NMH Magazine 2015 Spring

NMH Magazine

15 spring

volume 17 • number 1

Northfield Mount Hermon

Their films premiere at festivals around the world.

Their philosophy began at NMH.

THE

TRIBE

NMH Magazine SPRING 2015 Volume 17, Number 1 Editor Jennifer Sutton P ’14 Contributors Sharon LaBella-Lindale Susan Pasternack Harry van Baaren Hannah Wareham Design Lilly Pereira Class Notes Editor Kris Halpin Class Notes Design HvB Imaging Director of Communications Cheri Cross Head of School Peter B. Fayroian Chief Advancement Officer Allyson L. Goodwin ’83, P ’12, P ’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 spring

volume 17 • number 1

features

20 The Tribe

Their films premiere at festivals around the world. Their work philosophy began at NMH.

26 Talking About Ferguson The shooting death of Michael Brown opened up important conversations.

34 Learn, Build, Act.

NMH forges ahead with a new strategic plan.

38 Dear Seniors

Ninth graders need advice.

Seniors give it. Empathy happens.

departments

3 Leading Lines

5 Tribute

6 NMH Postcard

8 NMH Journal

14 Movers & Makers 16 In the Classroom 18 Past Present 44 Alumni Hall 46 Class Notes 96 Parting Words < < AT BL UE L AKE NMH students take a break while hiking the Tongariro Crossing on New Zealand’s North Island.

The group spent five weeks in February and March traveling through the country with faculty.

ON THE COVE R Filmmakers (l–r) Ethan Palmer ’96, Andrew Neel ’97, Luke Meyer ’97, and Tom Davis.

C O V E R PH O TO : D E N N I S B U R N E TT TA B L E O F C O N TE N TS : G L E N N M I N S H A L L

LETTERS

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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LEADING LINES

Big Plans Join us in shaping the future of NMH.

by PETER B. FAYROIAN, Head of School

When spring came at last to NMH, the days got longer and brighter, the ground finally began to yield, and there was an indefinable but unmistakable buoyancy in the air.

The words “strategic plan” don’t exactly fit that feeling. They aren’t in anyone’s top 10. If you ask students about their favorite words, as one of our English teachers did recently, they say “lugubrious” or “alchemy,” “romp” or “glisten.” They say “festival.” Not “strategic plan.”

That’s because strategic plans are known to be dull, obligatory documents that schools produce at regular intervals, which then molder away on a shelf, on an abandoned hard drive, or (these days) in the muffled layers of the Cloud. Often, they are outdated before they are printed, or enable only a few good changes before sputtering out.

In 1957, Dwight D. Eisenhower declared that “plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” This spring, as we prepare to roll out our strategic plan — our vision for what an NMH education should be, our direction for the future, and our priorities for the next three to five years — we are aware of the need to have more than just a plan. We have tried to create a way to keep our planning in the present tense. We’ve set priorities, yes; we’ve shared our common goals and vision, yes. But we do this knowing that we will need to constantly critique and measure ourselves to make sure what we’re doing is the right thing for students.

During this past year of visioning, students have been at the heart of every conversation. Associate Head of School Sharon Howell smartly shepherded us through the process, which led to the trustees’ endorsement of the plan last winter. I’m deeply appreciative of Dr. Howell’s work, and that of our trustees — especially the outgoing chair, Bill Shea — and our Alumni Council, parents of our students, and the entire faculty and staff.

You will read in the pages of this magazine about a few of the big priorities we have identified, and which will determine our work in the coming years: educational and academic innovation, reinvention of our science and math curriculum, and robust investment in financial aid.

These priorities provide powerful directives for us as a school: to continue building a strong, diverse faculty; to make sure our facilities support our

P H O T O : K AT H L E E N D O O H E R

programs; and to keep NMH on course to be financially and in every way sustainable. We’ve developed initiatives that will improve the school and bring new coherence and energy to existing programs.

