CLASS NOTES | FALL 2023 | 65 her first campus visit … when she was 5! Kristen will be a freshman this year, majoring in computer science.” John Seybert wrote: “My son Daniel will be attending Lehigh as a freshman in the fall. He is joining his older brother, Jack, who will be a junior. Jack started his college career at Tulane, but it wasn’t a good fit, but he has fit right in at Lehigh since his sophomore year. Jack is a tour guide, on the rowing team and is going to be a Gryphon next year. I cannot say enough good things about what Lehigh has done for him.” Joe Gorla shares: “As proud parents, my wife, Melissa (Muhlenberg ’96) and I wanted to pass along [that] our son is now a Lehigh alumnus as well. This is a good way to make everyone feel old! My son, Joe, graduated in 2022 with a degree in finance and then graduated again in 2023 with a master’s degree in technical entrepreneurship after deciding to take advantage of his extra year of eligibility as a member of the Lehigh baseball team. After his final season, Joe was named to the All-Patriot League team for the third consecutive year and was also named the 2023 Patriot League Scholar Athlete of the Year (Mom and Dad were particularly proud of this award, as you can imagine). After graduation, he had about a month off and is now working in finance for AmerisourceBergen. The past five years went by very fast, and we will miss heading up to the LU baseball field this spring, but we will instead be heading to Albright University to watch our middle son, Christopher, play his freshman season. And, not to be left out, we still have our youngest, Vincent, playing in Little League, so there are many more games in our future.” Kevin O’Neill reports: “I took my daughter on a campus tour this spring, and it is amazing how many changes have been made! I have been helping the New Jersey Alumni Club and was at the Freshman Send Off in Madison, N.J. I’ve been with Northwestern Mutual for seven years, and since we last spoke, I have my CFP and have a team of four helping clients with retirement and legacy planning. My son Ryan will graduate from Fairfield University in May 2024; my son Luke will graduate from the University of Maryland in May 2025; and my daughter, Karoline, will be a senior in high school this fall and has Lehigh on her list. “Erik Anderson ’95, Dr. Mark Simeone, Dr. James Wright ’97, Adam Witten ’98 and I attended the Phish show at MSG in NYC in July. Together, we have been seeing them perform for almost 30 years!” ’97 Lopa (Patel) Zielinski, Madison, NJ, Lpzielinski@gmail.com Thank you to all who responded to my email request for updates. Danna Gombocz and Douglas Yates were married in September 2021. They split their time between Mount Pleasant, S.C., and Knoxville, Tenn. They have a blended family of five kids, while managing three businesses in correctional healthcare consulting, writing and bag piping. Sarah (Nevin) Oman wrote earlier this year to let us know that Tara Murphy got married to Brian Perrone on Isla Mujeres, Mexico, in April 2022. Sarah was in attendance, along with Michelle (Manos) Coughlan, Mara (Conzo) Bain, Heather (Hohmann) Barker, Cheryl (Dede) Argenta, Sharon (Hayden) Flynn, Sue (Montagnino) Petrusiello ’96, Christina (Langone) Terranova, Libby Swanke-Vinson and Kelly Benham Smith. Tara and Brian have two kids, Brooke and Tyler. Meanwhile, Sarah has been working as a mental health therapist for Allina Health in Minneapolis, Minn., for the past 18 years. Laura Davis-Mansfield has lived in San Diego, Calif., for the past 25 years. She is a mental health technician and registered alcohol drug technician at La Jolla Recovery in San Diego. She wrote that she is taking classes at San Diego City College to be a certified alcohol and drug counselor and looking forward to applying for a master’s degree as a licensed marriage family therapist. She has one daughter and is married to Monte Mansfield. Laura and Monte also became senior soldiers in the Salvation Army El Cajon Corps in June 2022 and are looking forward to going to Salvation Army Officer Training Cadet School in Palos Verdes, Calif., in 2024. Ilona Gont is a senior director, assistant general counsel at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, focusing on protecting intellectual property around gene therapy. Dave Baker resides in Sunnyvale, Calif., with his wife, Emily, and daughter, Sophia. After working for 10 years as an electrical engineer (designing analog semiconductors) and 13 years teaching mathematics at Palo Alto High School, he has started a tutoring business for high school students, High School Math Engine (hsmathengine.com). Megann (Polaha) Hedgecock started a full-time position as a lecturer in the engineering department at Penn State Brandywine. Steve Politziner and Sam Pines, who are part of the ownership group of Good Karma Brands (GKB), have been growing their company of late. The media and sports marketing company has expanded its relationship with The Walt Disney Co./ESPN. Via its operating partnership, GKB now manages the ESPN local digital and streaming business, the ESPN National Radio network and podcast business as well as owns and operates the largest ESPN radio markets in the United States, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Sam and family live in Cleveland, Ohio, and spend time in Los Angeles. Steve and family live in West Palm Beach, Fla., and also spend time in New York. John Davis is currently working as an emergency physician at St. Luke’s Upper Bucks in Quakertown, Pa. He resides in Hatfield, Pa. Dawn (Fuchs) Grieco recently celebrated 20 years of marriage to her husband, Mark. They have three kids: Zach, 18; Sydney, 16; and Ryan, 14. They reside outside of Philadelphia, Pa. After starting out in IT consulting, and spending many years at home raising her kids, she now works part time as a program director for Oaks Ministry, a transition home that helps women in need. Recently, she has connected with other ’97 classmates: Lindsay Wood Scott, who lives outside of Chicago and is married with three kids. A few years ago, she met up with Heather Ciuryla on a New England road trip. She also sees friend and her freshman hall Gryphon Judy (Dennin) Glavin ’94 often as their kids are in school/ Scouts/choir together. ’98 Gregory Kuklinski, gjk4@alum.lehigh.edu Our 25th reunion was held on June 8-11. It was a great weekend to welcome back over 100 classmates and family back to campus. Our class events included, on Friday evening, a social at the Bethlehem Brew Works hosted by Jeff Fegley, who has owned the restaurant for the past 25 years. On Saturday, we participated in the parade, where we marched as a class from Taylor Gym to the University Center Lawn holding signs with sayings from 1998 to tunes from the Lehigh Marching 97. After the parade, some of our classmates participated in the vow renewal in Packer Memorial Chapel to renew their wedding vows.
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