Notes from the Class of 1977

When Laura Lee Carter’s (AsianSt; MHist’88) career as an academic librarian ended in 2004, she became a freelance writer. She’s since published four books on midlife psychology. Four years ago, she and her husband moved to rural southern Colorado, where she writes a blog, “Adventures of the new old farts,” and wrote A Memoir of Retirement: From Suburbia to Solar in Southern Colorado. 

Susan Eastman (Jour’77) has begun a new career with Live West Realty in Boulder as a real estate agent specializing in residential sales. She writes that living in the Boulder Valley for many years and raising three children has given her a deeper understanding of Colorado’s neighborhoods, schools and lifestyle, and that her time as a journalist served her well in communicating and helping clients determine what they are looking for in a home. 

After two years of “semi-retirement” and consulting with the startup Craft Distillers, Paul T. Criscuolo (Econ) joined Broken Shed Distillery USA as vice president, specializing in branding and marketing. The craft distillery is based in New Zealand and currently produces vodka and plans to expand into other spirits. 

Gary Porter (MBA’74; PhDBusAd’77) and wife Melissa Komisar Porter (Mktg) fell in love at CU in 1976. The couple, who celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary last year, write that they traveled to Boulder in 2017 for their first Homecoming weekend since graduation. After leaving CU, Gary taught accounting at various universities and Melissa embarked on a 32-year career in marketing and business development at IBM. Gary is the author of several accounting textbooks, as well as the fiction book Duffy: The Tale of a Terrier and a new collection of essays, Town Kid: Reflections of a Midwestern Boyhood. Earlier this year, the couple attended Western Art Week in Great Falls, Mont., where they met up with former Buffs running back and artist Shay Davis (A&S ex’97). “It was fun to reminisce about the 1994 Fiesta Bowl that we attended and he played in,” Melissa wrote. The couple currently lives in Hudson, Wis.

Carol Callan (MPE; MBA’87) was elected president of the International Federation of Basketball, Americas Chapter. She is the first female to fill the position for any FIBA region. Carol is also the USA Basketball Women’s National Team director, a post she has held since 1996. Prior to joining USA Basketball, she was athletic director and assistant principal for Boulder’s Fairview High School. She lives in Boulder.

Pronghorn Press published Jamie Lisa Forbes' (Engl, Phil) third book, Eden, a story of small town life in 1950's North Carolina. Her first novel, Unbroken, won the 2011 WILLA award for contemporary fiction. Her collection of short stories, The Widow Smalls & Other Stories, won the 2015 High Plains Book Awards for a short collection. She lives in Greensboro, North Carolina. 

After 43 years teaching English and writing at various universities across New York, Maureen King Cassidy (Edu) still keeps in touch with her college friends. Maureen transferred to CU after a trip to Aspen, Colorado, her sophomore year of college. “Aspen was like another universe to me,” she wrote. “I became totally enchanted with the Rocky Mountains, the people and, of course, skiing.” She arrived at CU having never seen the campus in fall 1975 and enjoyed every moment on campus. She lives in Oyster Bay, New York. 

Perkins & Will Denver is an architectural design firm that specializes in sports, recreation and entertainment facility design. The firm, which employs the talent of Don Dethlefs (EnvDes; March’79) and Joseph Dyer (March’08), recently landed on the Sports Business Journal’s “Power Players List.”

After completing her master’s degree at CU, Melody Moore (Soc; MPubAdmin’87) studied protocol at the White House during the Carter administration, then began her career as a research scientist and managing associate for U.S. and international research and training projects. She also served as interim director at the National Evaluation Data and Technical Assistance Center and as an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University. She retired in 2017 from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. 

Each year, the towns around the D-Day landing beaches hold the D-Day Festival, during which participants from dozens of countries commemorate the event with a mass parachute drop honoring the American and Allied paratroopers who jumped into Normandy on June 6, 1944. Major Brian Campbell (IntlAf) led his California-based army reserve team for parachute and aircraft training in Florida as preparation for this June’s 77th anniversary commemoration in France.

After being the USA Basketball women's national team director for seven Olympics, Carol Callan (MPE’77; MBA’87) stepped down following the Tokyo Olympics. Carol serves as the first female president of FIBA Americas, the International Basketball Federation. She was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame 2021.

As a licensed esthetician and makeup artist, Jamie Gordon (Psych’77) — known from her time at CU as Dianne Jamie Loewy — launched the Jamie Gordon Skin Care Studio in Boulder in 1986. The business was the city’s first stand-alone skin care studio. Jamie managed the company for more than three decades before closing it during the pandemic to pursue art. Since then, she has been invited to show her work at numerous art exhibitions. Her most celebrated piece is a rendition of a banyan tree called "Our Tree," which has been published in several online galleries, has won awards and was printed as a flag as part of the “Joysome” art show produced by Boulder’s Dairy Center for the Arts and East Window this spring. View her art at ArtbyJamieGordon.com.

Author and historian Gregory Hinton (Bus’77) won the Society for American Archivists 2023 Diversity Award for his reading of “A Sissy in Wyoming,” a story based on the life of Larry “Sissy” Goodwin, a prominent activist and cross-dress-er from Wyoming. For his Wyoming tour readings of “A Sissy in Wyoming,” Gregory also won the 2023 Award of Excellence by the American Association for State and Local History. In 2009 Gregory created an educational program called “Out West,” which taught the history and culture of LGBTQ+ in the American West, a theme that has been a continual focus of his work. 

In January H. Gregory Nelch (Mktg’77) joined the San Francisco branch of law firm Hinshaw & Culbertson LLC as senior counsel. He has more than three decades of experience advising national corporations, government entities and individuals in a wide range of litigation matters, including personal injury, product liability, construction defect, premises liability and professional negligence. After graduating from CU Boulder, he received his law degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law.

Nancy Ball Weil’s (Russ’77) short stories have appeared in the anthology Electric Grace and the online journal ArLiJo. She has served as the Women’s National Book Association’s (WNBA) award chair, national co-vice president, national website co-chair and Washington, D.C., chapter newsletter editor. The WNBA has been devoted to books and literacy since 1917. Nancy is also the author of two novels: Karmafornia and Superball.

Erica Elliott (MEdu’77; MD’83) is a medical doctor in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She wrote a book, From Mountains to Medicine: Scaling the Heights in Search of My Calling, about searching for her life’s purpose.

Mark Masters (IntlAf’77) is a veteran band announcer and a former drum major for the 1977–78 season of the CU Golden Buffalo Marching Band. Last fall, after 33 years of volunteering, he served as stadium announcer for the marching band for the final time. He lives in Denver.