A Center for Learning Through Action will provide an experientialeducation hub, bringing together our international education, service learning, workjob, and farm programs while also creating an incubation space for initiatives such as a new social entrepreneurship course.

We will re-examine our advising and student life programs to better support and engage our incredibly diverse community.

And we will renew our commitment to sustainable practices in the classroom and on this beautiful campus, teaching students the habits of resilience and stewardship.

So, that buoyancy in the air is not only spring; it is a new sense of possibility and direction. Our planning has spanned many months, and the result is the product of hundreds of conversations with everyone from faculty to parents to students past and present. In the words of one alumnus, the plan “does a fantastic job of honoring NMH’s mission and past, while at the same time moving it forward”; and a current faculty member says, “I feel proud to work for a school that is moving in this direction.”

We are thrilled to be able to share our plan with you (p. 34), and hope that you will take part in making it a reality in the months and years to come. [NMH]

spring 2015 I 3

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November 20, 1965 Do you remember this day? The Silliman Science Laboratory caught fire during an NMH– Deerfield football game, the teams played on as the building burned, and spectator Robert Van Fleet captured what would become an iconic image. NMH Magazine will recognize the 50th anniversary of the making of this photograph in the Fall 2015 issue, and we need your help. Share your recollections of this day by contacting us at nmhmagazine@nmhschool.org.

I NMH Magazine The 4NMH bookstore

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

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Northfield Mount Hermon

TRIBUTE

Mary Duffie Seymour 1958–2015 In the eyes of Mary Seymour, the former editor of this magazine, peanut M&M’s qualified as a major food group.

She liked to keep a glass jar of them on her desk, which guaranteed her a steady stream of afternoon visitors. When she was working on deadline, you could hear that glass jar clink open and closed more frequently than usual. “They have protein,” she insisted.

Mary died in January at the age of 56.

She was a graceful, soulful writer and a funny, compassionate colleague who anchored the communications work of Northfield Mount Hermon from 1996 to 2008 and guided the magazine to multiple national awards.

One of the final stories she created in these pages was about alumni who changed careers in midlife. Mary did the same thing, leaving NMH to earn a master’s degree in counseling and become a therapist in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was a transformation that grew out of her own struggle with mental illness, which she kept sufficiently quiet that most people had no idea of the torment that lay beneath her confident, stylish surface.

Mary took her own life after battling bipolar disorder for more than two decades. A few of her former NMH colleagues understood that her life was a roller coaster, so the news of her death, though heartbreaking, began to feel like less of a surprise. Those colleagues also reminded us how incredibly hard Mary worked to manage her disease and do the things she loved: raising her son, Gabe Milici ’07; riding and taking care

PHOTO: MICHAEL DW YER

Mary Seymour frequently rode and cared for the horses on the NMH Farm.

of horses; honing her skills as a mosaic artist; writing.

We knew Mary as a smart, talented storyteller who dressed up for work, eschewing sturdy western Massachusetts footwear for high heels. She was a natural at talking to all kinds of people and finding out what motivated them, then translating those conversations into smooth, lyrical prose. She was a generous writer, and wasn’t above the occasional gushing phrase — because she saw the good in everyone. Behind the scenes, she had a dry, acerbic sense of humor — because she saw the absurdities in everyone, too.

In 2002, Mary described her experience with mental illness in an essay published in Newsweek magazine. Titled “Call Me Crazy, but I Have to Be Myself,” the essay was anthologized in several collections and used as a teaching tool for college writing courses. It hints at Mary’s future as a counselor. “What I

yearn for most is to integrate both sides of myself,” she wrote. “I want to be part of the normal world but I also want to own my identity as bipolar. I want people to know what I’ve been through so I can help those traveling a similar path.”

For the past several years, she did just that, as the director of recovery initiatives at the Mental Health Association in Greensboro and as a therapist at Tree of Life Counseling. She also led workshops in using mosaic art as a metaphor for recovery. She wrote about her colorful mosaics, which were made with pieces of broken plates: “Something whole and supposedly perfect can be shattered and re-formed, and the result is beautifully complex, perfect in its imperfection.”

