NMH Magazine 2015 Fall

NMH Magazine

fall

15 volume 17 • number 2

Northfield Mount Hermon

NMH Magazine FALL 2015 Volume 17, Number 2 Editor Jennifer Sutton P’14 Design Lilly Pereira Contributors Sharon LaBella-Lindale P’17 Susan Pasternack Harry van Baaren P’16, ’18 Class Notes Editor Kris Halpin Class Notes Design HvB Imaging Print Production Pam Lierle P’17 Director of Communications Cheri Cross Head of School Peter B. Fayroian Chief Advancement Officer Allyson L. Goodwin ’83, P’12, ’14 Archivist Peter H. Weis ’78, P’13 Northfield Mount Hermon publishes NMH Magazine (USPS074-860) two times a year in fall and spring. Printed by Lane Press, Burlington, VT 05402 NMH Magazine Northfield Mount Hermon One Lamplighter Way Mount Hermon, MA 01354 413-498-3247 Fax 413-498-3021 nmhmagazine@nmhschool.org Class Notes nmhnotes@nmhschool.org Address Changes Northfield Mount Hermon Advancement Services Norton House One Lamplighter Way Mount Hermon, MA 01354 413-498-3300 addressupdates@nmhschool.org

NMH Magazine

15 fall

volume 17 • number 2

features

20 The World Needs You

At Commencement last spring, Harvard professor James Engell ’69 issued a powerful call to action.

26 The Last Hurricane

A short story from Now We Will Be Happy, the award-winning collection by Amina Gautier ’95.

30 The Pioneers

In the early 1970s, Northfield graduates helped break down gender barriers in the Ivy League.

36 Game On

Fifty years ago, there was a football game, a fire, and a photograph that made history.

departments

3 Letters

5 Leading Lines

6 NMH Postcard

8 NMH Journal

14 Movers & Makers 16 In the Classroom 18 Past Present 42 Alumni Hall 46 Class Notes 96 Parting Words < < L I VI NG COL OR Inspired by the Hindu festival called Holi, students participated in a “Color Run” last April, throwing colorful powdered paint to celebrate spring.

C O V E R I L L U S TR ATI O N : J O E L H O L L A N D TA B L E O F C O N TE N TS PH O TO : G L E N N M I NS HA LL

NMH showed us the way forward.

Now we give back.

NMH taught us to live in the world with purpose and make it a better place. Now we are making a difference in professions and communities everywhere. As we look ahead with conviction, we also need to give back to NMH. Only with our support can NMH inspire the students of today and tomorrow. Every single gift matters.

You can direct your gift to the area of NMH that means the most to you.

Find your giving options at www.nmhschool.org/nmhfund.

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LETTERS

NMH Farm Products

WHAT DO YOU THINK? NMH Magazine welcomes correspondence from readers. Letters and emails may be edited for length, clarity, and grammar, and should pertain to magazine content. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policies or positions of Northfield Mount Hermon. Reach us at NMH Magazine, One Lamplighter Way, Mount Hermon, MA 01354, or email us at nmhmagazine@nmhschool.org.

TEACHER, INFLUENCER

I appreciate the difference that teacher Charlie Malcolm is making in the educational lives of students (“War and Peace,” Spring ’15) by helping them connect history to current events. I was once in their position; I had a history teacher at NMH who sparked my curiosity in the interconnection of historical events, and in their impact on current events. He initiated the development of my critical-thinking skills and inspired me to pursue a career in foreign affairs.

Malcolm, like my teacher, might not know what his enduring impact will be on his students’ lives.

After NMH, I obtained a bachelor’s degree in history and political science (Macalester) and a master’s in Russian area studies (Georgetown), and later, a master’s in national security strategy (National War College/ National Defense University). In my U.S. government career, I served on assignment in seven foreign countries, traveled to numerous additional countries, including war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq, and worked on assignment in Washington, D.C. It all started with someone like Malcolm.

I wish I could thank the teacher who inspired me, but that is no longer possible. It is possible, however, to pay it forward and thank Malcolm for inspiring a new generation.

Perhaps one of those students will

be motivated to make a life’s work of foreign affairs as I was.

Jeff Miller ’68 McLean, Virginia TALKING ABOUT FERGUSON

As a septuagenarian who has seen how far we have come, I am happy to note NMH’s response to recent events (“Talking About Ferguson,” Spring ’15) and shifts in social attitudes (“Beyond Unisex,” Spring ’15).

When I attended Northfield in the 1950s, there was pride in the diversity of the student body and the many countries it represented. But the concept of diversity was narrow then. Racial and gender issues, as well as sexual orientation and identity, were taboo subjects.

As a woman during the ’60s and ’70s, I often felt diminished by the way men talked down to me or excluded me from conversation. The worlds of men and women were separate and unequal. Women struggled with their self-esteem. I learned that our self-image is deeply affected by how others perceive us. But our selfimage also profoundly affects how we see others.

Many courageous voices, young and old, are resonating with calls for dignity, forgiveness, peace, and equal opportunity. We are becoming more empowered to be ourselves and speak our truth. The journey ahead requires courage, trust, a deeper understanding of ourselves, and continued on next page

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fall 2015 I 3

LETTERS

Keep Calm and Carry On

The NMH bookstore can help outfit you and your family.

Visit the NEW and IMPROVED online store for great gift ideas.

nmhbookstore.com

Northfield Mount Hermon Summer Session july 2–august 6, 2016

Earn credits to advance in school.

Build skills and accelerate academic progress.

Sample boarding school life or come as a day student.

www.nmhschool.org/summer One Lamplighter Way, Mount Hermon, MA 01354 413-498-3290

summer_school@nmhschool.org

4 I NMH Magazine

greater awareness of how we exist with others. Thank you for integrating this inquiry/conversation into the NMH community.

Ayo Oum Shanti ’61 New York, New York

School. But closed-mindedness damages students. “Diversity” shouldn’t exclude diversity of thought. Hopefully, NMH hasn’t passed the tipping point.

Daniel Thompson Jr. ’66 Atlanta, Georgia

It was with great sadness that I read your article “Talking About Ferguson” (Spring ’15). During my NMH days, faculty encouraged vigorous discussion on the Vietnam War, racism, and social issues. We were open to opposing facts.

Having to support our views with facts, not just “feelings,” advanced our learning and growth.

That seems lacking at NMH now.

Reality seems not to matter if it conflicts with stereotypes of blacks as perpetual victims. Why ignore evidence showing that Michael Brown fought for the cop’s gun? Why ignore the public release of all evidence, or the work of the multiracial grand jury, or the state and federal governments’ findings that vindicated the cop?

Your article implied that Michael Brown died because of race. Absent the video, would you deny the robbery he’d just committed? The article also paternalistically assumed that black people can’t make good choices; that whites are responsible, like parents of misbehaving children; that black people acting like Mr. Brown presumably lack the judgment, power, and good sense to know better. Tell that to millions of black people working hard daily, making good choices, and raising children as productive citizens.

At NMH, I learned the value of factbased discussion. Banning disagreement and ignoring factual realities discourages critical thinking. Yes, racism persists today. As a black man raised in segregated Alabama, I saw it daily. I lived it at NMH, Brown, and Harvard Law

I was not only dismayed but also upset about comments published in NMH Magazine (“Talking About Ferguson,” Spring ’15). To state that the Michael Brown/Darren Wilson case was racism and insinuate that Mr. Brown was killed for robbing a store was both inflammatory and proven to be untrue.

Both local authorities and the U.S. Department of Justice investigated every aspect of this case, cleared the officer, and found no evidence of civil rights violations or wrongdoing. Mr. Brown was not killed for robbing a store. He was killed because he chose to physically assault a police officer rather than recognize and comply with the officer’s command. He had a choice before the robbery and after it, and in both cases, he chose aggressive confrontation over civility and the law. I would encourage you to read the DOJ’s final report — which is enlightening and sometimes frightening — and put yourself in the officer’s position.

This was certainly a tragedy because a young man lost his life and another man’s will be forever changed. In our society, as in others across the globe, there is evil and racism in many forms, across color, religion, and culture, and it is awful to see. But we have an excellent judicial system in the United States, and I would encourage everyone to review the facts of events such as Ferguson as they are brought to light before making such irresponsible and incendiary statements.

Tim Goff ’81 Manchester, New Hampshire

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LEADING LINES

Our House

NMH is building for the 21st century.

by PETER B. FAYROIAN, Head of School

In the next five years, you’ll see several exciting building projects taking shape on the NMH campus that will help us meet the changing demands of a 21stcentury boarding-school education. The Gilder Center for Integrative Math and Science Education, a fitness facility, a boathouse, and an early childhood education center for faculty and staff children — these projects will replace dated facilities that are less than ideal, but more important, they will serve our mission, which has never wavered: to educate the heads, hearts, and hands of our students.

Let’s rewind for a moment. When NMH embarked upon the recent construction of six new faculty homes, our three criteria were to meet the needs of our mission, serve our teachers and students, and make sure the buildings reflected our commitment to stewarding the natural beauty and resources of our magnificent campus. We dug into the demographics of faculty families, toured other schools, and created homes in which our teachers’ families would be comfortable and where students would be welcome.

That project followed in the tradition of Headmaster Elliott Speer, who in 1933 toured the spartan faculty apartments in Overtoun and, appalled, proceeded to build forwardthinking and comfortable living quarters for teachers. Before that, James Gymnasium, constructed in 1910, was held up as a model for boarding school facilities, along with Crossley Hall and beautiful Alumni — then West — Hall, with one of the largest unsupported roofs in the country. In the past decade, NMH has continued this mission-centered building with the renovation of Cottage Row, and construction of Shea and Mackinnon dormitories, Bolger Admission House, and the Rhodes Arts Center, which is hailed as the finest of its kind among our peer schools.

Now, looking forward: The Gilder Center for Integrative Math and Science Education will reflect the collaborative, student-centered teaching for which NMH has become known. Behind its design will be more than a year of pedagogical research and input from our own teachers as well as from experts in higher education and beyond. It’s fitting that the new building will rise near the site of former Silliman Hall, the science building that burned 50 years ago (see story, p. 36).

A new boathouse will further propel one of the country’s best high-school rowing programs and will sit on the most enviable reach of water of any school crew

PHOTO: MICHAEL DW YER

program. The new fitness center (along with renovations to James and Forslund gymnasiums) will serve the health and well-being of our entire community in what is now our laundry building, with its beautiful natural light, ample space, and a view of the Connecticut River Valley. And I’m pleased to announce that we will finally move the school’s childcare and nursery school program from the other side of the river; in both proximity and design, it will better meet the needs of the fine teachers NMH must attract and retain.

You will hear more about these projects and the strategic plan that guided their design, because we can’t do any of this without you. Since D.L. Moody procured the funds to purchase land for his schools in 1878, NMH has relied upon its alumnae, alumni, and families to provide the resources necessary to — as our mission states — “engage the intellect, compassion and talents of our students” and empower them “to act with humanity and purpose.”

You’ll hear about our desire to raise endowment funds for financial aid because, after all, we must support the fabulous students who will bring life to our new facilities. You’ll hear how we constantly strive to strengthen our operating budget, which is always our first priority.

So stay tuned. NMH is entering the “quiet phase” of an ambitious capital campaign that will turn all of these plans into reality, and my colleagues and I invite you to join us as we prepare to build on this green and pleasant land. [NMH]

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NMH POSTCARD

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NMH JOURNAL

C O N V O C AT I O N I N ME MO R I A L C H A P E L , S E P T E MB E R 2 0 1 5 PH O TO : G L E N N M I N S H A L L

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NMH JOURNAL

Taking a Stand Isabella DeHerdt ’17 has been pretty busy this fall. She’s taking French, honors chemistry, and U.S. history. She sings in several NMH ensembles, and got a part in the fall musical. And though she hadn’t planned on it, she also spent a couple weeks teaching the music industry about sexism.

DeHerdt, 16, is a day student from Ashfield, Massachusetts. When she’s not at NMH, she sings and plays guitar in a rock band with two local friends, both 14. Their band, Kalliope Jones, won third place in a Battle of the Bands for young musicians at the Tri-County Fair in Northampton, Massachusetts, in September, but

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when the judges wrote comments about the performers — all of whom were between the ages of 12 and 16 — they suggested that Kalliope Jones would fare better if the girls “used their sultry to draw in the crowd.”

The girls got annoyed. Their parents did, too. The judges, when questioned, stood by their comments.

Did any of the boy bands receive similar advice, DeHerdt and her bandmates wanted to know? The answer from the judges was “No, it’s a completely different thing.”

The three girls went on Facebook and vented to their friends. “To be told that we need to be more sexy in order to make it as musicians goes against everything we have been taught,” they wrote. “A woman’s sex appeal, or anyone’s, for that matter, should not be the defining factor in their success in the music industry.

In addition to that, we are children!”

The Facebook chatter quickly went viral, and Kalliope Jones’s small circle of fans got a whole lot bigger. Within a few days, their story was featured

PH O TO S : C O U R TE S Y O F K A L L I O PE J O N E S

Singer and guitarist Isabella DeHerdt ’17 (center) with her Kalliope Jones bandmates Alouette Batteau (left) and Amelia Chalfant (right).

on the websites of New York Magazine, People magazine, MTV, and the British newspaper The Independent. “Teen Girl Band Fights Sexism” declared “The Today Show” website.

One of the band’s songs is titled “Speak Up,” but “we did not expect this,” DeHerdt says. “It was insane how it grew. It was pretty daunting because we hadn’t faced anything like that before.”

The band has been careful to state that they believe the judges meant no harm. “We were grateful for the opportunity to play at the fair, and we don’t want to demonize anyone,” DeHerdt says. “We just want to bring awareness to something that happens far too often to females in the music industry — that they’re judged differently than male musicians.

People don’t even realize they’re doing it. It’s like racism or homophobia; it’s so internalized.”

Within a couple of weeks, the hubbub died down, which was a good thing, according to DeHerdt. She wants to focus on her music, both with Kalliope Jones and at NMH — not to mention get her homework done.

Still, the band is proud. “We accomplished a goal that we hadn’t even set for ourselves,” DeHerdt says.

“Originally, we just wanted to tell people what happened at the fair. But we got our message out there in a much bigger way, and even if it helps just one 9-year-old girl who’s starting to play music — so she can see girls saying, ‘It doesn’t matter what you look like, just play your music and do what you love’ — then that’s enough.”

HOW TO APPRECIATE NMH One of the school’s most loyal graduates wants alumni and parents to think about the future — specifically math and science education and financial aid at NMH. Former trustee Richard Gilder ’50 will invest $5 million over the next five years in a matching-grant program that has been dubbed the Gilder Challenge for Innovation and Opportunity.

Gilder, a New York philanthropist, will match every dollar given to the new math and science center, up to $5 million, to create an endowed scholarship fund for promising students. “My experience at the school changed my life, and I imagine this is true for most of our alumni,” Gilder says. “I hope that my gifts to NMH will inspire gifts of all sizes, confirming our appreciation of this school.”

When NMH began planning cutting-edge changes to its math and

science curriculum two years ago, Gilder gave a $10 million lead gift for a new facility to support those changes. It was the largest cash gift in NMH’s history. The new building and curriculum advances are part of a fiveyear strategic plan, which went into effect at the beginning of the year.

Gilder, 83, has committed a total of nearly $19 million to NMH, making him the school’s top living donor. His gifts helped support the building of the Rhodes Arts Center, bring notable speakers to campus, renovate Alumni Hall, and bolster reunion funds. “In the fundraising world, Dick Gilder is an iconic and discerning philanthropist,” says Head of School Peter Fayroian. “The fact that he wholeheartedly supports all aspects of NMH is an indication of the strength of our educational program, our faculty and staff, and our students.”

NM H I N 3 -D

A B ET T E R BI RD’ S -E Y E V I E W Explore Northfield Mount Hermon’s campus in 3-D detail with the school’s new interactive map and online “tour” at www.tinyurl.com/nmhmap.

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NMH JOURNAL

HEAVY HIT T E R S

Pro basketball player Tony Gaffney ’04 helped lead the Hapoel Jerusalem Basketball Club to a historic national championship in June. Gaffney’s Jerusalem team won the Israeli Basketball Premier League title for the first time in the team’s 72-year history.

Tessa Gobbo ’09 was a member of the U.S. Rowing women’s eight squad that won two 2015 international titles over the summer: the World Rowing Championship in June and the World Rowing Cup II in August. This qualifies

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her to compete for the U.S. at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

In May, pitcher Oliver Drake ’06 made his major league debut with the Baltimore Orioles, and made numerous trips back and forth between Camden Yards and the Triple-A Norfolk Tides, where he lowered his ERA to 0.68.

Hannah Solis-Cohen ’11 helped the University of Virginia’s women’s four boat capture the 2015 NCAA championship last May.

NMH has joined Andover, Exeter, Choate, and Deerfield in a new athletic league named The Five Schools League. The schools already compete within the larger New England Prep School Athletic Council (NEPSAC). The new league will not only provide more opportunities for competition, but will also recognize sportsmanship among teams, individual studentathletes, and coaches, and will honor longtime coaches.

NMH JOURNAL

FOR THE RECORD THE SHOT

CHAMP IONS Last spring, Caroline Sullivan ’15 (left) broke her second NMH track and field record (one that had held for 30 years) when she became the NEPSTA Division I champion in the 1500m race with a time of 4:41:74. At the 2014 NEPSTA championships, Sullivan won the 3000m race with a time of 10:34, breaking a 22-year-old record.

Sidi Abdoulaye ’15 came into the NEPSTA Division I championship meet undefeated in the 1500m and 3000m races. He won the 1500m by over four seconds with a time of 4:03.69, and the 3000m by almost 8 seconds, with a time of 8:57.81. Abdoulaye became the first boy to win both championship races in over five years, and remained undefeated in any race 1500m or longer throughout his NMH career.

Former head basketball coach Bill Batty ’59 and current NMH coach and former player John Carroll ’89 were inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame: Carroll as an NMH and Assumption College player and as a prep-school coach, and Batty as a prep-school coach.

Duke University men’s basketball manager Ryan Kelly ’12 worked behind the scenes to help the Blue Devils win the NCAA National Championship in April in Indianapolis.

“ I ’m not gonna go full cheese and say that I’ve found my ‘true home’ at NMH, but it’s the closest I’ve ever come.”

GRAHAM FORRESTER ’16, in a “Moment of Silence” reflection he delivered at an all-school meeting in Memorial Chapel on Sept. 14.

A President and a Preacher, Connected by a Name On a stormy night in Texas in October 1890, a woman whose maiden name was Ida Stover gave birth to a son. She named him Dwight, after Dwight L. Moody, who at the time was a well-known spiritual leader but had not yet founded Northfield and Mount Hermon schools.

Decades later, that baby boy grew up to become a five-star general in the United States Army, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during World War II, and the 34th president of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower.

President Eisenhower explained the connection himself in a 1966 letter catalogued in the NMH Archives.

“My mother often spoke of Dwight L. Moody,” Eisenhower wrote. “It was my understanding that she gave me my name, Dwight, because of her admiration for the evangelist.”

The letter is addressed to a Mrs. Powell — Emma Moody Powell, Dwight Moody’s granddaughter — who had sent Eisenhower a newspaper clipping about her famous relation. The Powell family, which includes David S. Powell ’48, donated the Eisenhower letter to NMH years ago, and it has been a part of the Moody Museum in Northfield ever since.

P HOTOS: R ISLEY SPOR TS P H O T O G R AP H Y, B AC H R AC H , C O U R T E SY O F N M H A R C H I V E S

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NMH JOURNAL

WHO•WHAT •W H Y

A Fan Leads to Love

by SARA KARZ REID

Have you ever made fun of a “Grand Poo-Bah”? Or thought “the punishment should fit the crime”? If so, you’ve referred to The Mikado, Gilbert and Sullivan’s Victorian-era comic opera, written in 1885 and set in a semi-imaginary feudal Japan. The play satirizes British government and politics, with a convoluted plot that includes red tape, executioners, royalty in mufti, and young lovers.

The singers in The Mikado make exuberant use of Japanese folding fans, snapping them open and closed in time with the music and lyrics. This prop fan (pictured above), found in the NMH Archives, was used in Northfield and Mount Hermon’s 1962 production of The Mikado. It is signed by more than 50 members of the cast, making it more than just a pretty object.

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Folding fans like this one were used by the entire cast from the start of rehearsals. The size of the fan indicated the rank of the individual character.

“The fans made a fine ‘snap’ when opened with vigor, and this could be used to drive a point,” reports Eric Erlandsen ’63. The student-actors had to practice opening the fans in one quick motion, damaging more than one in the process.

Tony Cantore ’65 was a member of the crew, charged with moving props and scenery during the performance while he was in full costume and makeup. “Once Mr. Raymond heard my off-key singing, he instructed me to mouth the words but not to sing!” Cantore says. Scott Calvert ’62, in the role of Ko-Ko, the “Lord High Executioner” for the Mikado

(the emperor), declares he had “the time of my life prancing about while muttering great amounts of disingenuous drivel.”

In 2012, during the 50th reunion for the class of 1962, members of the cast gathered in the Rhodes Arts Center to sing through the production once again. At the end of the opera, the young lovers Yum-Yum and Nanki-Poo (the son of the Mikado) marry. Karen Ann Zee ’62, who played Yum-Yum, and Eric Reidel ’62, the Nanki-Poo understudy, dated as students — a sweet parallel — but went their separate ways after graduation. They re-connected at the reunion and married in 2014, with several members of the Mikado cast in attendance. “I never got to play the lead in our production,” Reidel says, “but I ultimately got the girl.”

Sara Karz Reid is an archaeologist and an assistant archivist in NMH’s Schauffler Library.

NMH JOURNAL

Heroes at Sea Less than a decade after Bernard Webber ’48 was a student at Mount Hermon for a year, he played a leading role in a daring Coast Guard rescue mission considered one of the greatest in Coast Guard history. That rescue will soon be the subject of a Disney feature film, The Finest Hours, due in theaters in January.

In the winter of 1952, Webber was the coxswain of a 36-foot motor lifeboat in the Chatham Coast Guard station on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. During a terrible nor’easter in mid-February, the news came that two U.S. Navy tankers had split in half amid 60-foot waves, 10 miles offshore. Webber and his three-man crew braved hurricaneforce winds and blizzard conditions to rescue 32 of the 33 mariners stranded in the stern of one of the ships, the U.S.S. Pendleton, before the wreck went down in the frigid Atlantic. All four Coast Guardsmen were awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal for their heroic actions.

Webber had enlisted in the Coast Guard after World War II, after training with the Merchant Marine Service at the age of 16 following his year at Mount Hermon. The Disney film is based on a book by Casey Sherman and Michael Tougias, which was published in 2009, the same year Webber died.

READING LIST

Peace Corps Fantasies: How Development Shaped the Global Sixties Molly Geidel ’98 Univ. of Minnesota Press September 2015

A Space Oddity Larry Andrews ’49 Tate Publishing December 2014

As a Sailboat Seeks the Wind Marian Kelner (former faculty) Booksmyth Press March 2015

Good Rabble, Bad Rabble: A Fifty-Year-Old Prep School Mystery Richard E. Waltman ’63 Amazon Digital Services May 2015

Natural Sustenance: Selected Poems Nick Fleck (former faculty) Human Error Publishing November 2014

Welcome to NMH In September, NMH launched a redesigned website that not only showcases the school’s new branding initiative but also is more visual and interactive. The website serves as the school’s “front door,” says Cheri Cross, director of communications. “Now it more effectively says, ‘Come in. We’re a high-quality, welcoming place.’”

P HO TOS: TOD D SMITH , C O U R T E SY O F WALT D ISN E Y P IC T U R E S

My Helsingfors: Andreas Larsson Bengstrom Ed Sundt ’54 CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform October 2014

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MOVERS & MAKERS

The Producer Bred on Hitchcock and Hepburn, Gillian Bohrer ’96 creates films for a new generation.

by LORI FERGUSON

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Gillian Bohrer ’96 grew up in the tiny town of Erving, Massachusetts, eight miles south of Northfield Mount Hermon and a world away from Hollywood. She was raised on classic Hitchcock and Hepburn movies, but as the new co-president of production at Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, she is equally at home with 21st-century vampire romances and post-apocalyptic science fiction. During the time she was a studio executive at Summit Entertainment and then at Lionsgate, which acquired Summit in 2012, Bohrer oversaw the Twilight and Divergent franchises as well as other films — The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Warm Bodies — that collectively grossed more than $4 billion worldwide.

Tapping into the zeitgeist of today’s movie going public might seem an unlikely ambition for someone who came of age without cable TV. But Bohrer says she never felt deprived because her father, a film professor at Fitchburg State, was always bringing movies home. “We were constantly watching American films from the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, and for many years, I didn’t realize this was anything unusual. I assumed these were the movies that everyone grew up watching,” Bohrer says. She counts the 1940 hit The Philadelphia Story among her favorites, as well as thrillers from the 1980s and ’90s like The Firm and Seven, which she calls “a shockingly perfect movie.” “And every couple of years I indulge myself in a Hitchcock marathon,” she says.

Bohrer’s original career goal for many years was law school. “I was very argumentative as a child,” she says, “and people were always saying, ‘She’s going to be a lawyer!’”

She earned a history degree from Yale, and during college, she went to the movies all the time, got involved in theater, and discovered a love of producing plays. As her senior year approached and the time came to apply to law school, Bohrer realized the

PH O TO : M A X G E R B E R

BRIGHT LIGHT

THE CONNECTOR

process could consume her final year of college. She had second thoughts. “I wanted to be able to enjoy my senior year,” she says. At the same time, she began considering other options, among them a master’s degree from the Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California. “I decided that law school would always be there,” she says. “Wouldn’t it be great to take some risks first?”

While at USC, Bohrer secured an internship at Jersey Films, the now-defunct production company that made Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty, and Erin Brockovich. When Jersey broke up, Bohrer’s internship supervisor went to Summit, and that was Bohrer’s first call after graduation. Luckily, the chief operations officer at Summit needed an assistant.

“I interviewed and was hired on the spot,” Bohrer says.

Because Bohrer was working for almost no money, her boss gave her as much exposure to the business as possible, arranging for her to work in every department in the company over the course of a year. Bohrer drafted notices for the legal department, tracked royalty invoices, and most important, read scripts, compiled movie reviews, and reported on film festivals for the creative department. “It was a lot of odds and ends,” she recalls, “but it gave me a comprehensive understanding of what went into running the company.” She has never left. “Every time I get to the point where I’m feeling the need for a change, the company transforms and I’m presented with a new challenge.”

Now, with the third installment of the Divergent series set to open in March 2016, Bohrer maintains that her remarkable ascent in the film industry comes simply from hard work and an eye for opportunity. “I got into this career because I love movies,” she says. “From the outset, I’ve wanted to be a producer and I sought to be wherever people would let me do that. Now I’m just interested in figuring out how to make better movies, wherever that leads me.” [NMH]

“ I ’m just

interested in figuring out how to make better movies, wherever that leads me.”

John Park ’90 likes to make stuff. At home, it’s pizza and gourd shakers and a “tea timer” he built from an old toaster. “The teabag hangs from the toaster lever and a mug of hot water sits in front of it,” he explains. “You push down the lever, the tea is infused for about two minutes — controlled by the toast darkness dial — and then the toaster pops the teabag up and out. No more over-brewed tea!”

At work, Park operates at a considerably higher level. Last year, he became a technology transfer producer for Disney Research at Walt Disney Imagineering — one of only five in this position in the entire company. He brings together Disney’s research scientists, whose specialties range from computer graphics to behavioral science to robotics and artificial intelligence, with Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios, Lucas Films, and other Disney divisions.

“My job is to assess the needs of the creative professionals who create Disney’s animation, movies, and rides, and connect them with the researchers who can help solve their problem,” he says.

Park has midwifed projects such as Medusa, the technology invented at Disney’s Zurich research lab that captures a high-fidelity 3-D image of an actor’s face that can be grafted onto a CG (computer graphics) character. Medusa allows directors to create stunning visual effects as well as live-action film stunts too dangerous for humans. It’s popular at Marvel and Lucas Films, Park says, and was used in Disney’s Maleficent to capture the facial expressions of the three actors playing fairies in the movie. “The technology enabled their performances to be re-targeted onto CG models of their smaller, differently proportioned pixie versions,” Park says.

Turning a childhood fascination with building things into a college major, Park started out studying Russian and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia, then followed his love of prop building and performing into the theater department. After graduating, he took a summer job at a company that created role-playing games. “I was hired to pack boxes in the warehouse, but I saw their computer graphics division and I talked my way in there instead,” he says.

Jobs at IBM and Sony Pictures Imageworks followed, and Disney beckoned 11 years ago.

Park’s current role demands both creative and quantitative skills, and requires him to nurture relationships across the sprawling Disney conglomerate. “The joy of creative collaboration has been a through line in my career, and I can trace it back to my years with the NMH Singers and Sheila Heffernon,” he says. “I loved singing with that group. I learned a tremendous amount about working hard with others to make something.”

—Lori Ferguson

PH O TO : E VA N G R AY

fall 2015 I 15

IN THE CLASSROOM

Beginnings At the school year’s opening faculty meeting, a veteran teacher recalls his first day on the job.

by GARY PARTENHEIMER

“Oh, the terror of beginnings!” sighs Codi Noline in Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Dreams. Having dropped out of med school to care for her ailing father, Codi takes a job at her old high school and anxiously wonders what kind of teacher she’ll be. But the real story is what she learns in Arizona — at the nexus of intermingled cultures and distinct ways of understanding and being in the world.

So, Monday, September 12, 1977: Come with me to Sanda Countway Room 6 on the Northfield campus (second floor, first door on the left) to relive the second-most embarrassing moment of my first day at NMH. After the obligatory tedium of orientation week, I was more than eager to meet my first class at 8 am — 14 well-scrubbed and wide-eyed ninth graders — until I realized I’d left all of my books, notes, and class lists back in the dorm. Oh, the terror of beginnings….

Deep breath. Improvise. I strode confidently to the board and wrote “RELIGION” in huge capital letters. “Let’s just go around and say the first word that comes to mind.” Long nanosecond pause, until someone offered, “Church?”

Gary Partenheimer, soon after he was hired in 1977.

16 I NMH Magazine

I wrote it on the board. Someone else said, “Belief!” and up it went.

Then the words came tumbling out, almost faster than I could record them: “God … Bible … rabbi … priest … prayer” — “BRRSHIM ...” in a muffled voice quite unlike the others.

I balked for another excruciating nanosecond, then wrote “bullshit” under “prayer,” which inspired a ripple of titters from the desks behind me.

The boy from Korea was the only nonnative speaker in the class.

“BRRSHIM,” he repeated, when our eyes almost met.

“That’s OK, there’s room for different ideas here,” as I underlined “bullshit” to a renewed chorus of giggles. The boy next to him, his American roommate, whispered in his ear, and a flash of frightened recognition crossed his face. “He said, ‘worship.’”

I quickly erased “bullshit” and replaced it with the correct term.

I remember little else from that first class hour, save that I tried calmly to reassure Chil-soo that it was my mistake (which was true) and the laughter was about me, not him

PH O TO : C O U R TE S Y O F N M H A R C H I V E S

(which was true), and that his English was very good (which was true), but I have no idea what he made of his first American teacher in his first American class almost 7,000 air miles from home. This was likely the first conversation I’d ever had with a person from Korea.

A few days later, when I asked about the reading, someone yelled, “Worship!” and it went viral: quiz tomorrow … “worship!” … paper due next Tuesday … “worship!” … tests returned … “worship!” We had inadvertently created our own quasireligious ritual and enacted it regularly — to my horror and delight — with the gusto of true believers.

But I’m still here, 38 years later, the second-most distinguished old guy on the faculty. And like just about everyone else in this room, whether this is your first or 41st year, I still have those teacher dreams at the start of a new school year: You can’t find your classroom, or you’ve forgotten your trousers, or no one knows you. In fact, it’s a good ice-breaker in these next few weeks. As you meet new colleagues in the dining hall, ask them about their teacher dreams; share your own.

“ I was more than eager to meet my first class at 8 am, until I realized I’d left all of my books, notes, and class lists back in the dorm.”

More important, of course, Chil-soo was still here after that “unorthodox” beginning. He was an excellent student who made up for his reticence in class with beautiful papers, and his writing and speaking improved dramatically during the year. He moved to Mount Hermon as a sophomore, so I saw little of him until May of his senior year, when I turned at a tap on the back in the busy dining hall.

“Worship, Mr. P!” a glowing Chil-soo chanted, and then launched into an unexpected bear hug. “Thanks for a great class — it was my favorite at NMH,” he said. “See you at graduation!” And he disappeared into the crowd.

I think it was his way of forgiving me, of assuring me that terrifying beginnings quite often lead to happy endings, if we’re willing to live their painful lessons with our eyes on the

prize. A few days later, Chil-soo was inducted into the Cum Laude Society and received the Mehrkens Prize for contributions to religious life, honoring his four years as a deacon in the NMH chapel. At graduation he led “Jerusalem” in proud unison with his four-year classmates.

So, too, our teacher dreams are only a preview of the 650 or so dreamers now headed our way, wrestling with their own terror of beginnings, but coming to us nonetheless. So, grab a ballet slipper, a soccer ball, a graphing calculator, a flash card pack, a beaker, a poem, a whole wheat pizza — whatever are your wands of wisdom and hats of humility — and let’s go meet them once again for the Great Miracle: yesterday strangers, tomorrow students, athletes, artists, leaders, neighbors, advisees, friends.

May the spirit of Mr. Moody inspire us to provide an education for the whole person — the Head, the Heart, and the Hand — but let it be the Heart that distinguishes life at NMH. Welcome aboard, new colleagues.

Welcome back, veteran friends. See you at graduation. [NMH]

fall 2015 I 17

PAST PRESENT

A Voice Like Hers In January 1955, Marian Anderson became the first person of color to sing at New York’s Metropolitan Opera.

Ten months later, she sang in Northfield’s Auditorium.

by PETER WEIS ’78, P’13

Arturo Toscanini, the legendary musical director at La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, described the singer Marian Anderson this way: “A voice like hers is heard only once in a hundred years.”

He was clearly in a position to know, and his oft-quoted plaudit appeared in virtually every news story about Anderson, including one on the front page of The Hermonite in October 1955 under the headline “Marian Anderson, Famed Contralto, Will Perform Tonight in Auditorium.”

Anderson was born in Philadelphia in 1897, and became one of the most revered singers of the 20th century even as she struggled quietly against racial prejudice throughout her career. She gave a famous open-air Easter concert at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 — to a crowd of 75,000 and a radio audience of millions — after the Daughters of the American Revolution barred her from singing at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., yet she was more interested in the opportunity to sing than in protesting. Four years later, when the DAR invited her to sing in the venue it had previously prevented her from entering, she said she felt no sense of triumph, only joy in performing in a beautiful hall.

In 1955, Northfield was preparing to celebrate its diamond jubilee, and much attention was focused on securing the finest entertainment possible. How it happened that Anderson was invited to sing, and that she found time in her schedule to come to western Massachusetts is unclear.

It may have occurred through the influence of baritone Todd Duncan, who knew Anderson and whose nephew and namesake was in the class of 1956 at Mount Hermon.

The younger Todd Duncan attests that it was fitting for Anderson to sing before the students at Northfield and Mount Hermon, because, without fanfare, the schools had been setting an example of racial, ethnic, and religious acceptance among peer institutions. “In the sociopolitical climate of the 1950s, exclusion was the norm, but new challenges to

18 I NMH Magazine

that were building, in the arts and elsewhere,” Duncan says.

Anderson’s performance was part of the schools’ tradition of inviting well-known scholars and artists to visit campus for an annual series of lectures and entertainment. Amelia Earhart once flew in for an event, landing in a farmer’s field next to the Connecticut River. Dancers from the then-new Alvin Ailey dance company performed, and the poet Carl Sandburg made an appearance. These trustee-funded events became an opportunity for students at the two schools to share a social evening together.

When Anderson came to campus, she was in the twilight of her career.

“My memory of hearing her is one of pride, exhilaration, and sadness,” Duncan says. “I knew what a great artist she was, and I was thrilled to hear the incredible quality of her voice, but sad, too, because I knew her voice was past its prime, and I intuited the terrible but dignified pain of her journey to this moment.”

Anderson sang compositions by Mozart, Schubert, and Verdi, and the spirituals “Roll Jordan Roll” and “Go Down, Moses.” “Her voice was amazing,” Benita Pierce ’56 recalls. “Not high-pitched, but velvety warm.” [NMH]

PH O TO S : C O U R TE S Y O F N M H A R C H I V E S , U N I V E R S I TY O F PE N N S Y LVA NI A A RCHI V ES

Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., in 1939.

â&#x20AC;&#x153; Her voice was amazing. Not high-pitched, but velvety warm.â&#x20AC;?

fall 2015 I 19

20 I NMH Magazine

TEXT BY JAMES ENGELL â&#x20AC;&#x2122;69 LETTERING BY JOEL HOLLAND

Northfield Mount Hermon class of 2015: Congratulations. Again, and again, congratulations. And, by the way, the world needs you..

H

fall 2015 I 21

E

ducation needs you, for the

ominous gap that grows is not only the one between top salary earners who hold great wealth and the rest of the population. Just as stubborn and troubling is the gap between those with a college degree and those with none. Between those two groups the differences in income, health, children born out of wedlock, divorce, crime, smoking, and life expectancy expand each year. It seems responsible of those with more education not to reap their harvest alone but to open the field to others, to help them plant, and to make that field affordable.

James Engell ’69

22 I NMH Magazine

:

Government needs your help and service. Idealism requires your devotion, compromise your patience and skill. In this country, the citizens, who are supposed to be sovereign, rate their national representatives an approval score hovering around 10 percent, yet we return most incumbents to office. Our party politics are besotted with money. Our polarized politics exhibit a stunning ability to define problems yet to blame others for them, failing to find the reconciliation and solutions that will benefit all.

If political principles are so pure that they prevent compromise, then they’re as useful as a scheme of housecleaning when family members do nothing but squabble. You are needed, needed to pick up the broom and start, and needed to persuade others to pick up the dustpan while you sweep. Otherwise, we’re in for a household of dirt — and dirty money.

The sick and infirm, and an aging population, implore physicians, nurses, and caregivers to look into their eyes and see a whole human being, a soul, and not a digital record, an isolated diagnosis, or list of medications. Yes, improve the digital tool, refine the diagnosis, and target that medication, yet you will be needed most to honor your patient as a person, not an impersonal encounter.

Technology needs you to advance it so that it serves us all, poor and rich, so it will avoid the unintended consequences of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice and instead open a fairer world of productivity, health, recreation, and sustainability — without becoming the vicious treadmill that makes us march ever faster, barely to keep pace with our own ingenuity.

Business needs the disruption and entrepreneurship you can provide.

Commerce and technology accelerate. One app mates with others to yield a hybrid spawn that speeds our ability to know, to buy, to sell, to share. The competitive market is a marvelous thing.

P H O T O : K R I S S N I B B E / H A R VA R D PU B L I C A FFA I R S A N D C O M M U N I C ATI O N S

" Law and regulation need your young wisdom, too: a society not under the whim of individuals but guided by diligence and rules, the wise restraints that make us free.

The market is a marvelous thing, but, like all marvelous things, requires maintenance and care to keep from gyrating out of balance. The flash boys and girls of financial trading need you to set a higher standard, to show that shaving a nanosecond off a stock trade contributes little to common welfare and even mocks the bedrock principles of capitalism laid down by Adam Smith. Good business needs you to make certain it’s a social as well as a personal good.

The disenfranchised and poor cry out for your aid not only because they need it, but because they hope, above all else, for that day when they will no longer need it. In this society that aspires to democratic ideals, its two most fundamental underpinnings, early education and health, don’t yet offer anything close to equality of opportunity. Changing that equation needs your help.

Civil disobedience may need you. Wise restraints and regulations that make us prosperous may perversely turn and place us in the hands of unjust laws, or unjust enforcement of them. Then it may be necessary to disobey an unjust law, to protest civilly. There may come punishment, but what you do to incur that punishment will be as a liberation to others.

Your gender, whatever gender you identify as, needs you.

It needs you to look after the needs, rights, and education of your gender here and elsewhere, even in places far remote.

Your gender, gentlemen in particular, needs you to treat others not of your gender with the respect, dignity, and fairness due every person as a person, inherently and inalienably; your gender needs you to honor the consent of intimacy within the roles of gender and sex that we as individuals choose to follow.

The beauty in art, song, poetry, story, dance, and design needs your gift — your audacity and imagination — to represent the world as it is, as it might become, even as it ought to be. It needs your inspiration and your technique to provide that pure pleasure in apprehending something new, something that breaks the shackles of habit trapping our senses and perceptions, something that makes the familiar world strange in order to reveal the startling, miraculous reality that it is.

The social bonds without which all these endeavors would be hollow and dispiriting need your help. Family, community, and parenting are tasks and joys whose value posts no dollar equivalent. You have made your parents parents, they would not be so without you. And if you have children, they will create you as parents, too. Your parents need you. Your parents need you in ways you cannot yet imagine. It’s a stiff

fall 2015 I 23

:

challenge in a fast-moving, confusing world to hold in place a precious bond between two people, let alone three or more. Such bonds need all the strength that you can give, and more, and you are needed to find that added strength.

Your faith, whatever faith you hold, needs you as you need it. For without you and others, that faith is nothing, its practice dead on the page. It lives only in and through you, and is kept alive as you live it, and in no other way.

When you doubt, and all faith confronts doubt, your faith may change, and to change it will need your compassion, your reform, and your tolerance, as do the faiths that you do not hold, but that those sitting near you do. As Paul said to the Athenians nearly 2,000 years ago, so it remains altogether true today, no matter what your faith may be: “God has made of one blood all peoples of the earth” (Acts 17:26).

The act of forgiveness needs you. We’ve all colluded with error. As humans we can’t help it. If we can’t learn to ask forgiveness, we can’t forgive, and the world needs forgiveness. Without it, the world smolders and catches wildfire.

When we’ve cheated, mistreated, or shortchanged, even a little, even unintentionally, then the only way out, the only remedy for conscience, is atonement — a word that comes from its own parts, at one ment — the way is prayer if you pray, asking forgiveness. And when offended, forgiveness is harder to give than to receive: It’s not meant to change the other person so much as it changes ourselves. Forgiveness is a gift, and it’s needed.

Not only the romance of another person, which is a blessing, but, as Dante said in his Divine Comedy, the love that moves the sun and stars needs you. And it’s no stretch to say that those other worlds need you as well. The remarkable joining of human contrivance and human vision placed a person on the moon the year I graduated. Only a matter of time remains until we walk on Mars and land on asteroids.

When the “Star Trek” of my generation becomes the truth of yours, then, as the astronomer Carl Sagan predicted years ago, we’ll leave this terraqueous globe, some of us, though as Earthlings never forget its shockingly lovely existence as our native home.

Your better self needs you. At some time in the future it will beg your help, but it will be spurned by another side of you, a side that drinks too much, or turns to drugs, or endless work, or meaningless sex, or callousness, each a way to deal with inner conflict or trauma that’s not been healed.

24 I NMH Magazine

Your better self will need you to respond with all your will, with self-reconciliation, self-forgiveness, and reform. This is the easiest need to ignore or deny. But when your better self implores that it needs you, no other need can be met until that one is.

Your mother ... your mother Earth needs you. The world’s ecosystems now fall under our domination. Even deep Pacific Ocean trenches feel the touch of some radioactive nucleotide or human waste; we have warmed the seas to great depth; we are conducting a vast, uncontrolled experiment not only on our climate but on the climate of all creatures, animal and plant, the results of which we cannot predict, but now know beyond any reasonable doubt that our fossil-fuel experiment will give every living thing a different, more disruptive world by the time you gather for your later reunions. The solid, south-facing roofs and open spaces at NMH are waiting for their solar panels. Is the money you give to this school invested sustainably? Neither fate nor destiny decree how much disruption there will be. It depends on what you do, how well you lead.

The natural world has no choice but to ask for your help; for generations we have often ravaged it by what Rachel Carson calls “man’s habitual tampering with nature’s balance.” And now the largest scale, the globe itself, is tipping.

An astonishing transition must happen in the next very few decades. Will you, will this school, meet that need, or will the inertia of rest and its old forces triumph and pronounce a harsh sentence on posterity?

Your success, the success of what you serve, and the success of whoever needs you, become inextricably united.

The wonderful American author Willa Cather had this engraved on her tombstone: “That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great.” You’ve received a liberal, generous education. You now possess something priceless, the opportunity to be liberal and generous with it.

This great and good school needs you. (You’ve already been approached for a class gift — it will never stop!) And, as it needs you, this school is not only a collection of bricks and computers, classrooms, locker rooms, and cottages. It is a sacred trust of one generation caring for — and needing — another; it’s those who have gone before who have given so that the young might thrive; it is a compact between the living and the dead and those to come, and it survives and improves no other way than by your help.

Finally, this day needs you. It needs your celebration, laughter, and joy. There are days set aside for honor, for leave taking, and for commencement, and this is one day dedicated to them all. We who are older need you. So the young poet Wilfred Owen asked if it were possible to “Fill the void veins of Life again with youth, / And wash, with an immortal water, Age?” It is possible, and you will transform the fossil blood of fossil veins to living arteries.

There’s no need to ask if you’re wanted. You are desperately needed. So is the classmate beside you, perhaps the one you’ve never known well, who may still seem a stranger. You are all so desperately needed and wanted.

The name of this need in its widest scope is love, and one of its instruments is knowledge. If you dare to make it so, this love connects your finger touching those near you — infant, grandmother, partner, spouse, or stranger — with the untouchable stars that one day we will touch together. And it connects us even with what is holy. Such love and knowledge connect this place, here and now, our school, this culminating day of youth, with the commencement of all later days.

No matter what trials your young life has seen, no matter what ones may later come, the agent of this love is you: intellectual, physical, spiritual, and bodily, the agent who will transform this world, or not. This world, always threatening to become old, can dawn again under the gentle yet irremissive pressure of your hand, the promise of your head, the rhythms of your heart.

No piece of paper makes this true. These ancient hills declare it so: Your diploma comes written on russet, red, and golden leaves in this valley, and on today’s green grass.

Its ink is the sap that rises in farm maples of March, its seal the mist that floats on lower playing fields. The Connecticut’s mild waters flowed by every night of your sleep and have kept faith with you, and now they send you on your way. There’ll be no more Mountain Days. Yet Monadnock’s granite face shines on you, and will forever shine. The memory of this school and of your teachers and friends, whom you now will know for life, will give you strength, and grant you peace, for what is needed ahead.

And you are needed. [NMH]

,

fall 2015 I 25

THE

LAST HU In the award-winning

story collection

Now We Will Be Happy, author Amina Gautier ’95 chronicles the lives of

Puerto Ricans —

native islanders,

U.S. mainlanders,

Afro-Puerto Ricans —

as they navigate their

cultural identity

and one another.

S T ORY RE P RODUCE D F ROM

NOW WE WI LL BE HAP P Y BY AMI NA GAUT I E R, BY P E RMI S S I ON OF

UNI V E RS I T Y OF NE BRAS KA P RE S S .

COP Y RI GHT 2 0 1 4 BY AMI NA GAUT I E R.

26 I NMH Magazine

P HOT O BY LI A & FAHAD

RRICANE A SHORT STORY BY AMINA GAUTIER ’95

HURRICANES THAT HIT Puerto Rico have Americano names like Alice, and even when they name one Hugo the weathermen don’t pronounce it correctly. Hurricanes never have the names of your children or relatives.

Names like Milagros or Rafael.

When they find out that another hurricane is coming your way, your relatives on the mainland — in New Haven, Hartford, Philadelphia, Newark, and New York — always call and ask if you are ready. If you need anything.

They want to send you and the children things to help you cope.

But you know the truth. fall 2015 I 27

They want to send you and the children things to ease the guilt that they feel as they sit in their safe condos and co-ops with central air and all the other amenities, as they put their feet up to watch the news for the weather report, smug that they are safe and warm while you are ... not. “What will you need?” they ask.

Clean water.

Hot water.

Ice. Electricity.

None of which they can provide.

They want to send blankets, powdered milk, deodorant, diapers. “This is not St. Croix,” you say. Besides, your children are too old for diapers. Your relatives have watched one too many news reports. The winds of the last hurricane that hit your town knocked out all the power lines for days, and you had no light, no heat, no phone. It really wasn’t that bad because you live in Carolina, near enough to San Juan and the turistas so that the problem was fixed pronto. But you heard that the people who lived farther out where the turistas hardly ever went had it real bad — no power for almost three weeks.

Imagine if you lived there.

THE LAST HURRICANE knocked over the two coconut trees in front of your house and wiped out the crab and chicken pens in the backyard. You heard the chickens squawk as the winds carried them away as you sat in the dark with the wind howling in your ears and your hijo Rafael crying because it was his job to bring the chickens in and he forgot.

You tried to shush him by reminding him that he was your jibarito, but Milagros was louder than you as she called him tonto and slapped at whatever parts of him she could find in the dark.

During the time of a hurricane, it is not good to be alone.

Which is why you are glad you still have the hijos. Although it is dark and you cannot see their two faces, you cross from one end of the room to the other after you have sent them to bed, sitting by their sides and placing your palms on their foreheads. Your hijos smell sweet in the darkness; the scent of the tembleque they had for dessert lingers in their partly opened mouths. On a night like this, you don’t bother them about brushing their teeth before bed.

“Esta bien,” you say.

“Calmase.”

“Estoy aqui.”

You trace their worried cheeks. You pinch their noses for fun, to cheer them up, glad that you cannot see their eyes in the dark. You will sleep lightly tonight because your children cry in their sleep whenever the winds pick up and the rains fall heavily, fearing the coming of a hurricane or tropical storm. They have every right to be fretful. The last hurricane’s

28 I NMH Magazine

winds reached a new high, hitting so hard that its name was retired. The hijos were too young to truly experience the last hurricane. All that your children remember is that it raged outside with their father in it. They remember that it took him away for good.

TROPICAL STORMS BECOME hurricanes when the winds pick up. But the power of the storm, the strength of it, is represented by a central pressure reading instead of wind speed even though it is the winds that are terrible, deadly.

