LAURA CONLEY, UC San Diego Laura Conley, daughter of Bryan and Mary Conley, received her M.D. degree June 5 at a ceremony at UC San Diego. Her grandparents, Scott and Dorothy Libbey, have lived in Pacific Palisades since 1952. Her sister, Sarah Conley, lives with her husband Roman Beck and one-year-old son in San Diego. Laura attended Corpus Christi School and graduated from St. Matthew’s Parish School, from Marymount High School (1994), and from UCLA in 2000 with a degree in psychology. Laura’s internship begins shortly at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica. Her residency next year, also at UCLA, will be in family medicine. EDWARD GRUBB, Bucknell University Edward M. Grubb, son of Michael and Ruth Grubb, graduated May 22 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and political science from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Edward is a 2001 graduate of Palisades Charter High School. CHARLES MONTZ, Brown University Charles Robert Montz, son of Donna Shoupe of Pacific Palisades, received a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy, magna cum laude, from Brown University on May 29. KENT McINTOSH, University of Oregon Kent McIntosh, son of Jennifer and Jim McIntosh, graduated in June with his Ph.D. in school psychology from the University of Oregon. McIntosh attended Palisades Elementary and Village School, and graduated cum laude from Brentwood School in 1993. As a member of local Troop 223, he earned the rank of Eagle Scout. McIntosh received his undergraduate degree, cum laude, from Duke University in 1997 with a major in English. While at Duke, he became director of Project Wild, an outdoor wilderness program offered to Duke students. Following graduation, McIntosh became an Outward Bound Instructor, leading ‘at risk’ groups of adolescents in wilderness experiences. While in graduate school, he has led kayaking trips on the Columbia, Green and Rogue Rivers, as well as rivers in Maine and Canada, and has paddled Class V rapids. Kent’s thesis topic is ‘Academic, Behavioral and Functional Predictors of Chronic Problem Behavior in Elementary Grades.’ He will be performing postdoctoral research at the University of Oregon in the next academic year. JONNY KOHL, University of Colorado, Boulder Jonny Kohl, son of Sue and Jon Kohl, graduated in June from the University of Colorado at Boulder, with a bachelor’s degree in communications. He is the brother of Courtney, David, Kristin and Gunnar Kohl. Jonny graduated from Loyola High School in 2001, where he played varsity volleyball. Future plans other than surfing are unknown.

John Keys is exactly the kind of man you’d be proud to know: kind, dependable, giving and interesting. For 30 of his 32 years as a paramedic for Los Angeles County Fire Department, he’s been the sole department bagpiper. For 17 of those years he’s been a stalwart at Station 69. ‘He’s a legend in the fire service,’ says Ted Acquirro, secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles Firemen’s Relief Association. In the late 1970s, Acquirro was on a committee to improve the Fire Department Memorial. In Joseph Wambaugh’s ‘The Onion Field’ there was a description of a bagpiper playing at the services of a slain police officer: ‘The wail. Clear and piercing. Eerily distant at first. I knew it was coming but still I started trembling when I heard it. Back, back, up on the hillside he was. The solo piper. That solitary piper. Playing that ancient plaintive dirge for clansmen killed in battle.’ Ted thought a bagpiper would add an air of dignity and distinction to the memorial and sent out a plea to the membership for one. If he could find a piper, he would be continuing a 150-year U.S. tradition of pipers playing at funerals that had started with Irish immigrants. When the Irish first came to the United States, they encountered massive discrimination. The only jobs they were allowed to hold were dirty or dangerous as firefighters or policeman. Irish firefighter’s funerals always had a bagpiper as was the custom for Irish funerals. It wasn’t long before that tradition was adopted for non-Irish firefighters as well. Keys was the only person to respond to Acquirro’s search for a piper. He has played at every annual Fire Memorial service since. While the names of all the firefighters who have died from the 1800s to the present are read, John stands on a hill behind the site and plays ‘Amazing Grace’ over and over until all the deceased have been recognized. He admits that where he’s standing, he can’t hear the names, and has to be cued when to stop playing. Shortly after the first memorial service, Keys started playing at individual firemen’s funerals. Acquirro notes that for over 20 years, Keys did it on his own.’He never took a penny or accepted any form of payment. If someone gave him something, he would donate it to the Widows and Orphan’s Fund.’ Acquirro explained that in order to play for funerals Keys would take a day off from work or use his vacation time. About 10 years ago, the department realized all Keys had done and started providing his transportation, as well as covering for him at work. Currently, the department is actively looking for another bagpiper to replace Keys, who is scheduled to retire in three years. Keys started playing the bagpipes when he was 14 or 15. Although bagpipes were a family tradition, trumpet was his first instrument. He played trumpet and tuba in high school and went on to major in music at Cal State L.A. After college he served with the U.S. Naval Reserve and was stationed in Germany where he was with the intelligence security group monitoring the Russian missile system. After his stint in the military, he worked on an ambulance for Los Angeles County for a year, before joining the Los Angeles Fire Department as a single-function paramedic. At the time, people trained solely as paramedics or solely as firefighters. The Department has now shifted so that most of their staff are trained as both. For the next few weeks, when he’s on vacation, he’ll be teaching at the Seamus MacNeill’s California Summer School of Piping in Carlsbad. The school is run through the College of Piping based in Glasgow, Scotland. The camp takes all levels of pipers and they have students from as far away as Japan. Whenever Keys plays, he dresses in the appropriate attire. Scottish shoes, called Gillie Brogues, have top-notched openings with extra long shoe laces that wind around the back of the knee socks and tie, allowing loops to hang in front. Garters, called flashers, have small cloth rectangular pieces and are placed on the socks to hold them up. Knee socks can be different colors. Keys likes to wear his green ones for St. Patrick’s Day, and black for funerals. Since kilts lack pockets, bagpipers keep their wallets in a Sporran, a small purse. Key’s first piping teacher sold him his kilt, a WW II Combat tartan from the Cameron Highlanders of Canada, consisting of eight yards of medium wool. When representing the fire department he wears the regulation black dress shirt, black tie, and badge. The hat, called a Glengary Bonnet, is also black with a fire department badge on it. In England, it’s customary to wear a small wreath around the badge on the hat. John said he couldn’t find one, so he improvised by substituting the wreath displayed above a Cadillac door lock. ‘It’s from PEP Boys.’ One Saint Patrick’s Day, he was playing at Brentwood School, dressed to the hilt, when an emergency signal came from the Mandeville Canyon area. Keys explains, ‘I ran a call in my kilt. The firemen didn’t care, the patient didn’t care, the emergency room technicians didn’t care.’ Living in Oceanside with his wife Maureen and his son Johnny, who’s a sophomore in Rancho Crista High School in Vista, Keys also collects old firefighter memorabilia. He owns a 1924 Seagrave Fire Truck as well as several vintage firemen’s helmets, and a collection of firefighter badges that date back to 1886. He plans to donate them all to the Firefighter’s museum in the’Old Fire Station 27′ in Hollywood. The Fire Department bagpiper has gone to funeral services all over Southern California. He usually plays the escort in with the song ‘Going Home.’ If there’s not a graveside service, he’ll play ‘Amazing Grace’ as the coffin is escorted out. If there’s a graveside service, at the Flag Folding ceremony, he’ll play ‘Fleurs of the Forest,’ a haunting Scottish melody. When asked how he deals with the sadness, his eyes mist and he says, ‘If it gets too emotional I can’t stay in there. I can’t do my job.’ He pauses and then adds, ‘I don’t normally sit in the services.’ Four Corona fire department fighters were killed in a plane crash several years ago, and Keys broke his tradition by staying. He said one of the widows spoke, followed by a tape of the deceased’s four-year-old saying good-bye. ‘It affected me for a long time.’