Besides her son, Mary is survived by her parents, Polly and Thaddeus; two sisters, including Abigail Seymour ’85; two brothers; 16 nieces and nephews; Rey Milici, Gabe’s father; and her horse, Mystic. [NMH]

spring 2015 I 5

NMH POSTCARD

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NMH JOURNAL

COMO SE LLAMA? Actually, it’s an alpaca, making an appearance at NMH’s annual Farmer’s Market Teach-In Day. P H O T O : D AV I D WA R R E N

spring 2013 I 7

NMH JOURNAL

Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists and the authors of Half the Sky and A Path Appears, brought their message of compassionate activism to campus in March.

Finding a Path Get off the couch and do something, no matter how small, to change the world. That was the invitation that Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn offered students when they visited campus in early spring to talk about their latest book, A Path Appears, which also is a documentary film that aired on PBS earlier this year.

8 I NMH Magazine

“Find ways to get out of your comfort zone, whether that’s in Kenya or Massachusetts,” Kristof urged. “If you open your heart and open your mind, you can transform a life,” WuDunn added.

Cliché? Yes, but underlying Kristof and WuDunn’s platitudes are decades of hardcore international data-gathering.

Kristof, an op-ed columnist for The New York Times, and WuDunn, a banker and former journalist, earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for their reporting during the pro-democracy student movement in China and the Tiananmen Square protests. Their first book and documentary film, Half the Sky, called attention to the oppression of women and girls around the world and has been compared to Rachel Carson’s A Silent Spring for its potential as a catalyst for change. A Path Appears tells stories of regular people developing solutions to pressing social problems and offers guidance on how readers can do the same.

“Kristof and WuDunn don’t only show us the violence and the darkness of our world, but also the glimpses of hope and light that we can create,” said Farah Omer ’15 as she introduced the husband-wife team in Memorial Chapel. The talk was part of NMH’s Jacqueline Smethurst Speaker Series.

WuDunn’s advice to students: “Take your skills and apply them.” Develop your empathy; share your money. For

PH O TO : J O S H U A B E N N E TT/ S H O W O F FO R CE

Two $1 Million Gifts Boost NMH’s Future Plans

“ K ristof and WuDunn’s first book, Half the Sky, has been compared to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring as a potential catalyst for change.”

example, there are 60 million elementary-school-age children in the world who aren’t in school, but “it’s pretty cheap to get a bunch of people together and keep a kid in school in Nairobi,” Kristof said. “It may feel like a drop in the bucket, but that’s how you fill the bucket.” To older students, he and WuDunn suggested taking a gap year between high school and college to learn about the world and how they, as individuals, could best contribute to society.

They also advised students to talk, loudly, about what they discover. That’s why Kristof and WuDunn frequently enlist celebrities like Jennifer Garner and Mia Farrow to accompany them on their research trips around the world.

Improving early childhood education in poor communities, reducing rates of teen pregnancy and violence against women — “These kinds of issues only get resources when we shine the light on them,” Kristof said. “You all have your own spotlight, whether it’s Facebook, dinner-table conversations, classes.

Where the media drops the ball, you can pick it up.”

Before the NMH Board of Trustees even got a chance to approve the school’s new strategic plan earlier this year, two alumni proclaimed their approval with separate $1 million gifts for the school’s academic and financial-aid programs.

William R. Rhodes ’53, chairman emeritus of the NMH Board of Trustees, donated his cash gift to endow a new course in social entrepreneurship. Current trustee Betsy Compton ’72 has created an endowed scholarship fund in honor of her father, former faculty member and dean Bill Compton ’44, who worked at NMH from 1957 to 1992.