The winds picked up and uprooted the banana tree that crushed your husband’s limbs beneath its trunk and buried his face under its wet, soggy leaves.

Hurricanes know who they want.

You could not get the last one to take you. You stood outside for hours, getting drenched. Raindrops fell with a forcefulness you could not describe. The storm within you was more frightening. It raged, picking up speed and swirling uncontrollably, pressing hard against your ribs, plummeting down to your stomach only to rise again and again. The beads of water slapped and pelted you, but the winds would not pick up around you and the stubborn trees clung to their muddy roots, uncooperative. When you finally dragged yourself back into the house, back to your hijos, you felt as if you had been in a fight and lost. So you decided to wait for the next hurricane. They come every five or six years, so by then the children would be old enough to take care of themselves.

The last hurricane knocked the power out of all the generators. With the children, you waited in line for over three hours for a block of ice. You carried your ice around the corner, where the boys raised their guns to your head and took your block of ice away, the same as they had done to the people who had been in front of you, the same as they planned to do to the people coming after you. Nothing personal.

Later — if you have the money — you can buy it back.

So when your relatives on the mainland — in New Haven, Hartford, Philadelphia, Newark, and New York — call to tell you that they have been watching the latest reports and say that the tropical storm is growing and it looks like it will be a big one and ask you how you are doing, you say, “Estoy bien.”

This is the answer you give because they really don’t care and they don’t know anything about being a Puerto Rican in Puerto Rico anymore. When it is too cold on the mainland, they take paid vacations to fly over. They spend their money in the mall in Isla Verdes, buying clothing that is too tight for them, buying makeup that is now too dark for their wintry-pale Americana faces. They ask you to go to the cine with them and you sit there in the theater in San Juan, watching movies in English with Spanish subtitles, wondering if the very irony of the situation escapes them, sure that it does. You and your hijos give up your beds to your

relatives, who sleep blissfully, full of the pasteles, empanadas, and morcilla they have begged you to prepare. They eat your mangoes and papayas as though they are going out of style, excusing themselves by reminding you that mangoes are so cheap here, that they often have to pay almost two dollars for one back at home (home is what they now call the mainland) that is half as sweet. The hurricanes and tropical storms can wipe the mangoes out for seasons at a time so that they become as rare as the coqui and there aren’t any to be had by anyone except by the turistas, and you sometimes have to pay much more than two dollars for one.

That is not what your relatives want to hear.

You have become a postcard to them. Beaches and good food, exotic fruit and salsa clubs; they are no better than the turistas. But you can’t tell them so because they are familia.

The last hurricane’s winds reached

a new high, hitting so hard

that its name was retired.

All your children remember is that it raged outside with their father in it.

WHEN IT IS time for them to leave, you take them to the airport, proud that it is really in Carolina even though it is listed as being in San Juan. They don’t allow family members inside or anyone who is not getting on the flight. You cannot walk your relatives to their gate. You drop them off at the curb. As you drive away, you catch your hijos’ eyes in the rearview mirror. You hold their gazes and drop your voice to a whisper. You point at your relatives’ retreating backs and warn your hijos not to ever become like them. You tell them that if they do, a hurricane will come and sweep them away and they will end up like their father. [NMH]

P HOTO: JENN I B RYA N T

Imagining the Lives of Others Award-winning author and college writing professor Amina Gautier has a piece of advice for aspiring writers: Pick up that pen and paper.

“When you write on a computer, your instinct is to revise as you go, and you end up self-correcting with every sentence,” she says. “Starting a project by hand takes that away. You can really get into your scene or your description.

Just write until your hand hurts.” Gautier hauls notebooks with her everywhere; she finds airplanes and Amtrak trains particularly hospitable for writing. “I like those little desks that fold out in front of you,” she says.

Gautier’s second short-story collection, Now We Will Be Happy, published last fall, won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize just two years after her first book, At Risk, won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction.

Over the past 15 years, while publishing stories in journals such as Antioch Review, Kenyon Review, and Iowa Review, Gautier also earned a Ph.D. in English literature and taught creative writing, American literature, and African American literature at several universities before settling at the University of Miami in 2014.

As a child growing up in New York City, she won citywide poetry contests; at NMH, she devoured one English class after another. After landing at Stanford’s graduate creative-writing program, she turned from poetry to fiction writing. “I realized that my real passion was telling a whole story — the plot and dialogue and character development, the setting, the tone. I like building characters and figuring out who they are and what complicates them.”

Gautier’s stories are set mostly in the late 1980s and early 1990s, in predominantly black and Puerto Rican Brooklyn neighborhoods like the one where she grew up. But she emphasizes that her stories are fiction, not memoir. “When people read a story and ask the writer, ‘Is this you?’ it feels like they’re implying that we don’t have the imagination to make something up,” she says. “These questions haven’t always been asked. Did anyone ask Mary Shelley if she really dug up a corpse and created a monster? It was understood that these were not her real experiences.

“One of the reasons I like fiction writing is that it gives you a chance to live in someone else’s skin, so you’re not just writing about your own experiences,” Gautier says.

“You have Hawthorne writing from the point of view of a Puritan woman [The Scarlet Letter], or Harriet Beecher Stowe writing from the point of view of a male slave [Uncle Tom’s Cabin]. That’s the precedent I try to follow: writers imagining lives that are different from their own.”

fall 2015 I 29

Judith Gibbs Shaw ’70 (left) and Stefani Danes ’70, in 2015 and as Northfield seniors

P H O T O : J E F F W O O D WAR D

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When the last all-male Ivy League schools began admitting women 45 years ago, Northfield graduates helped break down the barriers.

S

Pioneers B Y

S A L L Y

A T W O O D

H A M I L T O N

â&#x20AC;&#x2122; 6 5 fall 2015 I 31

When Dartmouth College first went coed

in 1972, a group of male students would sometimes sit in the back of a dining hall with a stack of placards in front of them. Each time a female student passed by their table, the men would flip up a placard showing a number from one to 10, announcing their physical assessment of the student.

“It was juvenile,” says Judy Burrows Csatari ’72, one of the 177 freshman women to enter Dartmouth that fall. She tried to ignore the taunting. “I didn’t like it, but I felt like drawing attention to it and attacking the men for doing it would only make matters worse.” Csatari had given little thought to the possibility that students at the 200-year-old all-male college might be unhappy with women arriving on their doorstep. But being a trailblazer didn’t faze her. She’d already been through one transition when Northfield and Mount Hermon merged and became a single school, and she was confident she could navigate another.

Dartmouth was the last Ivy League institution to admit women.

Yale and Princeton had gone coed in 1969, and the other five schools had either enrolled female students throughout their history or partnered with women’s colleges. The final Ivy push into coeducation arrived on the heels of the social upheaval of the 1960s, changing cultural attitudes toward women, and the unprecedented growth in higher education as baby boomers reached college age.

The women from Northfield and NMH who accepted offers from Yale,

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Princeton, and Dartmouth in the first and second years of coeducation had a distinct advantage over most of their peers in those early classes. Their years at NMH prepared them for the intellectual challenges of elite education, taught them time management, and made dorm life second nature; but more important, the women possessed the strength to disregard negative behavior from unhappy male students and the confidence to seek their own path in the midst of turmoil.

Judith Burrows Csatari ’72

“

Conversations about losing tradition proliferated around campus and women became the outlet for the anger.

” P HOTOS: C O U R TESY O F N MH AR C H IVE S

Virginia Tyson ’69

As these institutions founded before the Revolutionary War considered accepting female students, each first examined the idea of a sister college. Yale and Princeton explored possible partnerships with Vassar and Sarah Lawrence, respectively, but neither women’s college was interested. Dartmouth briefly flirted with starting a sister college, an idea preferred by alumni, but it failed to gain support from the faculty or administration.

With more applicants coming from public high schools than allmale prep schools, Yale and Princeton feared losing top candidates to coed institutions and then falling into mediocrity. Professors were convinced that enrolling women would improve education; administrators believed they could not exclude half the population if they expected to educate leaders of the future. Within six months of each other (with Yale leading), both schools announced that

Marcia Sprague ’73

to keep up with the changing times, they would accept women for the fall of 1969.

Dartmouth lingered another two years, announcing in November 1971 that it would go coed the following fall. Administrators expressed public concern that young men maturing with limited contact with women might be ill-prepared to work alongside them in the future. Quietly, they hoped women would help moderate the Greek tradition that ruled social life in Hanover.

The decisions these three schools made had a profound effect on colleges and universities across the country. The Ivy League “was the gold standard of education, the best and most prestigious — and they had kept women out,” says Susan Poulson, professor of women’s history at the University of Scranton and coeditor of Going Coed. “Once they accepted women, it eliminated the idea that single-sex education was superior.”

fall 2015 I 33

All came to believe that their colleges intentionally chose confident, independent women who would be able to stand up to men — a Darwinian exercise in helping women find a place in the Ivy League.

Betsy Bullard Morse ’73

Barbara Deinhardt ’69

The schools initially instituted quotas for female students and — to placate alumni, who were ardently opposed to coeducation — pledged not to reduce the number of men they accepted. Yale president Kingman Brewster declared that Yale would continue to produce “1,000 male leaders a year.”

Despite this tepid opening of doors, when the fat envelopes arrived at Northfield, then NMH, there was little debate about whether to accept the offers. Barbara Deinhardt ’69, who had been deciding between Stanford and Radcliffe, decided to attend Yale instead after reading a New York Times story about the first class of women who had been accepted. “It made them seem like superwomen,” she says.

“One had been in the Bolshoi, and another had built a submarine in her backyard. It was so special. How could I turn it down?”

Virginia Tyson ’69 also joined the 250 women in Yale’s inaugural coed class. She recalls, “I was afraid that Yale would be an experiment, and it would turn out badly. My brain said, ‘If you go and it’s a success, you will be in the first class of women. If it’s

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not a success, you will be one of the few women who went to Yale.’ It was a win-win.”

Stefani Danes ’70 had lived briefly in the town of Princeton as a child and decided then — at age 7 or 8 — that she would attend college there. No one disabused her of that notion. So when her application to join Princeton’s second coed class was accepted, it was unthinkable to turn it down. Danes’s Northfield classmate Judy Gibbs Shaw ’70 felt the same way. And Shaw’s mother viewed it as retribution, since she had once worked at Princeton but not been allowed to do graduate work there while her husband earned his Ph.D. Danes and Shaw joined the 178 women in the class of 1974.

For the Dartmouth women, place was important. Betsy Bullard Morse ’73 had fallen in love with rock climbing at NMH and she was drawn to Dartmouth’s outdoorsy nature. So was Marcia Sprague ’73, who had grown up in Vermont. They joined the 271 women in Dartmouth’s second coed class. Like Csatari, they predicted that having survived the NMH merger, they’d be fine.

Although faculty and undergraduates at all three schools had voted overwhelmingly to go coed, vocal minorities of upperclassmen made women feel uncomfortable. At Princeton, students voiced their displeasure by hanging banners that proclaimed, “Bring Back the Old Princeton.” At Dartmouth, where the women were branded as cohogs — short for “coed hogs” — similar banners declared, “Cohogs Go Home.”

Dartmouth’s deep-rooted fraternities controlled and limited the campus’s social life. “Greek life was entrenched,” says Sprague, “and while it might be good for some people, it was not the best social life for everyone. We needed other options and there weren’t any.”

The practice of busing women in from other colleges for weekend mixers and dates continued. The first time she saw such a bus arrive at Dartmouth, Morse felt betrayed. At Yale, Tyson says women protested against their social fees being used to host women from other schools; other groups also criticized how social fees were allocated. Eventually, Yale allowed students to specify where their social fees would go.

Csatari, Morse, and Sprague joined the Glee Club at Dartmouth, where it was standard practice before a performance for the director to flash a sexually suggestive photo from inside his jacket to break the tension and help the men settle down. That stopped when women joined the group. “There was some resentment there,” says Csatari.

“They’d say, ‘Now what are we going to do?’” Conversations about the fear

of losing tradition proliferated around campus. “Women became the outlet for the anger,” Csatari says.

Academic acceptance came more easily because women were considered intellectual peers. “We were expected to be outstandingly brilliant,” Tyson says, recalling that New York Times article about Yale’s female students.

While there were holdouts among the professors who were less then thrilled to have females in their classes, and some would ask the often lone female to provide “the woman’s point of view” during discussions, the faculty in general treated the women and men equally.

Danes, however, had an experience with a faculty member that changed her years at Princeton. As a freshman, she was required to take physical education; she chose a basketball class.

“I think it would have been tough no matter what, because I had no ball skills,” she says, but the coach made it unbearable. “He hated the idea of having women at Princeton. He made it clear that I was not welcome.” It didn’t take Danes long to remedy the situation. She elected to take sophomore standing, which had been offered when she was accepted, so she no longer had to fulfill the requirement.

Instead, she spent three years at the university and graduated with the first class of women.

More than 40 years after finishing college, Deinhardt says she felt courageous going to Yale. “I felt I had a mission. I spent a lot of time and emotional resources on making things better for women there.” She joined Yale’s Committee on Coeducation, which first focused on the school’s physical plant, making the gyms and dorms more female-friendly, and then turned to recruiting more female faculty, establishing a women’s studies

“

I felt I had a mission.

I spent a lot of time and emotional resources on making things better for women at Yale.

” program, and increasing the number of women accepted each year. She helped produce a resource publication for women and convinced Yale to provide space for a women’s center.

Despite all this, she felt distant from the school and after freshman year moved off campus, where her life and relationships revolved around the women’s liberation movement, she says, and Vietnam War protests. Today, although Deinhardt says she “wishes the battles hadn’t been there to fight,” she’s proud of the changes she helped bring about at Yale.

Sprague created her own world at Dartmouth, “choosing places and

people and things to do where I knew I’d be accepted,” she says. She got involved with Oxfam America, Outward Bound, and the Tucker Foundation, a campus social-action organization through which she spent a summer working with children in Jersey City.

Csatari quietly took note of her male classmates’ inappropriate behavior, but says, “I just moved on from it. I didn’t let it get in the way of accomplishing what I wanted.” After graduating, she experienced more hostility from older alumni; they said that she had “taken” the spot their sons should have had, and that she was wasting her education by having children. She responded by taking a leadership position in an alumni group, which she says, “put a lid on the negativity because they were seeing a competent woman doing a good job.”

At Princeton, Shaw was surprised by how easy it was to be in the minority. “I felt accepted from the beginning, except for the intermittent students who wished we weren’t there. It was easy to ignore them. There were plenty of men who did want us there.” The men in the early coed classes were actually protective of their female classmates, Shaw says; they, after all, had applied to a coed school. The older students had not.

The quotas that Princeton, Yale, and Dartmouth initially established were quickly abandoned, and today, undergraduate women have reached parity with men at Ivy League institutions — not to mention at hundreds of other colleges and universities. They owe much to the determined women of the late 1960s and early 1970s who crossed the barrier into male bastions of education.

“I still love to tell Dartmouth undergraduates that I was in the second class of women,” Morse says. “I felt like I was a pioneer.” [NMH]

fall 2015 I 35

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GAME ON The sTOry of a Fire and a photograph AN ORAL HISTORY

PHOTOS: ROBERT VAN FLEET, COURTESY OF NMH ARCHIVES

fall 2015 I 37

N

ovember 20, 1965, was, in the words of Suzie Steenburg Hill ’66, a “quintessential New England prep-school football day.” But at Northfield and Mount Hermon, a muchanticipated season-ending game against Deerfield Academy was only the beginning of the day’s drama.

Partway through the first half, Silliman Hall, the science building adjacent to the field, caught fire. Robert Van Fleet, a newspaper executive and the father of one of the Mount Hermon football players, was standing in the bleachers with a camera in his hands, and he snapped a photograph that has become an American sports pop-culture icon. The image of the building burning behind both the game and the clusters of fans was published in hundreds of newspapers around the world; it was selected as the Associated Press Sports Photograph of the Year in 1965.

Deerfield won the game that day, to the chagrin of many. Over the years, people see Van Fleet’s photo and ask the same incredulous question: How could a high school sports game go on with a fire blazing just yards away? It made sense at the time, observers recall; school administrators wanted to keep students and spectators safe. That instinct made sports history.

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Jim Van Fleet ’66 It was the big rivalry game: the Deerfield game. Mount Hermon had a two-year undefeated streak going, so every game that fall had an increasingly feverish pitch, with everyone hoping we could pull off yet another undefeated season. For my teammates and me, football was in the forefront of our minds much of the week leading up to that Saturday. All of us understood what was on the line. And my dad [the photographer] knew it was the last game of the season, so he wanted to be there.

Bill Haslun ’46 We had followed the team around New England that season (wife Jane Everett ’46, John Elliott ’46, his wife Barbara Miller ’45, and a combined six children), and we took our seats in the top rows of the hillside bleachers. When the Deerfield buses arrived, the Deerfield boys marched out onto the field in twos, in blue blazers and with London Fog-type raincoats neatly and uniformly folded over their arms. After the game began, I was watching some students, possibly a cleaning crew, in the attic window of Silliman, having a forbidden cigarette. They disappeared, presumably to finish their labors, and I saw a wisp of smoke waft out the window where the boys had been. I stood up, pointed, and shouted, “Fire!”

The Mount Hermon marching band performed at halftime, but spectators only had eyes for the fire in Silliman Hall.

Roy Taylor ’67 I remember with crystal clarity sitting in the stands, my attention split between the field and the Northfield girls who had come to visit and watch the game. At a certain moment, Jack Baldwin (English teacher), who called the play-by-play for home games, said, “Flash Clark is in on the tackle and … Silliman is on fire!” That’s when everyone saw smoke pouring from the top floor.

“FLASH CLARK IS IN ON THE TACKLE AND …

SILLIMAN IS ON FIRE!”

Steve Webster, biology teacher I had bought an old 1926 Buffalo pumper, put a paint job on it, and formed a little volunteer fire department with a few of the students. All we did was put out fires at the dump down by the river, give rides at kids’ birthday parties, and for the football games, we carried the cheerleaders down onto the field.

We had taken all the hoses off the truck for the cheerleaders, so when

smoke started coming out of the roof of Silliman, I had to race to get the hoses. No other fire trucks had arrived yet, so we hooked up to the nearest hydrant and started pumping water.

Some students came over and helped.

Jim Van Fleet On the field, our attention had been riveted on the game, but all of a sudden, everything stopped. I believe Deerfield had the lead at the time.

fall 2015 I 39

Firefighters from several surrounding towns joined the tiny Mount Hermon volunteer fire department in a valiant attempt to save Silliman.

been used in the parade before the game, and it was the first fire apparatus on the scene for an eternity. By the time Greenfield ladder engines arrived, the entire attic was engulfed. My father, Fred Torrey, the assistant headmaster, was part of the adult huddle deciding to keep the football game going. They wanted to avoid students being drawn into danger as volunteer firefighters. We fac brats all assumed Deerfield — the enemy — had set the fire. At the time, it felt like our Hindenburg — “Oh, the humanity!”

Jim Van Fleet We were asked fairly quickly to resume the game. We weren’t told why, but it seemed normal to us, because there wasn’t much else we could do. It was only after the fact that we learned that fire officials felt it would be safer for everyone if the game continued and kept the attention of the fans. So while we were dumbstruck by the building burning and it certainly put a pall over everything, we were pretty focused as football players and we wanted to keep going. And in the second half, we started to come back.

None of us knew what to make of it.

The game officials were talking with the coaches, and we were standing around on the field, wondering what was going to happen. There were people who were leaving the stands to go over to the building. I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but apparently some of them ran into the building before anyone got a chance to stop them, to rescue some of the science materials.

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David Torrey ’73 I was a 10-year-old faculty kid sitting on the acorn-covered slope behind the Hermon bleachers. From the first shout of “Fire!” and all the arms pointing eastward from Chapel Hill, the view was riveting, with smoke seeping out eerily between the slate shingles at the peak of Silliman’s roof. Mr. Webster’s antique fire truck, loaded with freshmen, had minutes before

Jim Watson ’66 I was on the varsity cross-country team and the race against Deerfield started before the fire was discovered and was supposed to finish during halftime, with the finish line somewhere in front of Silliman. Near Shadow Lake, people started appearing on the side of the course, saying that the race had been shortened but not saying why.

I didn’t recognize any of them and initially thought it was some kind of Deerfield trick. It wasn’t until after the race ended that we realized what was going on.

Tim Hartshorne ’66 I was in the band, and we performed at halftime, the game continued, and it all made sense at the time. I don’t recall any controversy about

“WE WERE DUMBSTRUCK BY THE BUILDING BURNING AND IT CERTAINLY PUT A PALL OVER EVERYTHING, BUT WE WERE PRETTY FOCUSED AS FOOTBALL PLAYERS AND WE WANTED TO KEEP GOING.” it among students. If the game had been stopped, the crowd would have watched the fire instead.

Steve Webster I spent the rest of the afternoon keeping that pump going. It ran off the main engine of the truck, so I had to watch the temperature gauge on the engine to make sure it wasn’t overheating, and the pressure gauges to make sure we didn’t blow up any of the old hoses. I was so focused on keeping the truck pumping that I missed the football game.

Somebody decided to keep the game going so that all the people wouldn’t go over and get in the way of the firefighting effort. It seems like it was the right call. It felt like there was nothing to panic about. The only people who came over during the fire were alumni — and I’ll bet some of the other science teachers were there, too — who formed a bucket brigade, passing everything they could get their hands on out of that building. Fortunately, the lower floors never got involved in the fire.

Bill Haslun The volunteer fire departments from Northfield, Gill, Bernardston, and

Greenfield tried valiantly to stop the spread, to little avail, but at the time, the loss of both the game and the undefeated season was most important. Especially because it was the “evil” Deerfield.

Jim Van Fleet I remember talking with Dad as we were standing around after the game. He said he had taken some pictures of it all, and he was going to try to get the photos on the wire.

So he had a plan.

Steve Webster By the end of the afternoon, it was all over, and we started to think, “OK, what next? How do we teach science classes?” We moved biology up into Social Hall. We still had all our microscopes and most of the stuff we needed to get through the rest of the year.

Sheila Raymond Hazen ’60 I was living in Cambridge, England, at the time of the fire, and I heard about it from my parents, Al [NMH’s longtime choral director] and Ginny Raymond. They had attended the game with my uncle and aunt, Nelson and Doris Raymond. My father said Nelson was the first person to notice

that Silliman was burning. I remember seeing a picture of the fire in a British publication and being very surprised to see news of my school on the other side of the Atlantic.

Warren W. Ayres ’65 I was an exchange student at Cheltenham College in the United Kingdom at the time of the fire.

The student who was head of my residential house showed me a London newspaper with the famous picture, and forced me to admit that this picture had been taken at my old school. He and my other British classmates couldn’t believe that an American football game would continue to be played while a building burned only a few yards away. This put me at great disadvantage in our ongoing debates as to whether the society and education system with the greatest number of peculiarities was American or British.

David Clark ’66 What was left of Silliman remained standing for months. One January evening, walking back to my dorm from the Forslund Gym parking lot after an ice hockey practice at the Deerfield rink, a teammate and I slipped into the dark building. We walked up the stairs to the second floor. We weren’t sure if the stairs would collapse under our weight.

We finally considered the stupidity of what we were doing and turned around, went down the stairs, and walked out the front door.

Steve Webster I still keep that picture on my refrigerator door, and every now and then a guest will see it and say, “Oh, my, what was that all about?” And I say, “That was the time I owned a fire truck and the science building burned down and there happened to be a football game going on.” [NMH]

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ALUMNI HALL

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Reunion 2015 Some parts of NMH’s reunion weekend remain reliably the same: the lobster dinner for the 50th reunion class, a intellectual roster of alumni seminars, an emotional Alumni Convocation in Memorial Chapel.

But there always is something new to celebrate. This year brought the first annual Pie Ride, a 30-mile benefit bicycle race that raised more than $2,100 for the NMH Fund; a thumping “Jerusalem” remix from DJ Donnie Dee Blackwell ’05 at the “Tron Tent”; and the momentous announcement that former trustee Richard Gilder ’50 had donated $5 million to create the Gilder Challenge for Innovation and Opportunity, which will support the school’s soon-to-be-built math and science center as well as a new endowed scholarship fund.

A few other highlights: The 1964– 65 undefeated football, wrestling, and cross-country teams were inducted into NMH’s Athletic Hall of Fame. Alumni said goodbye to retiring teachers Dick Peller, Hughes Pack, Bob Cooley, and Ellen Turner — whose combined tenure at NMH totaled nearly 150 years.

And a handful of alumni were feted for their extraordinary contributions to the school.

Alumni Awards

Secure your future ... and the future of NMH

During each reunion, the NMH Alumni Association presents awards to alumni and NMH community members who have made extraordinary contributions to the school and the world.

LAMPLIGHTER AWARD

Mark Henry Jander ’50 (posthumously)

COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARDS

A charitable gift annuity gives you:

WILLIAM H. MORROW AWARD

• Fixed lifelong payments • Favorable annuity rates • A secure investment • Tax benefits • A gratifying legacy

Arlene Finch Reynolds ’45 Elias Thomas ’65

Sheila Louise Heffernon P’01, ’02, ’08 (choral director and performing arts department chair)

YOUNG ALUMNI AWARD J. Peter Donald ’05

ALUMNI CITATIONS

K. Peter Devenis ’45 Elaine Rankin Bailey ’55 Warren W. Ayres ’65 Sally Atwood Hamilton ’65 Neil Kiely ’70 Kristin Steele ’90

Sample rates based on a single life CGA* Age 68 73 78 83 Rate 4.9% 5.5% 6.4% 7.4%

Visit nmhschool.org/plannedgiving or contact:

NMH Fund Welcomes Record Gifts The Class of 2015, with the help of a few anonymous donors, raised the most money for its senior class gift than any other class in NMH history. The Senior Gift Committee motivated 95 percent of the class to make gifts totaling $2,438.78 to the NMH Fund. Including the anonymous donors’ contributions, the Class of 2015 gift was more than $13,000.

It was a welcome addition as NMH wrapped up its hunting and gathering for the fiscal year. And, success: more than $3.5 million for the NMH Fund alone — the largest NMH Fund total ever — plus $13.8 million in cash and pledges for all purposes.

Alumni donated more than 77 percent of the total NMH Fund amount, up 6 percent from last year; current students and their families contributed nearly 16 percent of the total; and friends of the school gave just over 6 percent of the total. The average gift has increased 29 percent over the last five years, from $543 to $700.

PHOTO: G LEN N MINSH ALL

Jeff Leyden ’80, P ’14

Director of Capital and Planned Giving 413-498-3299 jleyden@nmhschool.org

Sue Clough P ’06, P ’08 Senior Associate Director of Planned Giving 413-498-3084 sclough@nmhschool.org

*Rates displayed are for illustrative purposes only.

fall 2015 I 43

REUNION 2015

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ALUMNI HALL

“ T he only thing that mattered was being surrounded by people who shared with me one of the best growing experiences of my life. I loved being back, it felt like home, and I wish I could do it again every year.”

2015–16 ALUMNI COUNCIL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE www.nmhschool.org/alumni-get-involved Caroline N. Niederman ’78 President thedoc@txequinedentist.com Dorrie Krakower Susser ’56 Secretary dksusser@gmail.com Carolyn “Ty” Bair Fox ’59 Molly Goggins Talbot ’93 Nominating committee co-chairs Stuart Papp ’93 Strategic advisory chair J. Peter Donald ’05 NMH Fund chair

P HOTOS: G LEN N MINSH AL L

Dave Hickernell ’68 Awards committee chair Wendy Alderman Cohen ’67 Reunion advisory chair Heather Richard ’91 Donnie Smith ’07 Diversity committee co-chairs Kate Hayes ’06 Young alumni committee chair Marggie Slichter ’84, P ’10, ’11, ’12 Ex-officio, staff liaison

fall 2015 I 45

CLASS NOTES

CLASS NOTES

VITAL STATISTICS page 92/ IN MEMORIAM page 94

KEEP IN TOUCH Address updates addressupdates@nmhschool.org

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Northfield Edith Bender Southwick 395 N 70th Street, Springfield, OR 97478

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Northfield Elizabeth Jane (B.J.) Smith Johnson, robert.johnson53@comcast.net

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Mount Hermon Charles Hall hallboy4@hotmail.com From Charles Hall—My health is fair, and though I have neuropathy in both legs, I manage to maintain my mobility using a walker. Some of you are aware that Alice passed away rather suddenly in November 2013. I miss her terribly. Alice loved Mt. Hermon and the many friends that she made at reunions. • At the time of this writing, Reunion 2015 has just passed, and I regret that for the first time in 75 years, Mt. Hermon ’40 was not represented. Perhaps that is not to be unexpected since all of our survivors are in their 90s.

• Al Stites writes, “After closing my rare books gallery here in Santa Fe, I retired and started to write. My wife and I moved to Costa Rica and stayed nine years until it got to be too much, so we moved back to Santa Fe in 2013. I’ve had four books published and two e-books; my third book, Forget the Goal the Journey Counts...71 Jobs Later, was accepted by the Library of Congress for its permanent collection. For the past two years I have been working on a unique two-volume set—3200 BCE to 1936 (182 facsimiles)—each with a full page of explanatory text. The Lilly Rare Book Library (Indiana University) offered me cooperation, and the project will be finished this fall for early spring publishing. Then I’ll retire.” • Will Polly Bartlett had a pacemaker installed in May and is finding life much more pleasant. He is still an avid gardener (tomatoes, peas, beans, carrots, and beets), sells his produce within his retirement community, and donates his profits to charity. • Duane “Ernie” Webster misses his “leisurely” job as director of purchasing at Saint Andrew’s School. He finds his retirement schedule is too “doggone” busy, since he is involved in men’s chorus, bowling, Ping-Pong, pool, and various volunteer work at his assisted-living facility. • In early April, I had a visit from Rourke Harrington, the associate director of individual giving at NMH—the only visit by staff in the 55 years that I have been in Bryan/College Station. His presence reminded me that “Alma Mater” charged all of us to be “Loyal Sons of Hermon.” And so may we be!

winter in North Ft. Myers, Fla., away from the cold and snow in the Berkshires. I have many friends there, and best of all, my sister, Jinny Platt Carlson ’40, and her two daughters live in Ft. Myers, so we have wonderful times together. Jinny came back to NMH for my 70th reunion. • Played bridge at the senior center twice a week, and on my last day there met Nancy Carlough Askin ’53. We had fun comparing notes about Northfield. She knew Marion Batho Thompson ’53, a good friend of mine who attends my church. • Our class will have a 75th reunion in 2016—I will be going, God willing, and hope to see others there. They treat us “Grand NMHers” royally.

It will be a wonderful time. • Best wishes to all.—Dorcas Platt Abell

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Mount Hermon Carleton Finch zeke137@aol.com Dick Bolton has been living alone in Arvada, Colo., cooking and keeping house, but now has a grandson with him temporarily. Dick takes a walk every day—at age 92!

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Northfield Cora Lee Gethman Gibbs coraleegibbs@aol.com

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Mount Hermon Loren Bullock mlbullock9@gmail.com

Greetings. We’re all in our 90s now. For me, it’s more a surprise than anything else. I am still driving locally and going to Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington once a week to give tours. Jean and I are enjoying our condo. Am grateful for continued health.

A walker and a pair of canes help in getting around. • Walter Wood and his wife, Joyce, live in Riverview, Fla., and he still works every day building Big Wheels and tow bars for Robinson Helicopters. His customers over the past 20 years are from all over the world.

And he starts each day before breakfast with a 30‒45-minute walk. Way to go, Woody. • I was saddened to hear of the deaths of Paul McGrew and Paul Allen this past spring— Paul McGrew was my roommate our first year, and he and Paul Allen were roommates in our junior and senior years. • Saw a photo of Art Miller on Facebook, sitting comfortably recovering from recent surgery.

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Please send news to: nmhnotes@nmhschool.org From Roberta Burke Burpee—I regret our

class column was empty in the last issue and wish to thank everyone for the support over the last 11 years. I believe it is time for me to resign and invite another classmate to take over. • Betts Jean Purrington Bradley reports that her husband of 62 years passed away in January. Betts is staying in their continuing-care community as they have lived there for more than seven years and she loves it. She hit her head in a fall—many friends gave TLC and ran errands for her until she could drive again. • Rosalie “Posie” Van Zandt Simsom still plays golf and bridge, and enjoys life in Stuart, Fla., with husband and family. • Vicki Garbutt Ruwitch lives in a senior community in Louisville, Colo., nicely stowed away with three children close by, plus grands and greats, and is savoring her independence. Vicki finds community living brings back memories of East Hall without the “dummy.” Being involved in several activities there and in town, she says her days are never boring. • Gloria Savcheff Gancarz recalls many happy times growing up in Northfield, going to NSFG as a town student, plus her father working there, spending her senior year living at Merrill Keep, and returning years later as faculty. Gloria stays involved with NMH. However, she is wondering if NMH has forgotten the beliefs that are the foundation of the school left by D.L. Moody. • Eliot “Red” Gordon says he can’t be the next class secretary as he is committed to serving on the Harvard ’47 Permanent Class Committee. Thanks, “Red,” for considering it. • Ruth Keating Hyde says it is difficult to stay in their large house in Bethesda, Md., as her husband is blind and needs special care. Both are strong supporters of the Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute. • After her husband died last year, Janice Laumann Bamforth moved

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Northfield Dorcas Platt Abell sabell3@nycap.rr.com Louise Thomas Cooley and Denton have

been married for 65 years…five daughters, 16 grandchildren, and now 13 great-grands—with three more due next year. • I had a lovely

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fall 2015 I 47

CLASS NOTES to Kingston, N.H., to be near her children.

Jan had lived in Vermont most of her life in the quaint town of Belmont. We were roommates in South Hall and West Marquand.

• Robert D. Bodington of Juno Beach, Fla., passed away 12/14/14. After graduating from Mt. Hermon, he joined the USN (Seabees) Construction Battalion during WWll in the Pacific. Robert pursued his passion for golf, which resulted in a successful 45-year career beginning at Brae Burn Country Club (Mass.), working for country clubs in Greenwich, Conn.; Augusta, Ga.; and Juno Beach, Fla. (where he met and married his wife in 1955); Farmington and Hartford, Conn., as head pro for 20 years; and Newport, R.I. The Bodingtons moved to Florida to enjoy retirement life. He was particularly proud of being the 1960 Connecticut PGA Champion and being referred to by his golfing buddies as “BMW”—the perfect driving machine. Robert was predeceased by his wife, Helen, and his sister, Gwendolyn, and is survived by his brother, Frederick M. Bodington Jr. • Harry Schanck died on 6/7/14 in Manchester, N.J. Harry served honorably in the Navy as a radioman, seeing wartime duty in the South Pacific. He attended Champlain College (N.Y.) before graduating from Rider College in 1950. He worked as a pump salesman for various companies before retiring from the Barish Pump Company. He was a member of the Freemason Union Lodge in Stamford, Conn., and of the Sons of the American Revolution, and actively involved with the First Presbyterian Church. Harry was an avid reader, enjoyed gardening and family summer vacations at the Jersey Shore. He was predeceased by his wife, Eleanor, and son Theodore, and is survived by son Andrew. • Charles “Ted” Woodruff passed away (11/25/14) in New London, Conn. Ted served in the USN as quartermaster on the USS Samuel Moore from 1943–46, later working in the military Sea Transportation Service. Ted married Grace Newby in 1953 at the Groton Congregational Church, where he was a member and became a trustee and deacon.

Ted is survived by his wife, daughter Wendy, and sons Scott and Clark. • Toni Novak Wyman died suddenly on 11/4/14. Born in Vienna in 1925, raised as a child of war, she was sent to England as a child, along with her sister. There she learned English, a skill she used lifelong, and acquired a self-reliance and dedication to make her world a better place— both attributes that served her well. At age 15, her family reunited in New York. In 1947, she married Ralph and began her life in Greenwich, Conn. Toni was a woman of vision and became an extraordinarily dedicated volunteer, serving on boards of more than 30 national and local organizations. She was one of only four people to be named a lifetime member of MIT’s Council for the Arts. Toni was a champion of fun, but her greatest accomplishment was her family. • Bob

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Krueger, a longtime resident of Northville, Mich., passed away on 1/2/15. Bob served on active duty during WWII and the Korean War. He was honorably discharged as a master sergeant after 20 years in the service. After receiving his master’s from St. Louis University in 1971, he began teaching in New Jersey, later in St. Louis, Mo., with the majority of his teaching career spent at Riley Middle School in Livonia, Mich. At the age of 56, Bob attended the U.S. Army Sergeant Majors Academy and graduated in the top third of his class. He loved to read, tell stories, and make jokes. Bob served on the City of Northville zoning board for 16 years, was a 32nd degree Mason, and a Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus. He taught his children to be independent and analytical and was their biggest fan, as well as being a caring and affectionate husband. • Edith Farrand Lubaczewski of Sweetwater, N.J., died on 8/8/14. She was raised in N.H. and had lived in Sweetwater since 1968. Edie attended college in Virginia, where she majored in art.

After raising her family, she returned to school to study architectural drafting, and was later a draftsman for Cramer & Sons Engineering Co. in Medford. She was an active member of Calvary Chapel in Hammonton and a Sunday school teacher. • Richard Converse died on 5/6/14 in Oregon. Dick spent his early childhood in Japan, where his parents worked for the YMCA. After his father’s death in 1930, Dick and his mother moved to the U.S. He attended University of California-Berkeley, where he met Leona, his wife of 66 years. After receiving his doctorate in plant pathology at University of California-Davis, he and his wife started the first series of work assignments in South Dakota, Oklahoma, Maryland, and, finally, Corvallis, Ore., where Dick worked for the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture at Oregon State University. His work also brought him to many countries across the world. His last position was at Garfield Elementary, where he volunteered as a teacher’s assistant in the duallanguage program. Dick was preceded in death by his daughter, Nancy, and his son, Paul. He is survived by his wife, Leona, and son Frank.

• Albert “Buck” Johnston died (7/2/14) in Ewa Beach, Hawaii. Buck had been in the retail industry for many years; his position as the buyer for the Ala Moana Liberty House’s linen department took him to Hawaii in 1968, after living in Keene, N.H. He received his bachelor’s degree in music theory from the University of New Hampshire, served in the Navy during WWII, enjoyed solving the New York Times crossword puzzle, and was an avid cribbage player. Buck was an established composer and an excellent piano player.

During the earlier part of the last century, Buck’s father, Dr. Albert C. Johnston, was a graduate of the Rush Medical College in Chicago, but had difficulty securing employment as a doctor as he was a lightskinned African American. In time,

employment was secured and his father practiced medicine until 1970. Buck and his family were unaware they were not Caucasian until they were in their teens. Their true story is documented in the book and 1949 film, Lost Boundaries. A Cannes Film Festival best screenplay winner, Buck’s music scored the film. • The student recipient of our class scholarship wrote a note of thanks to all classmates of 1943 for your donation, as attending NMH has changed his life for the better. I, too, send thanks for your help while I was your class secretary from 2003–15.

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Charlton R. Price charltonrp@gmail.com From Charlie Price—Hello, NMH ’44! We’re

now officially melded. We have two (honorary) presidents: Yvonne Snyder Elliman and Jim Babcock. After adventurous years in Italy, Switzerland, Rio, and Hawaii, Yvonne has been for years in both New York City and Westhampton, Long Island. Jim, longtime resident of Glastonbury, Conn., has owned and, with his son, runs a travel agency. I live in a “man cave” apartment in downtown Seattle near my children and their families (better to visit them frequently rather than be underfoot, right?). • The class of ’44 wants to know how you are and what you’ve been doing. Please call or email me! If you don’t want to phone, use email. • There is one further hurdle, though: time. NMH Magazine now appears only twice a year. Any news you can give me at any time for the rest of 2015, you will see in print only in May 2016. I’ll be using what our very persnickety Mt. Hermon English teacher Louis (“you flunk—but you flunk high!”) Smith would call the past progressive verb tense: such as, “Yvonne has been for years on Long Island…” • Sibylle Gerstenberg, once an active senior resident of Center Gould at Northfield, is still a busy senior resident—as “community secretary” and with other groups at her retirement community in Cockeysville, Md. Jean Ting Margolis and her husband, retired economics professor Al Margolis, have had two pieds-à-terre—one in New York City and one in rural Pennsylvania, “because I’m a city person and he’s a country person” • Chuck Wadhams and his wife, Anne, have done well in a retirement community in Fresno. Chuck has had some dramatic coronary adventures, but has been doing fine since. Chuck is cousin of the late Fred Willsea. Fred and I roomed together in Overtoun. Then he was a roommate of Bob Davidson. And not too long after that, Fred became my brother-in-law! There was a memorial in Rochester, N.Y., in May for Fred’s brother, Lou Willsea ’42. • Our Hermon ’44 valedictorian, Professor Dick Moench, and our class salutatorian, Bill Compton, have been back in touch with each other. But they’ve been connected much longer than that, and not just at Hermon.

Dick is a distinguished anthropologist and specialist on the Arab Middle East, mostly at

CLASS NOTES SUNY-Binghamton in New York. Early in his scholarly career, he got a Fulbright grant to Greece. He thinks his grant award was helped by a recommendation letter from Bill’s father, Carl Compton, president of Anatolia College in Thessaloniki. As I’ve mentioned before, Dr. Carl, who aided refugee Armenians after WWI, also taught history at Hermon while we all were still there. Bill, in South Hadley, Mass., and his late wife, Mary Lighthall Compton, were together in Northfield, as Bill ran the summer school for 16 years in the middle of the last century. Their daughter, Betsy Compton ’72, has been an NMH trustee. There’s a Compton Athletic Field on today’s campus, below Forslund Gym. And there’s a new faculty house named for Mary, in the meadow north of Crossley Hall. • Let me hear from you!

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Northfield Arlene Finch Reynolds arlenerey@aol.com Jackie Snyder Johnson, Irma Klein Schachter, Gratia Prince Graves, Fran Perry Leonard, Helen Hinman Bardwell, and

I spent three wonderful days reuniting as the class of 1945. Many welcoming alumni and staff cared for our every need. The food was delicious and plentiful. Many memories were brought back as the students drove us around the campus on golf carts (except Fran, who walked!). We enjoyed hearing the future plans for the school and had a rousing hymn and school sing—and an inspiring worship and remembrance service. All of us went down to the sundial, where we remembered our 11 classmates we lost in the past five years. Sadly, we toured our beloved Northfield campus.

Jackie wrote the sentiments of us all: “The reunion was great but not long enough—it was so great talking and reminiscing with the old guys and gals!” • Irma came with her dear Joe. She received a rousing applause when it was announced that our class had given the largest amount, after the class of ’65! Thanks to her hard work, we have just two to go to reach 100 percent participation. • Due to her health and the need to be on oxygen, Helen could only come Saturday night for the dinner.

Her grandsons often come to help her at home and she has a full-time caregiver. • I humbly received an Alumni Award for Community Service for 30 years of coordinating Bethlehem on Broad Street, volunteering for Church Women United, Habitat for Humanity, and Refugee Resettlement. I gave the $500 award to the newly formed Endowment Fund for Diversity and Social Justice at the school. My son, who accompanied me on the trip from Columbus, was there to help me celebrate, as well as my brothers, Carleton Finch ’41 and Ed Finch ’46, and their families. • Other classmates expressed their regrets that they were not able to join us for the reunion—Irene Eldredge Derby and Patricia Browning Paige. • Ann “Mickey” Miller Dean and husband Bob celebrated their 64th anniversary in April. At 87 and 92, they still sing in their

choir. They moved to Indianapolis three years ago to be near their children and grandchildren. • Grace Megirian Brewer has lived in Washington State for 10 years after moving from Massachusetts. Her daughter lives nearby.

Grace sends a hello to everyone, especially those from East Hall. • Until her retirement, Eleanor “Ele” Cox Lawrie worked as a missionary, teacher, and school founder while raising three daughters. Ele and her daughter Cindi are writing a book about their experiences on their Christian faith journeys in mission life. Her work took her many places, including the Inspirational Tapes Library in Phoenix, and the Elim Bible Institute in Lima, N.Y., following which she founded a girls’ school in Kenya.

She also worked with Cindi in college counseling at the Youth With A Mission organization in the United Nations. They lived and worked in Hawaii and Sweden for 22 years. Ele left the mission field after 50 years of service and lives in a retirement center in Concord, Mass.

• After graduation, Carol Bengston Steuart became a nurse and married Dick. As a West Point wife, she lived in numerous places in the U.S., in Germany (1957–58), and then Okinawa, Japan. During this time, she and Dick had three sons and two daughters (Julianne Steuart Johnston ’71 and Suzanne Steuart Thoburn ’73). She continued using her nursing skills and, upon retirement from the Army, the Steuarts became farmers while Carol was the town librarian. In 1979, Carol and Dick joined the Wycliffe Bible Translators, learned French in Switzerland, and sailed with their two youngest children to Cameroon, where Carol worked in nursing with a tribe in the jungle for two years. They later moved to Mali and worked in food distribution with the United Nations. They have retired to a village in Viera, Fla., where they recently celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary! • Arden Fish Pierce lives in California and relays that her husband, Hiram, has health issues. Four of their eight granddaughters have been married this year, two of them in Texas and two in California.

One bride’s mother is her daughter, Virginia Cordray Harrington ’71. One of the marriages had two large ceremonies in India. Arden also has family living in Hershey, Penn., where her grandson-in-law works in pediatric rheumatology. She says that she and Hiram mostly spend

Northfield’s class of ’45 at their 70th reunion

quiet days at home, are visited by family and friends, attend the senior lunch program; they hope to resume international folk dancing when Hiram’s health improves. • Norma Salley Lundquist writes, “My dearest friend and Northfield roommate, Marilyn Crafter Kiscaden, passed peacefully on 5/18/15. She leaves four children.”

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Mount Hermon Pete Devenis ingadevenis@aol.com

At our 70th reunion, we had seven Mt. Hermon and six Northfield classmates return to enjoy the school’s hospitality, various activities, and, most of all, the friendship of classmates and their families. My admiration goes especially to those in wheelchairs, with walkers, and on oxygen who made the effort to be there. • The returnees were Paul Carver and son Randy; Ted Covel with daughters Laurel, Linda, Shaun, and son Todd; Peter Devenis with wife Inga; Ed Humphrey with daughter Sharon, son-in-law Ray, and granddaughter Cristina; Don Krueger with wife Anneliese; and Cal Swan with daughter Diane and son-in-law Chris. • We had also expected Bill Bahnson from nearby Greenfield, who, for health reasons, declined to attend; and Richard Kessler, whose wife had recent medical procedures and did not feel well enough to travel. • You may be wondering why some of the previous recent reunion attendees were not there. On the way to Florida in March, Inga and I stopped at Annapolis to have dinner with Judy and Carnot Evans. We have kept in touch with Colin Selley’s friend, Sallie Thoma, who lives nearby. She is in touch with Colin’s daughter, who reports that Colin is now assisted by a caretaker and would have trouble traveling. His daughter, Linda Down, writes, “He gets mail from people and others stop by to visit, and he has no clue who they are, so to go through a major upheaval to get him there, only for him not to know anyone, doesn’t make sense either.” Howard “Buzz” Spellman’s wife, Mollie, passed away in 2012. Buzz writes, “I’m in an assisted-living facility called Arcadia Gardens, Calif. Would love to attend with my grandson, but circumstances will not permit. Have several salutes to yourselves with my favorite: cold martinis with two big green olives.” Dick Unsworth’s wife, Joy Merritt Unsworth, passed away in April 2014. Dick has moved to Arlington, Mass. He doesn’t drive anymore and did not feel well enough to go to reunion on his own. Robert Dorr was not able to attend because his wife, Dorothy, has health problems, and the journey from Kingsport, Tenn., would have been difficult.

Ed Hampson’s wife, Anna, reported that Ed suffered a stroke recently and would not be able to attend. • For me, one of the highlights of the reunion was to receive an Alumni Citation, presented by Awards Committee Chair David Hickernell ’68 and the head of school at Memorial Chapel. My citation was “in recognition of both his extraordinary career

fall 2015 I 49

CLASS NOTES and his energetic work maintaining connections between his classmates and NMH.” I also enjoyed 18 holes of golf at the excellent Crumpin-Fox course with Cal Swan, son-inlaw Chris, and Inga. Perhaps the most enjoyable part of reunion was when we all gathered either in our designated dormitory or in the special room designated for us in Alumni Hall (formerly called West Hall) to reminisce and to discuss our present lives. Cal told us that at graduation, his diploma envelope was empty except for a note to see H.L. Baxter, who reminded him that there were eight penalty hours to work off in West Hall scrubbing pots and pans before he was to leave Mt. Hermon— due to smoking infractions. I also had penalty hours to work off after I got caught on the Northfield side of the river by Mr. Baxter and a campus cop, and refused to name my two partners in crime. They were Wink Cornwell, who crossed the main bridge underneath, and Bob Lawton, who ran upstream. My eight penalty hours were completed at the farm the next day after graduation, shoveling manure.

Ted “Shovel” Covel still has his wonderful sense of humor. When one of Ted’s teachers came to see him in his room and kept knocking at his locked door, Shovel thought it was one of his classmates and replied, “If you want to see me so badly, just piss under the door and float right in.” When Ed Humphrey stood next to G. Laurence’s door going “croak, croak, croak,” the door suddenly burst open before Ed could get away from the Frog’s angry path.

• Don Krueger and Anneliese are frequent cruise travelers. They had just returned from a long trip around the world on the Cunard line prior to reunion. • I worked with Paul Carver for many years at Maguire consulting engineering firm, cleaning up the various rivers, lakes, and harbors. Paul enjoyed model trains and train travel. Some of his favorite train trips were at high altitude in Tibet and on the Trans-Siberian Railroad from China to Moscow. I missed seeing Paul Canada and his son, Andy, who came to reunion late, left early on Saturday, and did not attend the class dinner. Paul is in a wheelchair and made a long and difficult trip from North Carolina by car. • We also enjoyed talking to Alan Moore ’44 about soccer World Cups and his coaching career in soccer and lacrosse. • Arlene Finch Reynolds, with whom I went to the senior prom, is also class secretary. Cal Swan used to date Jacqueline Snyder Johnson. It was interesting to re-connect with them as well as with the four other Northfield classmates. We all resolved to try to be well enough to attend the 75th reunion in 2020. • Ralph Schwaikert died suddenly on 3/8/15. Cal Swan and I had planned to meet Ralph and his wife, Susan, for dinner in March at Hilton Head on our way to Florida. After the death of his father and grandparents, Ralph was placed in an orphanage at age 4, where he spent 10 years until he entered Mt. Hermon on a scholarship.

