September 1995

I ran away with the Les Roches ski coach in 1969. Yes, it’s true, and I’ve kept it a secret for 26 years! ! Okay. Well, maybe, I told some of you… But that doesn’t mean that I’m no longer afraid of Madame Clivaz or what my mother will do to me, even at this late date, if she ever hears about this….It was during Easter vacation 1969. I was seventeen. Not exactly at my sexual peak yet (how could I have been? I had already been cloistered for the previous seven years in one institution or another) but I thought I was, and that’s what was important. Attitude is everything.

I was madly in love with Biffl. I wrote tomes of atrocious poetry dedicated to him. Stuff along the genre of “I’m so lonely, I’m so blue, I’d give up my shitty life for you”. So when he told me he was going to Wengen to work as a ski instructor and also to do some stunt work for Robert Redford’s “Downhill Racer”, and that I could come with him if I got Madame Clivaz’s permission, I nearly cried for joy. Surely this was a sign that he loved me too.

Of course, getting Madame Clivaz’s permission was going to be impossible even for a suck-up like me, so a few days later, without speaking to anyone, I told Biffl that it was all arranged, Madame Clivaz had given her blessing I jumped over the balcony on the arranged day with my skis and suitcase and I was off without giving it another minute’s thought. I left a big crater in the snow, but no note or any other indicator of where I was off to.

Much to my disappointment, Biffl apparently was not beside himself waiting for the moment to rip my clothes off_ He found me a place to stay in Wengen and then ignored me completely during the entire two weeks. I came back to Pres Fleuris just as innocent as I had left. I slipped back into the dorm, dropped my bags in my room and went straight to my seat in the dining room as if I had never been away.

I kind of knew that I was probably in deep caca when I was paged by Madame Clivaz over the intercom. She wanted me in her office “immediatement”. She worked me over. She said that I was going to be expelled “immediatement”. She knew all about my little escapade. My “boyfriend” was going to be fired “immediatement”. Everything seemed like it was going to take place “toute suite”. Then she dug in with the guilt routine.

“And you! Of all the girls here, I trusted you the most You were like a daughter to me. You were the last one that I thought would behave like this! Do you have no shame.?” (Why do they always say this? My mother still says shit like this. I say shit like this to my daughter). “And, I suppose you are pregnant”. (Sounds really good with a French accent).

Madame Clivaz! ! How could you think that?”

“How could I not? You tell me that! Or are you going to tell me you just went to ski?” That was, of course, what I did and what I was going to tell her, but since she wasn’t going to believe me if I did, there didn’t seem to be much point in doing so.

Cornered, I tried a new tack “You can’t call my mother, Madame Clivaz! She’s on vacation in Marakesh. (Sure, she was….) and she won’t be back for a fortnight and even when she does get back you won’t be able to get her on the phone because she lives in Ethiopia and the phone only works when it feels like it but never when you need it to. And if you write her you won’t remember to tell her everything and she’ll only get hysterical about the parts that you’ve left out and she won’t be able to call you because the phone hardly ever works so she’ll jump a plane for Switzerland and prostrate herself on your doorstep begging you to take me back because she doesn’t know what to do with me either and you’ll end up having to keep me anyway having gone through all of this emotional upset for nothing and besides — look at the bright side, at least you’re getting paid to look after me.”

Amazingly, the argument seemed to work. She said she’d have to think about it and talk it over with Roger. She sent me back to the dining room “immediatement” but made me promise not to tell a living soul or she WOULD tell my mother even if she had to fly to Marakesh to do so.

When I sat back down at my place my face was still all blotchy from crying or from pretending to. Everyone wanted to know whet had happened I was afraid to say. It drove them mad with curiosity. The more I refused to talk the more they speculated. They came up with all kinds of theories, most of them quite a bit more outlandish than the truth — my dad had been attacked and killed by a lion in the Serengeti – my mother had been abducted by pygmies — my sister had been sold into slavery and my parents had flown to Marakesh to try to buy her beck — but the one they chose to settle on and eventually convinced themselves was true was that I had been diagnosed with leukemia and if a perfect donor couldn’t be found that I’d die. Everybody got so they hated Madame Clivaz. She was such a heartless witch that she would actually laugh at them when they would go to the office to offer to be tested as potential donors.

And the best part of all was that everybody was really nice to me from that day on.