The Rhodes Fellowship Course in Social Entrepreneurship will begin as a pilot program this fall, training students to create actual businesses aimed at finding innovative solutions to social, environmental, economic, or educational problems. The course will initially be offered to six juniors — with enrollment expanding in subsequent semesters — who will collaborate with NMH faculty and staff and also with mentors at New England colleges and universities.

The course will enable NMH to be a leader among other independent schools in “teaching students to take a creative business approach to doing social good,” according to Associate Head of School Sharon Howell. “The goal is that our students will gain an understanding that what is in their own interest is also in the interest of others and of the planet.”

Besides chairing the board of trustees for 12 years, Rhodes led the funding for the 63,000-square-foot Rhodes Arts Center, constructed in 2007.

Compton, a former “fac brat” on campus, has served on the board of trustees for 11 years and has a long history backing NMH. She has Top: William Rhodes ’53 Bottom: Betsy ’72 and devoted multiple gifts to the school’s athletic Bill Compton ’44 programs, including one of the lower soccer fields, which is named in honor of her family. Her most recent gift funded a new faculty home in memory of her mother, longtime librarian Mary L. Compton ’44.

“We are grateful for these two timely and transformative gifts,” says Head of School Peter Fayroian. “The new entrepreneurship course can offer students an experience that will start preparing them to be the kind of leaders we all want to see in the world. And Betsy has a deep appreciation for providing opportunities to all students, regardless of their families’ financial resources. She learned this from her parents and from living, working, and learning on the NMH campus.”

P H O TO S : C L A I R E B A R C L AY, S TU A R T C A H I L L

spring 2015 I 9

NMH JOURNAL

THE SHOT

OVER THE T O P I Joseph Gottfried ’15 was one of several NMH wrestlers who cleaned up during post-season competition. Shown here wrestling in James Gym, Gottfried, along with teammates Aidan Conroy ’15, Marcus Cross ’15, Jake Wilson ’15, Justin Kim ’15, and Colby Boudreau ’16, was named to NEPSAC’s All New England team; Conroy and Gottfried were New England champions in their respective weight classes. At the National Prep Championships at Lehigh University, three NMH wrestlers were named All Americans, with Gottfried placing 4th in the country in his weight class, Cross placing 6th, and Conroy placing 8th.

HEAVY HITTE R S

Alpine skiers Nick Bertrand ’16 and Camila Goclowski ’17 took the No. 1 places on the Mount Institute Ski League’s All-League male and female teams. They were also named to NEPSAC’s All-New England team, along with Elisabeth Grondin ’16, Zach Leeds ’16, and Pablo Borra Paley ’16. Goclowski, Bertrand, Leeds, and Alex Brooke ’18 were named to U16 and U18 post-season teams by the U.S. Ski Association.

Nordic skiers Estevan Velez ’16, Loulou Tanski ’15, Eva Laubach ’15, and Nevada Powers ’16 were

10 I NMH Magazine

named to the All-NEPSAC team; Velez, Tanski, Powers, and Toby Weed ’17 were named to the AllLakes Region team.

Sullivan ’15, Jackson Donahue ’15, Collin McManus ’15, and Daquon Ervin ’15 were named McDonald’s All-American nominees.

Girls’ varsity basketball players Tayler White ’15, Vanessa Udoji ’16, and Angie Marazzi ’16 were named NEPSAC Class A All Stars.

The boys’ varsity basketball team made its third consecutive trip to the National Championship Final Four.

Basketball forward Aaron Falzon ’15 was named NEPSAC AAA Player of the Year — the first time a member of the NMH boys’ basketball team has achieved that honor. Falzon also set a single-game NMH scoring record with 45 points in a win against Bridgton Academy.

Boys’ varsity basketball players Jahshanti Allen ’15, Chris

Udoji, Ervin, and Falzon each scored their 1,000th point this season.

PH O TO : R I S L E Y S PO R TS PH O TO G R A PH Y

NMH JOURNAL

WE ASKED ON FACEBOOK :

What skills did you learn during “workjob” that you still use today?

KYLER CH AVE Z ’05

“Started as a dishwasher in West Hall. Now I run restaurants for a living.

