Class of 1993
Reunion Weekend 2008
The Class of 1993 reunites in Sage Lounge for a Saturday evening of food, fun and catching up.
Class Notes, Fall 2007
Andre (Thomas) Eid has been based in Nairobi, Kenya, for two years, representing Norway and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His specific task is to follow the work of the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT, both of which have their headquarters there. He feels privileged, and the work is extremely relevant to his years at Yale.
Jeff Griffin, his wife, Amy, and their three boys have just moved from Portland, Ore., to Billings, Mont. Jeff is busy as an independent consultant for environmental project design and evaluation through the Global Environment Facility, the United Nations and other clients.
Kathy Roy Hooke writes: “I’m in my 14th year teaching 11th graders at the Mountain School in Vershire, Vt. Last year, I taught environmental science and introduced some Terre Eco elements including an all-school field trip up Moosilauke. We take 45 students from around the country (mostly cities) each semester, and I really love the opportunity to share my world with them and see it through their eyes. I’ve also been having lots of fun introducing our son, Benjamin, to the natural world. He loves doing ‘tree ID’ when we go for hikes. By his second birthday, he
could identify 12 local trees! My husband, David, has discovered the joys of timber frame construction, and after building us a cabin on the shores of Penobscot Bay in Maine and a new house in Vershire, he has started a business called Timberhomes LLC. I’m trying to take back all the nasty things I’ve said in the past about sappy old pasture pines now that I’ve seen the beautiful curved timbers that David can create from them.”
Kate Lance was featured as a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) hero in the spring 2007 issue of ArcNews, a publication of ESRI, which is an international company headquartered in Redlands, Calif., that provides GIS and the support to use them. The newsletter cited Kate for her work promoting spatial data infrastructure initiatives on the continent of Africa: supplying relevant documents to the Nigerian Geoinformation Policy Drafting Committee in 2003, participating in the stakeholders workshop for the adoption of the draft policy, providing free advisory service for the implementation of the national geospatial infrastructure in Nigeria and being the resource person at a five-day regional workshop on Spatial Data Infrastructure. She is the founder and editor of the Spatial Data
Infrastructure (SDI) Africa Newsletter. Kate is committed to promoting the use of reliable geospatial data and tools, while working on her Ph.D.
Andre (Thomas) Eid has been based in Nairobi, Kenya, for two years, representing Norway and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His specific task is to follow the work of the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT, both of which have their headquarters there. He feels privileged, and the work is extremely relevant to his years at Yale.
Jeff Griffin, his wife, Amy, and their three boys have just moved from Portland, Ore., to Billings, Mont. Jeff is busy as an independent consultant for environmental project design and evaluation through the Global Environment Facility, the United Nations and other clients.
Kathy Roy Hooke writes: “I’m in my 14th year teaching 11th graders at the Mountain School in Vershire, Vt. Last year, I taught environmental science and introduced some Terre Eco elements including an all-school field trip up Moosilauke. We take 45 students from around the country (mostly cities) each semester, and I really love the opportunity to share my world with them and see it through their eyes. I’ve also been having lots of fun introducing our son, Benjamin, to the natural world. He loves doing ‘tree ID’ when we go for hikes. By his second birthday, he
could identify 12 local trees! My husband, David, has discovered the joys of timber frame construction, and after building us a cabin on the shores of Penobscot Bay in Maine and a new house in Vershire, he has started a business called Timberhomes LLC. I’m trying to take back all the nasty things I’ve said in the past about sappy old pasture pines now that I’ve seen the beautiful curved timbers that David can create from them.”
Kate Lance was featured as a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) hero in the spring 2007 issue of ArcNews, a publication of ESRI, which is an international company headquartered in Redlands, Calif., that provides GIS and the support to use them. The newsletter cited Kate for her work promoting spatial data infrastructure initiatives on the continent of Africa: supplying relevant documents to the Nigerian Geoinformation Policy Drafting Committee in 2003, participating in the stakeholders workshop for the adoption of the draft policy, providing free advisory service for the implementation of the national geospatial infrastructure in Nigeria and being the resource person at a five-day regional workshop on Spatial Data Infrastructure. She is the founder and editor of the Spatial Data
Infrastructure (SDI) Africa Newsletter. Kate is committed to promoting the use of reliable geospatial data and tools, while working on her Ph.D.