* A= Anglo/American Section; F= French Section; C= Commercial; L- Languages

Diego Asencio -(A’71 -72) is living in North Palm Beach, Florida where he has been working as an attorney for the past 13 years. Diego started his own law firm a year ago specializing in litigation against insurance companies who will not process valid claims. He currently has 160 cases going! Twice “happily” divorce, he has a nine-year old son. Diego has promised to send news of his brother, Manny, and sister, Ann, for the next issue of the newsletter.
Thomas Barth – (C’70-75) has announced his engagement to Franziska Buerki from Winterthur, Switzerland. The wedding will take place on November 15, 1995 in Abu Dhabi. Thomas has extended an invitation to Friends of Bluche!
Craig Boone – (A’66-67) is the story editor for a new TV series, “Nowhere Man”, which will be premiering on UPN (Paramount /Fox Network) this fall. Starring Bruce Greenwood (St. Elsewhere), it is an existential series about a guy whose life has been erased! Craig keeps in touch with Kim Atherton (A’66-67), also a native of Louisville, Kentucky. Kim now lives in Pilot Hill California with his wife Nabideh and their daughter.
Yvonne Briere Oness – is enjoying being a full-time mom! Her family has grown since we last saw Yvonne and her husband, Marley, at the reunion in the Bahamas. They now have 4 children: Michael, Lisa, Paula and Mark. Yvonne reports that her brother Denis Briere (A’71 -73) and his family are doing well in Cuba, where Denis is finishing the first year of a two-year work assignment.
Kim Campbell – recently had dinner with Martha Fouts and Vallie Bishop. Martha is President of Trademark Licensing Co. in South Burlington, VT, which markets t-shirts featuring celebrity images. Vallie has a Honda dealership in Gilroy, California and is a state champion outrigger canoer. She has a new home in Morgan Hill, which is an hour and a half drive outside of San Francisco.
Nicolette de Bona Scuinnach – met Sharon Taylor Baumann in London at the end of May and they had lunch with Sharon’s brother, Paul (Chico) Taylor. Nicolette is currently undergoing treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma and Sharon reports that she is doing well.
Einar Engelstad – joined his father’s business of wines and spirits and says “Life is well up here” (Norway). He and his wife, Nina, have a daughter and two sons.
Carolyn Gillespie Mayor- lives in Orlando, Florida with her husband and four sons, Evan, Paul, Peter and Jesse. Carolyn is a fulltime mom but is considering going back to her profession of nursing when her youngest starts school in the fall.
Diane Godley Copley – has been divorced for a couple of years “but is recovering nicely and getting on with her life”. Her son Brayden graduated from high school this past spring. Diane dreams of retiring to Alaska but has settled on Wyoming for now.
Kathi Hood Stanton – reports that she is having a busy summer with her children, Michael and Nicole, learning
to drive!
Katy Jackson Cantor (A’71-75)- had a very busy month of May seeing FOB Alumni. She and her husband Dan and their daughters, Courtney and Abby, flew to San Francisco where they had a reunion with Marti Boone Mattia, her husband Tom and their 3 children, Mary Elizabeth, Caitlin and Matthew and Lizette Ottensten and her husband Sven Vedel and their four children. Then at the end of the month, Margaret Mallonjoined Katy in Indianapolis for the Indy 500 weekend. The morning of the race, Margaret, a bit groggy eyed, was handed a bloody Mary at 8am and told it was all part of the festivities! Katy also gave her a tour of Zionsville, the town where she grew up, which is the quintessential “Hometown USA”.
Mike Kane – and his family recently moved to Thornton, CO to be closer to Denver International Airport, from where Mike flies for Frontier Airlines. As they would prefer to live in the mountains, Mike is currently interviewing with other airlines.
Pradeep Kapadia (A’69-72) – and his wife Susan purchased a new home in Crompond, New York on 7 acres of wooded land which they are in the process of decorating. Pradeep reports that his children, Jessica and Elan, are still lost in their new spacious surroundings!
Karina Landegger – is starting an employment agency for nannies, au pairs and companions for the elderly called “From Nannies to Grannies Inc”. With a targeted September 15th opening date, Karina is awaiting final licensing. She had been searching for a business where she could be readily available for her 4- year old daughter, Helena. Karina often attends performances at the Emelin Theater, where David Watson is the executive director!
Margaret Mallon (A’71-74) – was married recently to Thierry Pujol in a small, private ceremony in their garden. Thierry, an economist at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, works primarily on Eastern European countries. They will be spending their honeymoon visiting the national parks in Montana and Wyoming in early September.
Ross Povenmire (A’69-72) – has made a huge commitment to attend law school starting this fall at the University of Maine. We hope he will emerge from his books from time to time to keep in touch with us all! Ross has done a superb job as the Coordinator for the Americas taking a very active role and enjoying it tremendously. He plans to continue in that capacity, hopefully with help from Pradeep Kapadia.
Susan Povenmire Weisman (A ’69-72) – and her husband John find refuge on weekends in their home in the Blue Ridge Mountains, just over an hour’s drive from Washington DC. They were glad to escape the scorching heat of the city this past summer!
John Weisman, an author, is putting the finishing touches on his fifth book in the Rogue Warrior Series.
Laurie Rodarty Ehrich – and her husband Timothy live in San Jose, California. Laurie has spent the past 16 years working with various travel organizations and is currently with Classic Hawaii Travel. We are trying to find out whether she can arrange a reunion package in Hawaii one day.
Dale Scott -is single and living in Tucson, Arizona. His most important, enjoyable and time-consuming activity is being the adoptive father of nine-year old Lucas. After receiving his law degree from the University of Texas, Dale joined Exxon. In 1991, he decided to retire, at least temporarily! Dale started the Tripoli reunions in 1980 and has been actively promoting them. The most recent one took place in Houston in July 1995.
Susan Seipel Sturgis (A’71 -74) – currently lives in Qatar, but was on vacation in the US with her family this past summer. In between visiting her husband Robert’s family on Cape Cod and her parents in South Carolina, they also toured boarding schools before selecting one for their eldest son, Roman.
Tom Solitario (A’72-74) – and his wife Leslie are in Albuquerque, NM after a 4 year-tour in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Tom, a major in the Air France, is considering retiring from the service after 15 years as a space modernization analyst. Leslie is a landscape architect working all over the Southwestern US. They would like to stay in the Southwest.
Patrick Sycinski (C)- owns and manages a hotel in the center of La Rochelle, France, where numerous French kings have lodged! He and his wife Veronique and their four children live on a large property with a swimming pool only five minutes from the hotel.Stefan Zorayan (C)- was recently in Abu Dhabi on business and visited with Thomas Barth. They even played volleyball together! Stefan is involved in his family business of silver cutlery, which they market to hotels. Married with two children, Stefan’s wife works at the Italian Embassy in Cairo.

