“Other” Class Notes

Casey Stein (Col ’10 CM) and Daniel Rooney were married on Sept. 20, 2014, in Reston, Virginia. Ms. Rooney is the daughter of Janet Weissbecker Stein (Col ’79 L/M). The couple lives in New York City, where Ms. Rooney works at the nonprofit American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee while studying at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and Mr. Rooney is an associate at J.P. Morgan.

David Walsh (Engr ’91 CM) has been promoted to colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps. He serves in the H-1 program office at Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, Maryland.

Steven Semes (Arch ’75 CM) is an associate professor and director of the graduate program in historic preservation at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture. He is editor of the Classicist, the annual peer-reviewed journal of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, and from 2008 to 2011, he was academic director of Notre Dame’s Rome studies program. Mr. Semes is also the author of two books, The Future of the Past: A Conservation Ethic for Architecture, Urbanism, and Historic Preservation (2009), and The Architecture of the Classical Interior (2004); numerous journal articles; and a blog, The View from Rome. He splits the year between Rome and the Notre Dame campus.

Lynne Benzion (Col ’85) has been appointed vice president of strategic planning for the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, in West Palm Beach, Florida. She is a Certified Economic Developer who works on a variety of business attraction, retention, expansion and entrepreneur development projects. Ms. Benzion served for 10 years with Rockville Economic Development in Rockville, Maryland, where she held a variety of positions, including deputy director. She lives in Hollywood, Florida, with her husband, Ira Benzion; they have two adult children.

Anne Schmidt (Com ’05 CM) and Mike Schmidt (Com ’05 L/M) welcomed a daughter, Marie Virginia, on April 6, 2015. The family recently relocated to Austin, Texas, where Mr. Schmidt is a senior brand strategist at McGarrah Jessee and Ms. Schmidt owns Scout Digital, a web development firm.

Darrin Witt (Com ’98 CM) was promoted to general partner at WEDGE Capital Management in 2014. He also serves on the board of directors at Bless Back Worldwide, a nonprofit organization serving communities in Haiti and Nicaragua. Mr. Witt lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife, Heather, and their three children, Charlie, 10; Emma, 9; and Jake, 6.

Matthew Baer (Col ’07 CM) and Elizaveta Budko (Col ’10) were married on March 29, 2015, in Morris Township, New Jersey. Jonathan Falk (Col ’07) officiated. The couple lives in Richmond, Virginia.

Kirsten Francis (Col ’03 CM) and Spencer Francis (Engr ’03 L/M) welcomed a daughter, Adry Virginia, on April 25, 2014. Adry joins sisters Lane Margaret, 5; and Nora Mackenzie, 3.

Wilmah Getchell (Col ’67) has been named honorary whipper-in for the Nantucket-Treweryn Beagles, a subscription pack kenneled in Berryville, Virginia.

John Warburton (Col ’00) and Kimberly Bareford Warburton (Col ’01, Educ ’01, ’03 L/M) welcomed a daughter, Katherine “Kate” August, on March 26, 2015. Kate joins brothers Ben, 6; Max, 4; and Will, 1.

Sean Dwyer (Col ’78 CM) has been named founding director of the Center for Executive and Professional Development at Louisiana Tech University. An associate professor of marketing, he teaches classes at the undergraduate, M.B.A. and Ph.D. levels, and previously founded and served as director of Louisiana Tech’s executive M.B.A. program. Mr. Dwyer is also active in his community, having served on the executive boards of the local chamber of commerce and the Cedar Creek School. He has lived in Ruston, Louisiana, with his wife, Linda, and their sons, Connor, Ryan and Sean, since 1996.

Erin Liss (Col ’05, Educ ’06) and her husband, Casey, welcomed a son, Declan James, on Oct. 29, 2014. The family resides in Richmond, Virginia.

Paul Grabb (Col ’84, Med ’88 CM) has been named chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, effective summer 2015. He and his wife, Brenda Costello Grabb (Col ’86, Med ’90 L/M), recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. They have two sons, Declan, a junior at Vanderbilt; and Gavin, a freshman at the University of Alabama.

Ravi Shankar (Col ’96 CM) has published a new book of poetry, What Else Could it Be. Mr. Shankar is a professor of English at Central Connecticut State University and in the master of fine arts program at City University of Hong Kong. He has received a number of awards for his work, among them a Pushcart Prize. A founding editor of electronic arts journal Drunken Boat, one of the first electronic arts journals on the web, he also served as co-editor for W.W. Norton & Co.’s Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond. Mr. Shankar’s other books include Instrumentality, a 2005 Connecticut Book Award finalist; and Deepening Groove, winner of the 2011 National Poetry Review Prize. His work, which he has performed around the world, has been featured in the New York Times and the Paris Review. Mr. Shankar has appeared on PBS, BBC and NPR, and has held fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Jentel Foundation and the Blue Mountain Center.

David Vitto (Col ’05 CM) and Dawn Page Vitto (Col ’10 L/M) welcomed a daughter, Charlotte Deanna, on Jan. 28, 2015. The family resides in Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Krystal Clemons (Col ’05 CM) received a doctorate in counselor education from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, on May 9, 2015. Her dissertation title is African-American Pastors and their Perceptions of Professional School Counseling. In addition to serving as a professional school counselor in Norfolk, Ms. Freeman travels throughout the U.S. and abroad, giving presentations and guest lectures regarding school counseling and African Americans.