Greetings and salutations, fellow classmates! I hope you were able to get some camp time, beach time, concert time, hammock time — relaxation time — this past summer. I myself enjoyed a lot of book time — both writing and reading. My debut thriller, Dark Things I Adore, was the national Barnes & Noble thriller pick for July, so that was pretty neat! As usual, I’m hunkered down in Bangor, ME, for the winter, working both on my next book and at my day job, but savoring memories of my favorite season — autumn — during which my husband and I welcomed friends from Indiana for a visit;
their first time ever!
Lots of oh-niners making career moves recently, like Jacob Bartlett, who was promoted to director of surveying and data capture at Sebago Technics, and Brandon Blake, also of Sebago Technics, who is now engineering design manager at that South Portland, ME-based firm. Adam Aucoin has been promoted to tax principal at Baker Newman Noyes, a Portland, Maine-based accounting firm. Meanwhile, Richard Spearen, who calls Bucksport, ME, home, is now the finance assistant at the Maine Community Foundation. Portside Real Estate Group has brought onside Sarah Thiboutot
Carson, who joined the firm’s Falmouth, ME, office as an associate broker. Peter Hallen G, after 10 years as director of the Mid-Maine Technical Center, is now the assistant superintendent of Waterville Public Schools in Waterville, ME. And say it ain’t so! Ben Bishop has officially hung up his skates after a 13-year National Hockey League career. A degenerative condition in his right knee prompted the decision, but Ben remains positive and grateful, calling his time in the NHL “a dream come true.”
Elementary education graduate Amanda Sykes was recently featured in a “Characters of the County” piece in The Lincoln County News, which detailed her passion for special education as well as her daughter’s experience with the Maine Maritime Museum’s Discovery Boatbuilding Program. Amanda herself took part in the same program as an eighth grader — what a full circle moment!
Are those wedding bells? Checking in from the west coast, Megan Soderberg tells us that she was recently married to Occidental College graduate Michael Darling, and that the two held receptions in Los Angeles, CA; Detroit, MI; and Escanaba, MI. A Set Dec Coordinator in Hollywood, Megan has worked on television shows like Silicon Valley, Dead to Me, and American Horror Story, and will have just finished a stint on the latest season of Succession by the time this column publishes.
Cape Cod-based writer and educator Michael T. Fournier G edited and released the 33rd issue of Zisk, what he calls “the baseball zine for people who hate baseball zines.” Michael and spouse Rebecca Griffin G, a professor at Cape Cod Community College, started Plaza, “Cape Cod’s #1 band.” Plaza has played shows in Yarmouth and Brewster, MA. Rock on!
Wonderful hearing from so many classmates — let’s keep it going! Like/follow the UMaine Class of 2009 page on Facebook, where I do my best to regularly post news articles, items of interest, and event announcements about the college of our hearts always. Check it out, stay in touch!
Have a wonderful winter season, friends.