I am overwhelmed by the flood of memories that hit me this morning upon opening the FOB Newsletter. Where does one begin when you realize that 25 years have gone by? I am married with two beautiful children, a son and a daughter, Emmanuel and Iliana, aged 2 and 9 respectively. I have been working for the past 15 years as a producer/director for films and television in Greece. (Anybody else in the same line of work?). I would he more then happy to donate my part so that FOB will continue to bring wonderful surprises to former students of the incredible EDR. I send everyone my warmest regards. — Aristidis Nicoloudis (A’67-74).I am so overcome with feelings of all kinds it is hard for me to say what I really feel. After receiving the February newsletter, I spoke with both Ross (Povenmire) and Pradeep (Kapadia) on the same evening. Pradeep filled me in on a lot of the happenings, but I will catch up as I go along now that we have this incredible group!!! After Bluche, I traveled a lot and ended up in Malawi, where I worked as a translator for the French Embassy. Over there, I met my wife Anne, who was the music and youth director for the Baptist Church I attended. We moved to Sumter, South Carolina 11 years ago and have a 6-year old son, Jivan.

There have been a lot of times when I have wondered what happened to all the people from Bluche. I never imagined that there would be such a group as FOB! I am excited and I really appreciate Ross and Pradeep making me feel welcome!! As a matter of fact, after talking to Pradeep for almost 2 hours, I didn’t go to bed till 3:00 am as I tossed and turned with a million thoughts going through my head and all the memories that I had of that marvelous era! I’d love to hear from anyone who remembers me and I’ll do the same! — Jitendra Dave, (A’68-73).

VACATION SWAP: House situated in Cape Town suburb is available for a two-week period in early
January 1996 in exchange for a chalet or apartment able to accommodate up to 6 people, preferably in a French-speaking ski resort. Situated in one of Cape Town’s southern suburbs, the house is easily accessible to the beaches (+ 12 kms) and to the center of the city ( + 15 kms). It can accommodate 6 people easily, and has a swimming pool, entertainment area and large garden. For more information contact: Robin Swiel, 12 Angus Avenue, Constantia, 7800 Cape Town, South Africa. Tel: 27-21-4481594 (o); 27-21-79465481 (h); Fax: 27-21 -476322.