Workjob was the start of my career.”

FOR THE RECORD

“ F or anyone engaged in science, or in any creative, innovative endeavor, march away from the sounds of the drums. There you’ll find the room to discover things, and you’ll make your own sounds.”

ED WA RD O. WI LS ON, professor emeritus at Harvard University, spoke on campus in April as part of the school’s Science for the 21st Century Speaker Series. Wilson, a renowned biologist and author, is considered the world’s leading expert in myrmecology, the study of ants, and the originator of the concepts of biodiversity and sociobiology.

He is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

MEGAN SC H E C K ’93

“ I got very good at mucking stalls. I’m a high school English teacher, so shoveling manure is a skill that can come in handy.”

LYN TRANF IELD B E N N E T T ’74

“Peeling potatoes and unjamming a copier.

Also, the importance of everyone pitching in.”

KAREN HOFF MC M AH O N ’69

“It added to my patience — made me a better mom of three boys and a better social worker for the past 38 years.”

WIL EVERH AR T ’66

“I can still make meatloaf for 600 without checking a recipe.”

FOLLOW NMH ON FACEBOOK.

PHOTO: JIM HARRISON

spring 2015 I 11

NMH JOURNAL

WHO•WHAT •W H Y

Beyond Unisex A new kind of bathroom makes a subtle debut on campus.

by MEGAN TADY

The signs don’t say “male.” Or “female.” Or simply “restroom.”

Twenty-nine bathrooms in 19 buildings on campus now have new signs on the doors that say “All Gender Restroom.”

It’s a subtle change with a significant impact. It means that gender-nonconforming people at NMH — those who don’t identify as either male or female — now have bathroom options that reflect their identities.

The change, says Dean of Students Nicole Hager, is “a powerful manifestation of NMH’s mission to act with humanity and purpose.” The school added gender identity to its nondiscrimination policy in 2012, and the new bathroom signs allow administrators “to send a message that we recognize there’s more than just a male gender and a female gender,” Hager says.

Khalil Power ’14 helped spark the change. Female at birth, Power came out as transgender last year, but had neither the need nor desire to live as a male. Power identifies as “genderqueer” — a third gender — and uses the neutral pronoun “they” instead of “he” or “she.” “I started thinking about how people like myself, who aren’t on the gender binary, could feel more accepted on campus,” Power says.

Adding all-gender bathrooms seemed like a good step. “I decided

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“ W e wanted something more than just a sign that said, ‘restroom.’

We wanted a statement that said, ‘You’re welcome here.’”

to focus on bathrooms because it’s such a biological necessity,” Power says.

“Gender-inclusive bathrooms have a sense of privacy that is really great.

It’s easy to slip in and not have people notice.”

Power wrote to Hager and other school administrators outlining the proposal. Hager says she saw the bathrooms as an opportunity to better support the school’s LGBTQ community. Together, Power and Hager toured the campus and inventoried

bathrooms on campus to determine which ones could be designated as allgender — single stalls with a lock.

Gretchen Licata, NMH’s general service manager, took the next step of acquiring the new signs. She says the wording — “All Gender Restroom” — was deliberate.

“We wanted something more than just a sign that said ‘restroom,’” Licata says. “We wanted a statement that said, ‘You’re welcome here.’”

Hager agrees. “It’s important to convey to a traditionally marginalized group of people that they’re in a safe space.”

The bathroom signs follow other steps NMH has taken to make the school more inclusive to the broader LGBTQ community. Twelve years ago, NMH hired Hager, who is openly gay.

The school recognizes annual events such as National Coming Out Day and the anti-bullying Day of Silence; there’s also a strong Gay Straight Alliance on campus.

Now a student at Clark University, Power is both grateful that current students can benefit from the new bathroom signs, and hopeful that NMH will continue to make the campus friendly to all students.

“Learning how to accept a variety of people is difficult because there are so many different needs,” Power says.

