The Lord-Black Wedding Party

In addition to the Best Man and Maid of Honor, Kathleen and Sam have each decided to have four attendants. Here's a little bit about each of them...

The Best Man

Sam's best man for our wedding was his brother Avi. Although they lost touch for a time when Avi went off to college, now that they only live 5 miles apart, they see a lot more of each other, and are quite happy about that. Avi is the History/Social Studies Director for the San Francisco Unified School District, and also performs with Gamelan Sekar Jaya.

The Maid of Honor

Kathleen's maid of honor for our wedding was her sister Paula Goehle. Paula lives in Irvine, California, and works as a court reporter. She has three young children, and loves eBay.

The Bridesmaids

Lindy Moore

Lindy lives in Santa Barbara, California, and works for the County Counsel's Office by the beautiful Santa Barbara courthouse. She is a dancer, and does a lot of liturgical dance (sometimes with her talented mother, Lisa).

Kathy Tappero

Kathy lives in Scotts Valley, near Santa Cruz, California. She works as a court investigator for the County of Santa Cruz, and has two beautiful childen, whom she raises with her loving husband, Mark. Kathy is devoted to her friends and family, and always has a word of encouragement.

Carrie Mesrobian

Carrie lives in San Jose and is a prominent immigration attorney. She has a "can-do" attitude that infects and inspires her friends. Carrie has two grown children, a cat, a dog, and a beautiful future (if her fortune-teller can be trusted!).

Nancy Menashe

Nancy is Sam's big (and only) sister. She and Kathleen met when we went to Greece to celebrate Sam's mother's 80th birthday. They seem to have hit it off well, as evidenced by the fact that Kathleen asked Nancy to be a bridesmaid. Nancy has been living in Israel for the past 20 years, and has been married to Roni Menashe since 1986. They have two children: Shiran is 14, and Avishy is 5 (he'll be 6 before the wedding).

The Groomsmen (Ushers)

Leo Hourvitz

Leo is one of Sam's oldest and best friends. They've known each other for over 20 years (is it really that long?), since their undergraduate days at The University of Michigan. Leo had a great influence on getting Sam involved in computer graphics, and was Sam's hiring manager at Pixar in 1996. Shortly after Sam graduated U of M in 1983, they drove cross-country in Sam's old Dodge Colt: from his parent's house in New Jersey, to Chapel Hill (where they discovered the brakes were going), to New Orleans (where they got new brakes) for the Sugar Bowl (Michigan vs. Auburn; January 1, 1984), to Los Angeles (to visit some friends of Leo's), to San Francisco (to visit more of Leo's friends), to Lake Tahoe (for Sam's first taste of Western skiing), to Salt Lake City (where Sam got by first ski injury), and back to Ann Arbor (do you realize how hard it is to depress the clutch with a bruised tibia?).

Ray Tice

Sam and Ray have known each other for over 15 years, working together for nearly half that time at Masscomp/Concurrent. They also played volleyball together (on Team Opus), and Ray is the one who drove Sam home after he tore his ACL in a game (Sam's scream of pain stopped play on all three courts). Ray currently works as an engineer at Avid Technologies, and recently married Jenny Day at a very nice ceremony in New Hampshire.

Rick Gorton

Sam has also known Rick for about 15 years. They never worked together, but Rick was (and still is) in the center of a very important social circle. Many displaced Midwesterners in the Boston area (mostly from Wisconsin) gather at Rick's house regularly for gaming and cameraderie.

Cliff Nelson

Cliff is Kathleen's son, and is a freshman at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, majoring in Math. He's very devoted to his studies, his fraternity, his church, and his family; and is an all-around great (and great-looking, if his mother's any judge) guy!

Other Party Members

Freda Black

Sam's mom flew in from Israel to join the festivities. Freda may be 81 years old, but like most of the women in her family, she's still going strong and we look forward to having her with us for many years to come. She gave a stirring speech at the wedding which brought tears to many an eye.

Steve Lord

Kathleen's brother, Steve, gave away the bride. Steve lives in Alexandria, VA and works in Washington DC in the missile defense industry. He has three grown children and loves bagels.