With newly found freedom, he went wild and

50 I NMH Magazine

broke all kinds of rules until he was kicked out and enrolled in Chester Academy. Ralph went on to Hobart College and graduate school at Rutgers. At 29, he became president of Bon Ami Co., and following its sale, president of B.T. Babbitt. He then bought two of its former manufacturing facilities and formed his own successful company, which he sold when he retired at the age of 40. Bored, he bought three new companies, which he managed together with his sons, Bill and Jes. He then sold the first company to American Home Products, the second to Reynolds Metals, and the third to son Bill. Ralph was a member of many golf, social, and tennis clubs. He married Susan and moved to Hilton Head in 1986. With Susan, he leaves his sons Allan, Bill, and Jes, and several grandchildren. Cal and I, shortly after Ralph’s death, kept the scheduled dinner date with Susan. However, we all missed Ralph’s company. • Our current class list contains 53 classmates. There were 183 originally in our class. You are one of the lucky 29 percent to still be alive.

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Northfield Betty Bolger Fleming bettyb.fleming@verizon.net Podie Shipton Brunton writes, “Hal and I

have much to celebrate. In April we had our 60th wedding anniversary, and this month Hal turned 94. Our daughter and son-in-law live in Columbia, S.C., so all celebrations are bigger and better with them. Hal is still the brainy one, but his walker is indispensable. I am still swimming laps and have a momentary break from tennis with a strained wrist. • Connie Callahan Hornickel had “successful corneal surgery that improved the sight in the right eye (my only usable eye) so that I can see better than I have in the last 20 years. Am now able to participate fully in many volunteer projects throughout the community.” • Alice Elder Leake writes, “My grandson, Teo, moved to Paris for an extended period to attend Ecole 42 in the fall of 2014. In the past, our classmate Jeanette Mitchell has invited classmates to visit her in Paris, so I wrote to ask her if that warm invitation extended to family members of her classmates—and yes, it did. She suggested that Teo call her. After two very pleasant meetings, they plan to get together again when Teo returns from his summer work assignments

Mount Hermon’s class of ’45 pose for their 70th reunion.

in the U.S. Teo is full of praise for Jeanette’s inquiring mind, her scholarship, and her enthusiasm for living a full life. Jeanette has my sincere thanks for her warmth and hospitality.”

• Jane Everett Haslun died following a massive brain hemorrhage on 2/17/15. She leaves her devoted husband of 63 years, William Haslun, as well as her three children and their families, which include six loving grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Jane was always an enthusiastic supporter of NMH, and will be remembered for her commitment to her family and community. Husband William said, “She was a wonderful mate, friend, and mother. All who knew her loved her so very much.”

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Mount Hermon Hugh Findlay hughf@occia.com, findlay22@verizon.net

Wow, what a winter we had this year on Cape Cod. My wife was enjoying a brief spell in Cape Cod Hospital when the worst storm hit, so I went to my daughter’s house to stay because she had a generator. We were never happier to see spring come. • The best news I have for you all is the stirrings from some of our classmates for our next reunion, which will be next year—our 70th. I have been procrastinating about making the trip back to Gill, but this would be just the thing, and I am making plans already to be there and join all who can make it to do some reminiscing. The last time I made it, my wife and I had a great time talking to everyone. I am still driving, and it is really not a terrible trip for many of us in the New England area. • I have heard from Ed Finch, who sent some information from Bill Haslun, who has been in touch with Bud Jacobs. Of course we cannot expect a large crowd, but I think any of us will be pleased to meet with some old friends. It is interesting to me that I feel very close to classmates from Hermon but have very little contact with those from Bentley.

That was probably because I had to work part time in a Boston hospital in order to pay for everything. I am sure that many of you had similar experiences and, besides, I also was already in love with the girl I married, so I didn’t get involved with dating others or partying. • I am sure that Ed Finch, with the help of others like Bill Shores, Bill Haslun, and Bud Jacobs, will be in touch with us by the time you read this, so really save the time and make the plans so that you can come. • I received a copy of Bob Mulcahy’s book, Kansas City Charlie, which both my wife and I have read. It is interesting and easy to read. Thanks to him for that!

• Meanwhile, keep me posted with what is happening in your life and contact me so that I can report. My address: 500 Ocean Street Unit 153, Hyannis, Mass, 02601, telephone: 508-775-3472, and cell: 508-776-6324. I love hearing from you. Incidentally, as I write this, it is the 66th anniversary for me and Amelie.

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Northfield Joan Pearson Turner turnerjoan4@gmail.com

CLASS NOTES

47

Mount Hermon Charles A. Kennedy chask@myfairpoint.net

A memorial service was held in Houghton Chapel, Wellesley College, in March for Professor Owen Jander, who passed away in January.

It was a concert that featured selections played on the classic German organ, which Owen helped design, and a performance of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata no. 4 in G Major, op. 58. • In between hospitalization and rehab, John Hall managed to maintain his record of teaching a class on Gilbert and Sullivan with The Sorcerer last spring. A trip to Staunton, Va., for a Shakespeare production was on his agenda for late summer or early fall. • Last summer, Jack Daggett and wife Jan came north from Virginia to visit friends in New Hampshire, which gave them the excuse to stop and see some classmates in the Granite State. • With the help of his son, Henry “Hank” Kusel manages to carry on his business and keeps in touch from Hillsdale, Fla., during the winter. • Last spring I got back to campus for the Moody Society luncheon and Sacred Concert, which put me in a fine mood for the rest of the day. Roly Coates continued his personal record of singing in the Alumni Choir yet another year—certainly a school record for loyalty. In his memoirs, he explains why he does it: “The first thing that came to my mind was singing in harmony with all those beautiful young students from all over the world. They willingly help us climb up over the benches [in the Auditorium choir loft]. They help us with the music, which in itself is great but, frankly, I just like to talk with them—find out where they are from; how do they like NMH; where are they going to go to college; I am fascinated with their answers.” And the music is great, too. • In early June, I had a mini-reunion with Ken Franz ’42 in New Jersey. He and Edna, his wife of 65 years, don’t travel anymore, but we had a good time reminiscing on our years together at the Northfield Summer Conferences from 1947 to 1953. He suggested that a crew be sent to investigate the air grate in the floor of the auditorium for dropped coins and treasure from the years of collections that were taken in services there. • Poser of the day: Does anyone know the origin of the old school yell, “alla rah”? Where did it come from? • Keep me posted on your activities that you can share with classmates.

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Phil Baker bakpn30@earthlink.net Wife Sandy (Bev Anderson Baker) and I

helped welcome our fourth great-grandchild, a boy, in early June. Three grands graduated from different Missouri colleges within one May weekend. They say I stroked a bit in late 2014, which did affect memory for a while. Have had to re-learn my way around our hometown of Kirkwood a bit. Having a wife and daughter with RN backgrounds has helped considerably. Oh, and we adopted two

12-year-old cats from a neighbor who wasn’t able to keep them! Please do think about dropping me a line for the next NMH Magazine class notes. It would be wonderful to hear from you! • Dick Reeves had two granddaughter graduations in Ohio—the immediate family were together for the first time in 13 years. It was too much to expect grands to attend, as they are spread out from the Atlantic to the Pacific. • Charlie Kellogg is still skiing and playing tennis! He’s still single but has a great gal with whom he enjoys a good life. He reports that she is a good tennis player and beats him regularly, which is to be expected given she is nine years his junior. He sees Connie Briggs and Cindy Falconer Briggs occasionally, and recently spoke with Paul Rikert ’49. Charlie would like us to start thinking about 2018 and our 70th reunion! He’s not into social media, but would love to have regular email contact with classmates.

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Northfield Carolyn Noble Santoro doncary@optimum.net Barbara McAllister Naughton had hoped

to make it to reunion this year, but she broke her pelvis in January and is “moving at turtle speed.” Actually, she is making good progress and hopes to be more mobile in another month or two.

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Mount Hermon Jim Hanchett jch46@cornell.edu • David Durham dedur@aol.com

“School was a constant fear for me,” quoth John (“Hey dere, boy”) Semple. “One day the teacher brought in a pile of paper plates. She told us to decorate them with our supply of poster paints. It was the first day I ever enjoyed school.” The only thing he passed one year, he maintains, was penmanship. He says he turned around that one year at Hermon. He grew up to be a noted artist, worthy of 60 Minutes appearances. His website provides striking examples, such as Semple-eye views of North Pomfret, Vt., in winter. He says, “My big pleasure now is watching my children’s careers.” Son John Hartley Semple, a professor who’s comfortable (unlike many of us) with computers, created the website (johnsempleart. com). Of aging and attendant ills, John points out, “I’ve had a nice life” with a wonderful wife of 60 years. • Bill Mellin still makes waves competitively in his senior Houston years. Late last spring he sent out a lengthy list of archaic words and phrases familiar to all when we were very young. Just a few: “Back in the olden days we had a lot of ‘moxie.’ We’d put on our ‘best bib and tucker’ and ‘straighten up and fly right.’ ‘Hubba-hubba!’ We’d ‘cut a rug’ in some ‘juke joint’ and then go ‘necking and petting, and smooching and spooning, and billing and cooing and pitching woo’ in ‘hot rods and jalopies’ in some ‘passion pit’ or ‘lovers’ lane.’”

We had our own pet names for many notables.

We had a “Rube” for a headmaster and preppy students who were “farm workers.” We learned from a Frog, a Toad, a Bull, a Buke, a Pharaoh (correctly spelled), and a Twig. And mostly very well, indeed. • Another fall with no football on our hill revives fond memories of guys like Bob Bahrenburg, Ted Blackler, George Byers, Phil Enholm, Craig Falk, John Galipault, Denny Hawkes, Whitey Heist, Bob MacIntyre, Kerwin Stotz, Robert Sturtevant, Dick Worthington, and John Whitaker, not to mention Bob Parker, Stubby Spafford ’50, Joe Whitley, Rebel Haskell, Bob Lenker ’47, Bill Altieri ’47, Bruce Maclean ’47, Dave Powell ’48 and Jack Powell ’48, Ralph Armstrong ’48, Porky Allen, Dick Hall ’48, and many others who ran Bull Rineer’s single wing.

A time of crisp New England weather and even girl cheerleaders. Guess we’ll have to settle for our college and NFL favorites. • Lee Farwell, deep into a second year of rehab restorative hip and knee therapy at the Maine Veterans Home, is “more mellow about the BoSox than he was 10 years ago,” his lady Sheila reports. “We talk about them a bit when they’re winning,” but they do wear his patience. He follows NMH and Ohio State sports, but the therapists keep him busy and hopeful. • Oberlin grad Ken Fisher (McHenry, Md.), who also did time at Vermont and North Carolina State, became a college teacher, conducted biological and medical research, served in the fire and rescue service, reviewed and evaluated federal medical research agencies, and did church mission work in the 66 years since we’ve had news of him.

Married in 1956, he and his “very patient lady” had “three kids and several foster children. So far, 13 grandlings and three great-grands. We have been longtime cross-country skiers. In our spare time, the local medical facilities enjoy our visits and support.” • Bill Browning (Ann Arbor, Mich.), captain of our strong football team, is “still driving, for groceries and to the gym” and finds himself at the handles of a walker sometimes. • George Byers’s (Houston, Texas) three weekly trips to the health club have helped him stay active. It’s hard for him “to believe that Peg and I are married 64 years, and two of our three kids are in their 60s.” Their bucket list includes a trip to the Northeast this fall that includes a return to that hill far above the Connecticut River we trod. • Kathy and David Durham spent two weeks in the Outer Hebrides (off Scotland’s northwest coast)—“two weeks at our beloved Isle of Iona, where we are members of the Celtic Iona Community, and two weeks visiting friends in northeast England, where we served the Methodist Church three of the past 12 years. Now we are staying home in Honeoye Falls, N.Y., for the next half year.” • Ken Hungerford, an honored leader among American Legionnaires around West Hartford, Conn., was much involved in renewed Legion activities, especially after Memorial Day, even though he can’t walk like he used to after an early-winter auto acci-

fall 2015 I 51

CLASS NOTES dent. Nevertheless, duties drew him to schools and elsewhere to answer young men’s questions about the Legion. Meanwhile, the Squires—a men’s singing group that Ken has been active in for many years—was celebrating its 45th anniversary and he had a key role in that. • Out in the Arizona desert, Ron Meikle has his hands full keeping the local pack rats (“a common house pest”) out. Howard Thompson, a Hermon Knight who became an account executive in New York City, says he’s busy all the time with his Connecticut household. Retired for 16 years, Dr. Paul Jaques and Bev still sing in choral groups, including almost every Sacred Concert. • Gus Ulrich, who came to Hermon from Leominster, Mass., is retired in North Carolina. He recalls rising at 4:30 AM to attend to the needs of the Hermon herd.

He also remembers running into classmates like Bob Dibble, Lew Downing, and Jim Granady at places like Presque Isle AFB, Maine, during his USAF days. Barry Stein (Cambridge, Mass.) is “happy to say I’m doing surprisingly well.”

50

Northfield and Mount Hermon Janet-Marie Fitzgerald Whitley janwhitley@aol.com

We had a wonderful reunion! My goal was to have so many of us returning that we would need to be housed in a dorm, in lieu of the infirmary. Goal achieved! Including me, our 21 returnees were… • Jane Heywood Brown, who is busy all summer with her rentals on Cape Ann in Gloucester and playing as much golf as she can. Connie Meehan Chapin is happy to be living on her own in Hingham, Mass. She is a retired English teacher and department chair, and is involved in many community activities. Her four children and their families live in Hingham, Michigan, and Texas. • Marion Clausen Gray and husband took a transatlantic cruise to Barcelona in April. Two of her sisters accompanied her to reunion—Jane Clausen Drorbaugh ’47 and Joan Clausen Vander Vliet ’48. • Virginia Hopkins Hillegas is retired but formerly worked as credit manager for Chase Manhattan Bank. She spent four days prior to reunion with her former roommate, Carolyn Lamb, who came to our class dinner. • Anne Jansky Parsons lives in Ohio and is asking if anyone knows the whereabouts of Anne Gregory Belden ’49. Joan Bliss Wilson reported 17 family members had gathered in June at Squam Lake for a family reunion. • Cynthia Smith Kelly is a retired teacher and tour guide residing in Vermont. Constance Streeter Reilly is a retired physical therapist. Her grandson, Dan, graduated from Penn State this year. Cynthia Palmer Ryder is retired but previously worked in health education.

Jean Armknecht Stuart is a retired school librarian currently doing volunteer work.

Philip Dietterich is a retired church musician.

• Bruce Dunn lives in Calgary, and at our 25th and 50th reunions rode his bicycle more than 3,000 miles to the NMH campus. He is

52 I NMH Magazine

a published author and gave us all a copy of his new fiction book, Pygmalion Conspiracy. It is the first in a series of four and is available on Amazon.com. • George Hartwell is a retired administrator. He is married to our classmate Virginia Buys Hartwell, who was unable to attend. Al Higgins volunteered to take over Mark’s job as gift chair. Al and wife, Mary-Ann Efird Higgins ’51, taught at NMH 25 years. He spent 11 years teaching at Maine Maritime Academy as professor of math and computer science. Dan Hopkins is a retired animal nutritionist. Stuart Lohr already offered assistance at our 70th in 2020.

I’m sure I will need it! • Fred Monett sadly reported that he was widowed in November 2014. We send our condolences. He is still working as an accounting consultant. Vic Scalise preached in New England in the summer and enjoyed a two-week river cruise from Vienna to Amsterdam prior to reunion.

On the day after graduating from Yale, Dick Whelan became a Marine Corps pilot for 12 years, flying attack and transports. He was a law partner from 1962 to 1999. He currently bikes 60 miles per week, interspersed with fly-fishing. • Arnulf Esterer was scheduled to attend reunion. I later learned that he suffered a mild stroke shortly before reunion and was hospitalized for three days. Arnulf is happy to be back working in his Markko Vineyard (established in 1968) located along Lake Erie. Lorraine Sanderson Dimeo had a last-minute conflict and had to cancel. • During Convocation it was announced that Dick Gilder donated $5 million to NMH. The school and class appreciate your ongoing generosity, Dick. • As you can see, I am now the only secretary for our class. We suffered a loss of two great guys with the deaths of Bob White and Mark Jander in January. More than 25 of Mark’s family joined us at Saturday night’s class dinner. Afterward, the family showed a video presentation of his life. Several of our class attended Sunday’s Memorial Service at the boat landing for the spreading of his ashes, along with the ashes of his wife, Nancy Jo, and his brother, Owen. Mark’s death was totally unexpected. He was planning a trip to Massachusetts to see his ill brother (who passed away shortly after Mark). He loved

NMH, having schooled and taught there. He was 12 years old as a freshman, and told me that dating 14-year-old Northfield gals made him feel like he was dating his babysitter. We miss you, Mark. You did your job well. • Bob White suffered respiratory problems for some time. He then developed painful shingles that would not subside. The combination of these two factors weakened his once-strong heart.

He served NMH and the class of ’50 for many years. We worked together on the column for more than 30 years and together made the 50th Reunion Year Book. During reunion, his wife, Faith, and family were in Virginia spreading his ashes. Rest in peace, Bob. You served us well. • In the last five years, the Mt. Hermon class of ’50 lost 28 class members and Northfield class of ’50 lost 11. Total deceased in our classes since graduation is Mt. Hermon: 85, and Northfield: 41. • At reunion class meeting, I was voted class president, class secretary, and reunion chair. I am honored to serve. It should be noted here that Mark was posthumously given the school’s highest tribute, the Lamplighter Award. • Just before reunion, we lost classmate Harriet Refo Locke, who was born in China. After graduation from Northfield, she received her B.A. in biology and master’s in education. She served 30 years as a teacher, then joined the Peace Corps as an educator in Nepal and the Philippines. She is survived by three children, eight grandchildren, and one great-grandson. • Lois Seekamp Dole signed up for reunion but reconsidered when roommate Jean Cook Glidden was unable to attend. Jean is still experiencing vertigo from the severe concussion she suffered last year. • Diana Bond Holtshouser has 12 grandchildren. She has two sons and families living nearby, and a son and daughter and their families living in North Carolina. In September, she flew to Minnesota for a high school reunion with classmates from India and to visit her sister. Diana had knee surgery in February and went through many weeks of rehab. She is saddened by the death of her roommate, Harriet Refo Locke. • B.J. Graves Porter missed reunion due to surgery in late May. Shirley Forest Fenner and Jack Fenner were unable to attend our 65th as Jack had a cornea replacement around that time. •

The Northfield and Mount Hermon classes of ’50 stood together at reunion.

CLASS NOTES Bruce Roberts, known as Fr. Augustine, is a Catholic monk missionary in Argentina. He is one of the few remaining founders of the first Trappist monastery in South America. His time is spent in spiritual counseling of monks, nuns, and many male and female guests and visitors. He is a childhood friend of Mariel “Guppy” Gilbert Kinsey, who was Northfield’s class president in our senior year. She is a widowed grandmother living in a cottage in a small village in western Massachusetts. • As for me, Gene and I enjoyed our three-week stay in Massachusetts in May and June. We had not been back in five years after selling our cottage on Lake Maspenock in Hopkinton.

Two days after turning 12, our eldest greatgrandson, Daniel, traveled from California to North Carolina to compete in a National Outlaw Kart Race. He was champion in his Box Stock class. At the Garbervillle Rodeo in California, our 6-year-old great-grandson, “Buck” (Stephen III), wanted to compete in the California riding competition. When the class was cancelled due to lack of calves, he entered the steer-riding class. Unbelievably, he finished in second place. • I thank all returning alums for coming to our 65th, and appreciate the support from all—especially the guys for accepting me as their secretary. I will do my very best. Please keep the news coming. You should receive this just before the holidays.

Hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday season. Go, NMH ’50!

51

Northfield Pat Mccormick Hoehing sylv.snail@bex.net

I am sitting here on a delightful June day pondering our 65th reunion in 2016. I hope at least a few of us can get together to enjoy the ambiance of NMH, renew friendships, and share memories. • Judy Ives Hubbel: “Settled in Richmond, Va., the first of November 2014.

Enjoying the area and being near son Pete and his wife. My husband, Ed, went into the hospital right after Thanksgiving [last year]. After rehab and living in a memory unit, he passed away on 4/23/15. Adjusting to life without him after over 55 years.” Ed was one of our class “spouse adoptees” who faithfully attended reunions, adding to the fun. • We were saddened to read of the death of Sally Curtis. She arrived at Northfield School for Girls in 1948, our sophomore year. Sally was also our adopted class teacher for many years. Even at our 60th reunion in 2011, she was able to call us by name and refer to past events we were involved in. Love you, Sally! • Please keep in touch and consider our reunion in 2016. Remember, “old agers” are free!

51

Mount Hermon Frederick W. Miller fwcemiller@sbcglobal.net Bruce Heald writes, “We moved to Hen-

derson, Nev., from Roseville, Calif., in June 2005. We are happy in this part of the country and expect to stay for the duration.” • Tom

Kepler told us, “I have been having some trouble with [my] gait, and with selecting the right words for what I would like to say. I still write as usual, which I always relied on. My wife, Patricia Budd Kepler, was a national figure with the Presbyterian Church. The two of us share responsibilities at a small church in Waltham, Mass., but she does most of the work. Son Tom has an immunology lab at Boston University, and his kids are now getting degrees at the University of Tennessee and at Harvard. Son Jim had a heart attack two years ago, is a contractor in Maine, and has kids at the University of Western Montana, University of Southern Maine, and at community college.

Son John, an engineer in the Boston area, has daughters at Smith College and Lexington High School.” • Jack Bogan reports from Palo Alto, Calif., “Please add my name to the list of military heroes. [In] my freshman year at Yale, our frosh cross-country team beat varsity, and I majored in track, minored in engineering, flunked calculus, and lost my scholarship.

The following spring found me in Montana working for the county surveyor in Great Falls. I got drafted and was put to work in Fort Dix. When I volunteered for Korea, I was shipped out as a surveyor. Half my tour was spent in the field and half in the Eighth Army HQ mapping office. Because [Hermon coach/ teacher] Fred McVeigh had made me a French linguist, I spent the last two months of my tour setting up the logistics for lots of French military maps. Then I got out, came home, and spent six years on ‘ready reserve,’ praying that no one would remember that I was once America’s leading authority on French military maps of Vietnam. I retired from Landry & Bogan Theatre Consultants at age 75, I rewrote and improved my automatic seat staggering and drawing app for my successors, then a single-handed garage conversion and kitchen extension and remodel.” • Jack Hesse wrote, “After my wife, Catha, and I moved into this convenient Wellesley Hills (Massachusetts) apartment house, two of the persons whom we met were Gil Aliber and his lovely wife, Phyllis.

I noted to Gil that his ‘name struck a memory bell’ and that’s when the recollection went back 63 years to the hill. Gil is an extremely well-liked person here, with a great perspective on life. I am enjoying getting to know him all over again. In addition, I have a granddaughter at NMH, Olivia, in her junior year.

Before attending NMH, she was a squash and tennis player, but has now become a member of the girls’ varsity crew, on which she is the coxswain.” • Head of School Peter Fayroian and Allyson Goodwin ’83, chief advancement officer, visited with NMH alumni and parents in early June at the home of Shannon and Joel Weinberger in Hinsdale, Ill., to discuss the school’s strategic plan. Frederick W. Miller, and his wife, Carol, attended the 60-year reunion of his graduation class from Hillsdale College in Michigan.

52

Northfield and Mount Hermon Julie Taylor Clemens jtclemens@cs.com • Bruce G. Holran bruceholran@comcast.net

Plans for the 19th mini-reunion of the NMH class of ’52 are evolving. Due to the inevitable aging process and the loss of our classmate Ian Walker, it has been decided that October 16–18, 2015, will be a “work-free weekend.”

Most of the meals will be at the Greenfield Country Club and lobster will be on the menu at least once! There will be a report of the gathering by late October or early November through the NMH Communication line to the class. Watch for details in a letter from Mel Smith. • Shirley Bryant Mitchell wrote after the death of John Cannon in November 2014: “He had been fighting numerous cancers for some time. There was a memorial service in February in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, where he spent much of his life as an Episcopal priest.” Shirley, John’s “significant other for 10 years,” said that both classmate Nancy Stuart Philippi and she attended the service and had lunch with Shirley’s daughter, Diana Mitchell ’81. • In response to news of Nancy MacKay Glerum’s death, Sue Steadler McElwain wrote that she and Nancy had spent some time together as two married couples and kept in touch with annual holiday letters. She knew that the Glerums had moved to a retirement community in Portland, Ore., but was unaware of health problems and wondered why no letter came this last Christmas. The news of Nancy’s death was unexpected and sad for Sue. Her more joyful news was that her daughter was married at age 48 at the Naval Academy. • The NMH Magazine spring issue listed recent deaths in our class, and included Sheila Schechtman Weinberg (1/1/15). Does anyone have more news or memories to include in a future communication? • Good news from Marcia Ottey Raushenbush: she was given a “clean bill of health” after several breast cancer treatments in 2014. This enabled her to enjoy the special bike/barge trip in France for her family of 15, followed by a cruise in Croatia with John. • Both of the class teachers of NFSG’s class of ’52 have now died. As you know, Anne Webb Burnham died in 2014, and we have learned that Sally Curtis died (9/11/14). Both the NFSG Newsletter to the women who had been her students and NMH Magazine had long articles about this outstanding teacher.

She was a demanding math teacher, but had a sense of humor. She died at 92 after a long, full life. • Diana Armen Cowles relays that the New York Times did a spread about the famous fire at MH in 1965. It seems that it included an iconic picture of a major football rivalry between Mt. Hermon and Deerfield, which continued despite the fact that behind the players the science building was going up in flames! • Let’s keep informed and in touch with each other! There will be news from the

fall 2015 I 53

CLASS NOTES mini-reunion to help with that. If you live nearby, don’t hesitate to join even one of the events of the weekend.—Fondly, Julie

53

Northfield and Mount Hermon Will Lange will@willemlange.com • Abby “AJ” Nicholson Hodges ajhodges@comcast.net From Willem Lange—Dear Classmates:

Thanks for all the news you’ve sent. You seem to be getting busier as time goes on. • Ellin Messolonghites Johnson was saddened to read of the deaths of Karen Heinritz Stewart, her senior-year roommate, and also the Burnhams. “Miss Webb was our darling math teacher, who became engaged when we were students. My Northfield teachers linger on in memory—Adele Dieckman McKay and Amey Pancorbo Adams still write to me! In Oregon, Fletcher and I are part of a group that had its inception in Beacon Hill Villages, with the intention of helping old people live in their houses as long as possible. We had a best-ever European trip in October—Rome, Granada, Seville, and sardine-wonderful Lisbon. I fit the old-lady mold as I have for years: gardening, walking, tennis, and a new Spanish class.” • Sue Clough wrote to tell me that “our student,” the recipient of the class of 1957 Scholarship, Pablo, along with two classmates, won first prize in the research category in this year’s Science Symposium. They built a harmonograph using sophisticated engineering and computer skills. Bravo, Pablo! • Bob Holton on the flooding in Houston: “We’ve been lucky. Two fivehour storms lasted two nights. Wind damage to trees, but high water in the lake is the real problem. Our three families in Houston have also been lucky. We’re off to the U.K. in June, and this fall we’re moving to a continuing-care facility near the Johnson Space Center—two of our three kids are in the area.” • My sister in Syracuse sent me a birthday card along with a handful of obituaries (that’s not weird if you know our family). One of them was for Nancy Holton Calhoun (Bob Holton’s twin sister), who’d been in declining health for some time. • Bob Chutter, pleading a hand injury, backed out of a downriver canoe race with me, but did send me news of Gus White, who’s “recovering from neck surgery, but otherwise fine.”

Bob has also been in touch with Bob Engvall, whose computer was hacked—so Bob Chutter had a request from Claudette Engvall in Ukraine for money. Seems Bev Bolton Leyden had the same request, so Bob had talked with at least two NMH classmates. I’m not sure that having your computer hacked will cause communications with former classmates, but it worked well in this case. Bob said all was well with them, but they aren’t doing much distance traveling. We met Anita and Gus for a leisurely lunch in Quechee, Vt., and caught up.

• Dick Handy and his wife recently moved to a new place in Saco, Maine. He sent me a news release about classmate James “Dick” Taylor: “A retired doctor from North Eastham is receiving the Massachusetts Medical Society’s Senior Volunteer Physician of the Year Award for providing equal doses of primary care, respect, and consideration to homeless people in Hyannis

54 I NMH Magazine

for more than ten years.” Dr. James Z. Taylor’s “gentle demeanor and warm approach made both staff and clients feel welcome and respected,” according to the Duffy Health Center.

• Ida and I continue as usual. Been quite a year for me: new lenses in my eyes; an eyelid trim, which means I can now express surprise; trips from Montana to Ecuador with the film crew; leading a tour of Iceland; a great 80th birthday party; and two Emmys and a new book on the same night. Off to Newfoundland next month to film a special about the Atlantic cod fishery.

And then, by God, I’m going fishing!

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Dennis Kelly dskelly1935@gmail.com • Be Jay Froehlich Hill bhill24@juno.com • Dan Fricker dcfricker@videotron.ca • Marcia Samuel mnutsam1@verizon.net From Marcia Samuel—Thank you for all your input! Gail Schaller Storms spent a

delightful two weeks in California with her two daughters—renting an apartment in San Francisco, exploring the zoo in San Diego, and hiking the mountains between. She was most pleased to return to Italian Rhode Island to once again eat pizza with cheese after experiencing pizza of the day at Alice Waters, which came with nettles and no cheese! • Speaking of food, classmate Toni Browning Smiley is working on her ice cream recipe book. She did share two of the recipes, which are preceded with wonderful background information: Cuba libre ice cream (based on the “secret” recipe for Coca-Cola) and apple bacon ice cream (with an intro explanation of NMH “dummy”). • Having taught her “swan song” walking tour and lunch for the Boston Beacon Hill Seminars, Toni diStefano Norton is concentrating her energy on her potential book on Benjamin Blyth, 18th-century portrait painter from Salem, Mass. She has had visits and communications with more than 60 institutions and individuals, but “will genuflect in appreciation” (as well as acknowledge in the published result) for any information on Blyth or his contemporaries you care to convey. This energy is shared by John and Toni—with Tosca and Caramella, their apricot standard poodles.

• Margot “Dusty” Doust Moore sold her time share in Aruba with the excuse that “the suitcases were too heavy and the waves knocked her down twice.” She still spends her summers at the Jersey Shore and delights in living in a senior community where all the repairs and yard work are taken care of. Her energy is now focused on her newly elected position of president of her local women’s group. • Ed and Ann Newman Sundt enjoyed their steamboat sail on the Mississippi—they are boarding again in August to explore the Snake and Columbia Rivers, a trip that tracks Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea, but in present day with no trains, no buses—just unpack and enjoy! • Anne Tyler Rudy and husband Don

spend their winters in Venice, Fla., and summers near Minneapolis, Minn. With seven children and nine grandchildren ranging in age from 15 to 54 and scattered all over the U.S., it seems someone is always graduating from somewhere. She remains thankful for good health, family, friends, and wonderful memories of days at Northfield. • Barbara Helmle Simon raves this was the best Vermont ski season in decades! She lives in Killington during the season but returns to Connecticut or spends time with her sister in her Nova Scotia home during the mud/bug season. Last May, they traveled to five countries in southern Africa. She reports the people, landscape, and animals were awesome but living conditions were dreadful in several places. She had hoped to attend Sacred Concert but instead watched and listened via the live web streaming. She encourages all who are out of the area to tune in next time. • My unusual excitement in clearing out my friend’s house was the discovery of two WWII bombs (with pins) and four incendiaries stored in an old trunk. I was quite positive that they were not “live” but not sure enough to move them. I called the local police, who in turn called Picatinny Arsenal.

The street was closed off, and all people and traffic rerouted for four hours while the arsenal people, armed with X-ray and testing devices, entered the attic and tested and tested. Good news is they were not live, but since they are federal property, I no longer have them. • Have a glorious holiday season, and send me lots of news for the next issue. The due date is December 15. • From Dennis Kelly—Our 65th reunion is only three and a half years away, and your reunion committee is hard at work in planning. We will probably be housed in the infirmary, which is adjacent to the dining hall, because each room has its own bathroom, with a possible overflow to adjacent Hayden Hall. Please mark your calendar for the first week in June 2019. • This fall is the 50th anniversary of the fire in Silliman Hall, our science building from 1888, when it burned during the Deerfield football game in 1965. The photo was taken by Robert Van Fleet, whose son was playing for Mt. Hermon, and shows more people watching the game than watching the fire. • From my last column I was rightly corrected by Stu Leyden that he was not on the varsity tennis team while at NMH but took only recreational tennis. He did not take up serious tennis until his mid-20s and has played off and on ever since.

He now plays on the Atlanta Tennis Association Class C doubles team. Some years ago he handily defeated my son, Chris, in Hilton Head, S.C. Stu and his wife, Donna, have moved to an apartment at 4404 Avalon Blvd., Alpharetta, Ga.—a suburb of Atlanta. His phone is 678-372-4756, and he would love to hear from anyone nearby or traveling through.

• Being a history buff like me, Dave Jansky thought I should give apologies to General MacArthur for lifting a few phrases from the

CLASS NOTES

Betty Vermey ’54 and Hannah Kelly Houpt at Bryn Mawr

Ed Sundt ’54 and Ann Newman Sundt ’54

general’s farewell address at West Point in 1961 that I inserted in my “Ode to the Hill(s)” without proper attribution and published in my last column in NMH Magazine. I thought I might sneak them in, but Dave is too smart for me. General, I do apologize! • Last January Stan Peck and his wife, Nancy, stopped by our rental on Hilton Head Island, S.C., on their way to their winter retreat on Long Boat Key, Fla. We had a nice visit and talked about our old friends at NMH. Nancy’s parents once had a home on the beach here. Stan frequently came to Bay Head in the early 1960s as a weekend escape when he was working on Wall Street. • Over the winter months when I am looking after my Hilton Head Island home, I frequently see Susie Craig Hastings. Susie rents a place in a nearby “plantation,” and she and my wife, Betty, do lots of things together.

Susie lives in Norwich, Vt., near her son. Ed Snyder, Susie’s old boyfriend at NMH, will be coming east this summer to sell his house in Pittsfield, Mass., and they hope to meet and catch up. Ed lives in Arizona and still conducts his executive search business. • Jay Crawford and his wife, Joan, are traveling this spring through the Balkan Peninsula and the Adriatic Sea. They will be staying with us at our little cottage by the sea here, and we look forward to having lunch or dinner with Jay and Joan at the Bay Head Yacht Club. Jay was born in Virginia and has traveled all over the world as a geologist for the Sun Oil Co. He finally retired to his old college town of Lexington, Va. I teased Jay that this year marks the 150th anniversary of Lee’s surrender to Grant, as Jay and Joan are true Southerners at heart. Jay had a bottle of Southern Comfort well hidden in his room at Hayden Hall his senior year that was never found, even though it was thoroughly searched by Fred “The Fox” McVeigh, resident dorm head. • Dave Jansky, our ace fundraiser, spoke with John Anderson’s wife and learned that John was in the hospital. We wish John a speedy recovery. John, from Medford, Mass., was a one-year student at Mt. Hermon. He played football, basketball, and golf, and went on to Bowdoin College and med school. He practiced as a public health physician in Brunswick, Maine, and then retired to his home on beautiful Casco Bay in

Maine. • I have had several conversations with Bill Young about trying to help him and his West Coast business partner break into the New Jersey environmental market for Bill’s unique product. Bill is in the foam rubber business but produces a niche product called a Bilge Shark. It is a small piece of foam rubber cut in the shape of a shark that is infused with microbes that automatically consume oil and grease in the bilges of boats. I tried it in my own boat and it works like a charm. I have tried to line him up with people concerned with preserving Barnegat Bay here in New Jersey. • Fred Rice reports that he is still trying to sell his beautiful trawler yacht stored in a boatyard on the Hudson River near Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Fred, however, lives in Lyman, Maine. He has had a long and interesting association with boats of all sorts and many adventures. We decided to swap “sea stories”—he sent me one of his and I sent him one of mine, both of us having a good chuckle.

• Ralph Perry has been doing some exotic traveling, as usual. Ralph spent 11 days in China and toured the Great Wall, among other places. Then he went to Bhutan, which is near Tibet and where they have a Gross National Happiness Index. He will be coming east in July with his granddaughter. Ralph says that he likes getting together with Phil McKean frequently as they both attend the same Episcopal church. • I’ve extended an invitation to Ed Sundt and Ann Newman Sundt to join us for a few days at our Hilton Head Island rental to scope out the place for a “Northfield Girls’ Getaway” week sometime in the fall. I have offered the place at no cost to Ann and Toni Browning Smiley, Toni diStefano Norton, Marcia Samuel, and Betty Vermey. Hilton Head Island is absolutely beautiful in the fall, as the weather is mild and there are no crowds of vacationers. • I was in Philadelphia on business for the day in spring and called Betty Vermey, who lives in Bryn Mawr, Penn., to meet for a cup of coffee. Betty cares full time for her older sister and couldn’t break away on short notice, but she took a rain check. The previous year she had given my granddaughter and me a private tour of Bryn Mawr College, where Betty was once director of admissions.

In the fall of 1953 I had asked Betty to a social

function at Mt. Hermon, and I still have her acceptance letter—the only surviving letter I have from a Northfield girl. • On my way to NMH for the D.L. Moody Society luncheon and following Sacred Concert in May, I thought of calling Audrey Higgins as I passed East Longmeadow, Mass., to see if she would like a ride up to NMH, but the traffic was bad and the thought slipped my mind. When I arrived I met up with Joe Ribeiro, who had driven up from his home in Jefferson, Mass., and Bob Ashcraft ’53, who flew up from his home in Walhalla, S.C. The luncheon was delicious and the concert was beautiful. • I was saddened to learn that Bob Pyper ’55 passed away. Bob was a great runner on our varsity cross-country team in the fall of 1953, as well as on the track team in the spring of 1954. Bob grew up at Mt. Hermon as he was the son of Gordon Pyper, head of the science department and director of admissions. Bob worked in the administration department of the Providence Journal in Rhode Island. We extend our sympathies to his family. • I was further saddened to learn of the passing of Nancy Holton Calhoun ’53. Nancy was the twin sister of Bob Holton ’53, and late in the spring of 1953 she invited me as a blind date to take her to the Chateau Dance. She was the first Northfield girl with whom I had ever gone to any social function. She had a bubbly personality and we both had a great time. I did not see her again until her 40th reunion, when I attended as an observer. I asked her if she remembered me—she did and we had a nice, long conversation. She had a career as a social worker in Syracuse, N.Y. • We received a nice “thank you” letter from the current recipient of our McVeigh Scholarship Fund—Adrian, class of ’18. Though school is challenging, Adrian loves NMH, and is very involved in his robotics class and building an electric guitar from Legos! And thank you all so very much for your generous contributions to the McVeigh Scholarship Fund—it now totals almost $190,000. Let’s try to make it $200,000 by our 65th reunion. Stay healthy, eat wisely, get plenty of exercise, and we’ll meet again in June 2019 for our 65th. Save the date!

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Lisa Tuttle Edge etedge@aol.com • Don Freeman d.freeman4@verizon.net From Lisa Tuttle Edge—Thanks to Dini Woods and Svein Arber, reunion was

delightful; attended by 19 women and 20 men, plus some spouses, and the Alumni Hall food was worthy of the best restaurant. Our class scholarship recipient, Tymir (class of ’16), stopped by MacKinnon Cottage to say thank you. He is a very charming young man from the Bronx who plans to become an aeronautical engineer. From his letter to the class: “[NMH] has helped me to be at peace with myself and allowed me to pursue my dreams.

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CLASS NOTES This is an opportunity I will never regret because of all the support, experiences, and new people that I’ve met in my three years here thus far. I really appreciate the support from you, and I would like you to know you are truly changing a life.” If you wish to give money to NMH, you can designate it to the Class of 1955 Scholarship Fund which, as of June 30, has a book value of $382,773. • Janet Bear McTavish was unable to attend reunion—she was at the Minnesota State Quilt Show in Duluth demonstrating a computerized quilting machine. Penny Reynolds Kyker lives in Carmel, Ind., and would like to hear from classmates (email Lisa for her address and phone). • Some news from classmates who responded to Lainey’s invitations but could not come to reunion: Shirley Liu Clayton (Menlo Park, Calif.) is retired and doing some consulting. She has two children and two grandchildren. Patty Evans (Healdsburg, Calif.) is the last living member of her immediate family, but she has enjoyed the company of extended family who live nearby.

Kathy White Hitesman (Maple Grove, Minn.) has three children and seven grandchildren. Margie Douglas Hall’s (Kent, Ohio) husband is in an assisted-living home. Their daughter lives nearby. Bertie Dickinson Birdsell (La Quinta, Calif.) has four children, seven grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. All have settled on the West Coast.

Gloria Stuart Anderson’s (Augusta, Maine) husband had a carotid artery procedure in June, which prevented them from attending reunion.

Gigi Gellin Cane lives in Scarsdale, N.J., and Marjory Harper lives in Topanga, Calif. • Now from the women who did attend reunion: Mary Senter Hart went on an exercise and bridge trip with her daughter to Scandinavia last year, and in February 2016 she will travel on the Mississippi on the American Queen steamboat, where our class mascot, Tommy Jones ’56, plays ragtime. Suzanne Rowan Sachatello is moving to Amelia Island, Fla., where she is a full-time nanny for two grandchildren. She has been involved in genealogical research of her own family from Scotland and her husband’s family from Italy.

They went to Italy last year and plan to visit Scotland next year. Phyllis Humphrey Brooks has retired from being a mom of five grown children and 14 grandchildren. Her oldest grandson, Adam Landau, who is half Israeli, graduated from Exeter and decided to join the Israeli Defense Force to qualify for a free education in Israel. He became a tank commander in the Gaza conflict and was discharged at the end of last year. A film was made of his Gaza experience. Denise Shea Backus went back to school to become a clinical social worker and retired three years ago. Her husband of 45 years died recently, and she is learning to be a widow. She has taken Taiji for 22 years, started piano lessons at 70, and goes to an art appreciation class. She

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helps people stay in their homes by driving them to their appointments. Susanna Whitney Grannis is no longer working with children infected by HIV/AIDS, but the program she started in Rwanda and Burundi continues. She is painting and had a show of her mushroom paintings at the River Garden in Brattleboro. She has written books for children, her latest being Bovine Memoir, inspired by her cows. Mernie Heywood Tedrow and Liz Tompkins McGuire spend 10 days together every February at Liz’s home in Ft. Myers, Fla., on the way to St. John, VI, where Mernie and her husband have a tent on Cinnamon Bay. Mernie serves breakfast Thursday mornings in a soup kitchen, where she ran into Barbara Zschiesche Cooley, who works one night a week in an emergency overflow shelter for the homeless. Barbara is moving to a senior co-housing community near Chatham, N.Y., and volunteers as a teacher’s aide at an inner-city elementary school. She is interested in peace, justice, and environmental issues. Elaine Rankin Bailey received an Alumni Citation at Convocation for exceptional reunion volunteering, and says that she and Carroll are being spoiled living at an assisted-living facility in Andover, Mass. She is still on chemo and is doing very well. Margi Linsert Lentz moved from Northfield to Village at Duxbury, Mass. Her daughter Erika Lentz ’97 lives nearby, and daughter Kristina Lentz ’85 lives in Boston. Margi wrote two books: Tasting Bitter: An American Mother and Daughter in China and Maggie’s Story: Between a Rock and a Hard Place. Charlene Chamberlin Roscoe crochets baby blankets for church, bowls twice a week, has raised four children, and has studied and practiced art for 13 years.

She and Betty McIntire Chickering have been good friends since first grade at the Northfield Elementary School. Betty retired to The Villages, Fla., from being director of surgery at Berkshire Medical Center. Donna Huckabee Farnham has been taking classes in various subjects at Cape Cod Community College and especially likes the poetry class.

She goes to the senior center for exercise classes and to hear excellent speakers on current events. Emily Barry Lovering volunteers at the Gardner Museum. Her son is an international journalist for Reuters. She spent 40 years at

Connie and Don Hiller ’55 in Modica, Sicily

WGBH doing everything from writing and research to answering phones. She no longer boards alpacas, so she is looking for someone to board a pony in her empty stable. Lisa Tuttle Edge and husband Don will tour the English countryside, Wales, and Ireland, where she plans to see some of the places associated with William Butler Years, the subject of her master’s thesis. • Nancy Jones Cicia and her husband, Walt, play in community concert bands in the summer and in the Wakefield Retired Men’s Club Band. She plays flute and he plays clarinet. They are also active in the Wakefield Alliance Against Violence, a volunteer support group educating in schools and dealing with problems arising from domestic abuse, bullying, and teen dating. • Mary Cree Marker lives in the Pacific Northwest looking out at Mt. Hood. Her husband, John, died in January at home with hospice. She has remodeled to move her weaving loom into her home. Her son and his wife live nearby and maintain an extensive garden in her backyard.

• Helen Bogle Crawshaw writes, “I had a happy time at our 60th [reunion], with memories to add to all those associated with NMH. When I went to my 50th reunion, I found six seedlings of the Japanese maple outside the old library and brought them home. Two survived being introduced to our backyard and now they are lovely shrubs that remind me of Northfield School for Girls.” • From Don Freeman—We had a splendid 60th reunion in June, honchoed by Svein Arber, who writes: “We had an impressive turnout—38 classmates—equally divided between women and men, almost double the number that came to our 55th—and arrived at MacKinnon Cottage to take part in the festivities, which got under way on Thursday night at a joint cocktail party with the classes of ’50 and ’60. On Friday, after attending various seminars, many of us trekked over to Northfield to view the campus and step inside refurbished Sage Chapel. After dinner we viewed our slideshow, ‘The Way We Were.’

Saturday’s highlights included an exhibit of Arthur Goldberg’s art donations to the school’s Rhodes Arts Center; a brief ceremony in which we remembered our departed classmates, presided over by the Rev. Howard Wood; and a cocktail hour and dinner in Beveridge Hall marked by two video events: the Belmont Stakes and a second slideshow, ‘Fiftieth Reunion Panorama.’ The warm fellowship that prevailed gave rise to numerous calls for a mini-reunion in 2017. We hope to make that happen.” • Margaret and Don Freeman hosted an “Aftermath Party” for classmates at their home in Heath, Mass., on Sunday afternoon of the reunion. • John Cooley recently retired from higher education after 35 years at Western Michigan University, where he was a professor of both English and environmental studies. He continues his involvement in editing Mark Twain’s works—

CLASS NOTES even inspiring two Ph.D. scholars with his writings on Twain. “Soon after our 50th reunion, Barbara Zschiesche Cooley and I divorced,” says John. “Three years ago, I married Jack Millard and we live in a wonderful old farmhouse in Chatham, N.Y., with our much-loved Dalmatian, Luke.” • Lloyd Fisk reports two family additions: a granddaughter and a great-grandson. In December 2014, he and Holly renewed their wedding vows (after 40 years) with their family in Florida. • Sharon and Dick Fitts’ son, Douglas Fitts ’87, married Liz Busch at a winery in New Hampshire on 5/2/15. • Dave Guarnaccia writes, “Cannot believe that it is 60 years since graduation. Still working and living in northwest Arizona with my wife, Norma Jean.” • Connie and Don Hiller made a whirlwind trip to Sicily in May 2015. Don reports that the people, food, and wine were terrific. Highlights included Marsala wine-tasting, the Valley of the Temples in Piazza Armerina, a Tunisian couscous dinner, the Villa Romano del Casale, Ragusa, and riding donkeys up the side of Mt. Etna. • Ernie Imhoff’s grandson, Sam Imhoff, just finished his first year at Colorado College, likes to write, and is checking out journalism. The Baltimore Sun’s executive editor invited Sam and Ernie for a morning at Ernie’s old paper.

They met 15 of Ernie’s former colleagues, sat in on the editors’ meeting, and talked shop over lunch. “It was an exciting eye-opener for Sam and old-home week for me,” Ernie reports. • Stan King enjoys residing in independent living at a continuing-care facility for military officers in northern Virginia. When he is outside the community, he is an old man, but is just approaching middle age when he’s back home with his colleagues. • Melinda and Bill Kolb visited over Memorial Day weekend with daughter Anne, her husband, Monte, and grandson, Matthew (9). Bill reports that Melinda is continuing work on her second book, an autobiographical novel. • Bernth Lindfors is in the U.K. researching another 19th-century African American actor, Samuel Morgan Smith, who had his entire professional career in the British Isles. The fourth and final volume of Bernth’s Ira Aldridge: The Last Years, 1855–1867 will be published by University of Rochester Press. • Dr. John Payne ran the Bemis-Forslund Pie Race in November 2014 with two of his sons, Christopher Payne ’84 and Patrick Payne ’92. John recently retired as chief of anesthesiology at Howard County General Hospital, Columbia, Md. • Laura and Packer Wilbur continue to have busy summers at their home in Southport, Conn., with visits from grandchildren each summer. Packer sails with them and also skippers a boat in the master’s racing for those of AARP age. Packer is still busy managing investment properties, and continues working with other business, charitable, and university commitments.

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Nelson Lebo nlebo@nmhschool.org • Debby Adams McKean deborah.mckean39@gmail.com

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Northfield and Mount Hermon David C. Williams revdcwms@metrocast.net • Jeanne Schwartz Magmer jeannem57@gmail.com From Jeanne Schwartz Magmer—NMH-

Connect did not work as well for this issue as it did for the spring issue of NMH Magazine.

