Alumni at Large

Colby Magazine Volume 102 Issue 1 Spring 2013 Article 10 July 2013 Alumni at Large Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/colbymagazine Recommended Citation (2013) "Alumni at Large," Colby Magazine: Vol. 102 : Iss. 1 , Article 10. Available at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/colbymagazine/vol102/iss1/10 This Contents is brought to you for free and open access by the Colby College Archives at Digital Commons @ Colby. It has been accepted for inclusion in Colby Magazine by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Colby. CATCHING UP | ALUMNI PROFILES On Deadline | Brian MacQuarrie ’74 Brian MacQuarrie ’74 is, in the best sense of the word, an old-school journalist. For the veteran newspaper reporter, it’s all about the story—whether he’s in Wa- terville, Maine, interviewing the mother of the first soldier killed in Iraq, or on the Kuwait-Iraq border writing 2,000 words on deadline in the scorching desert heat. Or preparing for his fifth trip to a war zone for the Boston Globe, in June, when he’ll embed with U.S. Marines in Afghani- stan as that war winds down. “Covering the [Iraq] war, it was much more intense than I thought,” said Mac- Quarrie, who speaks with a pronounced stutter. “And it was the thrill of my life. The challenge of my life, which is why I joined the field of journalism in the first place—to write stories of importance in a way people back home could connect with.” Connecting with people back home comes easily to MacQuarrie. Born in Nor- wood, a Boston suburb, he was the oldest Boston Globe reporter Brian MacQuarrie ’74 on assignment covering the Iraq War. of four children and the first in his family to attend college. “I wanted a smaller school where I could feel a sense of com- “Covering the [Iraq] war, it the Boston Globe. munity and be involved with my professors was much more intense than I Being shot at, worrying about roadside and participate in sports,” said MacQuar- bombs, seeing dead bodies lining the road, rie, who ran cross country in high school thought. And it was the thrill traveling with soldiers, writing on deadline and at Colby. of my life. The challenge of in the seat of a tank with a blanket over Colby, he said, “taught me how to write.” my life, which is why I joined your head to hide the computer’s glare A trim, compact man of 60, divorced from enemy sharpshooters—it’s all part of and with one married daughter, MacQuar- the field of journalism in the war reporting. rie said after Colby he devoted himself to first place—to write stories of Was he ever afraid? becoming a journalist. “It was the time of importance in a way people “Sure,” he said. “I felt afraid on that first the Watergate scandal,” he explained, “and trip to Iraq in 2003. We … were suddenly I pursued a chance to write, which I love back home could connect with.” given twelve hours notice that our unit was to do, and to be a witness to American his- —Brian MacQuarrie ’74 moving out to Iraq. I had one knapsack tory at the same time—to have a career in and I didn’t know if I would be gone for which I could combine this all with public one day or one year and I was in my hotel service. It was a great mixture for me, and MacQuarrie also worked overnight as room, by myself with my bag packed. I so I went off to the University of Missouri a security guard at Cumberland Farms’ asked myself what I had just done, signing School of Journalism.” headquarters. up for this. After two years in the Midwest and a A city editor took a liking to the ex- “From that moment on, war has been semester in London, where he wrote 24 hausted stringer and helped him land a job a steep learning curve. Vertical. But when articles in three months for $30 per story, at the South Middlesex Daily News. Later he you actually get to war, you don’t have he returned to Massachusetts and a job as moved to a newspaper in Fort Lauderdale, time to feel scared anymore. There is an a stringer for the Dedham Daily Tran- Fla., then north to the Philadelphia Inquirer amazing sense of being alive—in the midst script, where he covered the school board, and Providence Journal before becoming, at of it—of getting the story.” crime, zoning board, and town selectmen. first, a copyeditor and now top reporter at —Maria Karagianis COLBY / SPRING 2013 51 CATCHING UP | ALUMNI PROFILES Where the Chips Fall | Rose Marie del Rio ’87 Rose Marie del Rio ’87, of Santa Cruz, “People here still question the her experience as a loan officer to