Recent Tri-Kap Reunions

Thanks to all those who made it to 1 Webster Avenue during the June Reunions period at the house. We had a great turnout from many classes including the ’68s, the ’69s, the ’78s, the ’83s, the ’88s and the ’08s at the receptions held by the Tri-Kap Board and the undergraduates in the living room.  It was a great time for Tri-Kaps to reconnect with the house and each other and meet fellow brothers.

The ’74s had a large gathering in August at the home of Paul ’74 and Amy Mesches in Westfield, NJ for a reunion 39 years after their graduation.  Paul reports that the get together was spurred by conversations months before among a few ’74s who agreed that they just couldn’t wait until their 40th class reunion in June 2014 to get together.  An impressive showing of 14 members of the Kappa class of ’74 and one ’73 made it to NJ with their spouses.  The group enjoyed a great afternoon and evening around a keg and the Mesches’ smoker, telling old stories, introducing spouses and generally catching up.  Ed Weselcouch even brought photos from their time together at Tri-Kap and Dartmouth in the early ’70s.  Most returned the next morning for bagels and cookies.  Check out the photo of the group at Paul’s house.

Caption for photo:   (kneeling): Steve Larmon, Scott Lewellen. (standing, left to right): Bo Shenberger, Ed Weselcouch, Bruce Williamson, Wayne Whitmore, Kevin McDonnell, Chris Gates, Jody Hodgdon, Bob MacAllister, George Wolohojian, Rick Castello, Paul Mesches, Jay Goebel and Steve Geanacopoulos.

Summer House Improvement

This summer brought about major changes to the physical plant of our fraternity. As most of the brothers of the 2015 Class were living in the house, we grew, more than ever, to appreciate the hallowed halls of our brotherhood.

One major change that took place during 13X was the institution of weekly Friday House Manager Projects in place of our normal lock-in projects. We ended up setting aside 2-3 hours every Friday and several Saturdays for a project that would both involve the entire brotherhood and improve the physical condition of our house.

We began by doing some major yard work consisting of trimming and excising the overgrown hedges on the side of the house and power-washing the bathroom and the beach. The following week, we refurnished the main hall and painted the front entrance (both interior and exterior), giving a fresh, new look to our foyer. Subsequent projects ranged from cleaning up the attic, GOTE Room, and power-washing the kitchen room of the basement. We'd also like to give thanks to brother Jeremy Thibodeau for doing a great job in refurbishing our first floor bar in conjunction with his movie project being shot right here on campus.

The state of the house is slowly improving, and our class has done its best to keep the house lively and presentable for our alums, parents, and visitors. Stop by soon to have a cold drink and offer any suggestions you might have for how we can better maintain and further improve our beloved property here at 1 Webster Avenue.

Yours in Kappa,

Kevin Kim
House Manager

Tri-Kap Does Tough Mudder

Early this summer, a few brothers of Tri-Kap decided to travel up to Montreal and compete in a Tough Mudder competition. Tough Mudder is a 10 mile obstacle course, where teammates must work together overcome obstacles such as 10 foot wall climbs, swimming through water tanks filled with ice, mud crawls, all separated by stretches of course where we could walk, but chose to run. It was an ultimate test of strength, stamina, and willpower.

All of us both started and ended the race together in under three hours. It was tough, and seemed impossible to continue at points, but we were able to push each other to the end and all earn the title "Tough Mudder." The beers waiting for us at the finish line didn't hurt!

Pictured left to right:  Tri-Kap '15s Justin Lee,  Will Bollenbach, Marty Gatens,  Nish Ravichandran, Anka Tezcan, and friend Alexander Steele

Yours in Kappa,

Marty Gatens 

Summer Vice President

Boston gathering

A big thank you goes out to Andrew Jean-Louis '09, Dana Cetlin '80, Luke Turechek '03, and Saad Hasan '03 for hosting the Boston gathering on June 6.  Tri-Kaps ranging from 70's to current undergrads made it out to Lir to celebrate each other over food and drink. Good times were had by all, and the format of the next Boston Tri-Kap gathering is already under works.  Can you say Kappa grill-a-thon? 

Many of the Tri-Kaps who attended the Boston Reunion

Dartmouth Commencement

Some of Tri-Kap's newest alumni gathered on the lawn before commencement. 

Congratulations and best of luck to the Class of 2013. We look forward to seeing you and all our alumni brothers returning soon to your home here at 1 Webster Avenue.

Yours in Kappa,

 2013-2014 Undergraduate Executive Board

San Francisco Reunion

Thank you to Nannan Hu ’06, Brian Crane ’06 and Chris Ehrlich ’92 for hosting nearly 25 Tri-Kaps from the ‘60s to recent grads at last week’s San Francisco Reunion!  The group got together at Cantina on Thursday, May 16 for a night of food and drinks.  Those in attendance reported a great time, and a desire to continue to get together and engage with Tri-Kap.