However, I see many of you are signed up on the wonderful NMH School Class of 1957 website that Lloyd Mitchell created for us.

Just visit the website, classcreator.com/MountHermon-Massachusetts-Northfield-MountHermon-1957, and follow the directions to sign up. If you have difficulty with the sign-up, email Lloyd at Mitch1680@gmail.com. • There is sad news from Sunni Fraser Falconer and Joy Goddard Knightly. Sunni’s beloved husband, Clif, died on 1/3/15 after a three-year battle to regain his health. I’m sure Sunni used all her nursing skills during that period as she cared for him 24/7. She misses him more than she ever thought possible. • Joy Goddard Knightly writes, “It is with great sadness that I share with you the death of our son, Russell.

He died of cancer on 5/25/15, and had only learned of his illness in February. After some chemo, he decided to go for quality of life rather than quantity. His wife, Jocelyn, was his rock. He leaves two children, Nick (16) and Hannah (11). He waited for his brother to return from Canada. Once he heard his brother’s voice, he relaxed and within an hour he died.

There were 15 family members with him. He will be greatly missed. He was much loved in the community and the church was full. He was only 53. What has kept me going is my faith. I thank Northfield for that.” • Frela Owl Beck is living with her husband of 53 years, George, in Cherokee, N.C. Their two grown “children” live between three and nine hours away, and their two grandsons are in Colorado.

Frela keeps busy with community and church activities and enjoys music of any sort. They are thankful for reasonably good health! • Ginger Roe Lang and her husband, John, enjoyed a fun trip through the Panama Canal last year.

They went on a riverboat trip on the Danube from Vienna to Prague in June. Ginger keeps busy with her business, Ginger’s Journeys, taking people walking, snowshoeing, and on fun weekends to inns in New Hampshire and Maine. Their daughter, Priscilla, came home from West Africa last July. She is helping Ginger with her business and writing about her years spent in Africa. Ginger and John enjoyed spending a day with Joyce Moore Arthur and her husband, Bob, at the Quabbin Reservoir in October 2014. • Martha Johnson is having fun writing and playing on her own website: meetmarthajohnson.com. She’s reclaimed

enough energy to teach a class at the local community college and do a bit of personal coaching. “Getting in touch with old friends to remember and share the trajectories of and the learning from our very rich lives is something I’m also enjoying,” she reports. • Speaking of memories, we certainly all have memories of our days at Northfield and how that experience shaped our adult lives. Now that we’re in our seventies, some of those memories associated with memorabilia we may still have in a box somewhere may now be of interest to our NMH archivist, Peter Weis ’78. Contact Peter if you would like to share your memorabilia with the school (pweis@nmhschool.org).

I was sorting through boxes of stuff in a closet and found my father’s (Frank P. Schwartz, 1921) diary from his days at Mt. Hermon and his yearbook. Peter was delighted to have both for the school’s archive, and I am delighted to have these nearly 100-year-old items in a climate-controlled environment, where they can become part of the school’s history and appreciated by future generations. What have you got in a box in a closet or the attic that Peter might like to have? • Robin Foster Spaulding shared, “When I arrived at Northfield in September 1955, I was given a bed board because my mattress was sinking to the floor, and I was also given the best roommate anyone could ask for—Beth Vaughan O’Gorman from North Carolina. My life changed on day one. My two years at Northfield were the most unique and idyllic in my life—definitely challenging and life-shaping. Sally Curtis (my math teacher) saved my life in math and was a very insightful mentor as my dorm head. The dorm food in Gould was so good that I gained 15 pounds between September and December and went home looking like a happy blimp.” Robin credits Northfield for her life choices, and her taking on leadership positions at national, state, and local levels. • Finally, a couple of hurrahs!

Judith Rosenbloom Hodges and Jeanne Schwartz Magmer had a 4th of July reunion in Portland, Ore. Judy and her partner, Jan van Eys, arrived in Portland from a Columbia River adventure. Judy, Jan, and Judy’s daughter, Sara, met Jeanne and her partner, Mike, at a Portland eatery, where they got reacquainted. • Jeanne Schwartz Magmer and Mike Litt are celebrating their loving partnership with family and friends in a special commitment ceremony

Jeanne Schwartz Magmer ’57 and Mike Litt

fall 2015 I 57

CLASS NOTES likely be the 60th year from our senior running for a pie! Maybe we can consider that the first official event of our 60th reunion and make a good showing?

on 9/6/15. • From Dave—Sacred Concert in May was very special, at least for Darrell Cooper, Dave Williams, and their families.

For both classmates, this marked 59 years since our first Sacred Concert in the spring of 1956, when we joined in song with all the students of both Mt. Hermon and Northfield. Both of us also attended those wonderful musical events with our children when they, too, were students at the “new” Northfield Mt. Hermon School, and now we are attending when our grandkids are students! Yes, the Sacred Concert is still held in the Northfield Auditorium! Each year the concert is (usually) held on the first Sunday in May, so our next concert may be on May 1, 2016. That will mark the 60th year since we were all juniors. Perhaps you would like to join us next year? • Another special note: At the concert we met the brothers of two other classmates—Steve Bethea and Wilhelm Gauster, one being Tom Bethea ’59.

• We grieve the recent loss of our classmates: Joel Rosenblatt (8/3/14), J. Baird Pittman (7/11/14), and John Cooper (1/10/15). • Oliver “Ollie” Woshinsky has emerged with new energy after some serious health issues and the publication of his family memoir! After radiation and chemotherapy to push his multiple myeloma into remission, Ollie switched from his career as a teacher to become a published author! Check it out on his website, conflictedlegacy.com, and know that one reader said, “Your book is like a box of chocolates! It is too good to read all at once!” • The annual Pie Race is the longest continually run road race in America, many years ahead of the classic Boston Marathon. The course is not the same as it was in the 1950s, nor are the rules of the game. In the 1950s we had to finish in 33 minutes to earn a pie! Now that we have passed our 50th reunion, we can earn a freshly made warm apple pie just for crossing the finish line, completing the 4.5-mile course, running or walking. Bob Mansfield and his daughter, Wendy Mansfield Donovan ’86, completed the course in 2014, as did Darrell Cooper and his wife, Judy; so, too, yours truly…Dave Williams plus his daughter, Jennifer Williams ’87, and grandkids Ben ’17 and Ruthie ’21!

Bob, Darrell, and I invite any of you who are capable of walking or running to join us the next time around. The date of 11/7/16 will

many years has done a stellar job as our class notes secretary and decided it was time to pass the baton. We now need a new secretary and would love to have some volunteers. Please let Trinka Craw Greger or me know if you are interested. • It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost a year since Tom (Payzant) and I moved to Sandy, Utah (south of Salt Lake City) to be near our daughter and her three boys. They keep us busy with soccer and lacrosse practice, games, and activities. Our move has also brought us closer to the rest of our family, which is nice. It’s hard to believe that we have adult grandchildren! • We have found a wonderful small Unitarian church with great people and music that fills our souls!

We sometimes sing in the choir, which reminds of us NMH. We both sang in Sacred Concert again this year—a real treat. I urge you to return and sing with the students and alums.

It is also a time to re-connect with friends and faculty. We were able to spend time with Trinka Craw Greger and John Stone, and Ernie Eng and his wife, as well as our cousin, Kate Dennison Chipman ’62, and her husband. • I also urge you to visit campus and see the school in action. Tom and I returned three times this year for trustee meetings. We will miss these trips—due to distance and family, we decided it was time to retire from the board.

It has been a wonderful experience, which we have enjoyed immensely. The trustees are a terrific group of men and women who work very hard for the school, as do the faculty and staff.

And now looking forward to our 60th! • Linda Clifford Rockwell and her husband, Stephen, recently moved into a senior-care community in Portland, Ore. It is a very nice, large apartment with a lovely view. Linda is active within the community—almost like being a floor cop back in the day! She and Stephen love to snorkel, and traveled to Belize in the past year.

David Eberhart ’58 (left) at a demonstration for Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Md.

From left: John Stone ’58, Trinka Craw Greger ’58, Tom and Ellen Watson Payzant ’58 at Sacred Concert

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Northfield and Mount Hermon William Hawley hawleys@acsalaska.net From Ellen Watson Payzant—I want to first thank Claire Kurtgis-Hunter, who for so

Linda remembers her time at Northfield very fondly and reads every page of NMH Magazine. • From Bill—Dale “Beetle” Bailey and Arlene recently took road trips to Pismo Beach, the Hearst Castle, and Elephant Seal Beach in California, and through Nevada. They rented a house in Santa Fe with two couples from Seattle and explored Taos and Albuquerque from there. Beetle and Arlene also toured Mesa Verde National Park, where Beetle courageously climbed the 32-step ladder six hundred feet above the canyon floor to explore Balcony House Pueblo with a ranger. Beetle celebrated number 75 by hosting a party in Seattle with 22 dear Seattle friends. • Trevor Dupey and Linda Shaffer Dupuy ’59 went on a seven-day cruise on the Black Sea. They visited Turkey, Ukraine, Romania, and Bulgaria. It was their first time on a Windstar cruise, and they say that the service and food were excellent. • David Eberhart has been attempting to connect with Dave Kidder, Bill Stevenson, and Jim Lindholm. He would like to get in touch with them if anyone knows their whereabouts.

David was protesting at the Pentagon on Good Friday. He happily reports that the government has since dismissed its charges against him for that protest. • Ben English is living in Jackson, N.H. When Ben is not fixing screen doors and chopping wood, he works part time as a narrator for the Conway Scenic Railroad on excursions through the White Mountains.

He gets to enjoy the beauty of fall foliage in New England. • Evan Freund and his wife, Nan, have been married for 46 years. Nan continues to practice as an educational therapist in Chicago. Evan is a “professional volunteer” on several nonprofit boards of directors in Chicago and in Washington, D.C. He is also serving as the moderator of a strategic planning process at Citizens for Global Solutions, a group that still dares to think big that peace under law is possible. He also advocates for criminal justice reform and for the legalization of all drug use in Illinois, and plans to practice faith-based conversations to that end. Evan believes that therapeutic treatment and support is a much better approach than heroin deaths, incarceration, and street violence. • Sadly, Tap Holt died on 2/22/15 in Winter Park, Fla., the town where he grew up. Tap was a senior deacon and a member of the A Cappella Choir

John LeBaron ’58 in Iceland

CLASS NOTES and Men’s Choir at Mt. Hermon. He also performed as a “pirate” in The Pirates of Penzance.

Tap graduated from Denison University in 1962 with a major in history, became an officer in the USAF, and then a career commercial pilot. He retired in 1999 from United Airlines in order to care for his wife, Jill. Tap and his Mt. Hermon roommate, Dave Peterson, were members of All Saints Episcopal Church in Winter Park, where Tap served on the vestry, as a lay reader, and as a member of a search committee. • Faith and John LeBaron spent most of their winter west of Boston, so in late February they fled with long-standing friends to Iceland to escape the execrable weather.

Beyond the much friendlier snow accumulation and warmer temperatures, Iceland proved to be starkly beautiful in its own landscapes laced with volcanic rock, geysers, and pristine, glacier-fed waterways. “The Aurora Borealis was spectacular,” wrote John. • Jack Nuveen recently returned from watching one of his six grandchildren graduate from high school; one was accepted by Colgate but preferred a scholarship to Miami University. Jack and his wife, Sue, have sold their boat and Cape May shore home. Meanwhile, Jack continues to enjoy the Doylestown, Penn., area—fishing, hunting, and sporting clays (a form of clay pigeon shooting). He sends his best to all. • Tom and Ellen Watson Payzant are enjoying their new life in Utah. Tom has stopped serving on all boards except one, the Carnegie Foundation Board. In June, Ellen and Tom attended a Carnegie board meeting in Palo Alto.

Tom, John Stone, and Ernie Eng attended the Moody Society luncheon prior to Sacred Concert. • Clay Pruitt is now fully retired, having completed 50 years of employment in the investment business. Clay and his wife, Lynn, spend half of their time at their home in Lake Forest, Ill., largely because all of their children and grandchildren live in the Chicago area. They spend half of their time in Oro Valley, a suburb of Tucson, Ariz., where they have a second home. Clay and Lynn stay active by road biking, hiking, playing tennis, and gardening. Their gardens periodically appear on various local garden walks. • Betsy and Bill Hawley traveled to Sri Lanka, southern India, and Dubai. They also visited Zion National Park with law school classmates, where Bill climbed Angel’s Landing—a very challenging adventure akin to Beetle Bailey’s experience on the ladder at the Balcony House Pueblo.

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Nancy Bissell Goldcamp ngoldcamp@cox.net • Peter Welsh peter@cantope.ca • Tom Baxter baxtg741@comcast.net From Nancy Bissell Goldcamp—I’m sure we’re all still reeling from the news of Betty Blake Hinkley’s untimely death in February.

Being Bissell and Blake, we sat next to each other in all the various Convocations that

arranged us alphabetically. She served our class and the school for many years with great zeal and competence and will be sorely missed by the entire school community. • Victoria Travis writes, “Betty Blake Hinkley and I roomed together in East Marquand our junior year, and by good luck I got to room with her at our 55th reunion! When I lost my car keys, Betty helped me search our room for an hour until we found them. She talked about her many adventures: sea kayaking, hiking, visiting her children and grandchildren across the country, and a photography trip with her son.

Betty inspired me with her busy life, and was a beautiful spirit, full of enthusiasm, love, and service. I am blessed to have known her, and I miss her every day.” Victoria also wrote about reunion: “The beautiful energy of Northfield continues on the Mt. Hermon campus; the fundamental founding beliefs and principles are the same and continue. I learned about the strategic and financial difficulties of maintaining both campuses, the endless busing of students back and forth, the lack of student identification with either campus, and the financial struggles of duplicative services. I came to see one beautiful campus of energy, focus, and love—a place of learning and growing. I felt the unity of our class of 1959, both men and women, united as one.” • David and Ginger McCann Giammattei had planned to celebrate their 50th anniversary with a Viking Cruises trip from Paris, but last-minute medical issues prevented them from doing that. Instead, they spent time with family members at various graduations, college visitations, and sporting events, mostly in Virginia. Nancy Johnson traveled to South Carolina to spend Christmas 2014 with her sister, Peggy Lee ’64. Nancy attended a reunion in Oxford and was making plans to go to a wedding in France in July. Emily Smith FitzRandolph is involved with many activities in Baker, her new neighborhood in Denver, and enjoying the company of her Bahamian rescue dog. They visit patients in a nearby hospital and have first graders read to them three mornings a week. She volunteers at a homeless shelter and is very active in her Anglican church. • Anne Roeser Bloemen continues to live in Australia, where she volunteers at local museums and at an aged-care facility. Her husband, Antoine, had his memoir, No Regrets: A Bicycle Dreaming from Belgium to Broome, published. The book tells the story of Antoine’s childhood in a German-occupied village during World War II to becoming a judge in the remote northwest of Australia. After marrying, traveling extensively, and raising children in New York, Anne and Antoine migrated to Australia in 1972. • Bobbie Paresky Budnitz and her husband, Bob, remain residents of Berkeley, Calif. Bobbie and Bob report that they are still active, and Bob is still working in the area of nuclear reactor safety. Bobbie writes, “I wish you and the rest of my [NMH] cohort all good

Alums like you frequently say, “I wish I could do more.”

You can.

By including NMH in your will. With that simple act, you can have an impact on NMH students for generations to come.

Call 413-498-3084 or go to www.nmhschool.org/ plannedgiving success, and to the current students the joy of learning they are experiencing now. I hope they love their place as much as I did.” • Karen Forslund Falb got a chance to be grandmotherly with a July trip from 6-month-old grandson Aaron and his parents, who visited from Israel. Karen met up with daughter Hilary in Berkeley for Hilary’s graduation from University of California-Berkeley—receiving her Ph.D. in Middle Eastern history. Daughter Alison Forslund ’03 is an NMH alumni class rep and works at Medicare and Medicaid Services in the Baltimore area. Karen writes, “I enjoyed a trip to the campus to celebrate the NMH History Projects Committee and saw so many friends who worked on the committee at some point during its 10-year span. There’s still some unfinished business of stewarding the Moody Birthplace and Round Top, and I’m hoping for some leadership to take it on. I’m sure many of us would support the project.” • Bill and I took a three-week trip in May/June to a med school graduation in Winston-Salem, to visit a friend in Fayetteville, to attend a Goldcamp family reunion in Ironton, Ohio, as well as Bill’s 50th reunion from St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati! Since St. X is a day school, the rhythm of reunion activities was different from that at NMH, but the essentials were the same: renewing old friendships and making new friends. I’ve gotten to know several of his classmates and their wives over

fall 2015 I 59

CLASS NOTES the years, so it was a reunion for me. • At the beginning of our trip we had a mini-reunion in Phoenix: dinner with Linda and Dick Barker, and Anne and Jim Newman! I’ve known for several years that some ’59ers were in the Phoenix area, and this year I finally got in touch with them. Dick wrote, “We’re in North Scottsdale, and we love it. We stay until early June if for no other reason than to see the spring flowers in May. We’ve sold our house in Cheyenne, Wyo., but still have the ranch, which is 70 miles west of Laramie. Linda and I are in good health, playing golf and enjoying life. You might see our ranch on the History Channel every Sunday night—Ax Men was filmed on our property in the summer of 2014.

Look for Zitterkopf, the logger on the ‘Bear Ranch’ in Wyoming. These guys were camped about a mile from our house on the southeast corner of our property. Absolutely crazy!” • From Tom Baxter—I really like this point in the yearly cycle when we get our NMH Magazine and we catch up, not only with our own classmates but those we knew in the classes adjacent to us. • Dan Waugh and Charlotte were based in Sweden for three months this spring/summer while Dan continues to work with colleagues on some long-delayed Russian history projects. Dan says “We expect to be doing more European travel in the autumn, after spending some time catching up with our p-patch and our local mountains near Shoreline, Wash.” The recent national news attention to the famous picture of the Mt. Hermon science building burning during a football game brought back memories for Dan—notably, his freshman biology course and physics with Doc Westin. • Frank Partel writes, “I am presently watching the sun rise over the rolling wheat fields of the Indre Valley near Chatillon, France. Down in Laos is finally published, with excellent reviews from Kirkus, the Midwest Review, and the Military Writers Society of America, and to great comments from well-known Navy pilots who were POWs—Dick Stratton and Paul Galanti.”

Frank’s book is now being sold in Canada and the U.K. as well as in the States (downinlaos. com). Frank’s wife, Mary Ellen, presented a trophy at the Devon Horse Show to the winner of the speed and agility event for carriages and four. Virtually all of the carriages are of English origin and on the transom of one, it read, “London and Sevenoaks,” which, of course, initiated a note to Brian “Limey” Sedgwick and Jane. Mary Ellen has now passed through the five-year gate of being cancer-free. • Paul White writes, “I’m still helping to edit a history of the lab-to-lab scientific engagement with Russian counterpart labs, with my focus primarily on the national security elements.

Working with U.S. and Russian co-authors brings back many good memories of more relaxed political times. In connection with the book, we spent two weeks with son and daughter-in-law in Santa Cruz last November while I commuted daily to Stanford to write,

60 I NMH Magazine

Tom Baxter ’59 and Emily Tucker Dunlap ’59 with new signs at the RAC

edit, and collaborate with co-editors. We’re in the final editing stages and preparing for publication. In late April/early May we traveled to Santa Cruz again, but just to visit and to take a side trip to visit another continuing-care retirement community (CCRC). The CCRCs still in the running at this point are in Medford and Bend, Ore. I got roped into one more term as president of the Friends of the Bosque (del Apache National Wildlife Refuge). Our grandchildren and their parents in Seattle are a continuing source of joy. We are looking forward to a family reunion (White side) outside of Madison, Wis.. Paul went on his annual summer hike, this time an REI-led venture called Eiger-to-Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps.” • The Jim Newmans have purchased a new summer home at a Del Webb community at Pine Hills in Plymouth, Mass., to be nearer to the families of their two sons. “This will be our first time to live near family—being a part of their lives and the six grandchildren will be a treat,” says Jim. The Del Webb community has a chorus and Jim hopes to join. He frequently sees Linda and Dick Barker and, occasionally, Julie and Neal Ketcher. • Tinker Greene writes, “I am among those interviewed in a feature-length video, poetry is…(speaking portraits) volume II, which consists mostly of poets rambling about their peculiar pursuit.

The videographer is George Quasha, one of my oldest friends, whom I first met in Manhattan after I dropped out of college, not long after graduating from Mt. Hermon—both of us beginning poets. In the video, I speak about my earliest interest in poetry, which of course happened at our school. The video is viewable online at vimeo.com/129744982. My bit is at minute 25, but I recommend watching as much of it as you have patience for.” • From Peter Welsh and Steve Cohen, we know that Neville Davison and Jane Fisher Davison ’60 are on the move. Peter writes, “Nev and Jane visited last week on their way to visit Mary Wiliamsher (husband Jack was our class teacher) and Steve Cohen. We’ve been having a great afternoon of conversation and are delighted to have them as guests. You can’t beat getting together with the original inhabitants of 59th Street.” • Charlie Wantman wants us to know that Henry Luis was born on 8/26/14,

and is doing wonderfully. Charlie adds, “Roberta and I had dinner recently with Dan Poteet and Nancy in Tucson. Unbeknownst to one another, each of us had previously and simultaneously owned houses here in Tucson on the same street about two doors apart. Both of us are still drawn to the Grand Canyon State, and expect to get together next winter as well.” • Finally, from Tom Baxter: “It is my privilege and joy to return ‘home’ to attend reunion 2015 as a member of the Alumni Council. I enjoyed getting to know more of the council members, hanging out with classmates Emily Dunlap, Randy Foster, and Karen Forslund Falb. Of course, I had to run down to the Rhodes Arts Center and check out the signs for 59th Street. I am happy to report that there are now two signs and they are larger and more prominently placed. Thank you, Clark Peters, for this. I also enjoy the Award Recipients brunch, the Hymn Sing, Convocation, the class room presentations, and a visit to the farm, where I spent a lot of my youth.

Very rewarding was the presentation on the school’s master plan and the announcement of how the funding for that is already shaping up.

The highlight, however, was a special invitation I received as a member of the class of ’59 to the second annual Shabbat Service. I was informed that, because the first service held at our reunion last year was considered to be so meaningful, it will now be a continuing tradition for NMH reunions. I shared the pleasure it is to know that ’59 is still alive and affecting NMH in a positive way with Charlie Wantman and Steve Cohen. Steve wrote to me, ‘I am delighted at your pleasure with the ritual of the Shabbat celebration at NMH.’ Charlie wrote, ‘I think it makes a really good prelude to the Hymn Sing, and it’s nice that it will be done in future years. Hey, our 60th is not too far off! ​I’ll drink to that!’ And so will I!”

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Phil Allen philhallen@gmail.com From Suzy Chalfant Kendrick—Lynn Barry Vardakis still lives in Brooklyn. Her daughter

has had a baby, and Lynn was recovering from organizing a huge church auction, so she couldn’t get to the 55th reunion but would like to come to a class reunion another year.

• Gretchen Beach Elliott lives in Lakeville, Mass. She worked as a health educator for the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program until it went defunct. She and classmate Sara Keene Pedroni (whose husband, Peter, passed away in 2014) have renewed their friendship.

• Suzy Chalfant Kendrick is enjoying retirement with husband Charlie. Her main interests are travel, gardening, paddle tennis, and book clubs, but most of all the Kendricks love to visit their children and grandchildren, all of whom live north of San Francisco. • Susan Easton Hanson, distinguished university professor emerita, former director of the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences,

CLASS NOTES has been awarded the Association of American Geographers’ 2015 AAG Stanley Brunn Award for Creativity for her intellectual breakthroughs in geography. Congratulations! • Laurel Fontana Franklin was a librarian at the City College of New York, but has now retired. Two years ago she visited the NMH farm and said it was in beautiful shape. She has been enjoying yoga classes and dog walking, but has several current challenges of arthritis and macular degeneration. Not daunted by either, Laurel has found joy in listening to digital books. • Esther McDonough Smith is a retired teacher and principal. She met her husband when he was captain of the University of Oregon football team, where he is now the team coach. The Smiths have three girls. One daughter, Wendy, ran in the 2015 Boston Marathon and lives in Colorado with her Olympic skier husband. • Sally Woodring and her partner live in the same house that they’ve owned for the last 28 years. She retired from work in 2005, but still takes voice lessons, enjoys singing in choruses, and has added piano to her musical mix. • Kathy Taylor Trout took a trip to China with Mount Holyoke College classmates but is currently focused on selling her Chestertown, Md., house to return to her home in New Hampshire. Kathy looks forward to returning to New England and will take a trip to Africa with a Duke University group with which she and her now-deceased husband, Chuck, had been familiar. • Beth Fallon Mason and husband Chip are healthy and active. She still works frequently in the Wilton Library reference department, 10 years after her official retirement. “It’s the best gig ever,” says Beth. She flew to California in 2014 for a sweet reunion with Kate Alling Throop ’61 and Lynn Ensign ’61 (Center Gould Lounge-mates), and keeps in touch with Sally Meck Pinkham in Wilton, Lucia Staniels Tasker in Greenport, N.Y., and her old buddy, Albie Booth, in New Jersey.

She hopes that someone has heard recent news from Maile Yager. • Sally Buermann still lives in Jamaica Plain near Boston, where she owns and operates a multi-family property.

Sally would love to see anyone who comes to the area or any class member who would like to call and chat. She remembers with particular fondness Lucy Boldereff Wilner and Adellar Norton. • From Phil Allen—Many thanks to Karl Radune for this report on the June reunion. The NMH class of ’60 had a small turnout for our 55th reunion, but it was good to see those who came. Taking part in all or some of the reunion were: Albie Booth, Dave Clapp, Bruce McClintock and wife Carolyn Pelzel ’70, Harvey Crosby, Wells Wadleigh, Bill Thibault, Perry Hanson, Susan Easton Hanson, John Gregorian and wife Judith, Dave White and wife Carol, Karl Radune and wife Elizabeth. Pete Johnson ’61 joined us for dinner on Friday night. Pete came to Mt. Hermon for our senior year, but stayed one more year before graduating, so he identifies with our class. Bill Thibault and Wells

Wadleigh traveled from California. Wells retired last year from teaching at an independent school in California. • Susan and Perry Hanson participated in the Pie Ride on Saturday morning. This was a new reunion activity, hosted by the class of ’85, to raise money for NMH scholarships. There were 10-mile and 30-mile courses, and participants earned a jersey and an apple pie. Sue has fully recovered from hip replacement surgery. Only five classmates were present for the official class photo. Let’s hope for a massive turnout for the 60th! • Most of us attended a presentation on the NMH strategic plan. We were updated on improvements to the academic program, as well as plans for designing and building a new science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) facility. • We were fortunate to be assigned to one of the small rooms at the south end of Alumni Hall for Saturday’s dinner and good conversation. When it was time to break up, we opened the doors to find that we were the last ones in the hall. • John Gregorian writes, “Judy and I continue the good life, busier than ever with kids and grandkids, two families in Savannah and one in Massachusetts.

My son, Scott Gregorian ’86, is running the rug business. We travel a lot—home is Cape Cod and a condo in Wayland, Mass., which we bought when we sold our home of 40 years in 2010. I have MS—trouble walking—but a great wife who really makes our lifestyle possible. NMH has a special place in my heart—the turning point of my life more than college and the Navy. The next big turning was marriage, kids, and grandkids. Who knows what’s next?”

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Gretel Porter sangam1008@yahoo.com • Craig Walley operacraig@aol.com From Craig Walley—We had a fine visit from Pete Johnson and his wonderful wife, Ellie,

when they came to Columbus, Ohio, on their way to Pete’s 50th reunion at Denison University. We’re all looking forward to our 55th in Gill. • Sherif Nada writes, “Mary and I had a lovely lunch with Lynn Ensign in Temecula, Calif., in March. Lynn and I have remained good friends since our years together at NMH,

Kit Durgin ’62 (right) married Elaine McKinley, her partner of 23 years, in June 2014.

but hadn’t seen each other for 10 years until that lunch. During a trip to New York City in February, Mary and I had dinner with Marlies and Rick Najaka. The four of us have visited each other over the years and always seem to leave our gatherings wishing we lived closer together.”

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Northfield Louise Cole Nicollet nicollet@gmail.com A note from Sue Saunders Chandler: “I was

sorry to resign as your class secretary earlier this year. It has been a delight to be in close contact with you over the last five years. This was definitely not my lucky year! In January, I was diagnosed with cancer—a complete surprise. I have since had successful surgery as well as chemo and radiation therapy. As of June, I am recuperating well but will have to take it easy for a while. Through all this, I have been lucky to have wonderful support of family and friends. Best wishes to you all.” • From Louise Cole Nicollet: “Most of you know that Susan and I were roommates in junior year at Wilson and very close friends at Northfield. That friendship has lasted throughout our lives, despite the fact that Susan has spent most of her adult life in Melbourne, Australia, and I near Lyon, France! Thanks to her occasional trips to Europe with her wonderful husband, David, who has also become a dear friend, we’ve been able to see each other over the years. Because of that deep and lifelong friendship, it seemed natural for me to offer to step in when Susan realized that she wouldn’t be able to continue the job that she has done so well for our class.

I have agreed to replace Susan temporarily. I am therefore sending out a call to all of you for a person to volunteer as class correspondent; I hope that this will happen soon. It’s a fun job and a wonderful way to be in touch with classmates and the school, though my other volunteer activities won’t allow me to take over the job on a permanent basis. If you’re interested, please contact me at lnicollet@gmail. com. And now, join me in wishing dear Susan a good recovery.” • Kit Durgin married Elaine McKinley, her partner of 23 years, on 6/9/14.

“We feel surprisingly different having our loving relationship acknowledged publicly in the

Kate Dennison Chipman ’62 (left) and Judy Russell DeMailly ’62

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CLASS NOTES

A CLOSER LOOK

winter in Berkeley visiting their daughter, Jennie, and her family. • John Dunn was amazed at NMH dropping football. “The test of time will be whether our peers (competitors) follow.

Any lack of success in a program calls for attention, not abandonment. I was equally surprised that the evergreen trees on Chapel Hill have all been removed. Fortunately, it would take more than these setbacks to sour my enthusiasm for NMH.” • Ladd Jeffers writes, “It was a joy once again to sing in Sacred Concert, but I think I was the only ’62 performing. It’s a rare privilege to sing under the baton of Sheila Heffernon. I love telling anyone who will listen what a fabulous school we have!” • Henry “Hank” Herrera and wife Ruth went on a fantastic trip to Cuba. Henry’s father, Alfredo Herrera, attended Mt. Hermon from 1932–34, but abruptly departed after learning that his uncle, who was a general in the Cuban army, had been assassinated. NMH’s archivist was able to answer Ruth and Hank’s questions about his father’s Mt. Hermon years.

Ruth Herrera writes, “I’m writing to you on Henry’s behalf because his Alzheimer’s has progressed to the point that I’m the communicator for both of us.” • Phil Handy often sees Cynthia and David Stocking and writes that David is retired, writing poetry, and living in Noblesville, Ind., near his grandchildren. • Bill Hiss: “Now retired for two years, after a most satisfying 35-year career at Bates as dean of admissions, a vice president leading

various offices, teaching a first-year seminar in Asian studies, and helping with fundraising. A co-author and I published a national study on optional standardized testing in admissions. At 70 pages, swimming with statistical charts, it should have fallen stillborn from the press, but given the ethical and predictive arguments over admissions testing, it has gotten much attention.” • Ted Lenz’s health is good—he still works out four times a week—and he keeps his brain active, enjoys free time, and still travels— including twice-yearly trips to California with his wife, Anne. • After 45 years at Citibank, Dick Linthicum is starting a second career investing in Hamptons real estate. “It was a great run the past five years working out a huge loan portfolio for the global private bank,” says Dick. “Now I need something to keep me busy, so with some capital, a good architect and contractor gleaned from new beach house after Hurricane Sandy, I will set out to invest in real estate.” • John Morrow: “Over the years I have talked with Bob Seely and been in touch with Bill Holbrook. I’ll start my 45th year of university teaching this coming fall at the University of Georgia (UGA), where I’ve spent the last 27 years. I taught at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville for 18 years (1971–88) before heading further south. I underwent successful spinal surgery, so I plan to teach for a few more years. I’ve written a number of books on World War I and am currently working on one about World War II. My wife, Diane, is also a history professor at UGA. My travel to archives in Germany, France, and England for research has enabled me to spend a lot of time abroad.” • Chuck “Duke” Oakley: “I have been spending most of my days looking at the Pacific Ocean from my house here in Pacific Palisades, Calif. When I tell my friends here that my prep school had as its motto, ‘Eat your soup with a one-tine fork and don’t complain,’ it simply does not compute with them. I eased into retirement starting in 2012 when I was slapped into the hospital moments before our 50th. The recovery period convinced me that not working was way better than working. I am now listed as ‘principal emeritus’ by my architecture firm, Ehrlich Architects. Over the years my wife, Susan, and I have visited the Mt. Hermon campus a number of times, each visit brought on new waves of memories.” • After

From left: Cindy Kidder ’62, Ladd Jeffers ’62, and Kate Dennison Chipman ’62

Ruth and Henry Herrera ’62 in front of the house once owned by his grandfather in Havana, Cuba

company of longtime friends and family,” says Kit. Congratulations and very best wishes from us all! • Kate Dennison Chipman: “For at least the third time in six years, husband David, son Peter, and I attended off-campus Vespers in Boston last December, where the sanctuary is always packed and the air full of anticipation.” When attending Sacred Concert, Kate and David spent time on the NMH campus, visiting the ’62 bench and spruces. As is their custom, Ladd Jeffers sang at the concert, and Cindy Kidder attended. Speaking of singing, Judy Russell DeMailly’s grandson is an NMH freshman and singer.

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Mount Hermon E. Scott Calvert scottcalvert@mac.com Brent Bowers and wife Barbara spent last

From Folk to Fiddle Tom French ’63 The fluid transition from voice to violin is what Tom French ’63 teaches to students of all ages in northeastern Connecticut. He has created an academicyear program called Fiddle & Song, in which fiddling is mastered through singing.

He also facilitates a 10-week series of “song swaps” and instrumental sessions each summer, called the Nahaco Summer Sing Jam, at Camp Nahaco Park in northeastern Connecticut.

“Violin can be the hardest of instruments to play when approached technically, but by simply listening, it can be the easiest of instruments to master,” Tom explains. “The violin, having no frets and no keys or buttons that yield an exact pitch, plays much the same way as the voice sings.” With this singing-to-playing method, Tom finds that his students can play a simple tune within 45 minutes of picking up a violin.

“I always intended music education to be my life profession, but the job market failed years ago and I switched to public accounting,” he says. “I’m still doing tax work, but only during tax season. The rest of the year I consider myself retired.” Tom’s “retirement” allows him to return to what he ardently believes in: that 95 percent of the beauty of music lies in expressing it, and that music belongs to everyone.

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CLASS NOTES practicing optometry for 35 years in Connection the loss of class teacher, Ann Wight: Gail cut and Rhode Island, Phil Schub and his wife Chalfant Hunting said, “Good memories of moved to Arizona, where he is still practicing a talented woman. She and Al Raymond’s optometry part time. They have developed a wife, Ginny Raymond, provided the music for passion for world travel, visiting places across my wedding at Russell Sage Chapel.” Felice Europe, Morocco, and Russia. • Paul Wade Merritt Gelman shared, “Northfield was and his wife, Kathy, had a long telephone chat the only place I ever had a chance to play an with John Morrow and his wife, Diane—they organ, and it was a great experience that has re-connected as if it were yesterday. “Two guys stayed with me.” Margie Attwater Mosher: whose backgrounds could not have been more “Miss Wight was a great lady in a petite packdifferent, connected by a single thread: NMH,” age.” Jean Rodger Preis says, “I still think of said Paul. He bought John’s book, The Great her from my vantage point behind her in the War: An Imperial History, and found it immechoir—a petite figure in her church vestments, diately engaging. • Henry Wilbur retired as an slipping and sliding all over that huge church endowed chair in the departments of biology organ to reach keyboard and pedals, producand environmental sciences at the University of ing the most wonderful music.” And Katie Virginia in 2012, and spends much of his time Steinmetz Dater: “She was a wonderful, finishing research projects in forest ecology. gentle person.” • My memory of Ann Wight He still spends summers at Mountain Lake was of her wearing the class plaid cotter that Biological Station in southwestern Virginia, I made for her. Also, as an impish participant where he and his wife, Becky, co-mentor of our first reunion as we paraded in carrying undergraduate research students. • Gil Wilcox a cooler of beer, and her sitting demurely writes, “I will be retiring from my specialty of beneath the Cottage 4 windows for the (in) gastroenterology (practiced at Maine Medical famous “Moons Over Cottage 4” reunion Center) in December. I don’t keep up with picture. Will and I had a very nice visit with many of our class, but did come to the 50th. her in 2012 over lunch and a glass of beer. • We have three children: Ramsey (first grandIn April, Margie Attwater Mosher ran into child born in March), Kelsey (just got married), Pam Sargent Ryley in Old Lyme, where she and Sam, who is in Boston. So three important was singing with the Con Brio Choral Society. events for me in 2015. A good year! I will also They had a nice chat. • Elise Elderkin had say hi from Paul Soule; he lives across the a 70th birthday brunch with Lee Ruderman street.” • Stay connected with classmates by Coppack ’66 and Mary Ann Reinisch ’64 visiting NMH’s alumni website (nmhschool. eating Bishop’s Bread in Exeter, U.K. They’d org/alumni) and click on the “NMH Commade the trip down from London to Devon. munity” tab. Once you’ve provided an email • Upon returning from Cuba, Felice Merritt and have been verified, you will have access to Gelman wrote, “It was a great learning experithe alumni directory. Now it’s time for you to ence to be in a place where so much change sit down, write me some notes, and join the is looming. The whole country is having a conversation! big conversation about where they go from Northfield and Mount Hermon here—can they hold on to their achievements Diane Sewall Chaisson (education, health care, much greater social diane@meadowlarks-farm.net equality than we have) and still benefit from • Willard Thomen outside investment while making their own wthomen@stfrancis.edu economy more productive? We had a wonderFrom Diane Sewall Chaisson—Another ful time meeting welcoming people, listening year down and most of us turned 70 this year. to music everywhere, and just observing.” • Good for us! Most of us are retired and enjoyLiz Martin O’Toole and her husband, Steve, ing our free time. Travel seems to be a running were in Southern California trying to keep up theme, along with volunteer work, music, and with their two grandsons (8 and 2). • Katie grandchildren. Two more years to the next Steinmetz Dater travels frequently between reunion. • Classmates shared their thoughts Georgia and Wisconsin to watch her grandchildren. While the children are in school, she and Phil work on house projects. • From Will Thomen—Peter Conklin and his wife, Pat, are still working, healthy, and loving northern Virginia and being grandparents. • Robert Dakin and his wife of 45 years traveled to Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Ghent, and Bruges last year. They’ve lived in New Hampshire since 1973 after six fairly miserable years doing graduate work and teaching in Los Angeles. They appreciate the clean air, unlimited water, and low density population of the central Connecticut River Valley. • After 47 years as producers of the College Light Opera Pam Sargent Ryley ’63 (left) and Margie Attwater Company in Falmouth on Cape Cod, Robert Mosher ’63

63

Haslun and his wife, Ursula, retired at the end of the 2015 summer season. It was a good run, and they leave the operation in good hands, though they will be around in 2016 to help with the transition. • Gary Meeks retired in May 2014 and is much happier not to have to deal with the stress of work. He has had a number of serious operations in the last few years, so he has slowed down. But life goes on, and he takes pleasure in the simple joys of life.

• Over 14 months, David Robinson was laid off from three positions (adult clinical intake specialist, hospice social worker, and Meals on Wheels outreach worker) at two mental health and social service agencies in New Hampshire due to cuts in program funding. He continues to look for work. Felicia, his wife, underwent surgery for ovarian cancer last spring and receives chemotherapy. They hope for a complete recovery. • Willard Thomen was an exhibitor at the Kohala Town Reunion on the Big Island of Hawaii over the July 4th weekend. He had six display panels of color photos of the final years of the Kohala Girls’ School (1952–56) at which his father was director; the 100th anniversary service and luau of the great stone Hawaiian church founded by the missionary Elias Bond in 1855; the final “golden” years of the Kohala Sugar Company; and other events from the 1950s. • Earlier this year, Bill Utley enjoyed a transatlantic cruise on the Disney Magic, with such ports of call as Nova Scotia, Norway, and Denmark.

At the end of June, he worked on the diving supervisory and safety staff at the Human Powered International Submarine Races at the Naval Support Facility in Carderock, Md. • Rick Waltman published a novella titled Good Rabble, Bad Rabble. It’s available on Kindle through Amazon. • In the coming year, Rick Weisman will finish his 40th year at Lehigh University. “It will be hard to give up those airline tickets that Lehigh buys me (Czech Republic, Ireland, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua). Just hope I can keep tooting my brassy friend into the future.” • Ricker Winsor and his wife, Jovita, are moving to Surabaya, his wife’s hometown, where they met six years ago when he was teaching there at a Christian school. Ricker and Jovita enjoyed a nice reunion with Robert Milk and his wife, Rosa, in Ubud. “Our friend, Glenn Correia, is still recovering from his near-fatal car accident caused by his trying to avoid hitting a fox,” said Ricker. See Ricker’s ongoing creative activities on his website, rickerwindsor.com. • Please keep the news flowing. Thanks to all of you who responded to my email request.

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Robert Eastman rheastman4@comcast.net • Pamela Street Walton pawalton@myfairpoint.net From Pam Street Walton—There is so much to look forward to…especially for Victoria

fall 2015 I 63

CLASS NOTES February she met Alissa, her daughter, and Kessler-Murphy. She happily emailed, “I Alissa’s family at Disneyland and then hopped married Tom Murphy on 3/21/15 in a garden over to Hilo, Hawaii, to meet her brother and ceremony at the Arizona Biltmore, Phoenix, sister-in-law for good food, relaxation, and sun.

Ariz. My sister, Stephanie Kessler ’73, was In June she was off to Homer, Ark., for her maid of honor. My brother, Jeffrey Kessler mother’s 90th birthday and some good fishing. ’72, escorted me to the altar. A reception • Grandchildren are always a topic in this followed at the resort’s ‘Mystery Room,’ where column. Sara Simon Stevens enjoyed having bootleggers once hid out!” Tom and Victoria 14 of her 17 grandchildren visit at the same now make their home in St. Petersburg, Fla. time in June. I can imagine her sitting on her Congratulations to the youthful honeymoonporch swing with 14 angelic faces surrounding ers! • After our 50th reunion in June 2014, her…but life in Ohio is certainly not all play.

Mary Dannies Gustafson and husband Ray Sara said she had a farmer’s tan from mowing continued their journey with a stopover in their three acres and working in the flower Hingham, Mass., to visit her siblings. The next gardens. • Joan Thatcher Tiffany and her stop was six days at the Association of Anglican husband, Ed, now have three grandkids. Alden Musicians’ annual conference in Washington, (3) lives down the street from Joan with the D.C. Once home in St. Paul, Minn., at their recent addition of Alden’s brother, Wyatt. new residence in Episcopal Homes, they Alden and Wyatt’s baby cousin, Theo, lives in relaxed and enjoyed their nearby family, Cambridge. While the Tiffanys have been including daughter Mim Gustafson ’99 and domiciled in Boston’s South End for 39 years, son Jon Gustafson ’06. Mary is serving as a they still spend time in Marion, Mass., where part-time interim priest at Messiah Episcopal Joan grew up. In Joan’s spare time, she serves as Church. Ray still enjoys his part-time organist/ senior director of the International Honors choirmaster position. • We all have fond Program, a comparative study-abroad program memories of singing at Northfield and were for college undergraduates. She is also on the saddened to hear that our organist, Miss Ann board of United South End Settlements, and Wight, passed away only months after our just discovered that Maicharia Weir Lytle ’92 50th. Jeanne Thompson, Marcia Eastman is the new CEO! • Wynne Greenlaw Keller Congdon, and Marcia’s husband, George, and her husband, Michael, welcomed their first visited Miss Wight in Concord, N.H., in June grandchild in March, and they continue to 2014. Miss Wight was delighted to see them enjoy retirement and life in central Maine. and appreciative of the gifts of Bishop’s Bread Wynne recently took up sumi-e painting (East and our class yearbook. She shared memories Asian minimalist painting in which a few of her years at Northfield and playing the confident strokes in shades of black convey an organ for Marcia’s wedding. Jeanne is involved idea). • Class artist Linda Seiffert Reynolds with numerous activities at her church: exhibited 20 meditative watercolor paintings at quilting, a write-your-autobiography group, a the senior center in Charlotte, Vt. She writes, prayer group, and an Alzheimer’s/dementia “I started to wonder about something that I’ll support group. • Lynne Schneider Fusch put out to all of you: Have you seen any small, wrote, “My husband, Dick, and I were in San efficient, single dwellings, or clusters of them, Diego for a few days to visit family and friends created for elder boomers wishing to remain while on our way to Hawaii. One morning we independent in the countryside, as a last house? had coffee with Don Powell and his wife, I haven’t seen anything like one-story Linda. They did a first-rate sales job of wheelchair-accessible homes, with ramps and convincing us that San Diego is a terrific place to spend the winter months. This year, however, attached garages. With so many in our population getting older, I’m wondering, why we are spending eight weeks in Waikoloa not? A lot of us aren’t anxious to give up living Village, Hawaii.” Aloha, Lynne and Dick! • in the country, nor can we afford expensive The 2014–15 winter was cold and snowy. Faye retirement colonies. I welcome private Lavrakas said that Kathy Marsh’s emails kept feedback, because I have some ideas for a small, her apprised of New England’s snow levels. environmentally sustainable community of Faye retired to Carmel Valley, Calif.. In

From left: Jeff Kessler ’72, Stephanie Kessler ’73, bride Victoria Kessler ’64, and groom Tom Murphy

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From left: Marcia Eastman Congdon ’64, the late Miss Ann Wight, Jeanne Thompson ’64

three or four houses for creative types in various artistic disciplines.” • Karen Holvik Deitemeyer and Bill moved last year to a 55+ community in Melbourne, Fla., after living in Kissimmee for 43 years. Karen continues her volunteering with the COPD Foundation and the American Lung Association, and in July 2015 was a speaker at the Pulmonary Horizons Conference in Miami. Consumer Reports recently interviewed her for a pamphlet on patient advocacy. • Joan Alexander Leonhardt and her husband recently moved from New York to Maryland. She occasionally sees Anne Wadleigh McAnulty, and enjoyed reading through the 50th reunion yearbook. • Kathy Childs Jones is an active lady with family and friends. In January, Alice Newton Smith, mother of Kathy and Eliza Childs ’67, celebrated her 100th birthday at a buffet luncheon for family and close friends, held at Mount Holyoke College. Five generations were represented. The youngest guest, Alice Liana (born June 2014), is the daughter of Sadie Childs Cora ’04. Sadie teaches in Northampton, Mass., and lives in Holyoke. In February, Kathy and Becky Elwell Axelrod, Bob and Gayle Landgraf Leaversuch, and Kathy Marsh met at the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge to tour the new building designed

by Renzo Piano. Becky continues her interest in community theater, serving as music director for Annie, Jr., at the Community House Theater of Hamilton and Wenham.

Gayle and Bob are busy with their grandchildren, ages 5 and younger, and continue to travel abroad. Kathy watched with pride as her son, Daniel Jones, received his M.B.A. from Harvard University in May. Thanks to Abby Peck ’76 (faculty assistant to several government professors), Kathy snagged a faculty ticket to Harvard Yard and had preferred seating for the morning exercises.

Although their paths did not cross, Virginia “Weegee” Look Brooks was a marshal on Commencement Day, leading reunion classes into the Yard. • Elizabeth Saunders Dutertre has been a volunteer administrator and member of the French translation team of the English magazine Full Circle (fullcirclemagazine.org). The magazine helps individuals with donated, refurbished computers who couldn’t otherwise afford to have a computer. • Wendy

From left: Eliza Childs ’67, Kathy Childs Jones ’64, Alice Newton Smith (mother), and Susan Childs Merrick

CLASS NOTES Moonan is hard at work for Smithsonian Magazine, Architectural Record, 1stdibs.com, and a book on the “100 Most Splendid Interiors in NYC.” She calls it her last gasp! My bet is that she has several deep breaths in reserve and will never fully retire. • As I conclude organizing this column, the class of ’65 is exiting the NMH campus after their 50th reunion…fond memories. My husband, Ken, and I interloped for Saturday dinner to enjoy NMH food (and for me to kibitz with junior class friends from East Marquand). This spring we attended the NMH scholarship luncheon and the scholarship luncheons at both our colleges.

The best food and presentation by a scholarship recipient was at NMH! • The December holidays are upon us. Share the love of family and remember to live by the head, heart, and hand…and consider sending a donation to our class of ’64 scholarship fund. Have a Happy New Year • From Bob Eastman—Upon remembering reunion last year, David Rowe writes, “Being the Sunday preacher was the most scary and yet joyous Sunday of my career.”

David is nearly completed writing his next book on the subject of church. “Our arborist son is always in our backyard,” David says, “and our daughter, who lives in India, has had two surprise trips to Connecticut this year... another daughter is teaching in Abu Dhabi, and another son made the dean’s list—something I never did.” • Joel Kuntz has completed the fifth edition of his legal treatise, Federal Income Taxation of S Corporations, and he regularly updates his other treatise, U.S. International Taxation. Both are published by Thomson Reuters (New York). Vacation travel last year included the Galápagos Islands, and Machu Picchu and the Amazon jungle in Peru.

• David Mensel decided to retire after many years as a forensic accountant. He’s devoted more time to the small farm he has in Hickman County, Tenn. David, wife Annie, and their daughter are busy raising rabbits, chickens, and garden items on the farm. “I am still working on my model railroad (the Bellows Falls Division of the Boston & Maine), and singing in my barbershop quartet (The DinoChords),” said David. “Keeping up with the grounds takes a good bit of time, and we recently added a beach-front condo in Gulf Shores, Ala. It’s available for rent if anyone wants a place that’s quiet and on the Gulf of Mexico.” • Paul Garrett is spending his time volunteering at a state bar committee that focuses on fair access to the justice system.