Skylar Little and Christopher Meinhardt Are Married at the Firestone Vineyard Richard and Paulette Little of Pacific Palisades are pleased to announce the marriage of their daughter, Skylar Martine Little, to Ryan Christopher Meinhardt. The wedding was a sunset ceremony on October 8, 2004, at the Firestone Vineyard in Los Olivos. The bride, 27, is a Palisades native, having attended Palisades Elementary, St. Matthew’s, Marymount High School, and graduated from UCLA. She played three years in the women’s professional soccer league (Washington Freedom), and currently works for Show the Love, a jewelry design company in the Palisades. The bridegroom, 30, was born and reared in Jefferson City, Missouri, and graduated from the University of Kansas. He is director of marketing for G.A. Gertmenian and plans to return to school in the fall for an MBA. The couple honeymooned in Tahiti and now reside in their first home in Westchester with their two dogs. Craven and Silverman Plan July 17 Wedding Kimberly Craven, formerly of Pacific Palisades, and Ryan Silverman are engaged and will be married at the Bel-Air Bay Club on July 17. The bride-to-be is the daughter of Linda McCann and step-daughter of Joseph J. McCann, Jr. She was born in New York City and moved to Pacific Palisades with her parents in 1979. She attended St. Matthew’s and studied at the School of American Ballet in New York City after graduating from Westlake School for Girls in Bel-Air. She was presented in the National Charity League’s Debutante Ball in 1985. After the School of American Ballet, she joined the Pennsylvania Ballet Company. A dancer, singer and actress, she has performed in four Broadway shows and had leading roles in ‘Swing,’ ‘Mama Mia’ and ‘Movin’ Out’ in Los Angeles. The bridegroom, son of Glenda and Gary Silverman, was born in Grande Prairie, Canada. He attended Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton, Alberta, for his theatre arts degree and North American Institute of Technology in Edmonton, where he studied radio broadcasting. An actor and singer, he has performed extensively in Vancouver, had the lead role of Sky in the U.S. tour of ‘Mama Mia’ and played Tony in the European tour of ‘West Side Story.’ He is currently the lead in ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ and will be the understudy for the lead role in ‘Wicked’ in Chicago. The couple will live in New York City after their marriage. Patrick Hasselbach, Christine Strom Plan August Wedding in Colorado Bill and Gale Hasselbach, formerly of Pacific Palisades and now living in Monument, Colorado, announced the engagement of their son, Patrick, to Christine Strom. Daughter of Richard and Kathleen Strom, also of Monument, the bride-to-be received a doctorate in physical therapy from the University of Colorado at Boulder and works at the University Hospital in Denver, Colorado. The bridegroom attended Palisades High and graduated from UC Berkeley. He a computer consultant at Entersolve Solutions in Boulder, Colorado. The couple will be married on August 13 in Breckenridge, Colorado and will reside in Denver. Scott Rognlien and Maia Peters Exchange Vows at Descanso Gardens Scott Rognlien, son of Bruce and Marleen Rognlien of Pacific Palisades, and Maia Peters, daughter of Holly and Jim Peters of Texas, were married on May 29 at Decanso Gardens in La Ca’ada. The bridegroom grew up in the Palisades, attended Canyon Elementary School, Brentwood School, and graduated in June 1993 from Northwestern with a bachelor’s degree in performance studies. In 1997, he studied for a year abroad in London and at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, England. He returned to England after college and completed a graduate program in acting at the Webber Douglas Dramatic Academy in London. He returned to Los Angeles in the fall of 2000 and met Maia soon after that at a mutual friend’s Halloween party. Scott choose to propose to Maia on the Palisades bluffs overlooking the ocean, one of his favorite spots. Maia Peters grew up in Dallas, Texas, and graduated from USC with a bachelor’s degree in theater and acting. Both have been very active in L.A. Theater, while maintaining regular (day) jobs. Together, with some other fellow actors, they have launched a new theater company called The Next Arena.