“I urge NMH to continue to push its mindset on inclusivity.”

READING LIST

Carolina Israelite

By Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett ’75 The University of North Carolina Press May 2015

In Search of Lost G

By Kyung Hyun Kim ’88 Seoul Selection September 2014 (In Korean)

Tapping the Wisdom That Surrounds You

By Elizabeth Ghaffari ’64 Praeger September 2014

The Art Rules: Wisdom and Guidance from Art World Experts Edited by Paul Klein ’65 Intellect Ltd. February 2015

Before Custer: Surveying the Yellowstone, 1872 Edited by M. John Lubetkin ’56 University of Oklahoma Press, 2015

“Teame,” by Olivia Cleary ’16, won a Gold Key Award in the mixed media category of the Boston Globe Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, presented annually by the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Cleary won three additional Gold Key Awards as well as an Honorable Mention for other pieces she produced during the Fall 2014 semester.

AWA R D W I N N E R

The Last Generation

By Ben Robertson ’86 Menadena Publishing September 2014

spring 2015 I 13

MOVERS & MAKERS

Seamus Mullen ’92

Food Journey

Seamus Mullen learns how to cook and eat.

by LORI FERGUSON

Award-winning chef Seamus Mullen ’92 is riding high these days. In the past four years, his creative approach to modern Spanish cuisine has birthed Tertulia in New York’s West Village, hailed by The New York Times as one of the top 10 new restaurants of 2011; then El Comado, a Hell’s Kitchen tapas and wine bar that recently spun off into a butcher shop; and now Sea Containers on the Thames River in London, which uses ingredients supplied by organic farmers and fair-trade cooperatives across the United Kingdom and Europe.

14 I NMH Magazine

“I love to cook anything that is fresh, and I make sure my food is healthy and balanced,” Mullen says.

“I focus on excellent protein — local meat, poultry, and fish — and lots of seasonal vegetables.”

Mullen’s commitment to clean, innovative food is not just for show; he cooks this way because his life depends upon it. In 2007, following several years of increasingly debilitating symptoms — excruciating joint pain, blood clots that landed him in the hospital on life support — Mullen was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. The more he learned about the disease, the more he thought there had to be a correlation between what he ate and how he felt.

Mullen’s self-guided efforts to alter his diet, combined with conventional painkillers and steroids, brought some relief. Then, following the advice of his doctor, he stopped eating processed foods, sugar, and gluten, stuck to a strict eating schedule, and practiced intermittent fasting. The results were profound.

Today Mullen is free of disease, dozens of pounds lighter, and eager to share his discoveries. His first cookbook, Seamus Mullen’s Hero Food: How Cooking with Delicious Things Can Make Us Feel Better, was published in 2012, and he recently added his voice to the debate over food and health in a New York Times op-ed piece.

“As a nation, we’re struggling with tough issues that relate to an unhealthy relationship with food,” Mullen says.

“As someone who has fought and overcome a terrifically challenging battle with a chronic disease that I believe has both its roots and its positive pathways in food, I feel obliged to try to help others ditch their antagonistic relationship with food and embrace a healthy one.”

Mullen’s awareness of quality ingredients reaches back to when he was

PH O TO : C H R I S TI N E H A N PH O TO G R A PH Y

BRIGHT LIGHT

growing up on a farm in rural Vermont. “We got milk from our cows, vegetables from our garden, and most of our meat from our own animals,” he recalls. He and his brother were involved in the kitchen, but cooking was just another responsibility, no different from other farm chores. Mullen describes his childhood as “lovely, but very homogeneous.

I longed to identify with a culture, and I didn’t find it in Vermont,” he says.

“ I feel obliged to help others ditch their antagonistic relationship with food and embrace a healthy one.”

Mullen’s turning point came when he was a student at NMH and traveled to Spain on a school trip. “The food was very exotic — prawns, squid — and my Spanish host family was absolutely food-obsessed. The deep sense of history and culture was inspiring, and I discovered that cooking could be a really festive experience. I spent many long weekends at paella parties, socializing with adults. It was a heady experience for a 17-year-old.”