“While serving as the clerk for the circuit court,” writes Paul, “a recurring problem was the difficulty that individuals faced when earning too much to qualify for legal aid but did not have enough to retain legal counsel.” He also volunteers at a heritage center with the mission of honoring and preserving the heritage and legacy of African Americans in the local area, while promoting and appreciating the contributions of African Americans nationally and globally. Paul said, “A woman who was

viewing an exhibit [at the heritage center] seemed to recognize me and asked me my name. She then asked if I had gone to Mt. Hermon.” She was the daughter of Mr. Raymond! • Looking for something to do with a few extra dollars? Our Class of 1964 Scholarship Fund can always use some help.

Contact NMH at 413-498-3600. Having met our first recipient, I can tell you that it makes a difference. With your added participation, it can make an even greater difference.—Easty

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Wendy Swanson-Avirgan wsavirgan@aol.com • Henri Rauschenbach henri.rauschenbach@gmail.com www.northfieldmounthermon65.com From Wendy—Our class had a fantastic

turnout for our 50th reunion on a beautiful weekend at NMH. From the Northfield side: Penny Ackley, Sally Atwood Hamilton, Janetha Benson, Cynthia Boice Hunt, Deborah Boldt, Abby Ayers Bruce, Leslie Buffinton Dunn, Linda Burden Monchik, Laura Campbell, Abigail Crine, Heather England Smith, Jane Frost, Cynthia Gilbert-Marlow, Carolyn Haskins Sharp, Signe Heitz Olivieri, Jacqua Hill Yeomans, Molly Hinchman, Emily Huntington Bailey, Cathey Hyde Gage, Lynn Judson, Janet Kidder, Deborah Kiendl McLaughlin, Beverly Lancaster Lindsey, Siri Lewis, Candace Lindsay, Gail Linzee Reitter, Elinor Livingston Redmond, Ellen Lougee Simmons, Charlotte Lucas Small, Margo Margolis, Margaret McGown, Carol Milk Reyes, Julia Miller Kussmaul, Joan Milne Bischoff, Judith Mintie Scollay, Martha Morton Coco, Betty Naughton, Coco Pratt Cook, Judy Preble Miller, Pris Prutzman, Candace Reed Stern, Rachel Rikert Burbank, Kathy Shepeluk Loutrel, Ann Steiner Clough, Wendy Swanson Avirgan, Margaret Tillinghast Wright, Linda Toivainen, Tanya Trinkaus Glass, Nan Waite, Gail Watson Nozik, Anne Wheelock Sedgwick, Candis Whitaker Arthur, Anne Winter Forsyth, Linda Winter, and Beth Zelnick Palubinsky. Wow! Your presence was a gift to us all. • Heartfelt thanks go to all volunteers who contributed so much time and effort.

Special thanks to Nan Waite and Dave Stone,

From left: Signe Heitz Olivieri ’65, Cathey Hyde Gage ’65, John Rockwell ’65, and Siri Lewis ’65

our indefatigable reunion co-chairs; Candace Lindsay, for organizing decorations; Sally Atwood Hamilton, editor of a truly stunning yearbook; Beverly Lancaster Lindsey, for coordinating and leading the poignant memorial service/class tree dedication on Saturday and the worship service on Sunday; Coco Pratt Cook, for facilitating a fun, moving, and cathartic “conversation” for the women of our class on Saturday; and seminar leaders Gary Bartman, Jamie Bennett, Brad Fitzgerald, Deb Kiendl McLaughlin, Elinor Livingston Redmond, Pris Prutzman, Elias Thomas, Tom Tsui, Rodney Walton, and George Yu. You taught us so much. • Donna Blodgett wrote in June that she would not be able to make the trip as she is full-time caregiver for her 98-year-old dad, who lives with her in Florida. Susan Brunnckow Oke, Deborah Crockett Rice, and Perry Hay Huntington had also planned to attend but could not. • Please forgive me if I have missed anyone and for my not attempting to collect news for this column from so many classmates; however, numerous reunion photos are posted on the NMH website and our class website. What a joy it was to see so many of you on campus.

The uplifting glow lingers. Please keep in touch.

• From Henri—Our class has just celebrated our 50th reunion, and I am sure there will be a lot of news and information in the newsletter about it. I was sorry not to have been able to make it, but the events of the day kept me from making the journey. One thing of note is a recent breakfast I had with Rev. James Kelley.

As you remember, Rev. Kelley was our chaplain at Mt. Hermon, later the director of admissions for Brown University, and then the headmaster of Blair Academy from 1976–89. Jim is living on the Cape and enjoying a vigorous but pleasant retirement. • Otherwise, I hope that those of you went to reunion will share your thoughts and memories with me, and that you will come out and say hello as I embark on my next series of meetings across the country, starting in the fall.

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Marilyn Attwater Grant classsecy1966@verizon.net • Frank Sapienza sapienzafc@cdm.com From Marilyn—Suzie Steenburg Hill writes,

“I had a great time at the latest reunion planning with Jean, Jim, Frank, Wil, Peter, Jeffy, Chris, Lois, Elsa, Charry, Liz, and Lynn. The yearbook will come together by next year.

Several of us observed the ’65 reunion in June. Jeffy and I continued up to campus to hear Sacred Concert and to say hi to friends.

We saw Mary Armstrong Conley, but didn’t get to see Al Bergeret, who sang as well.

My husband, Crawford, is immersed in his company, which designs specialized journeys to Costa Rica, Ecuador and the Galápagos, Belize, southern Spain, and Crete. Check out chillexpeditions.com if you want to see his photos and learn the way he does travel for students

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CLASS NOTES and families! Come to our 50th next year. We want to see you!” • From Frank—Fifteen of us got together in May in Woodbury, Conn., to brainstorm and plan our 50th in 2016.

Also, a dedicated crew, including Jim Weiss, Jean Penney Wheeler, Peter Fulton, Lois Lake Church, Barbara Tweedle Freedman, Barbara Hazard, Jennifer Stevens Dunmire, Suzie Steenburg Hill, and Christine Anderson, observed the class of 1965’s reunion weekend in June. They have provided us with valuable insights and suggestions for our reunion. They were joined by Doug Crapser and Steve Batty ’67, who were there as part of the Remembrance of the 1965 Undefeated Football Team. Peter Fulton has been awesome in getting our reunion yearbook organized. • George Glassanos and I exchanged emails, reminiscing about our days playing hockey on Shadow Lake or that semi-frozen substitute we had for a hockey rink. I remember one of his incredible slap shots during a game right into the upper-right corner of the goal. George writes, “I remember, too, and I remember all the players. We had incredible times at Mt. Hermon. At 40, when my young son was thinking about playing the game, I rethought it also, tried out for an over-30 league, was drafted, and played 30 games a year for 18 years. So, I played more as an adult than in my schoolboy/college days.” • David Agerton has three sons, all Eagle Scouts: Mark (29) is a grad student at Rice, Chris (27) is a software engineer and entrepreneur, and Ted (23) graduated from Colorado School of Mines and works in Los Angeles. After earning a graduate degree from University of New Hampshire, David has had careers in the oil and pipeline industry. He is currently a consultant involving pipelines in Alaska. His wife, Mallory, has been a portrait painter for the past 30 years. David and Mallory are planning a fall trip to Italy with the help of classmates Barbara Tweedle Freedman and Anne Zimmerman and their travel business—Cornucopia Journeys (cornucopiajourneys.com). • Dan Cole says, “My career took me all over the country, and I have had a more than ‘interesting’ life. I went from pretty big things in the entertainment business to a fasttrack corporate life in high-tech professional production products and systems. I have been a private investor and business consultant for the last 10 years and doing pretty well. After Mt. Hermon, my brother (Jon Cole ’65) and I formed a band called Quill, and we played at the Woodstock Festival. You may remember that he and I were the guys who first brought the new rock and roll.” Dan, I know you’re on the West Coast, but we definitely need you here at the reunion to liven things up. • Al Bergeret, artistic director, general manager, and founder of New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players, has been involved in all aspects of developing and promoting the company since 1974, including administration, singing, conducting, directing, and much more. • After graduating from University of Vermont (1971)

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with a B.S. in mechanical engineering, Alan Campbell has worked as technical director, production manager, sites and logistics manager, journeyman union stagehand, and general manager for various Vermont high-profile media, arts venues, and festivals. In retirement, Alan has worked part time as a stagehand at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington, and helped operate Pleasant Mount Farm, his family’s certified organic commercial greenhouse in Huntington Center, Vt. • Jack Clough graduated from Oberlin College (1970), worked two years in Chicago (Scott Foresman and Co.), and received his master’s and Ph.D. from the department of biology, University of Chicago. “After two years of postdoc at Duke, it became clear that the market for new professors was collapsing,” says Jack, “so I pursued an American Association for the Advancement of Science Congressional Fellowship. I ended up working for the House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce (1980–92). I finished my career as an issues mediator—everything from helping companies interact with public interest groups to helping international agricultural organizations create an institute to develop crops for small farmers in Africa. Now, both my wife, Ann Steiner ’65, and I are retired, and we travel to as many unusual places as we can.” Ann and Jack have two children: Elizabeth Steiner ’97 and Andrew Steiner ’03. • Ronald Cooper moved to downtown Boston—and now has two married kids and four grandchildren in the Boston area. He has traveled a lot through Europe over 20 years. “We are currently spending winters at The Villages near Orlando, and added duplicate bridge to our schedule and are enjoying it,” adds Ronald. • Howard Goldberg is an independent filmmaker and real estate developer living in Los Angeles. Some of his feature films in recent years include Jake Squared, which premiered at the Raindance Film Festival in London and will be the opening-night film at the Big Apple Film Festival. Check out the website at jakesquaredmovie. com. • Lane Langford owned a bookstore in Whittier, Calif., for 25 years, had horses, and raised two beautiful daughters. Then, as Amazon came along, he found it harder and harder to compete. In 2000 Lane and his family moved to Lopez Island in Washington State. “I worked at the local marina and became familiar with boats and boating, and Susie developed into a fabulous fabric artist,” wrote Lane. “Everything was going fine until the morning of 3/16/05 when Susie suddenly passed away due to a heart condition. So, my life changed. Eventually, I went to work for myself as a handyman, and have stayed busy ever since. I have since met a beautiful lady named Barbara, who lost her husband in 2007 and is my neighbor. Throughout my life since Mt. Hermon, I have always been a musician. I played in a band with fellows from Hawaii for six years in California, and I also had a really good bluegrass band called the Horsefeather

Boys. For the past two years, I have put on a benefit concert for the kids on Lopez Island.

Be well, everyone.”

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Donna Eaton-Mahoney dmeato@aol.com • Dana L. Gordon mounthermon1967@comcast.net Gretchen Christol Langdon passed away

unexpectedly in March. Gretchen is remembered for her sense of humor and her dream to become a biologist whose work would improve the world in some small way. Through her work in global health care, she made that dream come true. Claudia Stanley Moose had been in touch with Gretchen in recent years and represented the class at the funeral.

• Maddi Lenagh is enjoying life in bucolic Brabant, Netherlands. Maddi’s plans to travel to the U.S. to participate in a Maine Audubon camp on arts and birding were the impetus for a mini-reunion in Northfield in July. Her first book, Passage of the Stork: Delivering the Soul, published in April, is selling well and getting great reviews. The book is autobiographical— one scene is set at Northfield. Even though she had set up a counseling practice to have something to do after retiring, Maddi finds herself more drawn to writing, photography, and art. • Ann E. Beardsley is still living in Bath, Somerset, U.K. She’s mostly retired from community arts and mediation, but keeps her hand in both with a few odd commissions. She also does some proofing of audio books, which is her ideal job. Annie always loved being read to ever since she was a child; now she gets paid for it. About 10 years ago she took up jewelry making and silversmithing, and now exhibits in gallery shows, art trails, and craft fairs local to Bath. Annie probably won’t be making the transatlantic crossing for the 50th reunion, but you can keep up with her at anniebeardsley. com. • Will Ackerman is busier than ever, producing album-length recordings for about 20 artists a year. Taking a page out of his experience with Windham Hill Records, Will has been releasing collection CDs of these artists titled The Gathering, which have topped the Zone Music radio charts, even winning Album of the Year at the annual ZMR convention in New Orleans. Since The Gathering has gone on tour, Will has done more performance.

His wife, Susan, is involved in organic farming, raising chickens, ducks, and geese. Will remains close to Jim Baldwin, and the two got together when they were both on campus for the dedication of a new faculty house in Jim’s mother’s name, honoring Alice Baldwin’s prolific contributions to the schools. Will says he was happy to see Marea Gordett’s name in the most recent NMH Magazine, and that he hopes to make it to the 50th. • Laura Thompson is very excited to have retired from high school special ed teaching, although she will continue to work at her other job—pouring free wine at Zorvino Vineyards. She says it’s the only gig she’s ever had where drinking on

CLASS NOTES the job is expected. Laura will be using her free time working on decluttering her house and tending her gardens. • Jane Latchis-Silverthorne resides in D.C., just below the National Cathedral. She and husband Robbie enjoyed an eye-opening three weeks in Morocco, where they were joined by son Jonathan and daughter Alexandra. Marrakesh, Tangiers, and the Festival of Spiritual Music in Fes were highlights.

Although the 105-degree temperatures kept them from desert treks, they enjoyed hikes in the Atlas Mountains. • Margaret Maxwell McLaughlin, also in D.C., plans to join the Cape Cod contingent when she and husband Steve retire in two years. • After selling their Cape Cod house and heading out on the road in their trailer a couple of years ago, Tracy Ambler and wife Nancy have been across the country twice. The Amblers have seen many state and national parks, iconic landmarks, and miles and miles of glorious vistas, and are well on their way to having visited all of the lower 48 states. • Linda Hoff-Irwin is thrilled to be teaching two courses at George Williams College in Williams Bay, Wis. The fact that it has a gorgeous campus on Lake Geneva makes it her dream job. Doing this in addition to her practice in Evanston, Ill., makes her a very busy but happy 65-year-old. • Charlotte Valliere Hord checked in from her home in New Brunswick to express her delight with our class-sponsored Northfield House at 67 Mt. Hermon Road. • Tina Dobsevage visited Sheila Morse after a professional society meeting in Boston in May. Then it was on to Paris for one of her annual trips, thanks to a translation project husband Jonathan House began a few years ago, publishing English translations of French psychoanalysts. The trip is a welcome respite from Tina’s solo practice of medicine, as well as a chance to visit with French friends of many years. Daughter Antonia graduated from NYU Law School in May and is specializing in immigration law. Their son is taking an intensive course in classical Greek and is applying to medical school. • Sheila Morse hosted a luncheon at her home in Guilford, Vt., before Sacred Concert, attended by Tina Dobsevage, Vin Kennedy and Becky Parfitt Kennedy, Wendy Alderman Cohen, and Donna Eaton Mahoney. After the concert, they had a chance to meet up with Deborah Mayberry, who lives in Northfield. • So far, classmates who have said they plan to come or are giving it serious consideration include: Wendy Alderman Cohen, Donna Eaton Mahoney, Claudia Stanley Moose, Jean Walker, Sheila Morse, Holly Taggart Joseph, Lorry Gresham Kenton, Kit Williams Krents, Marlee Meriwether, Pam Crawford, Bonnie Parmenter Fleming, Laura Thompson, Helen Fowler, Debby Buhrman Topliff, Sylvia Kuhner Baer, Robin Whyte Reisman, Linda Hoff-Irwin, Marty Ratcliff Rix, Tina Dobsevage, Mollie Lininger Alkan, Ann Haigis Banash, Mary Briggs, Kori Hedman Calvert, Jill Heathman, Samantha Schreiber, Nancy Dodd Uhl,

Anne Barrus Zeller, Vin and Becky Parfitt Kennedy, Eliza Childs, Will Melton, IrmaRiitta Simonsuuri Jarvinen, Gene Harmon, Bill Johnson, Joel Bartlett, Jim Baldwin, Jim Smolen, Dana Gordon, Chuck Streeter, Chris Crosby, Tom Hanna, Ross Mason, Peter Savas, Skip Walker, Charlie Watt, George Christodoulo, Dave Keene, Brad Waterman, Tom Myers, Bruce Burnside, George Alexander, Bob Turner, Max Millard, Bill Hicks, Carol Ball, Jim Archibald, Will Ackerman, Jean McBean Koenig, Patricia Watson Bartlett, Lissa Perrin, Maddi Lenagh, Nancy Hemmerly, Janet Blair Atlan and Daniel Atlan, Alex Ives, Peter Higgins, Tracy Ambler, Mark Blaisdell, Willy Hermann, Laurie Norton, John Mudge, Nancy Crothers, Holly Taggert Joseph, and Margaret Maxwell McLaughlin. It’s not too late to add your name to the list. • If you’re

on Facebook and not already a member, you can join by going to facebook.com/nmh1967 and requesting membership. You can also keep up with the class at our website: nmh1967. com. And add yourself to our interactive map: zeemaps.com/map?group=1410259.

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Kris Alexander Eschauzier pkeschauz@maine.rr.com • Peter L. Eschauzier pkeschauz@maine.rr.com • Mark G. Auerbach mgauerbach@gmail.com Steve Cole, our class leader, brother, and

friend, died of cancer on 3/7/15. Steve, NMH68 Class Gift Chair, was involved in NMH after graduation as a parent and trustee.

He and his family contributed the funds for the Cole Family Faculty House. Our NMH68 Alumni Facebook page was full of classmate tributes to Steve. Visit chicagobusiness.com to read Steve’s obituary, published on March 16.

Susan Donaldson James shared a 2009 interview she did with Steve, “Short People Debunk New Study on Height,” for ABC News: abcnews.go.com/Health/MensHealthNews/ story?id=8347950. Cap Kane and Marion McCollom Hampton will take on the role of Class Gift Chairs • We’re also sorry to share news of two other classmates’ passing: Nancy Burnett died of cancer on 5/14/15. She operated a multimedia documentary production company in Unadilla, N.Y., since 1991, which produced documentaries for public television, and features for NPR, Voice of America, and radio stations across New York State. She was part of the communications arts department at SUNYOneonta. New York’s The Daily Star (thedailystar.com) lists Nancy’s obituary, published on May 22. Stan Avery passed away unexpectedly on 10/13/13 from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which had killed his brother a couple of years prior. You will find Stan’s obituary on legacy.com. • Steve Cone attended Steve Cole’s memorial service on behalf of NMH ’68.

He has moved on from AARP and is consulting for five companies. • Offspring of three

of our classmates are making strides in the American theater. Nancy Stevens’ daughter, Lindsay Warren Baker, co-authored the new musical Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which had its Los Angeles premiere earlier this year.

Steve Holt’s daughter, Adrienne CampbellHolt, was named a Bill Foeller Directing Fellow at the prestigious Williamstown (Mass.) Theater Festival, where she directed the new play Dental Society Midwinter Meeting.

Carol Harman Barre’s stepson, Gabriel Barre, directed the new Broadway musical Amazing Grace. • Several classmates shared news of their creative projects. Harriet Chessman wrote the libretto for Jonathan Berger’s opera My Lai, which was commissioned by the Kronos Quartet. The opera explores the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam, as seen through the eyes of a helicopter pilot. The opera will premiere in California in October. Bryan Duggan directed the documentary The World’s Largest Ball of Twine—view the trailer of his film at kc-duggan.wix.com/theworldslargestballoftwine. Rick Smolan was profiled in a video interview about his photography career in a feature by the app: News360 (news360.com).

Ruth Stevens wrote the cover story, “Marketing Technology Liberates and Enables,” for the May issue of Target Marketing Magazine (targetmarketingmag.com). • In April, Judy Molesworth Darnell surprised Betsy Brunner Lathrop for her big “Six-Five” in Oakland, Calif. • C.L. Keedy writes, “After six years as a financial adviser with UBS in Pasadena, I changed firms and am now with Citigroup. I’m in my 41st year volunteering with the Pasadena Tournament of Roses as a past president/life director, and am still involved with hosting the football teams that come to the Rose Bowl.

I’m a Pasadena Chamber of Commerce board member, and am one of the board of directors of the USS Pasadena Foundation that supports the crew and their families of the US Navy submarine. Adrienne, my wife of 35 years, still works in admissions at a local private school and gets involved with many of the same volunteer activities.” • Ted Finlayson-Schueler and Steve Tower represented the class of ’68 as alumni singers at Sacred Concert 2015. • David Wells retired in 2013 after serving as a reference librarian at Duke University, a department head and trainer with the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, and the administrator of the Archives of Falconry at the World Center for Birds of Prey. Living in Boise, Idaho, he enjoys a full schedule of long walks with his Italian greyhound, fly-fishing, various creative photography projects, and live music concerts by the Eagles, Steve Miller, Taj Mahal, and Norah Jones. • Richard Staples writes, “I retired from Fannie Mae at the end of 2014, but I’m staying busy with several volunteer activities related to leadership development, affordable housing, and education. My wife, Betsy, and I also enjoy ‘dueling camera’ photography expeditions around New England.” • From Mark Auerbach: “When

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CLASS NOTES Herrell’s Ice Cream in Northampton, Mass., announced Passover flavor ice creams, Wendy Golenbock and I met up for lunch and a sampling of ice cream. I also had a four-decadespast-due coffee with Ted Finlayson-Schueler, who was passing through town after a meeting.”

• If you haven’t joined our private “NMH68 Alumni” Facebook group, you’ve missed some great personal archival photos from Anne Mitchell Murcek, Hillary Jan Johnson, Kris Alexander Eschauzier, Dave Wells, and others. Dave and Hillary are prepping materials for our 50th-reunion yearbook, so email them your old photos, in JPEG format, to Dave at davewells@cableone.net. Photos must be captioned and must include ’68 alumni in them.

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Northfield Sue Pineo Stowbridge sue.stowbridge@gmail.com Christy Adams welcomed several old friends to France in 2014. In July, Kerry Brougham, Ann Jones, Sarah Ward Neusius, and Polly Willard Marvin spent a week with Christy and

her husband in Brittany. They stayed at Kerivon (the 18th-century chateau owned by Christy’s husband, Gerald de Carcaradec), visited local sites, and enjoyed wonderful food and wine. They remembered Northfield exploits and made new memories. Unable to attend the gathering, Anne Dain-Goeschl visited in November with husband Danny.

Anne first reconnected with Christy in 2000, and they have since visited each other with their husbands in Tahoe, Calif., and in France.

• Sarah Allen-Oberstein and her husband, David, spent several days with Susie Parker Belcher and Alison Fowler D’Angelo at Susie’s home on Nantucket. Sarah and Eleanor Mudge Cares had a long phone conversation.

Eleanor and husband, Chris, who runs their company, love being Westerners and have been there since college. As she wrote, Debbie Whittaker ’68 was headed home to Denver from a visit. Sarah says they all love their lives in the Rockies. • Jackie Caldwell Finch reports that she and two of her sisters enjoyed a vacation in Hilton Head, S.C. Jackie underwent thyroid surgery in January, remembered the life and legacy of her mother-in-law, who passed in March at the age of 87, and celebrated her mom’s 80th birthday in April. • Nancy Clark was surprised to see the picture of neighbor and friend Dorothy (Dee) Osborn ’45 on the back page of the spring NMH Magazine. Small world. She is now team nutritionist for the Boston Red Sox and is hoping they get on a winning streak.

She is still in sports nutrition private practice. • Mary Coughlin van Beuren is restarting her life after both parents died in the last year.

“Seeing them through their final days was all-consuming, but a privilege.” She is still running her indexing business, has ramped-up writers’ retreats, and is listing her property with Airbnb, so the Toad Hall-keeping is another full-time job! Through Airbnb, she has met/ hosted people from all over the world, and

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loves it. She says, “I am amused to find that I am more than usually intrigued by the idea of our 50th.” • Faith Goodwin Hodgkins expects to retire in the fall. Meanwhile, Don Hodgkins is working his usual music jobs and is also now a third of the office staff at his church. Son Thom and Kaity are house hunting, having determined their new golden retriever puppy is not condo material.

Daughter Ally finished her third year of med school, and they moved her home over the July 4th weekend. • Marti Hall Malabad wrote from Virginia Beach that she is still enjoying active retirement with kayaking, travel, and sailing. Two grandchildren keep them young and happy. • Margie Hord Mendez is part of a group of four women writing a devotional book for teen girls, in Spanish, due for fall publication. Her daughter is teaching Spanish immersion at a Montessori school in California, so that means both kids and all six grandkids are at a distance. • Louise Merriam lives in Minneapolis but reports that they bought property in Dennysville, Maine, as a summer retreat. The house once belonged to Louise’s great-great-grandmother and will need to be rebuilt. We talked about a Maine mini-reunion.

• Amy Norton wrote, “I live in Milton, Mass., with my husband of 30 years and our adopted 20-year-old son. After working in public schools for seven years, I spent 14 years as the director of a therapeutic residential school in Cambridge, and have been the director of a therapeutic high school in Hingham for 20 years.” She hikes, gardens, bike rides, and cooks in her spare time, and is active in a Unitarian church. Amy says that any NMH alums traveling to the Boston area are welcome.

• Becky Shafer Tuuk’s mother and her husband’s parents passed away in 2014. Last year, Becky moved her dad to assisted living in Michigan on his 104th birthday. She looks forward to summer camping, biking, and kayaking around Michigan. Becky’s daughter left the West Coast and has a summer job near her parents while making plans for a job in Costa Rica. Their son teaches electrical engineering at a career tech center and is deeply involved in its FIRST Robotics team. • Pat Sze-Benash left the bank marketing world in 2011 due to a “restructuring” that eliminated a layer of senior vice presidents. She

did marketing consulting and spent time with her then 90-year-old mother, who lived with her. They traveled to Greece and Turkey on a cruise in 2012, and then her mother suffered a debilitating stroke in early 2013. Pat was elected to the board of trustees for their 55+ condo development, but still finds time for daily visits with her mother. She and her husband, still working as a detective in New York, enjoy travel and are planning a trip to Asia next year. • Donna Thurston Downing met Lucy Bird Masters for dinner in Portland, Maine, last fall while Lucy was taking her mother on a tour of New England. Donna coordinates a research project with youth who are at risk of a psychotic disorder, trains clinicians in family psychoeducation, and spends time with family and friends. Her mother, 92, is an inspiration and in assisted living now, doing quite well. Granddaughter Addy (4) is a hoot, with sons living within a two-hour drive, and wonderful daughters-inlaw. In May she enjoyed lunch with former Maine Northfield Club members Elinor Livingston Redmond ’65, Beverly Bolton Leyden ’53, and Emily Warren Taylor ’53 at the home of Joan Campbell Phillips ’47 in Harpswell. • MarthaJane Peck and Rob have marked 45 years of marriage and have been living in Port Townsend, Wash. “We have found a great home here and a town full of adult happy hippies. Living on the Strait of Juan de Fuca is just awesome for a person like me, who has always been in love with the water, animals, and the outdoors,” MarthaJane said.

She volunteers at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center and enjoys endless festivals, parks, and events. She says nothing compares to the joy of being close to their son and his family in Seattle. MarthaJane also spends time weekly with granddaughter, Allie (3), including attending a gymnastics class together. “There is no greater delight in my life. I’ve never been so busy nor so happy.” • Gretchen Vandewater continues her work as an occupational therapist in the school system, but struggles with endless paperwork and the outrageous behavior of many students, who suffer few consequences for their actions. “I think that the NMH experience instilled in me several important values: love and respect God, nature, and my fellow man. I am grateful for what I

Molly Wheeler May ’69 in New Mexico

Jackie Caldwell Finch ’69 (left) with two of her sisters in Hilton Head, S.C.

CLASS NOTES have and seek to help others. I am curious about all things and will continue to seek knowledge as long as I live. These are things I credit to the three years I spent in one of the most amazing places on earth.” • Carol Ward wrote about a two-month car trip—20 states and 10,000 miles in a black Prius Paradox— around the country with her husband and their puppy Airedale. They spent four weeks in California with their kids and two granddaughters, and one week with Carol’s mom (Becky Ward, faculty at Northfield) in Colorado. They are now authorities on dog parks and pet-friendly accommodations, saw lots of friends, and visited major art museums. She writes that Barbara Deinhardt recently got recognition for her volunteer legal work. • Wendy Wieber reports that she and her partner, Elizabeth, were married in North Carolina after 15 years together. “All five daughters, sons-in-law, both grandchildren, Elizabeth’s mother and siblings, their spouses, and our dogs were there for our vows.

Ceremony was conducted by our friend Caroline—a Buddhist minister. It rained and there was a wonderful scent of gardenias. A very happy day.” In June, Wendy defended her doctoral dissertation—a qualitative study of parent participation in early intervention for children who are deaf or hard of hearing and with special needs. “Seems like I am doing the stuff most people do in their 20s and 30s now that I am in my 60s. Late bloomer, maybe?” adds Wendy. She wonders what happened to Debbie “Dutch” Smiling, Ronnie MartinTrigona ’70, and Becky Smith ’68. • Gardening, hiking, camping, and kayaking keeps Molly Wheeler May occupied in her free time in Colorado. • Alice Wimer Erickson wrote from Gloucester, Mass., that her mother passed away in February 2014 at age 94. “She had an amazing life and died peacefully with her children by her side.”

Meanwhile, over the past winter they were snowed in for a few days and couldn’t even see out the kitchen window for a while. The dogs weren’t happy! • Rachel Wyon sends greetings from Cambridge, Mass., and promises to send news. • As I write, we are one year closer to our 50th. Reunion Committee meets in October. It’s not too soon to send your thoughts, both pro and con, for me to share.

Craig “Spike” Wheeler ’69

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writes Bill. “In early April I suffered a torn meniscus on my right knee playing hockey and am still doing physiotherapy, although the specialists are hopeful I can avoid the knife. In I encourage you to reach out to your friends from long ago regardless of how much time has the meantime, I expect to spend a lot more time at our camp/cottage on Lake Superior. I passed since you’ve last connected. You may be had a great visit with Sheryl Powers Kropp surprised by how warmly you are received if and Peter Kropp on Cape Cod. I also brought you reach out. • Dana Barrows: “I attended them a blue NMH blanket for Sheryl and Sacred Concert—first time since graduation— maroon NMH blanket for Peter, as they had and loved the experience. We have a unique missed out on getting those at last year’s tradition and culture that live on in spirit and reunion.” • Proving it’s never too late to get song.” • In March, George Chaltas and Al married for the first time, Grady HouseGilbert went on a 10-day cultural tour knecht married Cynthia Martens on 4/18/15 sponsored by the Pan Am Historical Foundain Alexandria, Va. Family and friends traveled tion. The group of 30 former Pan Am from across the U.S. to attend. Grady works employees (Al being one of them), plus for a foreign broadcast bureau in Washington, spouses/companions, included Edward D.C., and Cynthia is a preschool teacher in Trippe—the son of Pan Am founder, Juan Trippe. The journey began in Santiago de Cuba, Arlington, Va..• Jim Engell: “I’ve been in touch with Eric Whyte, who is still practicing with stops in Camaguay, Cienfuego, Trinidad, psychiatry at the VA in Colorado. In May I and Havana. • Eric Whyte: “Our classmate delivered the commencement address at NMH Jim Engell, a professor at Harvard, gave a and saw Dick Peller there, who looked great brilliant and inspiring commencement address in his Red Sox cap. This coming academic year at NMH late in May. Meanwhile, I continue will be my 38th teaching at Harvard—still to work as a psychiatrist for the VA outpatient loving it.” • Stan Stalla ’70 has been living clinic in Golden. My body tells me I should be and working in Bujumbura, Burundi, for 35 thinking of retiring, but the residual of my years. “I’ve been in Rwanda for the past 10 wife’s serious car accident in 2013 tells me I days, having been evacuated from Burundi in might not be able to afford to retire just yet. the wake of an unsuccessful military coup My wife continues to heal, but will carry some d’etat and the ensuing violence. Just two of the injuries the rest of her life.” • David months ago, my wife was visiting me in Smith and his wife, Susan, have been traveling to such places as India, France, and Switzerland Bujumbura, and several times we went to our favorite sunset spot on Lac Tanganyika to drink for skiing, the U.K., and Taos, N.M. They’ve Amstel beer, enjoy the nearby hippos frolicking, capped off their summer with several weeks at and watch the sun set behind the Congolese Lake Champlain. “Back on the bike and mountains. And then the attempted coup, the getting in 250 miles or so a week again,” said firing of weapons for several days, and now David. • Marc DeLorenzo has officially Rwanda.” Later, Stan headed to his home state retired. He wishes good health to all Hermonof Maine to run in the Bay of Fundy ites. • Meanwhile, John Grode has been Marathon. “After that, depending on retired for 22 years already. He and his wife of conditions in Burundi, I’ll either head to 43 years, Linda, are settled in spending six Bujumbura in early August, or back here to months of the year on their little ranch, the Kigali,” Stan wrote. “I may know if I’ve been “HH” in Montana. The other six months of the selected for a position on the humanitarian year are spent in St Augustine with their two response team for Syrian refugees, based in kids and grandchildren. • Bill Johnson has Amman, Jordan.” • David Lansdale spent retired from the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General as crown attorney for Algoma four months in Ecuador with his 88-year-old mother “including rafting in the Amazon, the District and is enjoying the freedom to do gondola to 4,800 meters, and a month on the what he wants. “I traveled to northwestern Galápagos. Back at the ranch in Ecuador, we Ontario in February for some ice fishing on continue to make progress with EcoHelix on the Rainy River near Lake of the Woods,” the Galápagos and elsewhere,” David said. “I welcome a visit anytime from a representative of our illustrious class.” • Paul Murtha writes, “I am working with gang leaders from Ibarra, Ecuador, who have formed a peace process group called Calle Paz y Respeto [CPR]. A film crew came for a month to document CPR’s transformation from marginalized youth to a trained and productive team focused on positive social service projects. The documentary will be broadcast over Discovery Channel later this year. A recording studio was installed in the CPR office and they are producing a weekly radio program for National Public Al Gilbert ’69 (left) and George Chaltas ’69 bear the Radio Ecuador on hip-hop street culture and Mount Hermon Roland Leong rl99@me.com

school flag in Havana, Cuba.

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CLASS NOTES delighted his fans with humorous anecdotes peaceful solutions to everyday challenges for about his 33 years in the CIA (true story) and youth.” • Steven Shapiro: “Just returned his new career as a writer. He also mentioned from the jungles of Bolivia. We got plenty of that his first book, Red Sparrow, will be made rain and high water. Fishing was tough. But we into a movie.” • Ulgen Gulcat was busy caught some and had a fascinating trip.” • teaching two courses as an emeritus, and also “After seven years of ‘post-treatment’ living with preparing new material for the second edition Stage IV prostate cancer,” wrote Steve of his book on unsteady aerodynamics, which Pollock, “the inevitable return to treatment in was published by Springer of Heidelberg in April was certainly one way to celebrate Nan’s 2010. In May, he went hiking with his friends 61st birthday. It’s been a long road since the at a small lake in the woods near Isparta in first go-round, so all of the ‘noteworthy’ side southwest Turkey, close to the Taurus effects you’ve read about in the Cancer for Mountains. “We walked through a deep Dummies books are not an issue.” Steve is canyon where the ancient Greek poet Epiktetos’ planning on attending our 50th reunion and poem was engraved on the rocks. Saint Paul says, “Hopefully, the concept of medical passed through this canyon from his journey to marijuana ‘on campus’ won’t be looked at Pisidia from Antiochia,” wrote Ulgen. askance, since I am sure I turned a few heads lighting up during [the 45th] reunion. But I’ve Northfield got no regrets turning the Hayden Lounge into Katherine Truax Scimenti the class of ’69 cloud with my dear friends. My katetruax@aol.com heart goes out to those of us ’69ers who are What an amazing reunion weekend! Forty-four medically challenged, some significantly, and Northfield women returned to celebrate 45 especially the guys who ‘look great on the years since graduation. Although the outside’ but are no less challenged by serious Northfield campus is quiet, the memories, the conditions. Love to you all.” • Joseph spirit, and the love still abounds. To see Fischbach welcomed his first grandson, Aiden wonderful photographs that capture the faces Noah: “Interesting gene pool—American/ and moments of the weekend, visit our Japanese father and British/Iraqi mother. Now I know why grandparents always act like idiots.” Facebook page—Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH) Class of 1970. • Reunion attendees • Brian Robie is branch chief for the were: Sylvia Marshall Bailey, Julia AuerNoncommunicable Disease Unit in the Center bacher Bergstrom, Lucinda Brandt, Debbie for Global Health at the Centers for Disease Persons Brooke, Spencer Burdge, Sue Control and Prevention. “I enjoyed eating Camuse Campbell, Mary McGrath Carty, Kung Pao chicken with classmate Bill Porter Liz Lewis Clifford, Stefani Danes, Tess Pemin Chinatown, Washington, D.C., one night antel Dunhoff, Margo Fenn, Stephanie last year,” wrote Brian. • Craig “Spike” Coons Frederick, Joanne Smolen Freeman, Wheeler has been keeping busy writing poems Ellen Frost, Linda Kellogg Glover, Britain and music for guitar, baking bread, collecting Hill, Sue Hurlburt Jacques, Linda Jameson, and polishing agates, and helping with his 10 Claire Schmidt Jones, Ruth Harding Jubb, grandchildren. He also volunteers for a Linda Keniston, Laurie Reich Kiely, Susan Christian children’s ranch. Spike writes, “Still Fowler Krabbe, Muffie Michaelson, Val not used to six-year absence of best friend/wife Gresham Mount, Enid Sodergren Oberor subsequent loss of 10-year college teaching holtzer, Carrie Pelzel, Gay Peterson, Pat career…If any old companions or Northfield Pinkston, Jenny Porter, Carol Ramsey, lilies write me, I’ll write back while I have Peggy Ransmeier Rodgers, Cindy Roney, breath.” • George Chaltas writes, “I had the Louise Rothery, Kim Wade Ryan, Katherine pleasure of reuniting with my junior-year “Mary” Truax Scrimenti, Marty Seely, Judy Hayden dorm roommate, Jason Matthews, Gibbs Shaw, Kerry McCollester Smith, Ann in June. We hadn’t seen each other since Smith, Katie Whitehead, Ann Wiley, graduation day! The occasion was a bookMargaret Wilson, and Sandye Wilson signing event where Jason was promoting his Brown. • Ann Wiley: “First reunion attended! second spy novel, Palace of Treason, and he

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Grady Houseknecht ’69 (right) with wife Cynthia on their wedding day

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John Grode ’69 and grandson Tristan

What a fabulously rewarding experience it was.

My past hesitation had been that I didn’t graduate. It doesn’t matter at all. Your classmates and friends just want to see you and laugh with you again.” • Sylvia Marshall Bailey: “Celebrating 45 years of being awesome and, yes, we still are! Let the planning begin for our 50th!” Sylvia lives in Beaufort, S.C., with her husband, Dennis. She’s a retired RN, and participated in the 5k run at reunion!

• Louise Rothery: “Northfield girls rock. I feel honored to have shared four years with these kind, strong, intelligent, humorous, and talented women.” • Kim Wade Ryan: “Is the best part re-connecting with people you knew, or having wonderful conversations with people who might have been a familiar face but you realize what you have in common?” Kim and her husband, Jim, celebrated their 40th anniversary in August and are three-time grandparents. • Tess Pemantel Dunhoff lives in Long Beach, Calif., and has worked for many years as a speech pathologist. Her first husband passed away in 2001. She remarried— they have three children and three grandchildren. Tess writes, “We spend as much time as possible with the grandchildren, and my interest in volunteerism is leading me toward work with the mentally ill. Carol Ramsey and I have kindled a wonderful friendship through twice-weekly walks together. I have never lost touch with Claire Schmidt Jones. Facebook has been a great way to stay in touch with my old roommate, April Chamberlain Hargett. I plan to be at the top of my game in 2020, and I’m thinking it would be fun to host a mini-reunion in the near future.” • In June, Linda Kellogg Glover and her husband, Rob Glover ’70, hosted a group of more than 30 Northfield women at their cabin adjacent to the Northfield campus. Linda writes, “I am spending the summer at the cabin with my sister. Her twins are attending NMH summer school again and love it. I will be thinking of you all as I ride my bike around the Northfield campus, get ice cream at the Creamie downtown (we remember it as Yore Dairy), swim at the Northfield pool, and eat in Alumni (West)Hall.” Linda is enjoying semi-retirement from being a preschool teacher and nanny for the last 13 years. • Ruth Harding Jubb: “Carol, Carrie, Muffie, and

Steven Shapiro ’69 with his catch in Bolivia

CLASS NOTES garden designer. In 2005 she remarried—her Neil did a wonderful job planning [reunion]! husband, Bill, is a retired schoolteacher. • Could not believe how well we’re all doing—I think we all look great! I remembered so many Marty Seely: “Most of my working life I was of you: Carol, Carrie, Muffie, Neil and Laurie, a costume designer and wardrobe stylist in theater, television, and film. After 30 years, I Jenny Porter and the second Dave (the good needed a change. Because I am an artist and husband), Ellen Frost, Ann Wiley, Peggy love working with my creative brain and my Wilson, Dibbles, Kim Wade Ryan, Mary hands, I began to take classes in metals, McGrath, Patty Pinkston, and the list goes designing, and making jewelry. My current on. We still have not given a cent to the old collection is selling internationally—I created a alma mater, but I will give a few pesos before small business (marthaseely.com). My work is September. See you all, if not before, at the selling in a limited number of galleries and 50th!” • Claire Schmidt Jones works on the shops in the U.S., London, and Australia—and Warner Brothers studio lot in Burbank, selling through Artful Home.” • Margo Fenn managing the telephone network. Sometimes she sees notables like Ellen, Conan O’Brien, is living on Cape Cod, and for many years was and the Batmobile. She also works closely with the director of the Cape Cod Commission—a NEC in Japan, which leads to some interesting regional land-use planning regulatory agency. email correspondence addressed to “Claire-san.” “I am retired from that now and am doing She enjoys riding her quarter horse mare on some part-time consulting work on a large trails. The highlight of the year was attending salt-marsh restoration project in Cape Cod the reunion and eating Bishop’s Bread three National Seashore,” says Margo. “My husband days in a row. • Linda Jameson has lived in and I recently moved to his mom’s former beach house in Yarmouth. We also still have a Madison, Wis., since 1974. She has been in family camp in the Adirondacks, where we communications and university outreach most spend time in the summer. Both places offer of her career, including many years as a radio many of the things we love to do: hiking, interview producer/host and reporter. She also biking, kayaking, and gardening.” • Peggy worked for a previous governor as deputy press secretary, for UW-Madison teaching Wilson lives in Collinsville, Conn., but she professional development in communications, and husband Daniel are making plans to move and for the UW Medical School directing when their house has sold. She works at Bristol women’s health outreach. Linda now runs a Hospital as the director of the outpatient small health advocacy business. She writes, mental health and addictions clinic, and “Reunion brought joy and gave me a few deep continues to be “an artist in administrator’s conversations. I caught up with old friends and clothing.” Once she moved out of direct miss others who were not there.” • Enid service—doing expressive arts therapy with patients—and into administrative work, she Sodergren Oberholtzer wrapped up an active was able to return to her own artwork. She is a year with the Choir School of Hartford and member of a small cooperative gallery, and Trinity Academy. “Such a privilege to work shows her drawings and paintings there with these highly talented youngsters,” said frequently. • Carol Ramsey: “August 2015 Enid. Regarding reunion, she adds, “It was a great feeling to re-connect with all our marked the end of my first year of retirement!

‘Northfield Girls’.” • Gay Peterson: “After I have had no trouble keeping busy: walking twice a week with Tess Pemantel Dunhoff, graduating from Colby College with an English degree, I went to Pace University and and chatting regularly with Carrie Pelzel and New York Medical College to get a master’s in Muffie Michaelson as we worked on reunion. nursing. Forty years later, I am still living in Retirement? What retirement? Looking the house that my husband, Rob, and I built forward to seeing as many of our classmates as on 60 acres in North Yarmouth, Maine, in possible at local mini-reunions in the coming 1979. I retired last year from a great career, year.” • Carrie Pelzel: “Working with Muffie which included teaching neonatal resuscitation and Carol on our reunion was so much fun. to nurses throughout the state of Maine, and I Yes, it was a lot of work, but watching the ended with my favorite job, doing occupaNorthfield ’70 class come alive over many tional health at L.L. Bean. When not traveling, months was enormously rewarding. The I dabble in my creative side—playing with reunion itself evoked lots of stories and, best of paint and fiber, and sometimes show my work all, launched friendships anew.” Carrie’s at craft fairs or local art walks.” • Stephanie husband, Bruce McClintock ’60, was at NMH celebrating his 55th reunion, so being Coons Frederick was an art teacher in the on the same reunion cycle was convenient!

Midwest for several years right out of college, Both are now happily retired. They decided to followed by stints in the interior design sell their home in New Hampshire and start departments for Cambridge, Mass., architectheir next chapter as Boston residents. • tural firms; corporate space planning and design; project management for a software Muffie Michaelson: “I have never had so company in the Boston area; and showroom much fun working on a project as I had this and office manager for a custom furniture spring working with Carrie Pelzel and Carol company in Kennebunkport, Maine. Since Ramsey on the reunion. If you are invited to 2004 she has lived in the upstate New York/ volunteer for the 50th, don’t hesitate, because southern Vermont area working as a residential being back in touch with my Northfield

classmates may have added some more laugh lines, but it also took a few years off!” Muffie continues to volunteer locally for organizations, putter in the garden, take photography courses, and travel. Her older daughter, Alex, is a chief resident in internal medicine at Barnes Jewish Hospital/Washington University in St. Louis, planning to follow her dad into an infectious disease specialty. Her younger daughter, Charlotte, works in Chicago at the PR firm Edelman. • Roanna “Ronnie” Martin-Trigona lives in New York City and plans to attend the 50th reunion. • Kimberly Chase Adler writes: “My husband, Tom, and I spend three-quarters of the year in our original home in Norwich, Vt. The rest of the time we spend at our beach house at Goose Rocks Beach, Kennebunkport, Maine. I love to paint and take photos these days. The rest of our time is spent with our three daughters and five grandchildren in London, New York City, and Cambridge, Mass.” • Beth Eisenberg retired as a psychotherapist and is proud to say that her son, Ben (27), is following in her footsteps and enrolled in school studying social work.

Beth and her partner, Paula—the love of her life for the past 20 years—were recently married. Paula is an artist and art teacher. They now live in western Massachusetts, but travel back to Tucson to escape the New England winters. Volunteering has been a fixture in Beth’s life, which she started doing at Northfield. • “I had never attended a reunion,” writes Cindy Stinchfield Ryan, “because I felt that, as a day student at Northfield, I just never made the kinds of friendships that would withstand the test of time. After joining the class Facebook group, I found out that wasn’t the case! My husband and I moved to Arizona in 2004, following our daughter and our grandchildren. I am still working as a bookkeeper, but after the hip replacement last year and the knee replacement this year, I am seriously thinking about retirement! A few of us mentioned having a mini-reunion in Arizona sometime next winter, probably February. I would love to hear from anyone already in the area or interested in putting a weekend together.” • Anne Shyavitz Foran was sorry to miss reunion, but loves catching up on Facebook. “This past year was a transition time for me. Sold my home of 22 years, retired from my 15-year career as a marriage and family therapist, and downsized my stuff to an office in my partner’s home and a storage unit. Celebrated my retirement last year on the island of Lanai—the first time to Hawaii since I was pregnant with my 28-year-old son. My 35-year-old daughter made me a first-time grandmother in late February.” • Nancy Hellens Gregory lives in Sudbury, Mass., with her wonderful husband.

Last year they celebrated their 40th anniversary in Maine. They have two daughters and are grandparents of a toddler. Nancy retired from teaching in a cooperative preschool nine years ago due to health problems. Now she focuses

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CLASS NOTES much of her time on the garden, with the help of two gardeners. • “I have been happily settled in New Orleans for the past three years,” writes Sue Aspinwall Dann. “I retired after 37 years as an RN and came here to be near my daughter, Kelly Dann ’96, and her family.

When my puppy and I walk along the amazing Mississippi River levee, I can hardly believe this Connecticut Yankee lives here. Besides being an attentive grandma, I love to travel all over the world. Of course, one of my favorite places to visit is Portland, Ore., where my son, Alex Dann ’99, and his family live. If anyone would like a mini-reunion in New Orleans, please let me know.” • Andrea Margolis Selzer and her husband live in Maryland, near D.C. She is an attorney for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, but hopes to retire next year. Andrea writes; “I am looking forward to retirement, playing lots of golf with my husband, and taking my grandson out on the links! I lost my mother some eight years ago, and my dad moved here to Maryland. He has been having some health issues of late, which also prevented me from attending reunion. But he is 93 and still sharp!” Andrea says she will be at the next reunion, “come hell or high water.” • From Katherine Truax: “I hadn’t attended a reunion in 35 years and was somewhat anxious not having stayed connected with so many classmates. But what a wonderful time it was.” • I would like to thank Carol Ramsey, Carrie Pelzel, and Muffie Michaelson for their time, energy, and money (thanks so much for the hats!) making this reunion such a success. Thanks to Laurie and Neil Kiely for their devotion, to Claire Schmidt Jones, whose idea it was to create a Facebook page, and to everyone who made this reunion such a positive experience. As your class secretary, it has been a delight reading all the notes from classmates, and I look forward to a mini-reunion in the not-too-distant future, as well as our 50th!

