (Fay) Higgins ’88 and TJ Higgins swapped Nashville for Vero Beach (home to Dan Diehl) and Stone Harbor, N.J., as TJ tired not just of working for Bridgestone, but of the treads of working. Daughter Shannon and husband Chandler are in Stamford, Conn.; son Luke is in Manhattan, with an advertising software company, The Trade Desk; and son Cole is an LSU senior. TJ, with Theta Chis, celebrated Rich Bastian’s son’s autumn wedding in Philly. Frank Muneo and TJ celebrated Rich’s LXth birthday (technically his XVth, born Feb. 29), visiting Rich’s Springfield, Pa., hometown and then funneling off to Lehigh’s Theta Chi chapter house. Kari (Hackbarth) Arienti’s started a fragrance consulting firm, AromoKnowledge, as well as a candle company, Atelier Arienti. As often happens, Kari then hopped onboard a client, Quintessence Fragrances, opening a U.S. office. Bethlehem Steel’s sulfur stench never had Kari consider a perfumery career, but voila, it happened. Kari coaches Ski Butternut’s (Great Barrington, Mass.) Alpine Ski racing. Is “butternut” a fragrance? Can you keep a candle burning whilst skiing? Inquiring minds want to know! Trish (Morrow) Dwyer ’87 and Kevin Dwyer have four kids—none attended Lehigh (three, Villanova; one, Alabama); daughter Meghan has a 2024 wedding. Kevin reports: 1) Marty Horn is a partner in Madison, N.J.’s historic Bottle Hill Tavern (once visited by he who has an Easton, Pa., college named for him); 2) Jim Cronin bought a Michigan lake home; 3) Mike Androlewicz owns Cherry Hill, N.J.’s Battery Plus. San Francisco-based Beth (Grindlay) Walton ’84 and Wes Walton have one son who is an NCO, aboard the U.S.S. Virginia (nuclear powered, cruise missile attack submarine), whilst another son attends college in San Francisco. Wes spent 25 years in publishing and advertising with PC Magazine and is a 20-year volunteer with the Julian Food Pantry. Brenda (Mullen) Sampiere spent part of the winter furnishing a home in Ericeira, Portugal, currently occupied by daughter Elle (@elle_sampiere), a professional surfer and content creator. Jeff Roth ’85 and Regie (Buchsbaum) Roth had a celebratory June—their 38th anniversary and wedding of son Brian. Regie is senior operations manager at Princeton, N.J.’s Climate Central, an independent group of scientists and communicators researching and reporting climate change impact. Regie founded and chairs Action Africa Giving Circle, a group of USA women assisting vulnerable women, children and families on the African continent (actionafricagivingcircle.org). Having represented juvenile clients in delinquency and dependency court for 34 years, Rich Simon retired as a Montgomery County, Pa., public defender. Rich volunteers as a literacy tutor, joined the local Rotary Club and focuses on his own physical fitness. (Rich, Jack LaLanne DVDs are still being sold!) Steve French raised his hand at what turned out to be an inopportune moment and is now director of Lehigh County Soccer Fields Association, where he also runs the over-40 and over-50 leagues. John Marren and Kappa Alphas Bill Phelan, Joel Field, Bob Klein, John Schneider and Eric Levy enjoyed an autumn Poconos weekend, including foosball and (paddle) beer pong tourneys. With wife Kim, daughter Katelyn and son-in-law Austin, the Marrens enjoyed New York City the only way to experience it— from a private sailboat charter, last August, with yours truly as captain. End your envy of John; enjoy your extraordinarily epic, epicurious escapade. Enough elapsing; eliminate the excuses! DM me to eagerly embrace your excursion. Gene Marks also took his family for a summer sunset sojourn sail. “Got a feelin’ it’s all over now, all over now, we’re through. And tomorrow I’ll be lonesome, remembering you.” (Caroll O’Connor) ’87 Laura M. D’Orsi, 26 Falcon Ridge Circle, Holmdel, NJ 07733. (732) 241-5229 (H); lauramdorsi@yahoo.com I hope everyone is doing well. I had a chance to catch up with a few alums and wanted to update you. Stu Seltzer reached out. He taught an MBA class at Lehigh last semester and put together a two-minute recap video that you may enjoy: bit.ly/4a0RaKf. The MBA class was titled “Ventures in Brand Licensing,” and it is a one-credit MBA class with 15 hours of class work. It was held over one weekend— eight hours on Friday and seven hours on Saturday. Stu told me that Alita (Nemeroff) Friedman taught it in the past, and Stu filled in for her this past semester. Stu has been teaching a similar class at the
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