 Chris Ehrlich '92 and Dan Crisafulli '87

 Most of the Tri-Kaps in attendance at the San Francisco Reunion

 Jason Kobilka '03, Peter Robinson '79, Peter's son Nico (soon to be Dartmouth '17), Derek Nee '02 and Nannan Hu '06

Nannan Hu '06 and Kenny Ireland '66

Eddy Vaisberg '12, Leonard "Smacks" Chang '11, Jinwoo Baik '11, Adam Merber '10, Sam Kennedy '09

 

Miao's Local Off-Term

This winter I spent fifteen weeks working at Renesys, a local internet intelligence company located a few minutes north of town. With the new school schedule granting students an extended winter break, I decided to make the most of it and began work a few weeks after enjoying Thanksgiving. While many find Hanover winters miserable and gloomy, these past few months have been a well-needed and balanced combination of work experience, leisure, and relaxation.

On the job, I was immersed in an fast-paced environment that had aspects of both data research and internet monitoring. Live events all over the world had propagating effects that directly influenced our work, ranging from the network outages caused by the Syrian civil war to the opening of a submarine internet cable into Cuba. By analyzing the types of responses that certain devices, such as routers and computers, were returning to our servers, we were able to compile vast amounts of data regarding the structure of the internet. We would then use computing clusters that rivaled the power of those in Thayer or Sudikoff to convert, filter, and produce easily understandable interpretations for clients and further use in data analysis.

Without the lingering burden of homework, I found myself with much more time to hang out with friends, hit the gym, and attend campus events. And while I'm very much looking forward to what spring term will bring me, I'll always consider this term a very successful and meaningful one.

I would highly recommend and encourage any students thinking about off-term options to consider enjoying the benefits and comfort of Hanover while working in any of the region's wide spectrum of industries.

YiK,

Kevin Miao '14

2nd Annual Tri-Kap NYC Reunion

   On Wednesday, February 13, Tri-Kap brothers from 5 generations gathered at Dewey's Flatiron in Manhattan for our 2nd Annual New York City Tri-Kap Reunion.

   

   It was great to see brothers who attended last year and many new faces as well.  Over food and drinks (and a couple chugs and house songs) in our private space, brothers caught up with each other, shared stories and heard about the impressive crop of undergraduates in Hanover and the upcoming Tri-Kap Capital Campaign to rebuild the house at 1 Webster Avenue.

   

   Many thanks to Sunil Bhagavath '03, Max David '12 and Sean Wilson '80 for helping to organize the evening and to the ~50 brothers who attended. We hope to see many more brothers at other reunion events around the country and in Hanover in the future. Here is a picture of many who attended our NYC Reunion.

A crowd of Tri-Kap brothers enjoy an evening at Dewey's Flatiron
during the 2nd Annual NYC Tri-Kap Reunion

Yours in Kappa,

Michael Brasher '10

Board of Alumni

World-Renowned Physicist Visits Tri-Kap

   On Tuesday, the brotherhood had the opportunity to host Dartmouth Professor Marcelo Gleiser for an hour while he discussed his current research with those in attendance. Professor Gleiser is a world-famous physicist who works to popularize science to benefit the whole of humanity. He has written three books on the origins of the universe and has a weekly feature on NPR. 

Professor Marcelo Gleiser (seated right of center), addresses
a crowd of inquisitive Tri-Kaps.

   He came to Tri-Kap to discuss his studies in the realm of theoretical physics and their implications for intelligent life in the universe. For example, his most recent research has been into whether or not our universe is one large simulation -- think The Sims on a universal scale. Turns out there is not really much of a way to prove whether we are or not, so "don't worry about it."
   
   There was strong attendance by the brotherhood, and every seat was filled as Professor Gleiser answered numerous questions from inquisitive brothers. Even though he eventually needed to rush out to continue his work, his visit left everyone in attendance pondering very big questions for a long time afterward.


YiK,
Vince Marriott
Academic Chair

China Trip

After being in Hanover for four straight terms, it was great to enjoy Dartmouth's new six-week winter break by traveling around China. On this trip, my goal was to go beyond the commercialized metropolises of the new global power and discover the natural beauty of the landscape, as well as learn about the different minority (non-Han) cultures in Southwest China. After flying from Shanghai into Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province and China's gateway to Southeast Asia, I visited the Stone Forest, an amazing park filled with stone formations said to be around 270 million years old. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007. 

During the two weeks that I spent in Yunnan, I traveled as far up as 13,000 feet above sea level. Along the way, I was struck by the beauty in the way the clouds and the sky seemed to linger right over the horizon. By the end, I had learned a little Tibetan after spending a night at a Tibetan's home for a party (and sharing some drinks with our host), almost getting hitched to our host's daughters, gotten absolutely sick of Yak meat, and gained a greater understanding of people whose lifestyles have only recently started changing after hundreds of years of stagnancy. The rest of time in China was spent doing conventional touristy things in big cities. By the end of my trip, I felt refreshed and ready to return to our home at 1 Webster. 

If anyone is interested in visiting that part of China and needs any travel tips, feel free to let me know. I definitely recommend it. 

Yours In Kappa,

Anthony Zhao '14