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Mount Hermon Neil Kiely neil@marketinginmotion.com

I am writing these notes a little more than a week after returning from a fabulous 45th reunion. The first portion of this column was supposed to appear in the spring 2015 issue but was inadvertently omitted. The second portion will concentrate more on reunion. • I am constantly trying to track down classmates who have been among the missing, and this time it is Donald “Chip” Howes, who actually left Mt. Hermon in early 1970 and graduated from Chatham High School on Cape Cod. He received a degree from UMass, got married, received his M.B.A. from UVA, and got divorced. He was also “awarded a retroactive diploma” from NMH. He worked in the financial services industry in London, New York City, and Boston. In 1984 he moved to London with Cantor Fitzgerald, got married again, and has three sons: one disabled after a brain hemorrhage in 2010, one a “wannabe

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The class of ’70 ATV Riders, from left: Robert Horne, Mark Carta, Alex Lotocki, Steve Johnson, John Gordon, Jake Duvall, Bruce Berk, Dave Ericson, Eugene “Geno” Ward, Neil Kiely, and Tom McCarty.

rock god” who has signed a recording contract and manages the oldest bookshop in England (Hatchard’s in Piccadilly), and one who teaches English in China with his girlfriend. Chip lived in various parts of the U.K. and was involved in commercial real estate, banking, and executive recruitment. In 2005 he opened a wine business with friends. In 2007 he went off on his own and has been in the wine trading business ever since (modernvintagewines.com).

He lives in central London with his wife, Catherine. • Edmund Dehn continues his successful acting career in London. If his schedule permits, he would love to attend our next reunion, “before we all pops our clogs… which is what we say on this side of the pond.”

• I had a wonderful lunch last fall with Richard Popper, who was in Providence for 10 days participating in the North American Bridge Championships. He is quite accomplished, serves on the board of the organization, and attends 10-day tournaments at various locations around the country three times a year.

• George Lewis spent two weeks in Tokyo, where he attended the TMFIVE Conference, the annual meeting of the five major international trademark offices—Japan, China, Korea, the U.S., and the European Community. • August 2014 marked the fourth MH ’70 mini-reunion, in Pittsburgh, N.H. This “Great North Woods Adventure” included a party boat tour of the lake on which our spectacular cabins sat, a morning hike up a mountain for breakfast, an afternoon of riding ATVs where the Deliverance side of certain classmates surfaced, and an enjoyable kayak trip down a secluded river. We ate (and drank) often, and plans are already being made for our 2016 adventure. Consider joining us! The 2014 attendees included: Gene Ward, Steve Johnson, Mark Carta, Tom McCarty, John Gordon, Bruce Berk, Alex Lotocki-de-Veligost, Jake Duvall (our sommelier), Robert Horne, Dave Ericson, and Neil Kiely. These trips have proven to be extremely popular and are memorialized in beautiful souvenir books compiled by trip organizer Gene Ward. • Jim Brown, living in Burlington, Vt., continues in part-time energy/regulatory industry consulting, is married, and has a daughter who is a high school senior and a son who is a

sophomore at University of Vermont. • If you attended our successful 45th reunion in June, you know what a wonderful time it was. If you didn’t, I can only tell you that you owe it to yourself to start planning now for our 50th in 2020. We had 36 Hoggers in attendance. The Northfield women, who really outdid themselves in planning and execution for this reunion, had 44 attendees—many of whom were returning to the campus for the first time.

The school was “blown away” by our attendance numbers. • Through the generosity of three Northfield classmates, every Hermon attendee received an NMH 1970 Nantucket red hat and every Northfield attendee received an identical hat in light blue. • Attending classmates included: Mark Andrew, Tom Baldwin, Carl Bannwart, Rajan Batra, Lincoln Baxter, Bruce Berk, Athan Billias, Richard Brown, Mark Carta, Steve Chaisson, Jim Eckert, Dave Ericson, Jerry Fraser, Doug Freeman, Howie Gilson, Richard Girard, Bob Glover, Cornell Hills, John Hirsch, Robert Holzberg, Steve Johnson, Neil Kiely, Collins Lein, Alex Lotocki-de-Veligost, Richard Lovett, Jan May, Don Melson, Jamie Melton, Jon Rounds, Dale Silver, Trevor Swett, Michael Verrilli, Mark Vokey, Gene Ward, Greg Warner, and John Witty. • Athan Billias and Richard Brown were first-time attendees. It was wonderful to reconnect with them, and they both enjoyed themselves. It was also interesting for them because former faculty member and wrestling coach Hal McCann was on campus to induct the ’64‒’65 undefeated wrestling team into the Athletic Hall of Fame.

Athan, Richard, and fellow New England Wrestling Champion Dale Silver (do you remember that night in ’69 when all three won championships at Hermon?) got to re-connect with their former coach. • It was wonderful to catch up with Professor Jamie Melton after too many years. Jerry Fraser won the award for the most interesting mode of transportation. He flew his own plane from Maine to Turners Falls and took a cab to campus. We had others join us from California, Texas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and almost every state north of Virginia. Richard Girard traveled the shortest distance, driving less than

CLASS NOTES a mile from his active retirement farm in Gill.

• Friday’s Third Annual Hogger Invitational

Golf Tournament included 11 golfers (Silver, Vokey, Swett, Lotocki, Hirsch, Baxter, Johnson, Ward, Eckert, Witty, and Fraser), several of whom had not touched a club in years, which is why we played a scramble format. Each golfer received a custom embroidered NMH 1970 commemorative polo shirt and trophy.

On Friday afternoon our own Gene Ward presented an Alumni Classroom session, “Mastering the One-Page Proposal.” • Our headquarters was Hayden—we had so many attendees that we also filled much of a floor in Crossley. The Hayden Lounge was a wonderful place to gather, and was outfitted with two new custom-designed class banners, adult beverages, period music, and class memorabilia, including: a burgundy letterman’s jacket; the red and white varsity MH letters; yearbooks; pictures; programs from our Winter Carnivals, Baccalaureate, Commencement, Vespers, and Sacred Concert; and more than 20 album covers and posters from groups of that period.

Visit nmhclassof1970.shutterfly.com for photos. • Saturday was a full day, with rowing, a 5k, and the new Pie Ride bike race/tour. Our class picture on the steps of the former West (now Alumni) Hall took place midmorning and there was plenty of free time to stroll the campus, visit the farm, or just sit under a tree with classmates. The Class Memorial took place Saturday afternoon under our red maple on the corner of Camp/Blake Hall. Dedicated as a six-foot sapling at our 25th reunion, it now stands more than 20 feet. It is a beautiful tree in a highly visible location, and although the reason to meet there every five years is solemn, the spirit and memories were anything but. We remembered and reflected on all 19 MH classmates who have died since we graduated, and the three who have passed since our last reunion: Thomas Hauer, Todd Follansbee, and John Snyder. After reflections and the “Lord’s Prayer,” Collins and Jim played guitar and led us in the singing of “Turn, Turn, Turn.” From there it was off to Convocation in the Chapel for the annual meeting of the Alumni Association and presentation of recognition awards. I was thrilled, humbled, and grateful to have received an Alumni Citation “presented to outstanding volunteers who have given continuous support and service to the school.” I look at my service as the least I can do as a way to give back for the two life-changing years I spent at Mt. Hermon. • Later, at the class meeting, we began to lay the groundwork for our 50th and learn more about the resources the school will bring to bear to ensure our success. Many of you have already expressed a desire to get involved in the planning and execution of that unique opportunity to re-connect with your classmates. I am confident that our attendance will be record-breaking for our 50th. There will be many opportunities for you to get involved over the next five years—the initial planning

will begin shortly! I will forward the reunion dates as soon as I have them, but it will most likely be the first weekend in June 2020. • After our class reception, we congregated at Alumni Hall for dinner. Just as I remember 45 years ago, it is so relaxing and enjoyable to sit and linger at those tables during and after meals. Elaine Rankin Bailey ’55 also received an Alumni Citation, and even though it was her own reunion, she and Carroll asked if they could join our class for dinner. We were delighted to have them, and there was an almost constant line at their table, with people waiting to see and speak to them. It was wonderful. • After dinner, we adjourned to the new Rhodes Arts Center, which is a spectacular venue and worked especially well for what we wanted: a private Northfield and Mt. Hermon ’70 musical event and sing-a-long featuring Collins Lein, Jim Eckert, and “The Songs We Sang.” Many commented that this was the highlight of the weekend. This year they recruited Steve Chaisson, a recording musician in his own right, to professionally record the evening. Collins wrote to tell me that it is “stellar—the class vocals and all the music turned out to be high quality. Listening brought the whole night back to me...it will do the same for everyone.” Thank you, Collins, Jim, and Steve for your hard work on our behalf! Hayden was rockin’ on Saturday night and there was dancing available next door at Blake, so it was an enjoyable and exhausting end to a few great days together. • The Memorial Service in the Chapel on Sunday was a nice way to wind down and close the weekend. It was good to hear Carl Bannwart sing in the Alumni Choir and enjoy lunch with him and his wife, Ilene. On Friday night, Cornell Hills (who is in terrific shape) offered to run an aerobics dance class early Saturday morning for several women. Somehow signals got crossed as to where to meet and it ended up being just Cornell and Athan, who was attempting this for the first time. The music blared and heavy sweating was beginning when a woman stuck her head into the room and said, “I’m sorry but we will be administering the SATs in the next room beginning in 10 minutes, so you will have to move somewhere else.” I’m not sure Athan was disappointed to hear this news as he explained to me over a couple of pieces of Bishop’s Bread in the dining

Chris Keniston ’71 with his grandchildren

hall afterward! • I know I sound like a broken record, but it would be so much easier to communicate over the next five years if I had your email addresses. Please send them to me and know that it will be for my use only. Hope you had a great summer.

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Northfield NO SECRETARY Please send news to: nmhnotes@nmhschool.org

[Editor’s note: The final column from former Northfield class secretary Rebecca Gohmann Bechhold was in the spring 2015 issue of NMH Magazine. She should have been credited for her well-written column, and we apologize for this oversight. Thank you, Rebecca, for your hard work and generous volunteer service to NMH and the class of ’71.] • The Northfield class of ’71 seeks a new class secretary. Contact Marggie Slichter ’84 at mslichter@nmhschool.org if you are interested.

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Mount Hermon David C. Eldredge d.eldredge@verizon.net

Our class’ first grandparent, Chris Keniston, is “living in sunny Bradenton, Fla. Up to 10 grandkids now [and] loving it. Still working with the boys’ group Royal Rangers at church— very rewarding. Been at it for 26 years now, and run across an occasional adult who was in the program when I was running it. They talk fondly of great memories of camping trips.

We still try to reach, teach, and keep kids for Christ—something D.L. Moody pushed. Doing a lot of fishing and cabinet work as well.” • For those of you still working (like yours truly) on one of those truly quiet, somnambulant summer days in the office, when the phone hasn’t rung and even the few regular blog feeds have dried, why not take a few moments and spread some thoughts to the rest of us? We look forward to hearing from all of you!

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Karen Beshar Zakalik karen.zakalik@gmail.com Facebook.com/Groups/47624874849 • Tom Sisson 1972NMH@gmail.com Gwyneth Jones Radloff writes, “Our

Arlington, Va., house sold, completing our long move to Baltimore. I am sitting with my feet up looking at a beautiful sailing ship moored outside of our building. Plans include more traveling, especially to see our daughters in Savannah and Salt Lake City. We are creating a library in our condo to house my collection of ‘you can never have too many books.’” • Last September, Erik Lindgren was artist-in-residence at Tufts University, which culminated with a 60th-birthday concert of his recent chamber works. The night began with the 1986 surrealist film, To a Random, which featured the original unused soundtrack composed by Erik. The concert concluded

fall 2015 I 73

CLASS NOTES with “Dark Garden,” a four-movement commissioned work with visuals by Chip Elliott’s wife, Wu So Fai, documenting Linda Huey’s 2012 sculpture installation at the Fuller Craft Museum. Hoggers attending the event included Eric Van, Mark Spitzer ’73, Brent Robie, Hank Bonney ’71, Malcolm Rosenwald ’71, and religion professor Henry Gates. • Cheryl Miner Williams: “My husband died eight years ago, and since then I’ve been raising my kids and trying to figure out life alone. My daughter met and married her husband while in the Peace Corps in Vanuatu. I was able to travel there for the wedding and briefly tour New Zealand during the same trip.” She continues to teach first and second graders in a small school in northern Vermont. • Ellyn Spragins writes, “We’ve had a lot of changes in the last year. After my father died last year, John Witty ’70 and I decided to put in motion some things we had been mulling over. So I got a hip replacement and we moved to Malvern, Penn., where one of my sisters lives. After renting a house for six months, we bought one that we will renovate.

I am still doing ‘Letters to My Younger Self ’ presentations, but am also moving toward work in interior design and having fun with painting classes.” • Ellen Mudge Johnson retired from government service that took her across the world. She traveled to Prague, Warsaw, and Vienna with her family. “My husband retired also, but elected to get another job until we put our younger daughter, Annaliese, through college. I live close to my Northfield roommate, Laurel Sherman, and we see each other every few months. I keep up with Gwyneth Jones Radloff, too, and Patsy Cole Kumekawa ’73 via Facebook.” • Ginger Perry Bisplinghoff traveled to Zermatt, Switzerland, for two weeks with her husband of 38 years, her daughter Jill, and Jill’s husband.

Ginger’s time is divided between her holistic work in New Hampshire and caring for her parents, who are in a nursing home on Cape Cod. • Marilyn Murdock Moonan is happily married to Jim and living near Boston. She has been a nurse at Boston Children’s Hospital for the last 25 years, focusing mostly in transplant, and is currently an education coordinator for surgical programs. She was awarded a global health fellowship and will be traveling to Myanmar over the next year to teach nurses at the children’s hospital in Yangon. • Shirley Suljok Klinger’s husband continues his accounting business. Her son decided to leave the business to work for the state. Her oldest son is working full time, but still has a lot of neurological effects from his severe auto accident in 2013. Shirley volunteers for the Visiting Nurse Association administering flu shots. • Ric Stobaeus tells us that his son, Dr. Nobuki Stobaeus ’04, is practicing veterinary medicine in Tampa, Fla. Daughter Keiko Stobaeus ’07 finished a summer internship teaching at NMH and is preparing to enter a physician’s assistant program. She finished her

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A (mostly) ’72 mini-reunion in Deerfield, Mass., from left: Hank Bonney ’71, Charlie Bristol, Brent Robie, Nat Herold, Kim Montague, Eric Van, Mal Rosenwald, and Chip Elliott

stint in the Peace Corps in Peru. Daughter Emiko is in her third year at the College of Coastal Georgia. Son Kenji finished at Rabun Gap Nacoochee School in Rabun Gap, Ga. He is attending Berry College on a full scholarship, following Nobuki, Keiko, and several other NMH grads. Akira attended the NMH Summer Abroad Program, working at an orphanage in India. He will be graduating from Rabun Gap Nacoochee School this spring. “I’m busy with house calls and farm calls. My goats, sheep, pigs, and chickens are growing in numbers,” says Ric. • Pamela Brown graduated with a bachelor of science in nursing. Auctioneer, designer, writer, and… nurse? Pam is going to stop there. At least for a while. • Doug Adair wrote, “I retired last year from the Oregon Dept. of Justice after 25 years with the state. With my wife, Elaine, I’m spending more time with our horses, traveling, and puttering. I spent two weeks in New Orleans visiting Arthur Motch and his wife, Maria, and attending Jazz Fest.” • Jane Gelernter says, “My garden is wonderful this year and David is getting a book ready for the fall catalog at Norton.” • Elizabeth Corcoran Murray met Kimberly Marlowe Harnett ’75 for the first time since their Merrill-Keep days in 1971–72. Kimberly presented at the University of Washington bookstore in Seattle on her insightful book, Carolina Israelite, about Harry Golden, “the most influential civil rights leader you never heard of.” Just three weeks later, Elizabeth spoke on A Long Way from Paris, a Kirkus Best Book of 2014 about personal transformation herding goats in the mountains of France. • During a family vacation to Bermuda, Jeff Kessler and wife Laura visited with David Skinner and his wife, Dianne. Jeff and Laura enjoyed a week in the Coachella Valley region of California. In March, Jeff “gave away” his sister Vicki Kessler ’64 at her wedding ceremony in Phoenix. Also helping to marry off Vicki was Jeff’s other sister, Stephanie Kessler ’73, and two of her three children. Laura and Jeff plan to continue to work full time for the foreseeable future and both continue to be involved with several community and regional volunteer boards and commissions. • Channing Harris writes, “Thanks to Chip Elliott for organizing and Nat

Herold for hosting a mini-reunion of the Subterranean Alchemists’ Society and friends.

Convening on a beautiful Patriots Day weekend in Deerfield were: Erik Lindgren, Charlie Bristol, Kamila Spitzer, Jane and Brent Robie, Kim Montague, Eric Van, Mark Spitzer ’73, Alida Glancy Birch, Reid Whitlock, and Chip. Other guests were Chip’s wife, Wu, Susan Fenske McDonough ’74, and yours truly. One guess as to who showed up with a complete collection of the Hermonites’ record albums.” • Alida Birch has burned through several careers as a social worker, manufacturing engineer, bodyworker, and even cat breeder. The one that has stuck the longest (for 26 years) is shamanic practitioner. She offers spiritual healing in the shamanic tradition and takes people on vision quests in the Waldo Wilderness. Visiting sacred sites, Peru is next on her horizon. She has co-founded and chairs Siberian Research Inc.—a nonprofit that works for the improved health of the Russian Siberian cat. Alida published her first book: The Co-Creation Handbook: A Shamanic Guide to Manifesting a Better World and a More Joyful Life. • Deidra Dain lives in Winchester, Va., and commutes to Bethesda to manage federal contracts in behavioral health around communications, training and technical assistance, and policy research and support. She enjoys her regular check-ins with peers Sara Robinson, Donna Babbit Reinman, and Ellen Patton. “We reminisce about our NMH experiences—both laugh and bemoan,” says Deidra, “and mostly appreciate the longevity of our 45-year friendships.”

Deidra and her partner are creating a PBS documentary about a local Trappist monastery and its community’s stewardship and sustainability initiatives. Watch for it in early 2016! • Skye Dent started teaching at Diablo Valley College in January and continues there for the fall 2015 semester. She was selected for a TV Writers Fund 12-week fellowship, which will have ended by the time this publication comes out. She’s starting another Kickstarter project. And she’s back to selling some journalism articles. The most fun piece involved her interviewing a fellow WGA West colleague, who is a writer-producer on the new Daredevil series and selling it to her alumni

CLASS NOTES magazine, the Brown University Alumni Monthly. • William Stebbins ran in his second MudMan with his teammate (and grandson) in under an hour, joined in the 2014 Warrior Yoga Retreat in Encinitas, Calif., participated in the 2nd Annual Unbeatable Mind Retreat, and more feats of endurance. In January, William had a heart attack, which he didn’t know about, and had heart surgery to clear up a blockage of an artery. He said he “became a warrior, yet humble.” William celebrated his 30th year as an investment services professional with First Investors Corp, a Foresters company. He also celebrated 25 years of marriage with his lovely wife. • Last year, Sarah Mills Sands celebrated 30 years of marriage to David. She has spent 25 years at nonprofit management work, currently as a small-museum executive director. Daughter Kathleen, alum of the Hill School, attends Washington and Lee University. Daughter Emily attends Westtown School and plays girls’ soccer in a top national league. She has been recruited to University of Pennsylvania beginning in 2016. • Dan Haslam manages the seasonal East Coast office of Walkabout International at Hyannis, Mass., with the rest of the year spent leading walking tours worldwide from headquarters in San Diego, Calif. • Peggy Stone writes, “My ‘temporary’ job as head of strategic planning at Queen Mary University of London has stretched into three years, but I’ve now said enough is enough as I want to go back to the lady of leisure status that is retirement. My husband Ted struggles with his memory and is no longer allowed to drive. But he’s rediscovered the buses, still does the Times crosswords, and chairs the board at our local community center.” • Frank Brewer suffered a heart attack in October 2014, and had a long recovery after two implanted stents.

“Things are going well now,” Frank said. “I’ve hired three more people to reduce my workload.” • Sandy Home Marshall left ordained ministry in the United Church of Christ in order to become a Catholic, along with her husband. She teaches piano and voice, dabbles in composition, and has enjoyed re-connecting with old NMH friends on Facebook. • Eric Van was the primary subject of a feature story in ESPN The Magazine’s 15th anniversary issue—search Google for “ESPN Insider Eric Van” to find the article and photos

From left: Judy Armbruster ’74, Nancy Elkington ’73, Holly Hoxeng ’72, Nancy Thomas ’73, and Claire Bamberg ’74 in Denver, Colo.

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Heather Blanchard Tower smtower@comcast.net • Bill Stewart billstewartnmh73@gmail.com From Heather Blanchard Tower—Sacred

Greg Burrill ’73, David Stein ’73, and Bill Stewart ’73

(and note the blanket on the bed!). Eric continues to work on his scholarly book, Mind as Matter: A Comprehensive Theory of Phenomenal Consciousness and Actual Free Will, and is planning its popularization, The Divine Universe, with the goal being to have something to show to literary agents. • In 2013, Colyn Case and wife Nancy visited their daughter, who is a reporter in Jerusalem.

Before they got the Holy Land tour, they got the political tour, including the gerrymandering “barrier wall,” West Bank, Ramallah, and the Syrian border. Colyn also received his certified flight instructor credentials. In 2014 he landed at Jeff Kessler’s home airport. • And from Tom Sisson: “Yours truly still enjoys skiing, hiking, and jeeps. Some things never change. This past six months I have been able to re-connect with four classmates that were on the ‘lost’ list. Sadly, you have read of Ann McCarte’s passing last year. She was an associate professor at Kentucky Community and Technical College. She made a difference in the lives of so many people there. Ann was the sister of Lizzie McCarte ’73. I am proud to announce that I have been recently elected to the NMH Alumni Council Awards Committee. The best part is I ‘have’ to go to every reunion. Let’s not be shy about sending class notes. Mark your calendars—June 2017 will be our 45th reunion.”

Mark Degarmo ’73 teaching dance class

Concert was particularly moving this year as the music was of wartime through the years, including music from the movie Selma. The students continue to amaze me with their ability to sing difficult music and evoke such feeling. The graduation message was one we can all relate to: check it out on the website! Reunion was lots of fun as well. Start planning now to return to our 45th in 2018! Just five years away from a lobster dinner. • Sandy Stanton Sloane posted on Facebook a Wall Street Journal article on cartoonist Robert Crumb, who created “Keep on truckin.’” Suddenly, I was 18 and it was 1973! • Mark Degarmo’s New York City children’s dance classes, productions, and opportunities have touched so many lives over the years. And he looks the same!

• From Bill Stewart—I have recently made contact with Justine Handelsman Noonan, who lives “next door” in Alameda, Calif. She is an amateur harpist and we share an interest in early music. She got together with Ted and Nancy Elkington on their recent West Coast road trip. In January, David Stein and I spent time with Greg Burrill in Portland, Ore., where he joined us for a belated Thanksgiving. • John “Milo” Miller has a very successful solar energy company in Vermont—All Earth Solar. Rob Howland shared a video of their efforts on our Facebook group. • From Nancy Elkington: “Traveling in retirement as often as possible and having one heck of a good time!

In March we had lovely visits with Marion and Scott Vokey in Seattle, and with Justine Handelsman Noonan in Alameda. In May we had a super dinner in Denver, Colo., with Judy Armbruster ’74, Claire Bamberg ’74, Holly Hoxeng ’72, and Nancy Thomas. And then two weeks later we had breakfast with Becky and Craig Ward ’72.” Nancy looks forward to seeing Holly and Claire in Ohio again, as well as Nancy Creasy Slack in travels through Michigan. • Tom Goelz and Jane Gould von Trapp hosted a February “Big Chill” party in Connecticut. • Greg Burrill is in his 10th year as a substitute teacher for Portland (Oregon) Public Schools, plays bass, is active in the

A ’73 mini-reunion, from left: James Voos, Tom Goelz, Edward Acker, John Lazarus, Hugh Moss, and Tom Schmidt

fall 2015 I 75

CLASS NOTES teachers union and local politics, and lives with roommates as a reluctant landlord. Greg says, “I have adopted a belief that allows me to put the majority of my energy working to ‘Create a World That Works for All Beings.’ Such a world would have no war, no unsustainable use of any of the planet’s resources, and little or no hunger, poverty, or hate.” • Wayne King has published a book of art photographs, Asquamchumaukee—Place of Mountain Waters.

You can see more of his work at wayne-king. artistwebsites.com.

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Stephanie Lynn Gerson stephanie.l.gerson@gmail.com Mike Price engineered a ’73, ’74, ’75

mini-reunion in Haiti with a backstory.

During the mid-1970s, Richard Morse ’75 was the big man on campus. His lanky 6-ft., 5-in. frame was topped off with an Afro the size of a VW Beetle. “If for some reason you didn’t see him, you’d hear him,” writes Mike.

Anticipated to join the NMH basketball roster, Richard preferred hanging out with Weston and Hillside dorm-mates, listening to music.

So it was no surprise when Mike read in NMH Magazine two years ago that Richard was living in Haiti managing the Hotel Oloffson and leading RAM, one of the Caribbean’s most well-known musical ensembles. Mike wrote to Richard (first communication in 40 years) updating him on life and inviting him to visit South Florida. He immediately responded, inviting Mike to come visit him in Haiti. • February marked the 60th birthday of Mike’s longtime buddy and renowned multi-talented musician Jon Zeeman ’73, and Mike couldn’t think of a better gift than to arrange for Jon to play with RAM at one of their weekly concerts in Port-Au-Prince. Mike’s Florida neighbor, Kerry Rosenthal, was also invited. Mike contacted Richard and arranged for them to spend four days together at his hotel. During the day Richard arranged their visits to Port-Au-Prince artists’ studios and historical sites, still plagued from earthquake devastation.

• They spent evenings on the Hotel Oloffson veranda drinking rum sours, reminiscing about the good old days (“Whatever happened to Nancy Reynolds ’75?” “Where is my old Hibbard roommate?”). Richard and wife

Andrew Taber ’74 and a Tibetan yak and camel trader

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whether to stay or go—30 years is mandatory Lunise have hosted everyone from Bill Clinton Coast Guard retirement. We traveled to to Jimmy Buffett at their hotel. The highlight beautiful Puerto Rico last November, playing of their trip was the Thursday-night RAM for the ESPN Armed Forces Classic Basketball concert, with Jon Zeeman ’73 as guest game, then stayed to perform more concerts guitarist. For those NMH alumni who have interest in returning to Haiti with them on Feb, around San Juan.” Jonathan’s son Russell (23) 1–8, 2016, write Mike at: michael@michaelpri- works close by, while daughter Erika (21) is a senior at Northeastern University, following cephotography.com. • Rhet Wilson writes, summer session abroad in Italy. His wife, “Summer life in Virginia’s mountains is blissful.

After 50 years of South Carolina’s hot stickiness, Becky, plays bassoon and contrabassoon, this is a wonderland of dark skies, cool, waterfalls, mostly with the Hartford and Eastern Connecticut symphonies. “I was promoted to and fireflies. My dog-boarding business is fun sole master chief musician of the Coast Guard and lucrative enough to let me get by. I’m into Buddhism, gardening, etymology, and politics.” Band—a real privilege and honor,” adds Jonathan. • Josephine Hart notes, “I attended • “Inspired by Susan Perkins Stark, I replaced Cooperstown with a summer jaunt to the NMH Dinner with a Purpose, Coral Savannah, Ga.,” reports Aileen “Cricket” Gables, in June. In attendance were Head of School Peter Fayroian, Chief Advancement Swenson Perry. “My best New York friend Officer Allyson Goodwin, Agnes and Keith and I had a movie-themed week, seeing sites from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Gray, and Penny Gillis Townsend ’75. All and ending with a horse-and-buggy ghost tour. participants talked about their NMH To Karen Johnson Brown: I want to see you experiences. I monitored an NMH human physiology class, also in June. The kids are cool, at our next reunion!” • Liz Johnson Cua engaged, and young. Here’s a shoutout to the continues full time at Harvard Vanguard members of ’72 and ’75 in South Florida.

Medical Associates while living in Wellesley.

Reminder for all to give to the NMH Fund...

Their younger child graduated from Villanova that’s the new name for the Annual Fund.” • and is working in finance in New Jersey; the older one leads her D.C. startup designing “It’s a small world,” writes Anne E. Lawrence millennial employee benefit platforms.

Sallee. “The charming Irish contractor who Segueing into slower work, Liz and her completed a renovation on our home husband find Boston MFA art classes ease the mentioned his client who owned a jewelry edge of modern life. Fortunate to travel a lot store. I don’t know what he said that triggered this year with the high point in Antarctica. it, but I asked if the client’s name was Keith Their new modes of socializing are small Gray. He looked stunned—‘Yes, how do you dinners and discussion book groups. • know him?’ [Had] a fun visit from Sue Margaret Honey continues to run the New Fenske McDonough, my excuse to play York Hall of Science (NYSCI) on the site of tourist and visit the hotspots. This summer we the former World’s Fair Grounds in New York. welcomed grandchild no. four, and wedded off NYSCI hosts the second-largest Maker Faire in child no. 5 (I did encourage her to just elope).” the world and is home to more than 450 New Work took Anne to D.C. for the National York Hall of Science exhibits, demonstrations, Hospitality Legislative Summit, a visit with workshops, and participatory activities that Dan Aykroyd on a Crystal Vodka sales blitz, engage visitors in science, technology, engineer- and restaurant visits with Emeril Lagasse’s ing, and math. In July 2014, she married Ron scouting team. She also raised funds to give Thorpe, president of the National Board for away 10 college scholarships, and is assisting Professional Teaching Standards in Arlington, hospitality businesses and working behind the Va. • Joseph D. McCarthy is happy to report scenes as liaison between public policy and private enterprise. • Jarene Moll Moore has that oldest daughter, Perry, is a college graduate: Williams College ’15. • Jonathan been in private practice one year in Camden, S.C., as a licensed professional counselor. She Towne writes, “Going on 27 years with the Coast Guard Band this summer until my career shares that her website, JareneMoore.com, is listed as Jarene Moore LPC LLC on Facebook, maxes out at 30. At least I don’t have to decide

Michael Price ’74, Richard Morse ’75, Kerry Rosenthal ’74, and Jon Zeeman ’73 at Richard’s Hotel Oloffson, Haiti

Wrestling head coach Hal McCann, former faculty member Lou Turner, and assistant wrestling coach H. Alfred Allenby

CLASS NOTES

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and is also on the Psychology Today and Good Northfield and Mount Hermon Therapy websites. • From Judy Armbruster: Veronica Froelich Adams “One ’72, two ’73s, and two ’74s were here in veronicafadams@gmail.com Denver in May. Claire Bamberg had a From Karen Perkins—Shelley Pevner conference here the same week and stayed at Zakim, Betsy Lord Danforth, Veronica our house—plus me, Holly Hoxeng ’72, Froelich Adams, Sarah Sherrill, Laura Nancy Thomas ’73, and Nancy Elkington ’73, Stookey-Johnson ’76, Stephen Johnson, following Nancy and Ted’s trek thru Colorado.

Hollis Graves, Laura Wright Brock, Sallie Wife Cindy just left for D.C., and I’m home Dillingham Bowling, Chris Blount Graves, with our last litter of pure-bred golden retriever Peter Crimmin, Stuart Patterson, Randy pups.” • “I became National Director of Showstack, Deborah Rosenberg, Jamison Coaching for the Center for Progressive Pond Renning, Karen Perkins, Jamie Renewal,” pens Claire Bamberg, “and am still Robinson, Will Runyon, Tim Horrigan, Eric serving the church full time, and managing Forish, Whit Inzer, Gary Thurston, Canprivate therapy practice. Husband Bob dace Collins Wight, and Tempe Reichardt recovered from August surgery, completed PE, attended our 40th reunion. The food at West and adjusts to partial left arm activity with Hall, now called Alumni Hall, was much spirit and good humor.” • John Burnham and better than most of us remembered it, though Rachel see Kate Barber and Ed Pitoniak someone said that NMH saved the good stuff occasionally. • Andrew Taber has been busy for alumni. • Ilene Feldman Steele and with the Mountain Institute (Washington, Nancy Perry Wicks were unable to attend the D.C.), leading programs in the Himalayas, reunion, but got together in Charleston, S.C., Andes, and Appalachia. The institute is one of where Nancy lives. • Peter Marcalus wrote, the few environmental nonprofits focused on “Both my daughters were married in 2013 mountain conservation and development. and fortunately they live close by. One of my Andrew’s oldest daughter, Elisa, focuses on daughters gave birth to a wonderful baby girl translation and poetry, and writes reviews and last year. Little Catherine (I call her Kit) is a blog posts for literary websites. His second real charmer. I’ve been managing some familydaughter completed her second year at the owned commercial real estate. Until it is all Rhode Island School of Design. And Victoria rented, I’ve turned some of the property’s office (the youngest) studied wilderness medicine at space into an art studio, where after working the National Outdoor Leadership School. • hours I’ve been making sculpture.” Last winter, During reunion weekend, Peter Allenby and Peter had lunch with Rob Brougham, who his sister, Debbie Allenby Albert ’78, had the was in New York City for a business trip. “It honor of accompanying their father, H. Alfred was great to catch up and also chat about Allenby (former NMH Bible studies teacher, mutual NMH friends,” said Peter, “I was sorry college counselor, and assistant varsity to miss seeing old friends at the 40th reunion.” wrestling coach), to a luncheon ceremony • Leslie Ferrin is founder/director of Ferrin ushering all members and coaches of the Contemporary, located in North Adams, Mass., undefeated football, cross-country, and on the MASS MoCA campus. Her long career wrestling teams into the NMH Sports Hall of as a specialist in ceramics began in the pottery Fame. At the luncheon, the late Vit Piscuskas’ studio at Moody Cottage in the 1970s. She family honored his role as head football coach, started Pinch Pottery in Northampton while led by his wife, Barbara, daughters Martha still a student at Hampshire College. The Piscuskas ’78 and Kathy Piscuskas ’79, North Adams location is the sixth venue. Leslie and eldest son, David Piscuskas ’75. Assistant is occasionally invited to speak at schools, visit coach Duane Estes and son Chris attended, as museums, and make studio visits to artists afdid head wrestling coach Hal McCann and filiated with the gallery program. • Lucie Lisle wife Becky. • Join our Facebook page by Austin wrote, “I teach French at Montgomery emailing johnsburnham@gmail.com. NMH Blair High School in Silver Spring, Md., where has faulty addresses for 275 of our class of 456 I have lived since 1996 with my husband, Ken. alumni. Please update your info at: addressupOur son Ben (24) completed his first year of dates@nmhschool.org. a Ph.D. program in philosophy of religion at

Ilene Feldman Steele ’75 (left) and Nancy Perry Wicks ’75

Boston University. I still love to travel, and we plan to visit Budapest, Vienna, and Prague this summer.” • Whit Inzer wrote, “Sandy and I continue living and working here in New Hampshire. In May, we journeyed to Spain and recommend it highly. Hello to all the ’75ers out there.” • Tim Horrigan has been a New Hampshire state representative since 2008. This year, he was one of the co-sponsors of a bill, inspired by the fourth graders at a local elementary school, which would have designated the red-tailed hawk as the state bird of prey. When the legislature is out of session during the last six months of the calendar year, Timothy does writing and computer consulting.” • I have served as the scribe of ’75 for the past 10 years. It has been an illuminating and meaningful experience, but I am now stepping down. Veronica Froelich Adams has accepted the position going forward.

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Susan Loring-Wells susanloring@me.com • Joe Mcveigh joe@joemcveigh.org From Susan Loring-Wells—I look forward to

seeing old friends and making new acquaintances at our 40th (gulp!) reunion. I continue to live in Shutesbury, Mass. After 33 years of marriage, my husband and I have been spending more time in Marin County, Calif., where he grew up and two of our children are living. Our youngest daughter, Kayla, is a senior at Santa Clara University. Our eldest daughter, Julia (28), just moved to the Bay Area, and our middle daughter, Hannah (26), began an M.B.A. in sustainable business at Presidio College in San Francisco. • I continue to maintain a weaving studio at the Leverett Crafts Center in Massachusetts, and have been a working member of the Sawmill River Arts Gallery cooperative in Montague, where I sell my hand-woven work. I’ve just finished my second term as a board member at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment in Amherst, which is building New England’s first public environmental education center to meet the Living Building Challenge at Hampshire College. • This winter, my husband and I spent six wonderful weeks sailing from Isla Mujeres, Mexico, to Belize with Jennifer Nash Morgan-Johnson and her husband. We spend

Members of the Class of ’75 at their 40th reunion

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CLASS NOTES time on the North Shore of Boston, where I grew up, and I would like to have a mini-prereunion gathering by the sea soon. Email me if you are interested in attending or helping. • Jennifer Hankin Bourdain heads the U.S. supervisory analyst team for international investment bank, Nomura Securities, in New York. She and husband Chris recently celebrated 28 years of marriage. Her daughter was in Japan during the Tohoku Earthquake in 2011, and her father and brother both died that same year. • Ann Hinds lives in Brookline, Mass. She has a significant partner in her life, Emily, and travels a lot to Provincetown, the Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence Seaway, and New York City, where her daughter, Rachel (30), lives. Ann runs the Catherine Hinds Companies. “I love my work and the people I work with, mostly women. My philanthropic work is spent on Fenway Institute for Health here in Boston and supporting women in their entrepreneurial pursuits.” Ann adds, “I look back on my time at NMH with joy. It was the most positive educational experience of my life. I plan on attending [reunion] with Lisa Price. Jon Rubin must be out there somewhere!” • Charlotte Bacon Holton lives in White Plains, N.Y., with her husband Steve, four chickens, and two sons. She is the owner of Curtain Call Custom Sewing, a drapery workroom, is active in teaching Scottish dancing, and sings with the Charis Chamber Voices in the Katonah/ Bedford, N.Y., area. • Nina Kruschwitz lives in Ipswich, Mass., and works with MIT Sloan Management Review as a digital editor and senior project manager. The rest of her time is filled with dance, reading, friends and family, and spending as much time outdoors as possible. • After a 20-year career as a military nurse, and later as a civilian advanced-practice nurse, Jennifer Nash Morgan-Johnson and husband, Royce, switched gears to a sailing lifestyle, living full time on their sailboat, except for occasional visits back to the States.

In the past few years they sailed in the Bahamas and Florida. “This past year we sailed to Guatemala via Mexico and Belize. Future travel plans include Roatán and the San Blas Islands of Panama. Susan Loring-Wells and Marty have joined us and they are great crew.

Hoping to attend the 40th reunion next year.”

• Debbie Rooney Mayer lives in Newburyport, Mass., with her beautiful 14-year-old twins. Thirteen years ago she adopted the twins from Russia and says, “They have been the light of my life.” She has been running her own advertising business for 30 years, deHaas Advertising & Design. • Darcy Schramn’s son is entering junior year at Elon University in North Carolina. She is expanding her court-reporting business with a new office in Plymouth, Mass., and would love to do business with alum litigators in Massachusetts.

• From Joe McVeigh—I live in Middlebury, Vt., with my wife, Leila, and son Nat (11). Nat is a sixth grader, Leila works as a school

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mental-health clinician, and I work in the field of English as a second language. A couple of textbooks I’ve co-authored are just out in a second edition. I travel a lot for work, including trips last year to Turkey and Spain, doing teacher-training work for the U.S. State Department. In the fall of 2014, I played the role of Mr. Bumble in a community theater production of Oliver! Leila and I both enjoy music, and a singing visit to New Hampshire last June took us to see Becky and Will Torrey.

Meanwhile, Laura Stookey Johnson and I, along with Laura’s husband, Steve Johnson ’75, were back on campus last June planning for our 40th reunion. Don’t miss it! • Dongsok Shin and wife Gwen were thrilled to be featured performers at the Flint harpsichord collection in Delaware, where they performed on original instruments from the 17th and 18th centuries. Dongsok also assisted Gwen in recording a new European organ CD. He occasionally gets together with Charlotte Bacon Holton. The two attended the parody Forbidden Broadway, whose music is directed fabulously by David Caldwell ’75. Dongsok is hoping to attend our 40th reunion in June! • After 30 years in Southern California, Nina Tufts Seidman and her husband moved to Hawthorne, N.J.. She is in touch with Chris Matthews ’74, Debbie Hayes Boyce ’75, Grace Mauzy ’77, and Lisa Clarke’77. Lisa and Nina would like to explore the possibility of multi-class reunions, as the single-year designation always excludes lots of the friends we had who graduated a year ahead or behind us. • Donna Lazerwitz Roggenthien and husband Ron moved from Boca Raton, Fla., to Portland, Maine. Their beautifully renovated home was featured in Maine Home + Design magazine. Donna works as a landscape designer and makes custom jewelry. See her work at dyettadesignstudio.com. • Tom Schiller and wife Janet are empty nesters in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. Daughter Laura (21) finished her third year of a doctoral program in physical therapy at Ithaca College.

Son Cyrus (18) is a freshman at St. John’s College. • Adam Saffer is CEO of Gateway Development International. He writes, “I am here [Kabul, Afghanistan] trying to grow, expand, and diversify the indigenous construction materials manufacturing sector.

Afghanistan has tremendous resources, but not exactly a conducive environment for business.

Other than that, the situation here is fascinating...in a Full Metal Jacket kind of way.”

• Marcy Robinson Dembs can’t believe she’s been practicing law for 30 years. She is a partner in Damon Barclay, specializing in estate planning, administration, and trusts.

She’s been married to husband Chris for 34 years! Marcy says, “We built a new home three years ago just outside Syracuse on seven acres, surrounded by another 40 acres of farmland.

It’s an architecturally accurate Greek revival farmhouse and looks and feels like it has been here for 100 years, except for the solar panels.”

They also have a cottage on the St. Lawrence River in Canada. • Elaine Monchak is an architect specializing in residential work in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. Her older son, Gus, is a sophomore at Cornell. Her younger son, Isaac, is a sophomore at NMH, which gives Elaine an excuse to visit the campus often.

Elaine writes, “I am still in awe of the beauty of the campus each time I visit throughout the seasons, and am very impressed with the performing arts program. I am in contact with Anne Wenniger, Nadine Moll, Lisa Morgan, and Maureen Miller.” At their mini-reunions, Mary Thoms Madden and Beth Thoms Twombly ’75 join in the celebration, which is filled with “laughter, good food, and lots of reminiscing about NMH escapades.” • Mary Robinson Mailand writes, “I became a speech/ language pathologist and love it! I have worked in the public school in Meredith, N.H., grades 3–6, for more than 20 years.” • Chris Kraus stepped down as chair of the classics department at Yale in 2012. Apparently bored without sufficient administrative duties, she immediately signed on as acting chair of the Near Eastern languages and civilizations department. • Phil Mead never knew Carolyn Fox ’75 while we were in school. The two met at a tae kwon do class in Washington, D.C., in 1986 and married in 1989. They live outside Philadelphia, where Phil is an emergency physician. Carolyn recently retired from her job as an investment attorney. Phil got together in upstate New York for a long weekend with Steve Smith that included many fond reminiscences of NMH! • Mary Worthington is busy in the Boston area with her business that provides home care for seniors. Mary has recently been in touch with Phebe Gregson, Steve Hibbard, Cathy Campione, and Valerie Malter. • Chuck Funderburk is an orthopedic surgeon in Oklahoma. His wife of 30 years, Beverly, is a child psychologist at the Oklahoma University medical complex. • Terry Green had a great time at his Bowdoin reunion with Lisa Morgan and Kaye Tiedemann. Kaye lives in Connecticut with her daughter, Mattie. Lisa lives in Maine, where she works as a designer. Terry lives in D.C., where he consults for low-income housing developers. His daughter, Lucy, just graduated from Bowdoin, so they’ll be in the same reunion cycle—but 35 years apart! • John Puopolo graduated from University of New Hampshire in 1981. He retired in April 2015, following a 35-year career with Verizon, where he was director of infrastructure construction for New England. John is divorced. His daughter, Danielle, is a junior at Providence College studying finance and business management. (“Go Friars!” says John.)

In retirement, he will be splitting his time between Boston and Naples, Fla. • Leigh Pardee-Haller graduated from Mills College in Oakland, Calif., and received a graduate degree from San Francisco State University.

She has spent most of her career working in

CLASS NOTES high tech, developing corporate learning programs while living on the central coast of California. She has a wonderful son, adopted at birth. Leigh would love to get back in touch with Will Cosby, and she plans to be at reunion in June. • Randall Goya lives with an apricot mini-poodle and four cats in West New York, N.J. He works as an independent web application architect/developer. He explains, “I build logical machines with code to achieve business goals.” He became a widower last year when Arlene Pack, his wife of 25 years, died.

Randall was further saddened to hear of the death of our classmate, Steve Piscuskas, in 2013. Steve and Randall had been roommates when they were students at Brown University.

• Remember, it is easier to stay in touch if we have your current contact information. Please make sure the school has an up-to-date email address for you by emailing addressupdates@ nmhschool.org; opt to make your information shareable on the NMH online community and on the NMH Connect mobile app; and join the NMH Class of 1976 Facebook page. We’d love to help you connect with old friends—just send us an email, and if we’ve got their contact info, we’ll be glad to pass it along. We hope to see you back on campus from June 2–5, 2016!

Put it on your calendar now, call your old friends, and plan to be there!

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Anne Howson ahowson@rics.bwh.harvard.edu Lori Glenn Christopher had some sad news regarding classmate Jean “Barb” Pendleton Madden, who died of cancer on 1/12/15 in

Charleston, S.C.: “Her illness began with a rare cardiac sarcoma, and she fought the illness with tremendous grace and dignity. I had the privilege of spending some time over the past years with this amazing, generous, and kindhearted woman. I am forever grateful to have been her friend. I will miss her very much.”

Many classmates expressed condolences on our class Facebook page (NMH Class of 1977)— please join our Facebook group to see these moving tributes and remembrances of Barb. • John Greenup graduated from law school in May 2014, and passed the Massachusetts bar exam: “I’m doing a bit of real estate, wills, trust, and estates, or as I like to call it: happy law.

On the side, I’ve been playing with designing passive or net-zero-energy houses.” • Christine Simpson had a tough spring: “My husband and I handled home hospice for his mom, dying of cancer. We promised we wouldn’t put her in a facility and were able to live up to that.

I am very proud of my godson, who graduated high school in Aspen and is going on to University of Colorado. In spring, I missed a chance to see Betsey Brewer due to our situation, but am so glad we have re-connected.” • After 25 years of twirling pasta, Billy Elliott has finally retired from the Olive Garden, and has taken a job feeding 500 middle-school kids breakfast every day! Billy finally got in touch with Sean Rattigan “Sean is living a fulfilling

life in Connecticut and hasn’t lost a bit of that sharp wit he was so famous for!” Billy has two beautiful guest rooms in downtown Clearwater, Fla., so if you are ever in need of a place to put your suitcase while you are in the area, don’t hesitate to give him a call. • David Allen recently saw the Rolling Stones in Minneapolis, and “thought of our classmate Mark O’Sullivan, with whom I first saw them in 1978. I looked for Bob Krey at the show— he gave me a silk-screened Stones shirt as we parted NMH graduation week—but didn’t see him. Currently, I’m fishing for a lit agent for a book about boarding school (where’d that come from?) and still teach at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan.”

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Carrie Niederman thedoc@txequinedentist.com • Cathy Abraham Hopkins cathy.hopkins@gmail.com From Cathy Abraham Hopkins and Carrie Niederman—John Willoughby’s twin

daughters graduated from George Washington University. One is heading off to University of Miami Law School after wrapping up her college gymnastics career at the NCAA Division 1 Championships, and the other is joining the working world as a biomedical engineer. John’s son graduated from high school and will be heading to Worcester Polytech (John’s alma mater) in the fall to double major in robotics and computer science. That apple did not fall far from the tree! • Dan Genis and John ventured into the movie world this spring and competed in the Boston 48-Hour Film Project with their entry, See You in Tahiti. • Our revered archivist, Peter Weis, is finally taking a sort-of sabbatical after 16 years. He will be working part time in the NMH archives for the next academic year while continuing to coach the debate team and advise The Hermonite newspaper. He’ll also be working on a cycle of poems about the “deep history of NMH, which I’ve been fooling around with for the past quarter century or so.” • Mark McCormick, John Canavari, Tom French, and Kyle Warendorf got together for a long-discussed lunch in Atlantic Highlands, N.J. Mark had brunch with John in New York

Chris Crowder ’78 and Sally Willis ’82 catch up on the slopes of Vail in April 2015.

City a few years ago but had not seen Kyle, his “North Crossley roommate since a Bob Marley & the Wailers show at Colgate University on Halloween night, 1979, and Frenchie since NMH graduation.” John is living on the Upper West Side in New York, Tom is in the Jersey Shore town of Rumson, and Kyle is living in the Long Island village of Great Neck. “Lots of great stories were told,” said Mark. • Aloha from Paul Montague! “Starting in July, we will begin our migration to the Big Island of Hawaii. We have a purchase and sales agreement for our cabin in the woods of Maine and have weeded much of our stuff. Having sold the wood splitter and snow blower, we have reached the point of no return. I will move in early July to prepare the new house in Ocean View,” said Paul. “Edna Montague [wife] and my mom, Claire Underwood, will follow in September after Edna finishes up her commitment to University of Maine, Farmington.” Paul and Edna, you are living the dream! • Beth Graden Rom writes, “Pittsburgh is having a renaissance of sorts, and I got to be the local tour guide at the end of March with Lisa Glovsky-Zeien and Ellen SennottMcGillivray. Last spring this foursome met on the Cape. I was pleased Lisa and Ellen agreed to get on a Jet Blue flight (no, Dan Genis wasn’t the pilot) so that we could get together in Pittsburgh. We drove around the city, went to the Andy Warhol Museum, visited the lovely Phipps Conservatory, and ate an excellent dinner on Mt. Washington overlooking the city.

As usual, we laughed, chatted about our challenges and our joys, and laughed more. If you happen to visit Pittsburgh, let me know and I can tour you around,” says Beth. • On a very sad note, Carrie Niederman and I heard from Joe McVeigh that he had spoken with Tom Olsen ’80 and learned that Joann Parzych Olsen had died on 5/19/15 after a lengthy illness. Tom wrote that after NMH, Joann spent one year at University of Maine-Presque Isle before transferring to Lyndon State University in Vermont, where she graduated. Tom and Joanne were married in 1983 and lived briefly in Massachusetts, then Virginia, before moving to Pennsylvania, where they spent the last 25 years in Dover. Joann worked as a special education teacher before becoming a full-time

Front left: John Canavari ’78, front right: Mark McCormick ’78, back left: Tom French ’78, back right: Kyle Warendorf ’78

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CLASS NOTES mom, and continued to offer support and help, especially to those on the autism spectrum.

