Skip to main content

Bentley Magazine

We all get by with a little help from our friends, and that certainly holds true for former Falcon roommates who have stayed in touch to this day. 

1978

Mike Sokolski, MST ’89 and Bobby Bibeau

Former roommates in the “D apartments” (now Kresge Hall) and hockey teammates, Sokolski and Bibeau met as first-year students in fall 1974. The pair played hockey together at Bentley, forming a special bond as teammates, and played every year until the start of the pandemic.  

Sokolski writes: “We are still best friends today. We have season tickets to the Bentley hockey games, attending most, if not all, of the games. Our families are very close, too. We have attended each other’s children’s weddings and other special family events all these years. We were very fortunate to meet each other 44 years ago. Those four years were a great time for us!”

1982

Jane (Wermuth) McCahon and Paula (Gorman) Flanders

1986

Mark Clark and Bill Gallagher, with classmate Jackie (Yeu) Chan

1988

Annemarie Frank and Patricia (Loyola) Foglia

1990

Melanie Melone, Mary Margaret (Sloan) Conners and Sharon Van Genderen

“We met in fall 1986 on the first floor of Waverly. We make it a point to get together at least once a year, most often in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., or Newport, R.I., but we have enjoyed celebrating life's great moments together for the past 35 years. Thanks, Bentley, for making us great friends!”

1991

Lisa (Dugan) Cooper, Tracy (Nestico) McDonagh and Karyn Schilke  

As Cooper was getting into the car to head home from new student orientation, McDonagh and Schilke ran up and asked her to fill their triple room.

Cooper writes: “To be honest, I could barely remember their names, but I remembered how nice they were, so my gut told me to say ‘yes.’ We were an inseparable trio during our four years. And, despite taking separate paths after graduation, we remained in touch, celebrating milestone events together and, in recent years, meeting a few times a year for dinner. I’m always amazed at the ability the three of us have to pick up exactly where we left off, as if no time has passed. We know we’ll always be there for each other — no matter what — because that's what roomies do!”

1992

John Houlihan ’93, Greg Clayman, Ralph Pisani and Martin Pashuck

2000

Erica (Pappastergion) Murphy, MBA ’05; Michelle Morin; Meghan (Larochelle) Forgione and Rachel (Levine) Ziminski

2001

Joelle Cannon Denham and Jennifer McGurty

2002

Kolleen (Ross) Mooren and Jess Thomas

2003

Sara (Yousefi) Roy and Elizabeth (Barglowski) Petrangelo

Friends from their first day in Maple to a day in Boston with their families.

2007

Arlenis Almonte, Bermary (Coste) Coughlin and Gisselt (Fernandez) Sanchez 

2008

Lauren Gotimer and Katelyn Thompson 

Gotimer and Thompson root for different home teams (Yankees and Red Sox, respectively), but share a love of baseball. Gotimer reports: “Our first game we saw together was on Patriots’ Day in 2005 and our most recent game was pre-COVID, when we visited both LA teams and San Diego in August 2019. We try to get to at least one game a year together and plan to visit every MLB park together! We are excited to be planning our next game for this summer!” 

2012

Alex (Yerxa) Niccoli, Susie Otazo, Annie (Desmond) Wong, Nicole Karagianis and Christy (Draicchio) Vanderploeg

2016

Bugra Kocaman and Emirhan Sahinoz

Share your own then-and-now roommate experience!

Want to read more from this issue?