b ate s not e s Down in Texas, David Turell tries to enjoy what he can while bristling at pandemic mandates. He’s vaccinated and boosted — “thanks to the VA” — and uses a mask “when appropriate by my personal decision.” He hopes “all our classmates stay well.”
PHYLLIS GRABER JENSEN
1951 Reunion 2026, dates TBA CLASS PRESIDENTS Bill Dill wmrdill@gmail.com Jean McLeod Dill CLASS VICE PRESIDENT Wilfred Barbeau wbarb@cox.net Who, What, Where, When? Send your Bates news, photos, story ideas, comments, tips, and solutions to magazine@bates.edu.
1940 Reunion 2025, June 6–8
had a visit from my greatgrandchildren, whom I hadn’t seen in more than two years. They came from the Olympic Peninsula, in Washington state, and were delighted to play in the snow and decorate my yard with the first snowman it has seen in many years.”
1947 Reunion 2022, June 10–11
1941 Reunion 2026, dates TBA CLASS PRESIDENTS Elizabeth Gardner Margaret Rand alpegrand@aol.com
1942 Reunion 2022, June 10–12
1943 Reunion 2023, June 9–11
1944 Reunion 2024, June 7–9
1945 Reunion 2025, June 6–8 CLASS SECRETARY Carleton Finch cfinch612@gmail.com
CLASS SECRETARY/ TREASURER Jean Labagh Kiskaddon jean.kiskaddon@gmail.com CLASS PRESIDENT Vesta Starrett Smith vestasmith@charter.net Ruth Barba Nussbaum writes: “Let me just say how grateful I am to Bates for the financial help I received, which made it possible for me to have a full and rewarding career, first as a social worker, then as a teacher, and finally, as my goal, a school psychologist — in addition to my family and rich community life. You had a part in all of it!”...“Everything is fine” with Barbara Bartlett Hammond, still living with daughter Katina in Hampden, Maine….Vesta Starrett Smith and Jean Kiskaddon agree that they are “sitting out” the pandemic, Vesta reports.
1948
1946 Reunion 2026, dates TBA
Reunion 2023, June 9–11
CLASS SECRETARY Helen Pratt Clarkson hpclarkson7@gmail.com
Reunion 2024, June 7–9
CLASS PRESIDENT/ TREASURER Jane Parsons Norris janenorris@roadrunner.com Helen Pratt Clarkson tells us that “life with COVID has settled into a quiet but pleasant routine of reading, quilting, Zoom, and visiting in small groups. Except for a little anxiety about cooking the beef roast, I enjoyed entertaining several of my family for Christmas dinner. It was a beautiful day with a soft snow starting at 9 a.m., a perfect setting. The next week I
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Spring 2022
1949 CLASS SECRETARY Carol Jenkinson Johnson rollincarol@comcast.net CLASS PRESIDENT Bud Horne budhorne@gmail.com CLASS VICE-PRESIDENT Beverly Young Howard
Robert Wilson wrote just before Christmas. “Some of the joy has lost its edge. Folks in Santa Fe are waiting for snow,” he reported. “My life changes little at El Castillo. We are shielded from much exposure, so feel a little more safe. We chug along, writing holiday cards, hoping for family visits, praying for a safer spring.”
1952 Reunion 2022, June 10–12 CLASS SECRETARY Marilyn Coffin Brown mcbrown13@verizon.net CLASS PRESIDENT John Myers johnmyers52@comcast.net “Health problems have caught up to me,” reports John Myers, yet he still has “hopes for our 70th Reunion” this year.
1953 Reunion 2023, June 9–11 CLASS SECRETARY Ron Clayton CLASS PRESIDENTS Ginnie Toner vatoner207@gmail.com Dick Coughlin dcoughlin@maine.rr.com In recognition of Jean Chapman Neely’s role as founding president of The Potomac Valley Audubon Society some 40 years ago, the organization named a building after her in 2020 — an outdoor pavilion at its Yankauer Preserve — and last year declared July 10 “Founder’s Day” in her honor. “Totally out of the blue,” she writes from Shepherdstown, W.Va. “Very cool!”
1954 Reunion 2024, June 7–9
Reunion 2025, June 6–8
CLASS SECRETARY/ TREASURER Jonas Klein joklein@maine.rr.com
CLASS PRESIDENT Wes Bonney wbonney@maine.rr.com
CLASS PRESIDENT Dwight Harvie dwightwharvie@gmail.com
1950
It is with great sadness that we share the news of Lynn Willsey’s death on March 14. The class extends its deepest condolences to Beverly ’55 and their family. Lynn’s time at Bates, whether as state golf champion; as “Lymelyght” Lynn in the 1952 Mayoralty, or meeting his sweetheart, Beverly, was only the start of his deep connection with Bates, a college that did “so much for him and his family,” as was noted in his obituary. A trustee emeritus, Lynn served in almost every Bates volunteer capacity possible. In 2006, he and Beverly received the Papaioanou Distinguished Alumni Service Award. Lynn’s obituary will be in the fall Bates Magazine.
1955 Reunion 2025, June 6–8 CLASS PRESIDENT Beverly Hayne Willsey stonepost@cox.net CLASS VICE-PRESIDENT Merton Ricker mertr33@gmail.com “Would you believe that I still have a very stretched-out Double Nickel T-shirt that I sleep in? It works!” reports Priscilla Hatch Stred. She lives at Granite Hill Estates in Hallowell, Maine. “I am still driving, still playing handbells, still cross-stitching and knitting. Life is good. Daughter Kris and husband Terry visited in October from Seattle, and daughter Sue and husband Hal came through in July from Syracuse on their way to Camden for a week.”…After more than 30 years in South Carolina, Will Hills has resettled in New England. “Nearly everyone I told about this move said that I moved in the wrong direction,” he notes. After a series of falls, he felt he’d be better off nearer to daughter Susan Hills Murphy ’83. “This has me living in Brooksby Village, a large facility in Peabody, Mass. Since I grew up in this general area, it was not much of a surprise to learn that one of the other residents used to live across from my parents’ home in Reading.”...The Bates Alumni Book Club and growing tomatoes have helped keep Nancy Howe Payne busy since the advent of COVID-19, but “playing bridge, online, has been a lifesaver.” At Bates, she recalls, “there was always a bridge game going on in a common room. I never took part then, but I do wonder if those bridge players are still playing. And I would like to suggest that at the next Reunion we have a bridge tournament.” Husband Robert, she adds, works about 20 hours a week designing surgical robots for an international medical device firm....Hal Hunter is still active in community betterment in Amissville, Va. “My current project is a house-sharing