She is survived by two sons, Matthew (29) and Nicolas (27). • And from me (Cathy Abraham Hopkins), I continue to enjoy travel and running, having completed my fifth Comrades Marathon, a 56-mile ultra in South Africa, capped off by peaceful time in the bush and mountains. I plan to keep doing this race until 2025, when I turn 65, body willing. I am forever grateful for my time at NMH and for the opportunity to be a class secretary. As John Willoughby so aptly put it, “It’s great to reconnect with old friends and roommates, and even to hear from people I wasn’t that close to at NMH, but with whom I still share a common background.” I feel the same way!

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Paige Relyea Lehman Paigerelyea@Yahoo.com • Cary Liebowitz Bonosevich Bonosevich@Hotmail.com From Cary Liebowitz Bonosevich and Paige Relyea Lehman—Our talented classmate Craig Lemont Walters wrote us from Berlin.

“The summer theater season has hit Europe, and I am happy to have been asked to participate in the Choriner Opernsommer Festival.

I’ll be singing the Hermit in Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Der Freischütz. Later this summer, I’ll be singing Sarastro in a production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute with the Prague Chamber Opera.” • Terran Longacre (formerly Tracy Longacre) writes, “Since January, I have been living and working in Liberia on a project with Medical Teams International.

Now that Liberia has been declared Ebola-free, we are turning our attention to supporting and building the capacity of the county health team to provide essential health services and to have an effective response capacity in the event of another outbreak. A few months before moving to Liberia, I came to the rather epic realization that, despite my physical appearance, I am actually a man (transgender). I started the process of transitioning, came out to my family and friends, and changed my name to Terran Longacre. However, I didn’t have enough time to change my legal documentation or complete the transition process, so here I am living as a woman called Tracy. But in some ways it’s helpful to have no choice but to be patient.”

• Tania Williamson writes, “After finishing Oberlin, I took a year back in Massachusetts and returned to Ohio to teach at Hiram College for two years. I then earned my master’s at Kent State. I returned to Massachusetts for four years in the Army, doing research at Natick Labs, and during that time met my now ex-husband, Michael. We moved to Monterey, Calif., and then to Colorado Springs. I’d like to say I enjoy living here because it is so beautiful and its dry climate is ideal, but it can be somewhat conservative for a moderate like me.

I went back to school in 2008 to try to gain entrance to occupational therapy school. My mom died on 5/7/15, and my brothers Chris

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’78 and Kevin Williamson ’82 headed home to Massachusetts for her memorial service. I still can’t believe she’s gone.” • Mike Rosenberg teaches strategy, globalization, and sustainability at IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain.

Mike adds, “I cut my hair in 1982.” • Estelle Dorain Burgess and husband Ray continue working to please all their vacation-home owners. “Fortunately, we have each other and will be celebrating our 33rd anniversary this summer,” says Estelle. “Our girls, Lindsey ’03 and Callie Burgess ’04, continue to wow us with their work ethic and love for life. NMH has always been a special place and continues to mold young lives in a most profound way.

Please remember to give what you can to the school to help other deserving children have the opportunity to write in this magazine in the future!” • William Heidbreder writes, “I moved back to New York City from Paris, where I got a second degree in philosophy two years ago, and am as always working at my scholarly editing business, Academic English Editing, as well as translating and writing about film and art, contemporary European philosophy and theory. My pending blogsite is refusalofsilence.com.” • Cary Liebowitz Bonosevich and husband Len are actively house hunting in Ft. Worth, Texas. • “In March I saw Jon Cline again,” writes Andrew Bourne, “this time in Washington, D.C. for brunch.

Then in May I saw my cousin, Terry Green ’76, with other family in Castine, Maine. Castine is where Terry’s maternal grandmother and my maternal grandmother grew up.” • Wondering what classmates are up to? Nearly 200 classmates have joined our Facebook page at “Northfield Mount Hermon Class of 1979.”

Check it out!

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Jack Farrell jack@jackfarrell.org • Antony Pang aa1105@yahoo.com • Lynelle Kucharski lynelle@lynellekucharski.com • Kristin Kellom kkellom@nmhschool.org From Kristin Kellom—We had a great

35th reunion! We missed all those of you who weren’t able to make it. We hope you can join us for the 40th or for any of the mini-reunions that we are planning to have around the country. Please get re-connected or involved in any way that you can. If you would like to volunteer for the class, let us know. Chris Lindstrom Schaeffer posted gorgeous photos and messages from others on our class Facebook page. • Cool nights, warm days, and the campus looked spectacular.

Some rode on the new Pie Ride, some chose an early-morning row, some sang at the Hymn Sing, some danced. Saturday-night’s class dinner was festively decorated with class photo collage table runners that Susie Waterman made. We had a fabulous time hanging out in our gorgeously decorated Crossley Lounge.

Kudos to Amelia Maloney for winning the new dorm-decorating contest for the class by providing fun memorabilia, lights, food, and creating a warm, welcoming environment.

She, Kristin Kellom, and Susie Waterman provided fresh flowers to add to the ambience. Anne Shepard created a play list with a terrific variety of the sounds of the 1970s! We learned in alumni classrooms, including “Your Financial Roadmap,” presented by Stephanie Ackler; checked out the farm; and visited the Northfield campus. We heard updates on the school from administrators and students. We celebrated alumni receiving awards, retiring faculty, and sang “Jerusalem.” Jeff Goller created a touching memorial for our deceased classmates, and we took a moment to light a candle for each of the 14 and read their senior yearbook quotes, some of which were quite emotionally prophetic. • Those who were able to make it back to campus were: Stephanie Ackler, Jay Barry, Janet Weed Breen, Maryann Buehler Postans, Paul Caliandro, Josh Duhl, Mitzi Fennel, Stephanie Fernald, Peter Garland, Bob Gibson, Karyn Ginsburg, Jeff Gollar, Cuppy Howe Gordon, Linda Harmening Sinkay, Arman Karamian, David Keating, Kristin Kellom, Lynelle Kucharski, Karen Lange, Jeff Leyden, Amelia Maloney, Dan Martin, Doug McIntosh, Jack Melanson, Abby Millager, Neal Monagle, Laura Oot-Sheridan, Chris Lindstrom Schaeffer, Lydia Perry Schodel, Phil Schoenfeld, Anne Shepard, Tracey Wagner, and Susie Waterman. Jane Cunningham and Jim Mulholland could not make it at the last minute. We offer condolences to Jim, whose father died shortly after reunion weekend. Tracy Korman ’81, observer for his own upcoming 35th, participated in our activities. Many classmates could not join us but contacted us: Sarah Browning, Cab Dempsey, Viva Hardigg, Jonathan “Fletcher” Carr, Cathy Clark, Cynthia Berglund Smith, Barb Gorin, Antony Pang, Henry Wooster, Elisabeth Carter, Andrea Farrington, Baman Rusby, Reza Salehi, Melani Calitri Holden, Katayoun Amini, Chris Kycia, Phil Perham, and Marnita Orr. • A number of faculty were there, too, including Dick and Louise Schwingel, Betty Congdon, Dick and Lyn Kellom, Jim and Penny Block, Jay Ward, and Al DeMaria. Dick Peller and Hughes Pack were around even as they were packing for retirement.

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Frank Chandler frankchandler1@verizon.net • Marina Colman marinacolman727@yahoo.com • Lilian Blacken Hannapel lilhannapel@gmail.com • Class of ’81 Website: www.nmh81.us

CLASS NOTES niversary in the spring. Jeff participated in the 2015 East Coast Hang Gliding Championship this year. He writes, “This was my first competition and I flew in the Sport Class. Results (airtribune.com/ecc2015) include replays of the tasks in 2-D and 3-D Google Earth. I had great fun and learned a lot.”

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Please Send News To: nmhnotes@nmhschool.org Ingrid Halonen writes, “I quit carpentry after

of NMH ’82 got together in Denver this past May while Toby Green was in town.

Tim Severance, Amy Price Lutz, Sarah Meyer Stevens, Mary Peck Castle, and I had a great evening in Denver catching up and making future plans to attend Reunion 2017. In February 2015, Jeff Kellom and Tod Dimmick met up at Mount Sunapee in New Hampshire. The meeting was by chance, which made it all the more fun. Jeff’s dad, retired NMH teacher Dick Kellom, was also there, enabling a mini-reunion amidst an epic winter.

• Barbara Salthouse Massoudi married Gregory Carageorge on 1/18/15 in Atlanta.

They met while both were playing in a Russian folk music group, the Atlanta Balalaika Society.

Congratulations on your marriage! • Marion “Mickey” Gill is senior project manager for the Smithsonian African American Museum, and hanging in there for the next year until the museum opens. • Jennie Anderson moved to North Philadelphia, where she has been working at St. James School, helping and hoping to transform the lives of students. • Andy Hewitt and teammate Sean competed in the Utö Swim/Run on the Island of Utö in the Swedish archipelago (Baltic Sea), in May, taking second place in the qualifying event (utoswimrun. se/live). • Reunion 2017 is just around the corner, so please take a moment to update

married in San Francisco on 2/14/15 with more than 20 NMHers and their families in attendance. I’m sure those of us attending totally surprised the rest of the guests in the packed church when we all belted out “Jerusalem” at the top of our lungs as it came up on the program during the ceremony. It was a lovely wedding and they have now moved to South Salem, N.Y. • Lulu Lason Cannon is teaching spinning, total body conditioning, and boot camp classes, as well as doing freelance marketing and public relations for various clients in Michigan. Her daughter, Mackenzie, graduated from high school in May and will be attending Miami University in Ohio. Lulu’s son, Alex, made the Compuware AAA U15 hockey team in Detroit, so Lulu is “driving 264 miles round trip to and from practice with him. Better hockey in Detroit than where we live. Never a dull moment!” • Janice Russell spent three weeks in Africa. She was on safari in Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. She also spent time in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa.

• Jeff Curtis and his wife, Heather Foster Curtis ’86, celebrated their 22nd wedding an-

27 years. It was a difficult decision to make since I loved it so much, but since 2008 I was getting laid off on a regular basis. I wracked my brain for years over what possible ‘Act II’ careers I might pursue and the only thing I could really feel comfortable with was project sales in a lumber yard. I applied and got a job in exactly what I wanted to try. A job I took just to stay busy and have some income from helped me land the job I have now. It was at a miniature truck stop on Route 9 here in Maine, halfway between Bangor and Calais. I cooked, waited tables, washed dishes, stocked shelves, waited on convenience store customers, cleaned toilets, made motel reservations, tagged bears for Maine Fish and Game, and much more. That $6/hour plus tips job two years ago helped me out. It showed that I had enough drive to work no matter what.

My best friend’s 18-year-old daughter quit a job that was better than mine because ‘it was too much work for the money.’ She didn’t even give notice. I wish those girls knew how valuable all experience is and the value of never burning bridges.” • I had a wonderful visit with Phoebe Cameron in California this winter. Dinner with Chris Nagle on the Cape this spring has become an annual event, with some alumni from the class of ’56. Dave Cain and Laura Vantine were on campus at reunion for the first annual NMH Pie Ride.

Dave designed the awesome logo for the event as well! Mary Batty and I caught up at an NMH gathering in Lincoln, Mass., this summer. It was great to see Thekla Smith Alcocer and Siobhan McCready Bunaes on campus in June for Dick Peller’s retirement farewell. • It has been fun to be the class secretary for the last couple of years! This is my last column and I hope others will be willing to take on

Lulu Lason Cannon ’83 (2nd from right) and family at her daughter Mackenzie’s graduation in May

Bill Rowe ’83 (left) and Paul Rowe Tollefson at their wedding in San Francisco

Jeff Curtis ’83 in the 2015 East Coast Hang Gliding Championship

From left: Jeff Kellom ’82 and Tod Dimmick ’82

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Sally Willis willissally@hotmail.com • Michael Rickard mrickard330@cox.net From Sally Willis—The Colorado contingent

The ’82 Colorado contingent, from left: Amy Price Lutz, Sally Willis, Toby Green, Mary Peck Castle, Sarah Meyer Stevens, and Tim Severance

your information (email, phone number, mail address) with NMH so that you don’t miss out on receiving reunion information. Also, check us out on Facebook: NMH Class of ’82.

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Allyson Goodwin agoodwin@nmhschool.org • Angela Lambert drangela@mac.com Bill Rowe and Paul Rowe Tollefson were

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CLASS NOTES

A CLOSER LOOK

this role for our class. Please send an email to me or to alumni@nmhschool.org if you would like to volunteer. –Marggie Slichter

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Jennifer Buell Horschman jenhorschman@yahoo.com

Northfield and Mount Hermon Geoffrey Locke gwlocke@gmail.com From Geoffrey Locke—Our 30th reunion is June 2–5, 2016. Chuck Abel and Wendy Mansfield Donovan are now reunion cochairs. Jim Rymes and Schuyler “Skip” Bush

Small World on a Big Mountain Laurie Shaver Watt ’83 Bobby Fisher ’85 It’s not every day that you climb the highest mountain peak in North America. It’s even less probable to be on that mountain, joined by rope, in 60-mile-per-hour winds, to someone from your high school years.

Yet Laurie Shaver Watt ’83 and Bobby Fisher ’85 experienced the unlikely “fancy meeting you here” on a 21-day climb on Alaska’s Denali Mountain this year.

Laurie and Bob’s NMH “click” came 10 days into their expedition. “It’s amazing, since we were roped together, living in small tents, eating every meal together,” says Laurie. Over a meal in the camp’s kitchen tent, the two intermediate mountaineers struck up a conversation about favorite foods they missed during the trip—maple syrup being one of them. Bob mentioned sugaring on his Vermont farm; Laurie mentioned that her high school had a farm that made maple syrup, too. Bob’s question, “What high school?” prompted the NMH reveal.

have signed on as well, and they attended the 2015 reunion as “reunion observers” to begin preparation and ideas. Highlights for them were running the Meg Peller Memorial Run (just Skip), visiting Dan Carson, ice cream at the Northfield Creamie, catching up with Vicky Curtis Jenkins at the boathouse, and going to a concert and dance outside of Blake Hall. We plan to have a large turnout, and especially hope that people who have never been to one of our reunions come back. Look for more information and registration materials soon, and sign up for a super-fun, nostalgic time! Contact any of us with questions or if you want to be involved. • It is with sadness that I report the unexpected death of Thomas Louderback on 5/11/15. After NMH, Tom graduated from Middlebury. He then received a law degree from American and worked for many years as a corporate attorney for Procter & Gamble, specializing in sports-figure endorsement contracts. We will remember Tom at reunion to honor him and his love for NMH. • Bruce Mendelsohn attended his 25th reunion at Vassar and looks forward to our 30th. He is now executive director of the New England Region of the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces (FIDF). FIDF is a nonprofit organization that promotes the nonpolitical, nonmilitary mission of providing educational, social, cultural, and recreational programs and facilities for the well-being of Israel’s soldiers and their families. Bruce continues to collaborate with Gillian Williams while on the board of trustees for the Rensselaerville Institute. Bruce and Gillian have connected with Christina St. Laurent, and Bruce stays

in contact with a variety of NMH alums on Facebook and the “old-fashioned telephone.”

• Alison Marble Reddy is the director of the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) Math Placement Program and finds the work rewarding. The job’s flexibility also leaves time to spend with her three children. Alison enjoys running 5k road races and spending summer vacations in Colorado. • Craig Zodikoff works as managing principal for Cresa, a San Francisco‒based global commercial real-estate firm. He and his partner just finished a renovation of their Palm Springs weekend home. • Nilda Lopez visited with Mary D. Davis this past winter—“a great afternoon of memories and connecting again in our present lives.”

This past March, Nilda also had lunch with Xandra Castleton in San Francisco. Xandra lives in Berkeley with her husband, David, and their 8-year-old daughter, Jasmin. Her latest film, Stand Up Planet, came out last year, and she teaches screenwriting part time at Stanford.

Li Lin Hilliard Hally continues with life in Portland, Ore., and is settling into a part-time private psychotherapy practice after many years of challenging work for the Oregon State Department of Children and Families.

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Kit Gattis kitnmh@gmail.com www.facebook.com/nmh1987 website: nmh1987.org From Kit Gattis—Our 30th is in only two

years! So start talking to your classmates, reconnect, and get excited! • I had a wonderful time performing at the Alumni Dance Weekend last January, and discovered that my donations to NMH pay for toe shoes! They also unveiled the Gretel Schatz Endowed Fund for Dance, honoring our wonderful dance director. Every dollar we give to the fund is matched by donors, up to $35,000. In April I started flying trapeze with TSNY Boston.

I’ve now been studying the circus arts for two years. • Matt Albee lives on Bainbridge Island, Wash., with his wife, Sarah, and two boys, and is running Eleven Winery. Matt enjoyed a random visit from Ken Robinson (from Chicago), and encourages anyone visiting the Seattle area to pop over to Bainbridge on the ferry to say hi. • Kara Connors lives in Marin

“Amy Fisher!” exclaimed Laurie — her NMH friend Amy Fisher Fazekas ’83 is Bobby’s sister — as their list of mutual NMH acquaintances grew. “It’s amazing how many people we collectively knew,” Bobby says.

Bobby allows that he and Laurie were slightly less agile and altitude-ready than Bobby’s son, Mac, 21, who was also in the climbing group, but he added, “We Hoggers might have been a little older, but we have a certain amount of endurance in us.”

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Marggie Slichter ’84 and Ben Blake ’66 above Camden Harbor

Will Sheats ’87 in the VIP tent at NHL All Star Weekend

CLASS NOTES County with her husband, Mike, and two daughters. She is a public health consultant but has cut back time to enjoy family. She hung out with Jim Edelhauser at a local spot for music recently. • Tim Coppinger and his wife, Lise, live in Leverett, Mass. Tim ran in the Pie Race this year, and visits the campus when his daughter, Jo-z, who plays for the Amherst Hurricanes, plays Ultimate against the NMH girls.

His son, Tai, also plays in Ultimate tournaments in the lower fields. Tim builds the best energy-efficient houses in the world, with tiny heating systems, loads of insulation, and heavy windows. • Doug Fitts married Liz Busch on 5/2/15 at LaBelle Winery in Amherst, N.H. Doug’s father, Richard Fitts ’55, finally had the pleasure of seeing his son get married. • Joshua Friedlander and his wife, Maiko, welcomed their son, Eli Gen Victor, on 5/15/15.

Both mother and child are healthy and happy.

• O’Shea Gifford is living outside Austin in a two-story “barn-dominium” that he built. He just finished his master’s in spiritual psychology from University of Santa Monica, and is working with his girlfriend to sell her paintings while Airbnb-ing out his house to finance his art travels. Between his two girls, his girlfriend, and her daughter, he is barely manly enough to cope—and sometimes pedicures ensue. • Christine Goepp lives in Falls Church, Va., and is an attorney adviser for the FCC. She has two teenage sons and a lovely stepdaughter who came as a bonus with her husband, Todd.

• Alex Palmer Gormley paid a visit to the home of Eva Burt Dillon ’86 and Brendon Dillon ’88 last summer while in East Hampton, Long Island. Alex met Eva and Brendon’s two children, Lily and Charlie. The group could easily have been sitting in Crossley Lounge; it was that easy to catch up. Alex ran her first race—the Ragnar Relay—which goes from one end of Cape Cod to the other. • Steve Green is still living in Pennsylvania with his wife, Edith, and daughters Sonya and Maya. Sonya finished her freshman year at NMH, and is continuing sophomore year as class of ’18.

Maya is starting eighth grade and will be applying to NMH as class of ’20. Steve continues to volunteer at NMH, in between running his bike and skateboard company. He was recently appointed chair of the Reunion Advisory Committee on the NMH Alumni Council. At

Steve Green ’87 with his daughter Sonya ’18

the June NMH reunion, Steve helped organize a new event with Josh Lee ’85 called the Pie Ride. It consisted of 10-mile and 30-mile bicycle rides, starting and finishing at NMH. Each registrant received an NMH Pie Ride bicycle jersey and an apple pie upon completion.

There were 47 participants this year, and Steve hopes we can have record ’87 participation at the 30th reunion. • David Kotz is still working hard and wants to thank Amy Conger for helping him with a last-minute CPR class in remote Pennsylvania this winter. His daughter, Caitlin, starts her freshman year at Drew University this fall after an appearance at the Junior Olympics this year for fencing. Paul Kotz is continuing in his sister’s footsteps. He recently got a bronze medal at the Freehold (N.J.) Fencing Tournament. David continues his volunteer work with the rescue team he founded in 2005, Mine Brook Search & Rescue Inc., along with his local fire department and rescue squad. • Melissa London is heading back to Spain to visit her host family from when she was an exchange student in Burgos with Kai Kauppi, May Mantell, Susanne MacDonald, Natalie Blake, and Jim Fisher ’86. From there she will meet up with her wife, Margo, to spend a week at a farmhouse in Normandy! Melissa and Margo started an Airbnb in Inman Square and would love to have NMHers come stay a while!

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Anne Stemshorn George anastasia.s.george@gmail.com I (Anne Stemshorn George) have just

completed my 16th year teaching ESL in North Carolina. I have a beautiful 11-year-old daughter and two obnoxious beagles. • There was a mini-reunion in Delaware in June that included: Sam Calagione, Mariah Draper Calagione ’89, Nate Beck, Nicole Kaldes, Danny Kadis, Todd Tucci, Jeremy Steinberg, and Cam McWethy. • Becca Williams is still teaching elementary-school English language learners in Colorado. She is in touch with Koh Sakamoto ’87, Indrias Kassaye, Asha Kilaru ’87, Ingeborg Schneider Holiday, and Katy Armstrong ’90. • Lauren Swick Jordan has published 10 articles in the Washington Post, writing about her family’s life with autism. She has also published articles on TheMighty.com and OperationAutismOnline. org. Visit Lauren’s blog at: lauren-idonthave ajob.blogspot.com. • Kirsten Siersdale McNeal has been busy showing her dog and says, “If you’ve seen Best in Show, it’s pretty accurate!” • Indrias Kassaye is a communications specialist with UNICEF-Sierra Leone’s external relations and advocacy team, supporting efforts in reducing Ebola numbers.

Indrias wrapped up her latest documentary project, Breathe in the Roots, which chronicles the spiritual pilgrimage of a young American from Brooklyn coming to Africa in search of his ancestral heritage and makes an 800 km journey on horseback from Addis Ababa to Lalibela—one of Ethiopia’s ancient capitals. • Meg Graham Rogers and her family will be

returning to the continental U.S. as Scott retires from the Coast Guard. Meg, Scott, and their two children will be moving to northern Virginia and will enjoy the cold winters—a big change from life in Hawaii. • Liane Stone Ingalls, our resident grandmother, taught for the Upward Bound Program at Rutgers for the summer, and is working on getting her freelance writing career off the ground. • Jennie Kent continues to write books, but is mainly working on her education consulting business. She works with students from all over the globe who want to study either at boarding schools or universities in the U.S., Canada, or Europe. She is still in Bogotá and wishes she was able to spend more time in the U.S. • Norman Tregenza is still in New Hampshire, and has recently begun working to lower energy rates. • Ruby Palmer got through cancer and the first nine years of twins. She lives in Rhinecliff, N.Y., in the Hudson River Valley, with her husband, raising their kids, and working in her studio (rubypalmer.com). She’s still hanging with Ali Tenenbaum, and spent a week in August on Cape Cod with Jocelyn Glatzer ’87 and Jeff Spagat ’87 and their kids.

She loves living near Mandy Hunt ’89. • Leah Streetman started her own company, Triton Creative Group (TCG), in New York City.

TCG specializes in music supervision and licensing for film, television, and advertising, as well as producing and development of new music-focused film and television projects. • After eight years of living in Asheville, N.C., Kriya Lendzion finally got together with classmate Sam Ganly and, separately, Jen Buell Horschman ’85. Kriya adds, “Even though I only knew both women from a distance at NMH, it’s amazing what an instant friendship is formed over our shared NMH experience!” • Mich Hollins Crowley went on a great trip to a dude ranch with Kristina Fraser, Julia Atkins, and Gina Comai Surgenor. They had a blast together biking, riding horses, hiking, and doing desert yoga.

Mich has her own landscape architecture firm in Boston: Michelle Crowley Landscape Architecture. • Tryfan Evans and his family moved to Rye, N.Y., this summer from Wellesley. • In March, Brendan Dillon and his daughter, Lily, saw Michael Yu in Seoul.

Michael hosted them for a wonderful formal Korean dinner. Brendan also saw Julio Salcedo in Southampton, N.Y., in June. • Jeffrey Epstein wrote, “After gay marriage was made legal, [I was] loving the online support I’ve seen from classmates and teachers.” Jeffrey is overseeing communications and partnership marketing for D23, Disney’s fan club. He loves seeing all of Jessie Campbell Griffith’s photos of trips to the Magic Kingdom. • After many years in San Francisco, Carrie Edwards moved to San Jose, and has set up a neuromuscular therapy practice, Muscle Activation Techniques.

She became a step-parent to two young boys.

She had a wonderful time catching up with Kriya Lendzion in Asheville when she was

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CLASS NOTES

Chris Roof ’89 and Kathryn Zainea at the Pie Ride

Rebecca Soulette ’89 and her children

Michelle Matteo ’90 with her children

visiting there in May. • Marcie Etscovitz Levin lives in Havertown, Penn., with her husband, Franklin, their two daughters, and the newest member of the family, Blossom— their 5-month-old Maltipoo. • Christopher Till lives in Connecticut with his wife, Daria, and two boys. Christopher’s employer, the City of Manchester, approved an $85M referendum to fund the next three public school building projects that he oversees as their facilities project manager. He is hoping to connect with Eric Smith, his former Gould roommate, when they vacation in the Adirondacks. • Josh Cohen invites all to stop by Moe’s Tavern in Lee, Mass., anytime for a tasty Dogfish Head beer and a good time in the Berkshires (nocoorslight.com). Every year, Josh goes to the Big Beer and Belgian Fest in Vail, Colo., with a pack of NHM alums. • Yolanda DeHoyas left her job at Caesars (Las Vegas) to concentrate on a bigger investment. Her only child, Ronald, is in high school. She loves being an entrepreneur, selling on Amazon and eBay. She would love to hear from Adrienne Wynn, if possible. • Fina Conde Arnold and her family moved to Nicaragua last May. They are working with a Christian nonprofit that lives and works among the urban poor. It has been a difficult and wonderful experience, but Fina wishes she had chosen to take Spanish (not French at NMH!). • Sequoya Frey has been living in Belgium after moving from New York City last summer. Her kids still follow a bilingual program at the French school.

Sequoya will definitely visit Jeremy Wolf and his family in Switzerland—only a few hours’ drive. • Spencer Luckey’s band, Buddig Meats and Fowl, are getting back in the studio and planning a reunion tour this autumn in western Massachusetts. • Holly Hornor Cleary lives in Eliot, Maine, with her husband, Matt, and their 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son. Earlier this year, they had a nice visit with Kathy Pazuk Naficy and her family in California. Elizabeth Hall Olszewski ’87 moved to the seacoast area, so she and Holly see each other quite a bit as well. In July, Holly was planning a mini NMH reunion with Karyn Burtt Banks, Kibby Dworkin Sheperd, Kathy Pazuk Naficy, and Beth Wetherbee Klein ’89. • Karyn Burtt Banks is excited about the reunion with her buds from Crossley,

and gives a shoutout to “Nicole, Holly, Nate, Josh, John, Todd, Sam, Cam, Jeremy, Pete, Eric, and many others...for showing up to 25th reunion and making it so much fun.” • Jeremy Steinberg wanted to shout out to the Weston Crew: Otis, Kow, Pete, Pecos, David, and Hyung. • Liza Schmeltz-Brocker reports that it was surreal but the fact that her son, Jack, survived his freshman year at NMH made her really proud! Fall parents weekend had her family crashing at Kristen Pierce’s house and they had a great weekend together. • After a long process of boarding school application and consideration, Peter Harris’s twin sons are off in the fall to Hotchkiss.

NMH was a strong contender, but the twins are both squash fanatics and picked a school with that sports program. After stepping down as the CEO of the medical device company he was with for 15 years, Peter now works for a Swedish family office doing direct/private investment in companies. They just bought a robotics lab automation company outside of Boston, so he expects to be spending a lot more time in that area. • Henry Wheaton is still co-owner of SHOW Circus Studio in Easthampton, Mass., where he teaches trapeze, aerial fabric, tumbling, hand balancing, and acrobatics. He produces, directs, and performs in circus shows all over New England, and accepted a position co-running the flying trapeze program at the New England Center for Circus Arts in Brattleboro, Vt. • Mark Chaffee was in Burlington, Vt., in May and shared a deli sandwich with the fabulous Lauren Swick Jordan. He adds, “If you’re ever in the area, she makes a great tour guide—the hospitality and laughs are abundant.” • Jeff LeClair has gotten into mountaineering and climbing. He has summited Mt. Rainier and rock-climbed the east face of Mt. Whitney. He and his wife, Susan, have also been busy with their two boys, who are big into baseball and basketball. They still live in northern Virginia.

• Alison Stern Simard lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two kids. Three years ago she started a nonprofit environmental agency, Citizens for Los Angeles Wildlife (clawonline.org), an organization working to protect wildlife and restore their disappearing habitats. • Chris Sexton was in Dover, Del., for the Firefly Music Festival in June, where he

saw Mariah Draper Calagione ’89 and Sam Calagione—and enjoyed more than his fair share of Dogfish Head. • Matthew Hand is a

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financial planner at Wells Fargo Advisors in downtown Boston. He is married and has two boys, Nicholas (4) and Henry (7).

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Chris Roof roofsound@comcast.net • John Carroll jcarroll@nmhschool.org • Caryn Crotty Eldridge slickcke7@gmail.com From Chris Roof—I had the pleasure of

attending an NMH “Party in the Barn” in Lincoln, Mass., hosted by Andrew Gnazzo ’91 and Trintje Van Winkle Gnazzo ’91. It was great connecting with other, local alumni and hearing in-person details and some of the inspiration behind NMH’s new strategic plan. • A number of ’89ers crashed this year’s reunion. I was motivated by the (hopefully) first annual Pie Ride—a scenic 30-mile bike ride through Massachusetts and Vermont. It was great to catch up with ’89 friends Kara Seager, Mark Medeiros, and David Febus.

Kara ran, as she does a lot these days, the Meg Peller Memorial Run. Mark was on the mend from one of his many recent bike “impacts” (he needs to learn one is supposed to stay on the two wheels). David is still the rock that we’ve known him to be for years. • It was also great to see a number of long-lost friends from other years, including Haegan Forrest ’90, Go Akimoto ’90, and Michiko Umeda Sakai ’90. Joss French was apparently there, but unfortunately just late enough to the Pie Ride to make it a challenge to do on one’s own with all the turns. My sister, Kathryn Roof Deckers ’85, thoroughly enjoyed pretending she’s 30 years younger. • Back in Cambridge, Mass., I ran into Katie Klapp Sonin and her boys in Harvard Square—it can’t help but bring a smile to one’s face to spend even a few minutes with Katie. I often pass Kit Gattis ’87 as we’re commuting in opposite directions on our bikes throughout the city. • Mac Ritchey continues to perform in a number of musical groups around New England. I’ve only managed to catch a couple of shows, but it’s always great to hang with someone with one of the biggest hearts around, and one heck of a musi-

CLASS NOTES cian. On the topic of music, Robert Sambor ’90 rekindled the idea of assembling a bunch of live music recordings from NMH concerts and coffee houses—in particular, that of one Gian Carlo Feleppa. This came up at our 25th reunion, and I hope someone will pick it up and run—any takers (Joel Schonbrunn ’90)? • Rebecca Soulette welcomed her twins, Nicolette (girl) and Crispin (boy), into the world on 11/17/14, and would like to thank all of the amazing NMHers who supported her during the three-year process to get them here! • Until next time, please stay in touch via Facebook, email, snail mail, or even the phone!

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Robbianne Mackin robbianne.mackin@gmail.com • Travis Lea travislea@gmail.com • Kristin Steele kaste@conncoll.edu • Toryn Kimberley Stark torynk@yahoo.com

The class of 1990’s 25-year reunion was an incredible weekend. The highlights include a great showing at the Hymn Sing, cheering on Kristin Steele as she received an Alumni Citation Award at Convocation, and the Saturday-night class dinner with cocktails featuring products from Derek Grout’s Harvest Spirits distillery. We also had a memorial to the classmates whom we have lost too soon, presented by Danapel de Veer, Dane Fletcher, and David Arend. If you were unable to attend, you were missed, but we plan to do it all again in five years, so we hope you will join us then. Here are updates from some of the classmates who attended reunion: • David Arend recorded two original compositions with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra in the Czech Republic, performing as double bass soloist. Navona Records will release the album in the fall. David is also producing a jazz recording with his group, The Alchemy Project Ensemble. • Cecelia Bain is a flight attendant based in Boston. When asked why she returns for reunion, Cecelia said, “There’s no school or college that comes even close… that’s why I will always come back to my first ‘home’—NMH.” • Marshall Bass lives in Annandale, Va., with his wife, Christina, and their two children. Marshall works at Housing and Healthcare Finance, a small finance firm located in Chevy Chase, Md. • Dawn Fitzgerald lives in Santa Barbara with her husband, Jeffrey Becker, and their two kids, all of whom had a blast at reunion! The move north after 15 years in Los Angeles was a dramatic change from city life. They’re remodeling and landscaping a 1960s house in the mountains, which takes up most of their free time, but Dawn also still works in nonfiction television.

She has a series on HGTV and is executive producer for the History Channel. • Haegan Forrest writes, “To all my classmates and friends, I say thank you! Our 25th reunion was an incredible experience of love, friendship,

and celebration of the great class of ’90. Head of School Peter Fayroian spoke at our class dinner, joining so many wonderful faculty friends!

If you missed it, check out the NMH Class of 1990 Facebook page.” • Leanna Houle, who may be the first grandmother in our class, happily calls New England home, and said about reunion, “NMH class of 1990 was my class as a 14-year-old freshman in 1986 and is my class today. It also felt like we had never left each other.” • Denise Jenkins-Ulbraaten lives in Oslo, Norway, with husband Tom, and their two sons. She works as controlling operations manager for National Oilwell Varco. • Tamasin Ballou Kekic has begun a new career as an occupational therapist in acute care at Mt. Ascutney Hospital in Vermont. She loves her new profession and all that she continues to learn every day. Nick Kekic explores new possibilities in glass and business after 20 years as a blown-glass artist. • Kim King and Chuck Maysonet have been living in Orlando, Fla., since 2003. Their son Andres (5) was born during 20th reunion weekend. Kim works in economic development for the City of Orlando, and Chuck works in hospitality management, currently with Keke’s—a local chain.

• Jan Kuznik attended reunion with his wife, Leah. Jan and Leah were married at Memorial Chapel in 2002. After reunion, Jan said, “I am truly amazed with our class. I am among some of the most intriguing, exciting, and empathetic people this world has ever seen, and it’s due to NMH.” • Dawn Crosby-Maqueda traveled from Lima, Peru, with her son, Roque.

She also has a daughter, Josie. Dawn says that being at reunion completely re-energized her.

• Michelle Matteo and her family live near New Haven, Conn., and welcomed a baby girl in October 2013. Michelle is in touch with Sue Shin and Becca Gee Nowak—both are doing well. • Thuan Nguyen and his wife, Sarah, moved from Chandler, Ariz., to Fountain Hills, Ariz. “We are still getting settled into our house,” says Thuan. “I am continuing to work at a few small community hospitals and am the EMS medical director for Tempe and Guadalupe.” Over this past year, Thuan was able to re-connect with Osman Qamar ’89 and Matt Walker in California. After meeting them there, Matt has since moved to Chandler, and Osman is living in the Boston area. Thuan made a television appearance on the documentary show Sex Sent Me to the ER, and was recently interviewed by the local CBS news affiliate about the spice epidemic in Arizona. • Jessica Davison Riozzi had a wonderful time seeing so many of the class of ’90 and would like to see more of us at the 30-year mark. She and her family are in Saugerties, Hudson Valley, N.Y. She is raising kids, and growing, cooking, and canning things. • Corinne Selinger Selva moved to the Boston area with her husband and two children, and is looking forward to re-connecting with NMHers in the area. • Rachel Press Tedeschi is keeping busy with her kids and her business—Rachel’s Cookies

and Treats. “Anyone driving through Connecticut, feel free to visit—cookies will be on the house!” • Chessie Shaw lives in Somerville, Mass., with her husband, Robert, their two children, and is a school social worker. She had a great time at reunion, and “it was especially great to spend time with Dianne DeCoste, Sharon Price, Corrine Selinger Selva, and Chris DePrez.” • Unfortunately, many of our classmates were unable to attend reunion, but would like to share what they are up to: • Ramsay Adams ’89 is the founder of Catskill Mountainkeeper, and has spent the last seven years fighting fracking in New York. Recently, he has joined Mark Ruffalo’s Water Defense as executive director, working on extreme energy extraction issues affecting water across the world. • Tom Boldt and his wife, Alanna, had a baby girl, Caia Bromwyn, in December 2014.

Tom practices acupuncture on the west side of Los Angeles, and has left group practice to open a clinic with his wife, also an acupuncturist (tabacupunture.com). • After a few years of back and forth between Florida and the Boston area, Eric Gauster decided to move full time to Naples, Fla., in December 2013. He joined the Ft. Myers office of his firm and is busier than ever with financial-planning clients. His wife, Renata, joined Premier Sotheby’s International Realty, and is busy rebuilding her real estate business in the Naples area. • Jim Mignona is living a blessed life behind a camera, in his darkroom, and in and out of his home with his beautiful wife, Liesa, and 2-year-old son. Jim, of course, misses his larger NMH family and wishes the very best to the very finest. • Alex Mine and Tina Anson Mine are doing well in Toronto, and keeping busy with work—Alex in audio engineering and Tina as a freelance writer/editor. They were sorry to miss reunion due to attending a friend’s wedding, but they hope to make it to the 30th. • Reba Porter lives in Burlington, Vt., with her husband and 5-year-old son. She works for the State of Vermont’s Department of Health, and is a licensed mental health and drug and alcohol counselor. • Miriam Rutz loved seeing all the pics of everyone at reunion!

She and her husband, Nate, have a son, Axel (4), and a daughter, Zoë (2), and in May moved from Chicago to Glencoe, Ill. Miriam still works in infectious disease for a subsidiary of J&J. If anyone is in their area, please reach out via email or Facebook. • Joel Schonbrunn and his wife, Kasey, live in California. They bought their first house and are living the dream of turning it into a Moroccan castle.

Joel was recently awarded the Order of the Pelican—a lifetime service award within the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA).

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Dairo Moreno demoreno@post.harvard.edu

Greetings, everyone, from Miami! I write this as I sit at the airport waiting for my next flight.

I hope as you read this, you start thinking about your own travel plans to campus for our

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CLASS NOTES reunion. • Trintje Van Winkle Gnazzo and Andy Gnazzo kicked off reunion season with

a great party at their home in Lincoln, Mass., with Head of School Peter Fayroian. Be on the lookout for more warm-up parties leading to the main event. • Kira Zielinski and husband Nathan are moving from Cremona, Italy, to the tranquil-yet-eclectic crossroad of Iowa City. “Interestingly enough, we happen to be moving just around the corner from the future birthplace of Star Trek’s Captain James T. Kirk (Riverside, Iowa) just as we plan to start a family. We are excited! Please keep in touch: kirazielinski@gmail.com,” says Kira. • Colleen Thomas married Rodrigo Torres on 4/8/15 in Crockett, Calif. Their ceremony was a multimedia community celebration of relationship in the postmodern style of the Cosmic Mass. • Margaretha Haughwout, Yuka Nakajima Lawrence, and Katie Campbell ’92 met in New York this June for the first time in 24 years! • Tonya George and Aly Baiter got together with Sharon Isaacs, Chuck Maysonet ’90, Kim King ’90, Lena Serrano ’90, Ini Obot ’92, Abel Olmo, Themba Flowers ’90, David Febus ’89, and David McClintock in New York for a class of 1990 after party...25 years and still family.

• Scott Selby has sold the film rights to his second (The Axmann Conspiracy) and third (A Serial Killer in Nazi Berlin) books to Sony and Mythology, respectively. Congratulations, Scott! • Esther Dwinell chimes in for the first time ever: “I’m super-excited to be going to Becca Feldman’s wedding in New York, with Josh Byrnes as my date! In other news, I’m still in Los Angeles working at Warner Brothers Television in publicity/marketing. I’d love to get together with any L.A.-area NMHers.” • Megan Buchanan writes, “I have been in Vermont for six winters and am living in Bellows Falls, still writing poems and making dance. I am currently at work on an interdisciplinary, multi-site, outdoor performance project called REGENERATIONS that seeks to reckon with and respond to the closing of Vermont Yankee, the local nuke plant, just upriver from NMH. I am also working as a high-school humanities teacher with teen mothers in Springfield, Vt., helping them earn credits to complete their diplomas. Friends, come visit when you are in the area. I love to have dinner with Juan Garcia when he is in town!”

Megan Buchanan ’91

’91, Dave McClintock ’91, Tonya George ’91, Chuck Maysonet ’90, Kim King ’90, Abel Olmo ’91, Themba Flowers ’90, Lena Serrano ’90, and Sharon Isaacs ’91. Still working with the New York City Department of Education, where I am a math coach. Francesca Pisa is a principal with a school there as well.

I spoke with Adalberto Serrano—he and his wife, Dagmar, live in Florida with their two kids. Please remember that our 25th reunion will be the first weekend in June 2017. • Katherine DeWitt and Frank Wetmore finally wed on 12/26/13. • Jodi Lomask is married and has a son. She and her husband are busy with the little boy, plus she is busy with her dance company. • Alexis Moore O’Connolly: “In July 2013, my husband and I became parents to identical twin boys, Fergus and Cyrus. We are overjoyed and cannot wait to bring them to NMH for the 25th reunion.” Alexis and husband Alexander also welcomed a daughter, Úna Catherine Sara Teresa, on 2/15/15. • Philip Stevens was the alumni speaker at graduation for New England Culinary Institute. He addressed a raucous crowd of culinary graduates, stirring them into a “whisking frenzy.” • Alex Shepperd McCann is in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with her family. She started a new job as an investment attraction executive with Nova Scotia Business Inc., covering clean tech, ocean tech, and life sciences. • Jennifer deVore: “Maximilian Liam was born to Tess Champoux and Christian Yobst on 4/23/14.” • Super-proud

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Jennifer Sadula De Vore devorejr@msn.com • Ini Obot iniobot@yahoo.com • Cate Steele Hartzell cate.hartzell@gmail.com From Ini Obat—Sorry for being behind on

class notes; all is well in New Rochelle. My son is finishing 11th grade, so we will be visiting colleges this summer. My daughter is 7 going on 40. Just recovering from a mini-reunion get-together with Dave Febus ’89, Aly Baiter

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Colleen Thomas ’91, husband Rodrigo, granddaughter Ivy

of Sarah Brown’s latest addition—publishing!

Sarah writes, “I just had a publication in a new library science book, Leading the 21st-Century Academic Library—chapter three.” • Sean Carr is alive and well and “not pregnant.” • Shawn Durrett addressed the class of 2015 at Stoneleigh-Burnham as their dean of faculty.

The full address can be found on the school’s website (blog.sbschool.org). Thank you, Shawn, for representing us so well! • Lastly, our Norah was born back in September 2013. Big sister Sarah and big brother Thomas love her to pieces, even though she is at the stage of “annoying them every day” (their words).

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Susannah Sprong Cahillane coloradocahillanes@mac.com From Susannah Cahillane—The class of ’93

is doing amazing things all over the world!

Thanks to all of you who shared with us in this edition. Please continue to share! I want to wish a very happy 40th birthday if you have celebrated that milestone since our last publication. • Jediah Byrom shares, “My wife and I are happily settled into our life in Brandon, Vt..

I continue to return to Cambodia regularly for business and pleasure, but have also enjoyed seeing some other parts of the world with my family this past year. We spent five weeks in Costa Rica and Nicaragua last winter. I have enjoyed the far-reaching effects of NMH here in Vermont, as I keep meeting interesting people who are graduates or have some connection to the place. I’m looking forward to welcoming Sophie McCallum’s boys to Camp Sangamon this summer, and will be happy to see her again. Amy Lyman and I are in regular contact, but are woefully bad at actually meeting up in person. Hoping to change that.” • Matt Lejeune writes from Chicago: “I recently worked with Dee Snyder (of Twisted Sister) on new material, and Charlie XCX, Mavis Staples, and Jennifer Hudson have all been in recently.

I saw Rodd Malitsky a couple weeks ago when he was in town for a visit. I’m expecting Evan Moss at the end of the month, and Colin Clark ’94 and Ben Sharaf ’94 over July 4th weekend.” • Robin Erthal Corrozi, husband Chris, and big brothers Cameron (3) and Wyatt (13) welcomed little brother, Jake, to the family on 7/11/14! Congrats to the happy family! • A big congratulations to John Mailman, who was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Army. He is married to a wonderful German lady, and they have two fantastic boys, ages 6 and 3. John has been stationed in Germany for the last 12 years and says it has been great! • Congratulations as well to Robyn Ross Koren and husband Ammon, who welcomed a baby boy, Matan Daniel, on 12/9/14! • Samantha Chardin Moller had a second daughter and relocated with her American partner from Auckland, New Zealand, to Vancouver, British Columbia. She works as a novelist and opera singer while pursuing a job as a producer in animation/FX. • On behalf of NMH Magazine, I would like to apologize to the Wilhelm Dakai

CLASS NOTES family for the misspelling of their daughters’ names in the last edition. Celeste Wilhelm Dakai and husband Tom welcomed twin daughters, Isabella Michelle and Katherine Diana, on 3/24/14. • As for me, I am still loving running my health and wellness business, and working hard networking and connecting in order to expand in my company’s new markets in Poland, Taiwan, and South Korea! Here is hoping that when business brings me to one of those locations, I can visit you NMHers who live there! And if your adventures ever bring you to Boston, let me know, and we can grab a bite to eat and catch up! • I would like to invite more of you to share your news. You can find me on Facebook or email me. On another note, Molly Goggins Talbot has yet to do another marathon. Love, health, and bundles and bundles of wild and crazy happiness to you all!

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Carol Koldis Foote carol.foote@gmail.com • Dan Furlong furlongtime@gmail.com From Carol Koldis Foote—Feel free to email

us as news is happening. And make sure you’ve liked the “NMH Class of 1994” Facebook page as another way to get and stay in touch.

Be well, everybody. • Christina Lamb Sidell ran into Tom Tucker ’95 at her son Quinn’s school in Vermont. Tom’s two daughters go to the same school! Tom was sorry he missed class of ’95 reunion. Also, Christina and Philip are pleased to announce that Quinn was accepted to the British International School of Boston and will start in September. Christina will be attending ECTRIMS (European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis) in October, where the relay team that she sailed around the world with will be honored. • Terrelle Tynes-Wilson participated as a semifinalist in the inaugural Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival songwriting competition, and she was one of 19 artists chosen and had two out of the top 25 songs selected. Terrelle would be honored to act as hostess/guide for any NMH group that wants to visit her island throughout the year. Many NMHers have visited her and her sisters, Tanisha and Ntshonda Tynes (both ’91). • For our next

column, think about to whom you might want to give a “Wonder Where Shoutout.” Send us the name(s) of that classmate, schoolmate, or faculty member that has crossed your mind over the years. Also, stories of re-connection— give us the details of who, when, where, and how. Let’s show some long-lost love.

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Amina Gautier Amina.gautier@Gmail.com • Nicholas Vida nmhnotes@nmhschool.org

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Jon Rini jonathanrini@hotmail.com • Heidi Geis heidi.m.geis@gmail.com From Heidi Geis—Thanks on behalf of the

class of ’96 to Dick Peller for his continued enthusiasm and dedication to all of us as class parent. Congratulations on your retirement! • My husband and I welcomed our daughter, Maya Grijalva, early on Mother’s Day (5/10/15). I feel so lucky and grateful to have had Kate Norman Frometa with us to help deliver her. Kate is a nurse midwife at University of California-San Francisco. I’m also glad we get to see her and her charming son, Omar, regularly, since they have moved to the Bay Area. • Kelly Dann Thompson, along with husband Steve and their daughter, Emelia (hopeful class of ’30), welcomed their newest addition, Roman Harold (hopeful class of ’33), in May. They all live in New Orleans, La., along with Kelly’s mother, Susan Aspinwall ’70. • Patrick Davis has been recognized as one of the top “40 under 40” business leaders in western Massachusetts by BusinessWest Journal for his success as operations manager at CRD Metalworks, a forestry products manufacturing firm. • Mark your calendar for our upcoming 20th reunion, June 2–4, 2016. I hope to see many of you there.

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Laurel Havas laurelsuzanne@gmail.com • Julia Cohen jmacleodcohen@gmail.com

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Matt Gamon mattgammon@aol.com • Brian Pressman brainjpressman@gmail.com From Brian Pressman—I met up with fellow ’98er Preston Lau in Hong Kong this

Steve and Kelly Dann Thompson ’96 with their children

past May. He lives near the neighborhood of Lan Kuai Fang, where he both composes and teaches music. • I also received an update from friend Helen Evans: “I have lived in London since 2007 with my husband, whom I married on the NMH campus in 2006. We had a son, Gabriel, who was born and then, sadly, passed away in 2012. We now have a son, Victor, who is 2 and has a strange American/British/Co-

From left: Tucker Dalton ’99, Jesse Sheyda-Losick ’99, bride Caitlin Dourmashkin ’99, groom Galen Summer ’99, Alice Proujansky ’98, and Cory Mescon ’99

lombian accent. I work in venue management at a London university and dabble in property development. I miss New England, but come home as often as possible—and managed to make it to our 15-year reunion. I’m hoping to make it to our 20th as well.”