After two years in college in the U.S., Mullen returned to Spain to finish school. He spent the next decade working as a line cook in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and New York, and apprenticing in kitchens in Spain. In 2006, he opened the New York tapas restaurant Boqueria, and, after a near win on the Food Network’s “Next Iron Chef,” he opened Tertulia, a rustic gastropub where the sharing of food is a theme, from small tapas dishes to large platters of paella. “Eating is, and should be, a social event,” Mullen says. “It’s not just about nourishing the body; it’s also about being with family and friends.”

Mullen finds the American obsession with food less than productive — especially “when the word ‘diet’ is used as a verb,” he says. “If you embrace that attitude, you’re setting yourself up to fail. It’s much more sustainable to think about food and eating as a long-term relationship.”

Mullen points to himself as an example. “It’s taken a lot of discipline and experimentation for me to get to the point where I’m healthy, but I’ve learned that it’s not the quantity of the calories that matters, it’s the quality — where your ingredients are coming from and what you’re doing with them.” [NMH]

BRINGING THE NEIGHBORHOOD TOGETHER In February, on one of her first days as the new president and CEO of the nonprofit United South End Settlements (USES) in Boston, Maicharia Weir Lytle ’92 met a 5-year-old boy who had just made a new friend in the USES preschool. His teacher told Weir Lytle that he wanted to learn to speak French, so he started chatting with a French-speaking classmate.

“I felt like I was seeing humanity at its best,” Weir Lytle says. “They were kids from diverse backgrounds learning from each other.”

Weir Lytle has spent more than a decade building up nonprofits in the Greater Boston area, including the anti-poverty organization LIFT-Boston, the civil rightsfocused Organization for a New Equality, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Bentley College. At USES, she’ll serve more than 3,000 residents in the South End/Lower Roxbury neighborhood through programs that include a child-care center, a preschool, after-school and summer camp programs for older children, adult education classes and job training, and senior-citizen health, wellness, and home-repair services.

“USES is like the living room of this community,” Weir Lytle says. “Our roots here run deep, and we work to ensure that all feel welcome when they walk through our doors.”

Weir Lytle was born in Chicago, grew up in Connecticut, and in many ways, her commitment to nonprofits springs from her time at NMH. “NMH exposed me to diversity at an important developmental period in my life,” she says.

“That experience ignited my passion for unifying diverse populations, and it made me keenly aware of the need to give a voice to people who’ve had fewer opportunities.”

Weir Lytle is on a mission to expand USES, steer the organization to the forefront of community development work, and build connections within the neighborhood. “While the South End has changed, and there are more wealthy residents, there are still needs in this neighbor-hood that USES must focus on,” she says. “We can play a vital role in bridging the gaps between communities and enabling them to have shared experiences and shared values.”

Maicharia Weir Lytle ’92

PH O TO : E VA N G R AY

spring 2015 I 15

IN THE CLASSROOM

War and Peace The complicated evolution of modern U.S. foreign policy

by MEGAN TADY

It’s early in the semester in Charlie Malcolm’s foreign policy class. He writes one word on the whiteboard and circles it: ISIS. “Help me out,” he says, pointing his marker at the word, referring to the jihadist rebel group in the Middle East. “What are the common threads?

Who and what are the major players that impacted the origins of ISIS?” The nine seniors and postgrads in the class begin listing answers, which Malcolm writes on the board: U.S. policy in Iraq, Egypt, the Syrian civil war, Saudi Arabia, Iran.

“But why did ISIS start?” Malcolm persists. “What is it a byproduct of?” The students aren’t sure, so Malcolm points to the first Gulf War. The United States had liberated Kuwait from Iraq and the Iraqi army was on the run. President Bush Sr.’s advisers, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, debated whether they should push forward and take out Saddam Hussein. Knowing the country could fracture into sectarian conflict, Powell was cautious: You break it, you own it, he warned.

