A Wildcat coterie converged on Chester, N.J., last month for a Woodrow wedding.
Chester is not far from Princeton, which is the alma mater of the groom, Dr. William Leete Hiser ’83, a.k.a. Billy. He married Mary Teresa Vizioli. The couple met at the University of California in San Francisco, where Billy was a Sarnoff Fellow for Cardiovascular Research.
Best man was Lt. Commander Kenyon Hiser ’76, second officer on the USS Kidd, a destroyer based in Norfolk, Va. There was some concern that Kenyon might not make the ceremony because of the Haitian situation, but he arrived on time.
I’ve known Kenyon since first grade at Lakewood Elementary, and my biggest claim to fame is that I finished just ahead of him in our class at Woodrow.
Kenyon is modest – despite his degrees from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Ca., and the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., (where he scored highest in his class on the exit exam and led maneuvers on Chesapeake Bay – entitling him to fly the Texas flag from the lead ship). He’s so modest that we had to coax the news out of him that he is to be promoted to Commander this fall.
When I say we, I mean with the help of his sisters Miriam (Woodrow Valedictorian ’79, Wesleyan University, Phi Beta Kappa ’83 – she finished ahead of Ted Kennedy Jr. – and UT Law School ’87) and Tracy (Woodrow Valedictorian ’81, Yale University ’85 – where she was a cheerleader and U.S. Peace Corps volunteer to Senegal, Africa ’86-’89).
They both flew in from Fog City ‘Frisco to be bridesmaids. Miriam was on her way to England to see a beau and the London production of “Sunset Boulevard.” Tracy’s boyfriend, Robert Allen, who was at the wedding, is also from England.
Others from Billy’s 1983 class served as groomsmen. Robby Karl, Dr. Todd Riggan, Darren Wales and Monty Watson reunited and were fairly well-behaved sans spouses. Monty, who is no academic anemic himself (Georgetown ’83, SMU Law School ’90) recently married Kathy Tallis ’84 and they now live in Austin.
Monty’s dad, Jim Watson, an attorney at Johnson & Gibbs, was co-founder of the Friends of Woodrow with the late Tom Dean, who was an attorney in the Lakewood Bank Tower. The organization became a prototype for others supporting Dallas schools and beget Positive Parents of Dallas.
Traveling from opposite hemispheres were Billy’s host family from his summer in Japan, the Tomisakas, and his Princeton roommate, Jason Brueschke, an attorney in the Netherlands. Billy stayed with the Tomisakas in Shizuoka as a Woodrow junior, when he was selected for the Japan/U.S. Senate Competition.
Proud parents Jim and Marigold Hiser went on to a well-deserved vacation on the Cape with Tracy and Robert. Jim is owner of Hiser/Sherer Insurance in Lakewood (and former president of the Dallas Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa). Marigold, former PTA president, still helps place Wildcats in Ivy League schools – even Lake Highlanders seeking admission come to her for help.
After a honeymoon in Bermuda, Dr. Hiser, who graduated from Southwestern Medical School in 1993 after completing a cardiology rotation at Harvard University, will continue his Internal Medicine Residency at Baylor Hospital. His boss, CEO Boone Powell Jr., is also a Wildcat.