secure Bolivia, never actually applied to Colby. fact that I am not an engineer. start-up capital, bought her kettle fry- But she spent her youth in a series of ers, and hasn’t looked back. The first business ventures (“I was always selling But my education in the bag of her company’s Chippitas brand stuff around the neighborhood,” she said), liberal arts—it’s like, you can potato chips sold on April 12, 1994, and planned on studying business in college. do anything.” they’ve been selling steadily ever since. The fact that Colby didn’t have a business “People here still question the fact that major turned out to be a very good thing. —Rose Marie del Rio ’87 I am not an engineer,” she said, describ- Del Rio flunked out of her first ac- ing all of the machinery that goes into counting class and graduated with a making a bag of chips. “But my educa- major in econom- return to the United States and take tion in the liberal arts—it’s like, you ics, much prefer- another shot at accounting. can do anything.” ring sweeping She applied to Harvard Business Some weeks are better than others, but macro systems to School and again to USAID for funding. kettle frying gives her workers (the Chip- balance sheets. Out of the blue came a call from the U.S. pitas factory has 16 employees) enough After two years Embassy. Ambassador Robert Gelbard ’64 control to make a consistent product working in the was so excited to see another Colby grad out of inconsistent materials—and her public sector (first cross his desk that he wanted to give her customers tend to like the heavier chips for the Boliv- the good news in person. better, anyway. ian Ministry of Harvard gave her more than a degree. Del Rio says she didn’t go to Colby to Rose Marie del Rio ’87 Finance, then for It turned del Rio on to kettle-fried potato become the potato chip queen of Santa the International chips in Massachusetts via reading a case Cruz. But, she says, “What I got from Monetary Fund) and a few more years study on Cape Cod Chips. Looking back, Colby is that you’re always learning as a loan officer in a commercial bank she said, “It seemed so simple. It’s just a stuff, and everything you learn is useful (where, industry culture being what little machine, and you fry your chips, and sometime.” it was, she says, there was little room you brand your chips, and you sell ’em.” Even accounting. for advancement), del Rio was ready to Del Rio returned to Santa Cruz, used —Martin Connelly ’08 Sea Change | Lindsey Williams ’02 and Carolyn Lindley ’02 Carolyn Lindley ’02 and Lindsey Wil- liams ’02 approached their careers from different angles: Lindley took the hard- science route, while Williams focused on policy. Yet both ended up working at the National Ocean Service, an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Lindley, an oceanographer who grew up on New York City’s West Side and played in the American Museum of Natural History’s whale room as a kid, works with water-level data, overseeing a team that maps tides. But don’t picture her on a ship in the middle of the ocean. “I actually get really seasick, which is ironic for an Carolyn Lindley ’02 and Lindsey Williams ’02, both staffers at the National Ocean Service. 52 COLBY / WINTER 2013 Bridge Builder | Yuri Maruyama ’12 Yuri Maruyama’s post-graduation she said over lunch at a noodle bar on Du- move to Washington, D.C., coincided pont Circle, close to her office. “A liberal with a big event in the nation’s capital: the arts experience in the real world.” 2012 presidential election. Even better, One of the programs Maruyama’s in- the election was Maruyama’s first chance volved in is the TOMODACHI (“friend- to vote as an American citizen. ship,” in Japanese) Initiative. Organizers Maruyama was born in Japan but grew are helping students affected by the 2011 up in Irvine, Calif., where her family earthquake and tsunami, in part by bring- moved when she was 6. She became a ing them to the United States for educa- citizen in 2009, during her time at Colby. tional and cultural programs. Her first election “was really exciting,” “I still feel very deeply connected to she said, “although I voted absentee [in the country,” Maruyama said. “I just California], so I didn’t have the satisfac- wanted to do something that would help tion of getting an ‘I voted’ sticker.” people in that area.” Many of the students And yet, Maruyama’s reason for she works with lost their families and landing in D.C.

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