In Memoriam: Andrew Lawrence Cohen
Andrew Lawrence (“Andy”) Cohen (MFS ’93) died as a result of a mountaineering accident on July 1, 2001. On his birthday, fully-equipped, whether seeking adventure, solace, or more, he soloed Mt. Raupaehu, a 9,000 ft. volcano - the tallest mountain on New Zealand’s North Island. It is thought that Andy slipped on rock ice, fell approximately fifty feet, but managed to propel himself approximately six-hundred feet to bivouac in 8 degrees F. cold. In this shelter at 7,800 feet, Andy succumbed.
At Yale, Andy enjoyed dinner parties, learned how real curry is made, climbed campus buildings, and biked in minus-twenty wind chills on compact snow and ice. He was cheerful, intense, and had a keen analytic intelligence. Andy’s mannerisms were hilarious when nervous, and he had an infectious laugh. Young but wise, he was both easygoing and complex. Trained as an evolutionary biologist and ecologist, Andy had the makings of an outstanding academic scientist.
Andy, perhaps the youngest of our class, accomplished so much in his brief life. In 1992, he spent six months in southwest Sri Lanka studying the autecology of an invasive fern that invaded degraded lands in Sinharaja’s MAB Reserve’s buffer zone, which encompassed the country’s only aseasonal tropical rainforest. Andy would often hike alone in this forest and enjoy the eerie sensation of being watched by the rare tiger, feeling no boundaries between self and landscape.
Andy’s thesis, supervised by Mark Ashton, published and still cited in Restoration Ecology, was entitled “Releasing Rain Forest Succession: A Case Study in the Dicranopteris linearis Fernlands of Sri Lanka” (1996, Cohen, A.L., Ashton, P.M.S., and B.M.P. Singhakumara). Andy was always grateful to Mark for his mentorship and to Dan Vogt for his assistance in experimental design. However, his first overseas field experience did not have an easy start: Andy later admitted that when surveying potential study sites with Mark, he was hesitant to wander through seemingly impenetrable fernlands rife with cobras, kraits, and other creatures. Mark, ever the stern mentor, literally pushed Andy into a fernland thicket and stated “Get moving!” - and his journey began.
After graduating with distinction, Andy worked in Baltimore with Bill Burch’s protégés in an inner-city revitalization project. Later, he taught watershed ecology to at-risk middle-school students and was a gifted teacher. Desiring to work in international development, Andy was accepted as a Peace Corps Volunteer and served in Kenya for three years. He implemented water and environmental management projects in the rural Vihigi district near Lake Victoria. He also provided critical management input for the Kakamega Forest – Kenya’s only extant rainforest. Andy revered his host family and learned to move evenly with the rhythms of village life.
After his tour in the Peace Corps, Andy was hired as a project manager with a British firm, Energy Alternatives, Ltd., and lived in Nairobi. Andy characteristically went “full-throttle” and worked in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. In Somaliland – a difficult environment - Andy worked with numerous communities and established commercial energy-conserving stove and manufacturing business adoptions. According to Mike Bess, CEO of Energy Alternatives, the Somaliland project was an outstanding success and to date, is producing 300-400 stoves/month. Andy engaged in numerous surveys, wrote successful proposals, coordinated a study of wood energy that brought him into the field, and worked comfortably among all individuals - from local stakeholders to World Bank officials. Allan, when visiting during Summer 2000, witnessed the immense satisfaction Andy obtained by tangibly helping those with fewer life choices than himself.
Still, Andy felt the need for further experience and in December 2000, was hired as a Senior Scientist in Climate Change for Forest Research in Rotorua, New Zealand. His last work-in-progress was to promote bio-energy system adoption as a means of ameliorating global warming by reducing carbon loss in Indonesia. Despite his daunting and important tasks, Andy, in time, realized that he really never left Kenya.
Andy knew, on a gut-level, that we are all going to die, and we think that this knowledge assisted in him rapidly crafting a life. Andy, an honorable citizen of our world would spend time with anyone without regard to class. A loyal friend, more than a few scattered around the globe keep in touch with each other and with his loving family in Shaumburg, Illinois, who remain strong, despite their incredible loss.
For those who wish to honor Andy, his family established a memorial in his name to support community-based projects in Kenya. Charitable donations can be made to an NGO, Friends of Kenya, c/o Dr. Robert Scully, P.O. Box 17889, Atlanta, GA 30316. Friends of Kenya is funded by former U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers to Kenya to support Kenyan grass-roots projects in environment, education, and in health. Donations on Andy’s behalf will support their environmental effort.