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Audrey Korte aekorte@cox.net • Melia Knowles-Coursin meliakc@gmail.com • Molly Loveday chefmollyloveday@gmail.com Cory Mescon reported, “Caitlin Dourmashkin and Galen Summer were married on

9/6/14 in Northampton, Mass. Both are living in Brooklyn with their dog, Matilda. Caitlin is a director of planning and community development at East Williamsburg Valley Industrial Development Corporation in Brooklyn. Galen is a filmmaker for Public Record in Brooklyn.

Alums in attendance were Tucker Dalton (groomsman), Jessemin Sheyda-Losick (best man), Alice Proujansky ’98 (photographer), and Cory Mescon (bridesmaid).”

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Katherine “Cricket” BorntraegerWheeler Nisbet katherine@kbwnisbet.co.uk From Genevieve Bergeret—Christina Hamilton Goodwin says, “I really wanted to make

it to NMH [reunion], but my husband and I are expecting our second child any time in the coming weeks and travel is a challenge.” • Christopher Manning says, “I am in London, where I am doing an M.A. in filmmaking at the London Film School. I’m writer/director, with several shorts under my belt, and am setting my sights on the first feature.” • Theodora Stites is living in New York City.

She says, “I’ve been working with a movie studio in Los Angeles for a few months. Please tell me about reunion and what you’ve been up to for the last 15 years!” • Ben Robbins, living in Hong Kong, says, “Coming to the U.S. in July/August for my sister’s wedding and with a 6-month-old baby, I just can’t swing two trips. I’ll be there for the 20th, though!” • Amy Etzel says, “I live in Seattle now and am

fall 2015 I 87

CLASS NOTES coming east in a few weeks for my little sister’s graduation—couldn’t swing two trips so close together.” • Lindsey Dawson says, “My wife is pregnant with our first, so I will be staying close to home!” • Clemon Courtney III says, “Wish I could be there with you nerds. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to repay NMH for prying my mind open with that know-bar. I’ve been living in Shanghai, China, since 2005.

I’m teaching writing, test prep (SSAT, SAT/ ACT, etc.), and history, and I’m in the beginning stages of trying to start my own company here.” • Heather Heckman-McKenna writes, “With every passing day, I’m more frustrated that I’m not making it to reunion this year.

I’m coming back from a serious accident that occurred on 2/9/13, and picked up a passion for skiing since it was one thing I could do through a lot of the injury. I’m finally through with surgeries, am in grad school, and live half time in Boston, half time in Provincetown.” • Addie Wyman Battalen lives in Arlington, Mass., and writes, “We won’t be making it out this time, but if you are ever in the Boston area, look me up!” • Melanie Sikes Bigalke says, “I am splitting my time between Eugene, Ore., and Seattle, Wash. Got my M.B.A. in 2013 in sustainable business. Am a consultant, coach, teaching fellow, and newly published [magazine] writer. Happily married, no kids (forever).

Husband is just starting work on his M.A. in history from University of Oregon.” • Janna Blais Patterson lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, Shawn, and three kids. She writes, “I’m really bummed to be missing reunion. We’re tentatively planning on being at Sacred Concert next year. Besides keeping my kids alive, I head up the charitable work through our local church, and I’m working on a novel.” • Anastasia Olynyk just got married and dropped in for a quick visit while on her honeymoon! She and her husband are in the process of moving to New Jersey. She writes, “No matter how many years may pass, taking that long drive along the highway through the autumn leaves and birches, watching the mountains rise up on the horizon, still feels a little bit like coming home. I carry a piece of NMH with me wherever I go.” • Genevieve Bergeret has been living in the Netherlands for four and a half years since leaving Japan.

Her biggest passion is swing dancing, and she has recently made several trips around Europe

Kimmie Weeks ’01 declares Ebola is defeated in Liberia.

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to dance the Lindy Hop with friends. She writes, “It’s a time of transition for me, and reunion was the impetus I needed to start my next adventure. I’ll be traveling around the U.S. this summer to help determine if it’s time to move back to the States after being an expat for 11 years! Reunion was a great chance to re-connect and get to know classmates I didn’t know well, but now discover to have more in common with than not.”

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Josh Grubman joshuagrubman@gmail.com • Christopher A Zissi christopher.zissi@gmail.com From Christopher Zissi—Patrick Vincent

writes, “In March of 2012, I married my best friend, Kristy. I have an 8-year-old stepson, Jeffrey; together, my wife and I have a 2-year-old son, Carter, and in June we will be welcoming our third son, (Blake). We live in north central North Carolina. I began teaching physical education to elementary-age children in 2006 in eastern North Carolina. In 2008 I switched roles, as I began teaching middle-school health and PE. In 2013, I added middle-school athletic director to my résumé. Next year I begin teaching high-school healthful living for the first time. Also added to my roles will be highschool athletic director!” • Isaac Luria lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Rabbi Sara Luria.

They’ve got two children and another on the way. He works at Auburn Seminary training faith leaders to do social justice work. He also took Luria as his last name on his wedding day with Sara—you might remember him as Isaac Goldstein. • Lydia Romano Barhight and her husband, Matt, welcomed their daughter, Caroline Quinn, on 3/12/15. They moved to Denver in the summer. • Jefferson Stewart writes, “I moved to Austin, Texas, from New York City this past year to start a mobile video-game company, Cloudyshark Studios. I ran into Luke Snelling the other day at the airport—he’s in tech, too, running his own marketing agency in San Francisco.” • James McGrail writes, “Chris Hiam and I connected in Florida, caught up on old times, and it felt like we never skipped a beat.” Claire Burnside Och writes, “My husband, John, and I will be moving to Mexico City in July! He works for the U.S. Department of State and received a two-year post working at the U.S. Embassy there. We are both very excited, and if there are any NMH alums in that city, I would love for them to reach out to me.” Lindsay James Forman-Murray writes, “My husband, Scott, and I are leaving New York this summer. We’re headed to Nashville, where I’ll be pursuing a Ph.D. in special education at Vanderbilt.

We’re excited about the prospect of a yard, a dog, and a garden...three things New York has been particularly light on.” Avery Miller writes, “I graduated from Sarah Lawrence with an M.S. in human genetics, and currently work at Staten Island University Hospital as a cancer genetic counselor. I continue to live

in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with my boyfriend, Chris Steffens. I’m a passionate home cook and am always looking to re-connect with fellow NMHers for a summer picnic or concert. Last night I found myself sitting at a local restaurant one table away from Tesalia de Saram and her brother!” • Bryan Boone married Jodie Barnett of Brunswick, Ga., on 3/30/15 in a quiet ceremony in south Georgia, where they live with their two shepherds. Jodie and Bryan have taught for the last five years in the McIntosh County Public School District. • Last, but not least, our 15-year reunion is right around the corner. Mark your calendars and book your flights. See you on campus in June 2016, and have a great autumn!

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Danielle Henry Beale dhbeale@gmail.com Dr. Kimmie Weeks ’01, executive director of

Youth Action International, posted a photo on Facebook on May 15 proclaiming #LIBERIA # DEFEATED #EBOLA. Incredible work, Kimmie. A big shoutout to Evan Russell, who founded Empowerment Health, a nonprofit that provides cost-effective care for women and children in Afghanistan. He’s also working toward his M.D. and Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University, which he hopes to complete next year. • Congratulations to Matthew Bamberg-Johnson for his production of The Johnny Cycle with The Speakeasy Society in Los Angeles; to Jesse Beecher for the documentary film Circus Without Borders, produced

by Northern Light Productions; and to Deva Huggins, who recently performed as a backup dancer for Usher Raymond. • Vicki Wong married Teddy Cheng ’00 on 3/21/15 in Hong Kong. Jay Wilson married Olivia Tsipris on 5/30/15. Chris Russell married Chelsea Carmichael on 6/7/15 in Tyson, Vt. Jason Leahy married Kiley Manahan on 6/13/15, also in Vermont. • Sophie Barberich Ward and husband James welcomed a son, John Avery, on 5/7/15. Allan Olson and wife Prasra Pam Olson welcomed a daughter, Natnapin Madeleine, on 2/27/15—they moved to Los Angeles at the end of June. Brendan Connor and Keiko Achiwa Connor report that their daughter, Maya, is a healthy, happy little baby.

They purchased a home in Westport, Conn., moving out of New York City. Toni Roberts

Vicki Wong ’02 and Teddy Cheng ’00 on their wedding day

CLASS NOTES Willoughby and husband Matt are living in San Antonio, and Toni is pursuing a master’s in accounting. • Thank you to Anne Morgan for her 13 years as class secretary and gifts chair!

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Dee Guo deedith@gmail.com • Mira Sharma mira.sharma.mcgill@gmail.com Eddie Kim competed professionally in horse-

show jumping at Turkey’s Istanbul Regional Championship in May, winning first place in the 100cm class with his horse, King IX. Congratulations, Eddie, on such a great achievement!

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Jamieson Baker jamieson.baker@gmail.com • Jane Lilly Warren janelillywarren@gmail.com • Daniela Frias daniela8_5@hotmail.com • Nina Scheinman nina.scheinman@gmail.com From Nina Scheinman—David Colt is living

happily in Oakland, Calif., and feels lucky to have so many NMHers around. • Kevin Lalli has thrown out his neck brace after one last nap in it on the flight back from reunion. He also got into grad school at Montana State, and is working on a professional master’s that combines optical engineering and business.

Kevin and Nick Capezzera formed an LLC that focuses on augmented and virtual-reality technology. Kevin is also working at AdvR in Bozeman, Mont., as his day job.

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Donnie Blackwell ptowndon@gmail.com • Arjun Pant arjunpant@gmail.com • JingPing Zhang jingping.ellen.zhang@gmail.com

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Northfield and Mount Hermon Lakota Coon wackylacky@gmail.com

Northfield and Mount Hermon Dith Pamp dith.pamp@gmail.com From Dith Pamp in Portland, Ore.: “I recently

married Eli Fabens on 6/13/15 in Massachusetts. In attendance were Alex Lee, Sam Bisbee ’06, bridesmaid Lilly Richardson ’08, and my uncle, Wendell Cummings ’71.”

• Jeff Breau just moved to Brooklyn after almost four years in San Francisco. He is still at Google, managing five support teams around the world. He spent the summer exploring New York and training for a half Ironman in Napa. • Katie Jones says, “I currently live in Minneapolis, Minn. I work in marketing, and am in the midst of getting my M.B.A. The Minnesota winters are pretty cold, so I’m look-

ing forward to some hiking, biking, and time on the water this summer. And studying—lots of studying.” • Ali Kren says, “I am working as a dental assistant in Brattleboro, Vt., but I’ll be moving to Concord, N.H., to attend the dental hygiene program at New Hampshire Technical Institute. I’ve been active on the Reunion Advisory Committee of the Alumni Council, so I’m lucky enough to get back to campus a few times a year and mingle with fellow alums at reunion. I caught up with Max Zeitler, Alex Engels, Eric Humphries, Andy Irish, Noah Saxton, and Alex Palmisano when we gathered in Boston to surprise Noah for an early birthday present. It was like no time had passed since high school!” • Alex Kurtz is living in Boston and coaching football at Boston College. This fall he will be a graduate assistant for the offense, working with the quarterbacks and wide receivers. • David Lee ’08 is currently in New York City after finishing college there, working at Barclays. He got married this summer, and is looking forward to moving in with his wife and potentially getting a puppy!

Korea in March, where I obviously wrote “Go Hoggers!” on the graffiti-allowed section of the Great Wall, and also got to meet up for some Gangnam Style dancing with Yea Kim in Seoul. • As members of the Young Alumni Committee of the Alumni Council, Nikki Rossetti and I went to the 2015 NMH reunion, and now can’t wait for our 10-year reunion in 2018. Nikki is beginning a master’s at Tufts Medical School. While at reunion, we bumped into Jules Findlay, who has graduated from Harvard. He has made a few short films through the Actors Lab at BU, and is now a player in David Rowland’s theater company. • I also get to see David Rome often, who has graduated from Suffolk Law and is studying for the bar in Boston. In other higher-education news, Julia Mix Barrington finished her Ph.D. coursework at BU and is now preparing for her comp exams, though more immediate

plans include climbing Mt. Washington in July! Last semester she presented a paper at the Northeast Modern Language Association conference in Toronto. Stephanie Randall is also in the Boston crowd, and did us all proud by running the Boston Marathon this year!

Erika Loomer will be moving to Boston from Indianapolis, where she’s been doing marketing for their Triple-A minor league baseball team.

She graduated from UCF with an M.B.A. and a master’s in sports business. • Andre Van Nest is also in the Hub, working in investment banking at William Blair. After finishing his master’s at Boston College, he played a year of professional basketball in Austria. He sees NMHers every year at the Batty Roundball Classic. • Eli Stiefel is well and reports that he is “living the exciting life of the youth today in Boston.” Eddie Sanibaldi is also in this neck of the woods, where he is an agent director at iPayment Inc. Slightly farther west, Gordon Burnett has finished his third year teaching chemistry in Worcester. He’ll be returning to NMH’s campus this summer to teach chemistry again with Upward Bound, as well as heading the boys’ dorm. • Nick Anderson is in Washington, D.C., working as a consultant for Booz Hamilton’s defense and intelligence group since graduating from Princeton. When not working, he volunteers as a firefighter at a local station. Tom Halley is teaching preschool and doing a lot of climbing in New York, where Maggie Field and Zoë Rose Silverman also reside. Zoë lives in Brooklyn and works in Manhattan for an educational startup, General Assembly. She’s been loving it so far and can’t wait to start traveling and visiting the campuses. • Tim Liponis, who has finished graduate school at Clark University and is now working for DigitalGlobe in Tampa, Fla., ran the Boston Marathon and had a blast. • Claire Petersen is an associate buyer at ZOZI, in charge of outdoor, yoga, and beach/surf apparel/accessories. Shelby De La Mora finished a submarine hunting exercise in the Bahamas and was looking toward a four-month deployment around Asia at the end of September. She flies the MH-60 Romeo for the U.S. Navy, and is stationed out of San Diego • In Vermont, Jim Montague is plugging away at his Ph.D.; he presented some of his research at the World Environmental

Rachel Forbus Blanchard ’06 and Jack Blanchard wed in Kennebunkport, Maine.

(From left) Sam Bisbee '06, bride Dith Pamp '07, groom Eli Fabens, Lilly Richardson '08, Alex Lee '07

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Emily Jacke ejacke@middlebury.edu • Sarah-Anne Tanner tanner.sarahanne@gmail.com From Sarah Tanner—I went to China and

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CLASS NOTES

A CLOSER LOOK

Rebuilding in Nepal Joshua Leslie ’09 After a violent earthquake struck Nepal in April, killing nearly 9,000 people and rendering hundreds of thousands of villagers homeless, Joshua Leslie ’09, a resident of Katmandu, took action. He began collaborating with the organization Buddhist Jana Adhikar Nepal (Buddhist People’s Rights Forum), which he serves as an advisor, to design long-term earthquake-resilient shelters in the village of Okharpauwa in central Nepal.

Village residents could not begin rebuilding their lives without first solving more shortterm problems. “The majority of those affected by the earthquake have been the historically marginalized people of Nepal,” Joshua says. “Providing them with low-cost, long-term shelters, while using sustainable resources, seemed like an immediate problem that had yet to be solved.”

Joshua developed a simple, durable shelter model, so villagers could be trained in the building process. Once they learn how to make the structures and work with tools and bamboo — an easily found local resource — the village residents are not only able to construct their own shelters, but they also can aid others in building homes. Joshua says this shared knowledge is a “sustainable loop, giving citizens the power to regain their lives.”

and Water Resources Congress in Austin this year. • Kyle Cerutti has a young son named Jack—congrats, Kyle! She’s also bartending and taking classes to become a wine specialist. • Josh Throckmorton is in Philadelphia, coaching baseball and coordinating the writing program at Swarthmore College. Hallie Bean is also in Philly, working as a user experience designer for mobile apps, TV, and the web. • Joshua Riddle and Dave Rufful are keeping busy running Young Conservatives, which they founded at NMH. It’s grown into one of the country’s biggest blogs (youngcons.con), receiving 50‒60 million hits a month! Connie Floyd and Marty Tarantino are living outside of Vail, Colo., with their puppy, Bromley, “working at snazzy restaurants,” and volunteering/working at the nonprofit SOS Outreach, which uses the beautiful local landscape to teach underprivileged youth about leadership development. Connie took a trip to Southeast Asia, where she got to visit Up Saksanguanmanoon. • Peter Duplissie-Johnson is out in Portland, Ore., mountain biking, mountaineering, rock climbing, and whitewater rafting. He was an arborist for a year and is now working for an outdoor outfitter, guiding field trips. Last Christmas he and Eli Stiefel ended up at Julia Mix Barrington’s house. • A recent addition to the West Coast group is Harlin Glovacki, who has just taken his dream coffee job working for G&B Coffee in Grand Central Market. He’s been working in specialty coffee and loving it for the last three years, and visited San Lewis Maday-Travis ’07 in Seattle during specialty coffee conventions up there.

He looks forward to getting in touch with West Coast alumni, so reach out to him if you’re out there! • Emily Jacke finished her two-year communications fellowship at the Vermont Community Foundation in June, and took a temporary position as a philanthropic advisor for program and grants. For now, she is living in Vermont, swing dancing, singing, and enjoying getting to work with a group of 40 high school students doing community service work through a local church. • Some folks wrote from overseas: Nick Epstein is working for a travel company that has brought him to Guatemala, Peru, and currently Costa Rica. Renee Forcier is entering her third year at the Atlantic Veterinary College on Prince Edward Island, Canada, pursuing her D.V.M. She will be

Sarah-Anne Tanner ’08 and Yea Eun Kim ’08 in Seoul

90 I NMH Magazine

finishing her two-year term as a representative on the Student American Veterinary Medical Association House of Delegates in July at the AVMA Convention in Boston. After graduating from Bowdoin in 2014, Colin Downey spent a year playing professional hockey in the Alpine ski town of Saint Gervais in France, and is headed back to play again in Paris. Fontaine Burruss is currently working in Copenhagen on part of the redesign of the old Carlsberg brewery. She has completed her first year of a master’s program in urban and regional planning at University of Colorado-Denver. • After graduating from Syracuse University, Abdul Davis went to work with RB—a global leader in health and hygiene. He moved to Toronto last year to work in trade marketing for RB. In May he traveled to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and ran into longtime friends and NMH alumnae Amani Kancey ’07, Blisse Wilkinson ’07, Ayana Christie ’07, and Morgan Wilkinson ’11. • I encourage my ’08 classmates to do the following things: update your contact info with the alumni office; donate—there are some incredible things planned on campus that need our support (contact me if you want to learn more); and read the class notes from the older classes—some great writers are in the mix!

09

Northfield and Mount Hermon

Daisy Letendre daisycletendre@gmail.com From Galen Anderson, a bit of class of ’09 alumni geography—Andrew Taylor is still

living in Arizona. Over the past year, he saw Bill Batty ’59 on Cape Cod; Parker Cohn is in Denver; Jerrell Williams ’07 is in Las Vegas.

• Alex Boll ’07, Dan Foley ’06, Ahmed Nazar ’06, Charlie Wade ’06, Sara Eardensohn ’07, Nick Farhi ’06, Matt Shephard-Lupo ’06, Ty Nash ’07, Theo Samets ’07, Kitty Vieira ’07, Spencer Hattendorf ’08, Arielle Mills ’08, Teresa Ramos ’08, Nicole Dancel, and Derrick Thomas are in New York City. • Pam Chen and Eshalla Merriam are at NMH; and Anthony Naylor ’01, Simon Cohn ’06, Donatus Anamege ’07, Terrell Williams ’07, Chidera Anamege ’08, Warren Dunton, Matt Brown ’10, Evan Cummins ’12, and Zena Edosomwan ’13 are in Phoenix, Ariz.

• Moe Eldib writes, “I finished law school in the U.K. last year, and I am currently working as a corporate and intellectual property lawyer

Connie Floyd ’08 and Marty Tarantino ’08

CLASS NOTES

Up Saksanguanmanoon ’08 and Connie Floyd ’08

at my family’s law firm based in Cairo, Egypt.

Recently, we were the sole representatives in the high-profile case regarding the Al Jazeera journalists that were detained in Egypt.”

10 11

Northfield and Mount Hermon Eli Spector elishsp@gmail.com

Northfield and Mount Hermon Olivia Van Cott vancott.olivia@gmail.com • Nisha Malik nishamalik92@gmail.com • Olivia Wolpe oliviawolpe@gmail.com From Nisha Malik—After graduating from

Mount Holyoke College with a degree in biology and psychology, I am back on the NMH campus to work for reunion and the Upward Bound program. In July I plan to become a certified nurse assistant and, later, to apply to physician assistant school. I can’t believe it is our fifth reunion next year. • Olivia VanCott graduated from Greenfield Community College and plans to move to Portland, Maine. • After graduating cum laude from Dickinson College with a degree in international studies and Russian, Mackenzie King will be working as an English teacher and college counselor at a private high school in Tbilisi, Georgia. • Meghan Cotter graduated from George Washington University, and is currently enjoying a trip to Paris to watch some tennis.

• Merry Lo is going back to Hong King after an eight-year journey at NMH and Boston University. • Earlier in May, Joe Sharkey came back to NMH to attend the 10th annual Batty Roundball classic game. • From Olivia Wolpe—Savannah Yates graduated from nursing school and is studying for her boards.

Morgan Wilkinson (Hampton University) is working in New York in brand strategy for Shea Moisture. Samantha Kirsch (Emerson College) is working full time while trying to figure out the adult life and already forgot to pay her rent. Junius Ross-Martin (Trinity College) is moving to New Orleans in July to pursue his dream of pursuing a dream. Robbie Capistron (Boston College) is moving to New York City to work as an analyst for a financial software company. • Melody Allan (Syracuse

University) has a B.S. in special education, and is moving to Brooklyn to teach fourth grade.

Carlyle Thomes (Emerson College) has a degree in political communications and Instagram, and is moving to Los Angeles in the fall.

Jenna Florio (Pitzer) graduated with a degree in human biology and organismal biology.

She’s moving to Washington, D.C., to study bugs in a malaria lab with the NIH. Milo Korman (University of Chicago) finished with a B.A. in physics and will be pursuing a Ph.D. in physics at Case Western Reserve University this fall, conducting observational cosmology research. • Zach Bitzer (UMass-Dartmouth) has a degree in marketing, and is pursuing an M.B.A. Leeanne Hadsel (Emmanuel College) is a social worker and life skills specialist for developmentally disabled adults. Orelia and Geneva Jonathan (Wesleyan University) are currently in South Sudan working on building a maternity center in the village where their father was born. Alexandra Kenney (National University of Ireland-Galway) finished her B.A. last year, and is currently completing her master’s. Her lacrosse team competed in the European Club Lacrosse Championship in Belgium in September. • Hanson Cheng received his B.F.A. in architecture and will be at RISD for another year to get his B.A. in architecture.

His focus has been on the implications of additive manufacturing in architecture, digital fabrication, urban design, and climate change.

Jamie Williams (NYU) is living in New York City doing standup and looking for a grownup job. Paul Chang (Dartmouth) finished his B.A. in comparative literature and is headed back to Seoul to embark on a career as a rapper.

• Jordan Anderson is working at a cryogenics firm for the summer. Julie McCausland is entering her final year at University of ColoradoBoulder, organizing a drag show and learning German on the side. Henry Ault dropped out of Emory and is currently working at a startup that’s building a personal cloud computer.

Jordan Kreyling hippie-napped himself following a brief and existentially disappointing stint at Skidmore College. Since 2013 he has been nomadically exploring the U.S., living predominantly outside, and performing street music with fellow backpackers, train-hoppers, gutter punks, and Rainbow gatherers. Matilda Brown completed her first year of studying classics at the University of Edinburgh. • As for me, I’m currently submitting this late and eating chocolate for breakfast. Stay soapy, Hoggers!

12

Northfield and Mount Hermon

Parker Peltzer ppeltzer@gmx.com • Wilson Josephson josephsonw@carleton.edu

13

Northfield and Mount Hermon Please send news to: nmhnotes@nmhschool.org

14

Northfield and Mount Hermon Please send news to: nmhnotes@nmhschool.org

The family Heist: from left, Mary Lyman Heist ’49, Sarah ’08, Mariah ’14, Tim ’15, Chris ’17, Sam ’19, Jess ’21, and Charlie ’27

Faculty Joan Pack hpack@nmhschool.org From NMH: Many thanks to Lyn Kellom for her excellent work as news editor for retired faculty! She has contributed robust and engaging columns for many years, and we have been grateful for her dedication to the community. Thank you, Lyn! Joan Pack will take over for the next issue, and we will also be delighted to have a co-secretary if any others are interested. Welcome, Joan! • Claire Montague Smith Underwood has moved to the Big Island of Hawaii with her son, Paul Montague ’78, and daughter-in-law, Edna Armstrong Montague ’78. They will be living in Ocean View in the southern part of the island. They will be expanding the guestroom and hope that many friends will visit and enjoy their new home and large garden. • Jerry Reneau writes, “Since retirement I have found myself happily busy in a ‘second career’ in music. I sing in three regional choral groups, play the organ at church three Sundays a month, take voice lessons once a month at Harvard University from the exceptional baritone, Thomas Jones, and putter vigorously around the farm, doting on four stray cats.

I’ve not been reading much, but I keep scribbling fairly regularly. I’m happy to have reconstituted several friendships with former NMH students by attending reunions.”

KEEP IN TOUCH Address updates addressupdates@nmhschool.org Send news for the magazine nmhnotes@nmhschool.org Join NMH’s online community community.nmhschool.org

fall 2015 I 91

CLASS NOTES

Vital Statistics BI R THS

1987

Eli Gen Victor to Joshua Friedlander and wife Maiko May 15, 2015

2007

Phaedra Ann to Chazz Canney January 7, 2015 M AR R IAG E S

1962

1989

Kit Durgin to Elaine McKinley June 9, 2014

1990

Victoria Kessler to Tom Murphy March 21, 2015

Nicolette and Crispin to Rebecca Soulette November 17, 2014 Caia Bromwyn to Tom Boldt and wife Alanna December 2014

1992

Una Catherine Sara Teresa to Alexis Moore O’Connolly and husband Alex February 15, 2015

1993

Jake to Robin Erthal Corrozi and husband Chris July 11, 2014 Isabella Michelle and Katherine Diana to Celeste Wilhelm Dakai and husband Tom March 24, 2014 Matan Daniel to Robyn Ross Koren and husband Ammon December 9, 2014

1996

Maya Grijalva to Heidi Geis and husband May 10, 2015 Roman Harold to Kelly Dann Thompson and husband Steve May 2015

2001

Caroline Quinn to Lydia Romano Barhight and husband Matt March 12, 2015

2002

John Avery to Sophie Barberich Ward and husband James May 7, 2015 Natnapin Madeleine to Allan Olson and wife Prasra Pam Olson February 27, 2015

92 I NMH Magazine

1964

1969

Grady Houseknecht to Cynthia Martens April 18, 2015

1982

Barbara Salthouse Massoudi to Gregory Carageorge January 18, 2015

1983

Chris Russel to Chelsea Carmichael June 7, 2015 Jason Leahy to Kiley Manahan June 13, 2015

2006

Rachel Forbus Blanchard to Jack Blanchard May 3, 2015

2007

Dith Pamp to Eli Fabens June 13, 2015 D E AT H S

1934

Walter Hastings May 9, 2015 Florence Thomas Melville April 21, 2015

1936

Bill Rowe to Paul Rowe Tollefson February 14, 2015

Dorothy Allen Frese January 17, 2011

1987

1937

Doug Fitts to Liz Busch May 2, 2015

1991

Colleen Thomas to Rodrigo Torres April 8, 2015

1992

Kathy DeWitt to Frank Wetmore December 26, 2013

1999

Caitlin Dourmashkin to Galen Summer September 6, 2014

2001

Bryan Boone to Jodie Barnett March 30, 2015

2002

Vicki Wong to Teddy Cheng ’00 March 21, 2015 Jay Wilson to Olivia Tsipris May 30, 2015

Edith Spaulding Smolen February 19, 2015 Survived by James Spaulding ’39, Howard Spaulding ’42, Robert Helbig ’58, Lance Jillson ’58, Susan Helbig Maddern ’60, Gail Livernoise Noland ’60, James Smolen ’67, Nancy Smolen Chase ’71, Joanne Smolen Freeman ’70, Elizabeth MaddernDeHoyos ’82, Linda Maddern Leduc ’85, Thomas Maddern ’88 Lorraine Hanson Wallace March 16, 2015

1938

Kenneth Foreman April 15, 2015 Ruth Keever Frost January 25, 2013 Gordon Garvin January 23, 2015

Charles Smart Bower April 8, 2012

Paul Allen November 2, 2014

Betty Bradley May 22, 2010

Thomas Asquith July 16, 2015

Nancy Edmondson Jandl January 30, 2015 Survived by Ruth Salmon ’50, Nancy Salmon Hubbard ’57, Diane Crater Tingue ’60, Douglas Crater ’76

Kerry Arnold Douglas May 10, 2015

Shirley Kehl Nelson July 5, 2015 Survived by Janet Kehl Tenney ’43 Michael Zaluzny March 10, 2014 Survived by Colin Fredericks ’96, Justin Fredericks ’99

1940

Emily Foster Clark May 2, 2014 Survived by Marjorie Swett ’68, Trevor W. Swett ’70 Carroll Vernon Cole August 30, 2013 Survived by Barbara Cole Peck ’43

George Wilbur Stowe August 29, 2014 Louis Putnam Willsea February 21, 2015 Survived by Charles Wadhams ’44

1943

Avard Craig January 19, 2015 George Irish June 3, 2015 John Moodie May 1, 2015

1944

Frank Burnham September 18, 2010

Ann Merrill Benbow April 12, 2015 Survived by Dana Benbow ’69, Elizabeth Benbow Harrison ’70, Virginia Fitzgerald ’71, Katherine Benbow Ehrenberger ’73

Richard Fowler January 13, 2015

Lee Baldwin Mehl June 6, 2015

Richard Gale February 28, 2015

E. Cortright Phillips November 27, 2010

Alfred Leonard July 12, 2014

Philip Smith January 31, 2015

Theodore Parkins April 12, 2015

Olga Zaluzny Williams July 26, 2007 Survived by Colin Fredericks ’96, Justin Fredericks ’99

William Gilmour February 8, 2012 Helen Hughes May 26, 2015

1941

Janet Taylor Spence March 16, 2015 Survived by Christine Taylor Frazier ’44, Jonathan Frazier ’69, Taylor Frazier ’11

Douglas Maltby November 23, 2013

1939

Elinor Peck Severinghaus March 16, 2015 Survived by William Peck ’45, Dorothy Peck Foster ’52, Wendy Severinghaus ’76, William Foster ’78, Andrew Foster ’79, Paul Foster ’83

1942

1945

Marilyn Crafter Kiscaden May 18, 2015 Thomas Purdum September 21, 2013 Survived by Barbara Solms Lloyd ’51, Charles Solms ’54, Stephanie Solms McCusker ’84,

CLASS NOTES Lucas Solms ’11 Ralph Schwaikert March 8, 2015 Morris Weinstein May 11, 2015

1946

Carolyn Livingston Epes November 2, 2014 Peter Hanson March 8, 2015 Survived by Nancy Hanson Stevenson ’50, Oliver Woshinsky ’57, Richard Easton ’68, Christopher Hanson ’74, Timothy Hayes ’82, Jennifer Hanson ’84, Kristin Hanson Martin ’84, Erik Hanson ’86, Eric N. Hanson ’87, Katherine Jetto ’04 Jane Everett Haslun February 17, 2015 Survived by Erik Haslun ’82 Donald Burbank Madden September 29, 2013 Joan Crowther Walther March 8, 2015

1947

Albert Case October 30, 2014 John E. Hall July 24, 2015 Sylvia J. Jander July 19, 2015 Survived by Owen Jander ’81 Joanne Murdick Noyes February 12, 2015 Survived by Ruth Murdick Walker ’52 Mary Lou Brown Wallace June 14, 2015 Survived by Suzanne Brown Longacre ’52, Tracy Longacre ’79, Timothy Longacre ’82, Alexander Wallace ’02, Elizabeth Wallace ’04

1948

Marcia Boulton Allen March 5, 2015 Joseph Marini Died in 1987, no date available Sally Buxton Parker Murdoch May 29, 2015 Nancy Westmoreland Shahan

August 21, 2014 Robert Sisson October 26, 2014 Survived by Marjorie Sisson Lloyd ’50

1949

Robert Grayson February 15, 2015 Elaine Harris McGahey October 18, 2014

1950

Stephen Craig September 23, 2009 Survived by Janet Craig Grossman ’81, Peter Craig ’85 Susan Blake Hood March 8, 2015 Beverly Carpenter Lewis April 27, 2015 Survived by Carol Lewis ’71, Philip Lewis ’76 Harriet Refo Locke May 4, 2015 Heinrich Andreas von Biel April 28, 2015 Willard Wyman February 25, 2014

1951

Sandra Koger Bussey November 16, 2012 William Butler April 18, 2015 Cynthia Taylor Ruttig March 25, 2015 Daniel Schwenk April 4, 2015 Frederick Simpson April 24, 2015 Chester Towne March 5, 2015

1952

Nancelee MacKay Glerum January 14, 2015 Survived by Margaret MacKay Novisky ’60 Shirley Wells King April 5, 2015 Survived by Margery Garland Nickerson ’44, Eleanor Osterman Caddell ’47

1953

Philip Henderson January 29, 2015 Gregory Kendall May 12, 2015

Althea Krause Leyon February 17, 2015 Roscoe Stevenson June 26, 2015

1954

Janice Niebuhr Avery February 7, 2015 Survived by Jacquelyn Niebuhr Schlappi ’57

1955

Howard Knust April 16, 2015 Janet Dundee Lapey February 24, 2015 Douglas Whyte November 26, 2014

1956

Charlene Fletcher Cobb March 4, 2015 Nancy Froiland Lower March 15, 2015 Gretchen Schaff December 24, 2014 Survived by Martha Schaff Helmreich ’54 Holly Cullum Walker April 23, 2015 Survived by October Cullum Frost ’50, Rainer Frost ’76, Michael Thomas ’02

1957

Dana Boothby Lawrence January 14, 2015 Survived by Helen Small Weishaar ’41, Celia Lawrence Rice ’60, Marianne Weishaar Hirschman ’64, Marjorie Weishaar ’68, Katherine Hirschman ’89 William Moebus May 23, 2015 Survived by Nancy Moebus Heuston ’59, Mary Moebus Yedlin ’69, Ann Moebus Snobeck ’71 Mary Cookson von Schreiner April 27, 2015 Survived by Maria von Schreiner-Valenti ’90, granddaughter Gratia ’16

1958

L. Tappan Holt February 22, 2015

1965

Jolyn Vargish Rosenthal August 1, 1996 Survived by Thomas Vargish ’62

1966

Frances Forshew Woodcock Mevay March 1, 2014 Survived by Mary Woodcock Karlsson ’63

1967

Gretchen Christol Langdon March 21, 2015

1968

Stanley Avery October 23, 2013 Nancy Burnett May 14, 2015 Survived by Alan Burnett ’62, Curtis Ambler ’64, David Burnett ’64, Anne Wheelock Sedgwick ’65, Tracy Ambler ’67, Marjorie Burnett ’74 Stephen Cole March 7, 2015 Survived by W. Graham Cole ’61, Andrew Cole ’12

1970

Deborah Jackimek May 30, 2015

1971

James Glasscock February 8, 2015 Survived by Pamela Glasscock ’68, Charles Glasscock ’72, Susan Glasscock ’75

1972

David Ishihara May 9, 2015 Ross Miller February 3, 2015

1978

Joann Parzych Olsen May 19, 2015 Survived by Joseph Parzych ’49

1983

Mary Talbot June 10, 2015

1984

1959

Ann McAllister Collins March 13, 2015 Survived by Timothy McAllister ’74, Mark

1961

McAllister ’78, Katherine McAllister ’03

Elizabeth Blake Hinkley February 17, 2015 Henry Kazanowski February 23, 2015

February 16, 2015 Survived by Jodi Tsapis ’85

1986

Thomas Louderback May 11, 2015 Survived by James Louderback ’79, Susan Louderback ’84

1997

Jesse Marquis Immler April 8, 2015 Survived by Sasha Immler ’00

2001

Krystyna Kukla-Soulia June 25, 2015 Survived by Katherine Schroeder ’15

2015

Dylan Sage Refeld March 27, 2015 F O R ME R FA C ULTY & S TA F F Edward Augliano April 12, 2015 Stephen Barber May 8, 2015 Veronica Baxter May 23, 2015 F. Benjamin Carr February 21, 2015 Survived by F. Benjamin Carr ’73, Jonathan Carr ’80, Andrew Rawson ’84 McAlister Coleman January 31, 2015 Patricia V. Corrigan July 7, 2015 Penelope Giles January 26, 2015 Priscilla Howland March 3, 2015 Anne Reuben March 7, 2015 Neil Smith November 20, 2014 Ruth Tuller March 15, 2015 Margaret Urquhart February 16, 2015 Ann Wight May 15, 2015

Adam Tsapis

fall 2015 I 93

CLASS NOTES

In Memoriam Mark Jander ’50

Mark Henry Jander ’50, known affectionately as “Commander Jander” to Northfield Mount Hermon students during his tenure as a physics teacher and girls’ soccer coach, died Jan. 15, 2015, at home in Vancouver, Washington. He was 80 years old.

Jander was born in Mt. Kisco, New York, on March 31, 1934, to Henry and Ann (Hughes) Jander. The youngest of four siblings, he lived in Westport, Connecticut, until 1944, when the family moved to Tangier Island in Chesapeake Bay. In 1946, Mark Jander entered Mount Hermon as a freshman and graduated in 1950 at 16. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business at the University of Virginia, and while there, he met Nancy Jo Craven, whom he married shortly after graduation. From 1954 to 1957, Jander served in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper with the 127th Airborne Engineer Battalion in Munich, Germany. (He extended his military service in the Army Reserves, retiring in 1994.) He returned to UVA, earning a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering in 1961; then got a master’s in physics at Morgan State University in 1973; and also pursued graduate studies at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.

Jander worked as a press superintendent at Doubleday in Smithsburg, Maryland, and as a plant manager at Snyder’s Potato Chips and Pretzels in Hanover, Pennsylvania. In 1969, he made the radical switch from business to academia, signing on as a physics teacher at a public high school in Maryland and then at the Berkshire School in Sheffield, Massachusetts. He left Berkshire in 1978 to accept a physics teaching position at NMH. Enrollment in physics classes increased rapidly during Jander’s tenure. He and his colleagues boosted that trend with an annual physics demonstration at an all-school assembly that included, among

Mark Jander

94 I NMH Magazine

B Y N O EL L E A NS ON

other props, a bed of nails. “We took turns performing — one week at Mount Hermon and the next week at Northfield,” says retired physics teacher Hughes Pack. “Mark was the calm, wise voice of reason and knowledge. The rest of us ran around like goofballs.”

Jander also coached girls’ soccer, girls’ lacrosse, and swimming.

Athletic all his life, he inspired a love of sports and teamwork in his players. He “taught a bunch of teenagers that regardless of outcomes, you’ve got to be in the game,” says Ellen Bossert ’82, a member of the 1980–81girls’ soccer team — coached by Jander — that was inducted into the NMH Athletic Hall of Fame in 2011. He taught students that “you have to own and embrace who you are despite your imperfections, and action trumps everything,” Bossert says.

In 1995, the Janders moved to Gig Harbor, Washington, near Tacoma, where Jander continued his teaching career at Charles Wright Academy until his retirement in 2008.

Jander was a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church and multiple professional organizations, and was involved in political and social causes. He also enjoyed choral singing, dancing, travel, and raising money for NMH. He received an NMH Alumni Citation in 2010 and the Lamplighter Award (posthumously) in 2015.

Jander is survived by his daughter, Holly Jander Williams; two sons, Kevin and Owen ’81; four grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his wife and his brother Kent. His other siblings, Owen Jander ’47 and Sylvia Jander ’47, alive at the time of his death, have also since died. Memorial donations may be made to Northfield Mount Hermon, One Lamplighter Way, Mount Hermon, MA 01354; the Fort Vancouver Regional Library Foundation, P.O. Box 2384, Vancouver, WA 98668; or the Tangier Island Health Foundation, Irvington, VA 22480.

CLASS NOTES

Carl “Sandy” Perkins

Dr. Carl Wakefield Perkins III, M.D., known to all as “Sandy” during his years at Northfield Mount Hermon, died unexpectedly of a heart attack on May 11, 2015, at the age of 67, while vacationing in the south of France.

Perkins was a thoughtful, precise, dedicated physician who led NMH’s O’Connor Health and Wellness Center for 22 years. He officially retired from NMH as director of Student Health Services in 2010, but stayed on part time until 2014.

Perkins was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on March 11, 1948, one of three sons of Carl Wakefield (Jr.) and Ruth Jean (Gibson) Perkins.

He attended schools in Norwich, Connecticut, and graduated from Norwich Free Academy in 1966. In 1970, he received his bachelor’s degree cum laude in chemistry from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

He earned his medical degree in 1974 from Saint Louis University in St. Sandy Perkins Louis, Missouri, and was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. During this time, he married, and he and his first wife, Kathi, had two sons.

After his internship and residency at Charles S. Wilson Memorial Hospital in Johnson City, New York, Perkins was certified by the American Board of Family Practice in 1977, and joined a small family practice group in White River Junction, Vermont. He also held part-time posts at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital in Lebanon, New Hampshire; served as regional medical examiner; as school physician in Hartford, Vermont; and was involved with hospice and other community-based health care programs. Perkins’s other interests included singing, playing guitar, running, skiing, camping, and fishing.

In 1987, Bob Latourelle, a friend and former fraternity brother who worked in the admission office at NMH, told Perkins of an opening for a physician at the school. Perkins and his family, which now included an adopted son, Khun Porl, moved to NMH in September 1988, taking up residence in Duley House across from the Northfield campus.

At NMH, Perkins continued to make music, ski, and run, and he biked the round trip from his home to O’Connor and back. He also served as the school physician in the Pioneer Valley Regional School District, part-time emergency-room doctor at Baystate Franklin Medical Center, and doctor for the Franklin County House of Correction.

Tim McCabe wrote in a 2010 retirement tribute that Perkins was a “knowledgeable, respectful physician” who had “ushered in a new era of medical practice” at NMH. “Recognizing that the words ‘infirmary’ or ‘medical center’ had negative connotations, Sandy used the term ‘health center’ instead. Sandy also brought mental health services under the umbrella of health services because he felt they naturally complemented each other.” Perkins’s former assistant, Mary Parrott, called him “a nice, easygoing boss, but more important, a terrific doctor who went the extra mile for his patients.”

Sandy Perkins is survived by his second wife, retired NMH psychologist Mary Beth Whiton; sons Dustin ’91 and Jason ’93, their spouses and their mother; son Khun Porl; nine grandchildren; two stepchildren; and two brothers and their families.

Carroll Rikert Jr. ’34

Carroll Rikert Jr. ’34, trustee emeritus of Northfield Mount Hermon, died peacefully at the Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca, New York, on June 12, 2015, at the age of 97.

Rikert was a lifelong supporter of Northfield Mount Hermon; he served as a trustee from 1951 to 1981. At his 80th reunion in June 2014, he received the Alumni Association’s annual Lamplighter Award, NMH’s biggest alumni honor, for his service to the school.

Born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, on March 31, 1918, to Carroll and Dorothy Rikert, young Carroll was the first of four children and the only boy. As a child, he lived in North Farmhouse on the Mount Hermon campus, where his father was director of the physical plant.

According to a memorial tribute prepared by his family, Rikert found joy in the physical work of the school. “Farm tasks provided a source of adventure and accomplishment through his childhood and young adulthood. Riding in a truck with Rene Phelps, loading hay wagons in Purple Meadow, emptying a railcar of coal destined for the school heating plant — all provided a wonderful education and a source of lifetime pride.”

Rikert attended local schools before enrolling at Mount Hermon, and he graduated at 16 in 1934, just three months before the murder on campus of Headmaster Elliott Speer. He entered Harvard, earning a bachelor’s degree in history in 1938 and an M.B.A. in 1940 from Harvard Business School. He served briefly as an ensign in the United States Navy during World War II and then began a career as a CPA with the accounting firm Haskins & Sells, first in New York City and then in Orange, New Jersey. Rikert met his future wife, Jane Wilson, at their fathers’ 25th Harvard reunion; they married in 1943 and eventually had four children.

In 1946, Rikert joined the financial office at Brown University, and then, six years later, he became the business manager at Middlebury College, where he would spend the next three decades.

In 1964, he was named treasurer of the college, overseeing personnel, the physical plant, and the finance office. Over the next 19 years, Middlebury’s endowment grew from $15 million to more than $100 million, due in large part to Rikert’s fierce fiscal restraint. He advocated for Carroll Rikert Jr. operational transparency and initiated the push to extend retirement benefits to staff as well as faculty, earning the respect and the fondness of the community. When Rikert, an avid skier, retired in 1983, Middlebury named a women’s skiing trophy after him and, a year later, named its Nordic ski area at Breadloaf for him and Jane.

After retiring, Carroll and Jane Rikert moved to Rockport, Maine, where they got involved in local organizations and traveled frequently: England, China, Egypt, and Alaska were among their trips. In 2000, they made their final move to Ithaca, New York. Jane Rikert died in 2006.

Rikert is survived by his children, David Rikert ’63, Rachel Rikert Burbank ’65, Hannah Rikert Morvan ’66, and Jon Corson-Rikert ’69; their spouses; 11 grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren.

fall 2015 I 95

PARTING WORDS

Goodnight Clock, Goodnight Moon

A recent graduate remembers an old landmark as she starts a new life.

by CAROLINA GOMEZ ’15

I have lost count of how many times I have confused the Memorial Chapel clock for a full moon. When walking out of my dorm on the way to the library, a dim yellow full circle catching the corner of my eye. When peering out of my bedroom window, searching for other rooms with their lights on, wondering if anyone else on campus is as restless as I am. When playing Capture the Flag on Thorndike Field on a Friday night.

At first, I was frustrated with myself for repeatedly confusing a clock for a moon. I mean, they are two pretty different things. One is in the sky, and the other is only a couple hundred feet above my head. One comes and goes, steadily drifting in and out of sight, while the other one never moves.

One is somewhat unreliable; the other is always there.

And that is when I realized that I subconsciously wanted to confuse the chapel clock for the moon. Now I bet you’re thinking, “Great, this girl is delusional.” But this is where I can thank the NMH English department for teaching me to make far-out — potentially a little overshot — connections like this one: The chapel clock will always be there, even after I’ve left campus. It will still chime every 30 minutes. On a cloudy night, when

96 I NMH Magazine

the moon is invisible, the clock will be completely clear. And next year, when I look up at the real moon wishing I was still perched on that beautifully secluded hill, there will be an NMH student looking at the clock, watching those ticking hands, counting down the minutes until they graduate.

Underneath that chapel clock is where we all started. Together. Over time, we became busy. We all changed.

We decided what we were going to do, and where we were going to go. While we lived our racing lives on campus, learning, maturing a little more each day, that chapel clock changed not one bit. It patiently sat there, watching us as we found ourselves.

We didn’t appreciate it in the beginning. We didn’t think about the day when it would no longer serve as our meeting place, bringing us together.

When we wouldn’t be able to listen to its chime, knowing that somewhere across campus, our friend was listening to that same chime. We sometimes disregard what we have and, instead, long for what we don’t have. We all looked up at that clock’s hands, waiting to get one day closer to vacation. One day closer to graduating. One day closer to leaving for good.

So I encourage you to think about that chapel clock. Take a mental picture; wait for its bells to chime in your head, and take note of the feeling you have. Think about how thankful you

“ Underneath that chapel clock is where we all started.

Together.” were for all those times its half-hour chime saved you from being late for sign-in, and for its photogenicness, making every picture of it an amazing Instagram. Think, too, about how grateful you are to have been a part of the NMH community. Every single moment, every single cycle those hands completed during your time at NMH, you made some sort of impact upon this community.

In the coming years, when you are out walking at night, wherever you may be, and the moon catches your eye, maybe you will confuse it for the chapel clock. Maybe you will be reminded of the life you lived up on that hill. Maybe you will remember who you were when you first got to NMH, and how you grew into who you are now. Maybe you will break into a smile. I know I will. [NMH] Gomez submitted this essay as a potential Senior Oration for Commencement. Instead, she delivered it at an all-school meeting last May. She will attend Boston University.

PHOTO: COUR TESY OF CAROLINA GOMEZ

GIVING BACK

Dig Deep DAVID AND NANCY BELLETETE “YOU DON’T KNOW YOUR CAPABILITIES UNTIL YOU’RE CHALLENGED.” Ask David Belletete ’76 why Northfield Mount Hermon holds such a special place in his heart and he doesn’t miss a beat. “I wouldn’t have met my wife Nancy if it weren’t for NMH,” he says. Nancy’s brother-inlaw, classmate Mark Duprey ’76, introduced the two. Belletete also says he came away from NMH with an appreciation for the importance of challenging oneself.

“I went to NMH from Jaffrey, New Hampshire — a very small town — and going to a bigger school was a life-changing experience, with tremendous opportunities athletically, academically, and socially. I encountered stiff competition and it forced me to dig deep. I learned that if you work hard, you will succeed. You don’t know your capabilities until you’re challenged.”

That lesson is one the Belletetes feel their daughters Celia ’12, Camille ’14, and Lillian ’17 have learned at NMH as well. “NMH taught our daughters to be independent and take charge of their lives,” Nancy observes. “They learned that they had to be organized and manage their time wisely. The faculty and staff are always there for the students, but they must advocate for themselves.”

The Belletetes believe that supporting the NMH Fund is the best way to maintain the quality of students, faculty, and facilities that make the school special. “A robust financial aid program helps maintain the diversity of the student body, which we believe is one of the school’s greatest assets,” says David. “I enjoyed NMH tremendously 35 years ago — it was a great place, with wonderful students and a great campus — but it’s even better today, and we want to do our part to keep it strong.”

—Lori Ferguson

PHOTO: MICHAEL SEAMANS

NMH

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