Allan Shanfield MFS ’93 (anshanfield@hotmail.com)
Anita van Breda MES ’93 (avan5@att.net)
At Yale, Andy enjoyed dinner parties, learned how real curry is made, climbed campus buildings, and biked in minus-twenty wind chills on compact snow and ice. He was cheerful, intense, and had a keen analytic intelligence. Andy’s mannerisms were hilarious when nervous, and he had an infectious laugh. Young but wise, he was both easygoing and complex. Trained as an evolutionary biologist and ecologist, Andy had the makings of an outstanding academic scientist.
Andy, perhaps the youngest of our class, accomplished so much in his brief life. In 1992, he spent six months in southwest Sri Lanka studying the autecology of an invasive fern that invaded degraded lands in Sinharaja’s MAB Reserve’s buffer zone, which encompassed the country’s only aseasonal tropical rainforest. Andy would often hike alone in this forest and enjoy the eerie sensation of being watched by the rare tiger, feeling no boundaries between self and landscape.
Andy’s thesis, supervised by Mark Ashton, published and still cited in Restoration Ecology, was entitled “Releasing Rain Forest Succession: A Case Study in the Dicranopteris linearis Fernlands of Sri Lanka” (1996, Cohen, A.L., Ashton, P.M.S., and B.M.P. Singhakumara). Andy was always grateful to Mark for his mentorship and to Dan Vogt for his assistance in experimental design. However, his first overseas field experience did not have an easy start: Andy later admitted that when surveying potential study sites with Mark, he was hesitant to wander through seemingly impenetrable fernlands rife with cobras, kraits, and other creatures. Mark, ever the stern mentor, literally pushed Andy into a fernland thicket and stated “Get moving!” - and his journey began.
After graduating with distinction, Andy worked in Baltimore with Bill Burch’s protégés in an inner-city revitalization project. Later, he taught watershed ecology to at-risk middle-school students and was a gifted teacher. Desiring to work in international development, Andy was accepted as a Peace Corps Volunteer and served in Kenya for three years. He implemented water and environmental management projects in the rural Vihigi district near Lake Victoria. He also provided critical management input for the Kakamega Forest – Kenya’s only extant rainforest. Andy revered his host family and learned to move evenly with the rhythms of village life.
After his tour in the Peace Corps, Andy was hired as a project manager with a British firm, Energy Alternatives, Ltd., and lived in Nairobi. Andy characteristically went “full-throttle” and worked in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. In Somaliland – a difficult environment - Andy worked with numerous communities and established commercial energy-conserving stove and manufacturing business adoptions. According to Mike Bess, CEO of Energy Alternatives, the Somaliland project was an outstanding success and to date, is producing 300-400 stoves/month. Andy engaged in numerous surveys, wrote successful proposals, coordinated a study of wood energy that brought him into the field, and worked comfortably among all individuals - from local stakeholders to World Bank officials. Allan, when visiting during Summer 2000, witnessed the immense satisfaction Andy obtained by tangibly helping those with fewer life choices than himself.
Still, Andy felt the need for further experience and in December 2000, was hired as a Senior Scientist in Climate Change for Forest Research in Rotorua, New Zealand. His last work-in-progress was to promote bio-energy system adoption as a means of ameliorating global warming by reducing carbon loss in Indonesia. Despite his daunting and important tasks, Andy, in time, realized that he really never left Kenya.
Andy knew, on a gut-level, that we are all going to die, and we think that this knowledge assisted in him rapidly crafting a life. Andy, an honorable citizen of our world would spend time with anyone without regard to class. A loyal friend, more than a few scattered around the globe keep in touch with each other and with his loving family in Shaumburg, Illinois, who remain strong, despite their incredible loss.
For those who wish to honor Andy, his family established a memorial in his name to support community-based projects in Kenya. Charitable donations can be made to an NGO, Friends of Kenya, c/o Dr. Robert Scully, P.O. Box 17889, Atlanta, GA 30316. Friends of Kenya is funded by former U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers to Kenya to support Kenyan grass-roots projects in environment, education, and in health. Donations on Andy’s behalf will support their environmental effort.
Allan Shanfield MFS ’93 (anshanfield@hotmail.com)
Anita van Breda MES ’93 (avan5@att.net)