“Now let’s jump forward to 9/11,” Malcolm says. Thirteen years after the first Gulf War, President George W. Bush invades Iraq and does what his father didn’t: He removes Hussein from power. And Iraq, as Powell predicted, breaks out into civil war.

The class is confused. “So why did U.S. policy change from not taking out Saddam to taking out Saddam?” one student asks.

“Aha,” says Malcolm, pointing his marker at the student with excitement.

“OK, let’s go back to the Reagan years and the rise of neoconservatism.”

After the Cold War, he explains, many in the United States wanted to see democracy spread in the Middle East, ensuring that Iraq’s oil wells — and American energy security — were in friendly, stable hands. But instead of stabilizing Iraq, Hussein’s capture and the subsequent civil war helped feed the chaos that led to the emergence of ISIS. There’s an air of electricity in the room, and Eli Wise ’15 says later that it’s because Malcolm makes sure class discussions are flexible. Talking about Reagan and the rise of neoconservatism? “That probably wasn’t in his lesson plan,” Wise says. “Just by letting the class take a natural course, he lets us ignite this flame of curiosity.”

Malcolm has taught NMH’s foreign policy class for 13 years. This year, rather than covering events in chronological order, exploring the ’40s, then the ’50s, and so on, he started with current events and then jumped back into history.

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History teacher Charlie Malcolm helps students make connections between events and people such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, Ronald Reagan, and jihadist rebels in the Middle East.

“ T his class has shattered our naiveté. We’re starting to become really critical about what’s happening in the world.”

“Relevancy is so important if you want to get students’ attention,” Malcolm says. “I decided, let’s cover what’s important to them in their lifetime.”

The class first examined the roots of modern terrorist groups, reading The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright.

They went on to the books Rise to Globalism by Stephen Ambrose and Confront and Conceal by David Sanger,

researching and debating policy issues such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and President Obama’s decision to pull troops from Afghanistan.

Harper Baldwin ’15 says she took the class to become more informed.

“It’s really opened my eyes to what the U.S. is doing in the world,” she says. “It shattered the naiveté we have, being young students. We’re moving into being really critical about what’s happening in the world.”

That critical eye, says Malcolm, is key for young people as they gain political power.

“The content of this course isn’t as important as developing intellectual curiosity and the ability to harvest information and write and think about it,” Malcolm says. The debates

P HOTO: SH AR O N LAB ELLA - L IN D AL E

that the students engage in in class are an extension of that philosophy, because understanding how to debate effectively is a “life skill,” Malcolm says. “Students have to adjust on the fly as counterarguments are made. It forces them to identify strengths and weaknesses in their logic.”

“It’s such an interesting time for this generation of students,” Malcolm says. “Take the issue of climate change. The adults have failed the kids and the repercussions are going to be in their lifetimes.

We need to motivate students to take ownership, and quick.”

Baldwin, who plans to study environmental science in college, seems ready.

“We can’t move forward and stop global climate change unless we work together on it,” she says. “And that requires helpful foreign policies and good relationships with other countries that we’ll need in the future.”

Back in the classroom, Malcolm wraps up the discussion by asking the students what they want to focus on the following week. The consensus: They’d like a better grasp of the difference between Sunni and Shiite tribes.

“Charlie never tries to simplify it for us,” Baldwin says. “He never says, ‘This is the solution.’ I like coming away from class every day feeling like I’ve learned so much. And I come away knowing that it’s much more complicated than I thought.” [NMH]

spring 2015 I 17

PAST PRESENT

Carnal Knowledge A young girl, a strong-willed grandmother, and life lessons

by PETER WEIS â&#x20AC;&#x2122;78, Pâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;13

If there were awards given out for intriguing book titles, Grandma Called It Carnal would surely be a contender. The 1938 New York Times best-selling memoir was written by Bertha Clark Damon, who graduated from the Northfield Seminary in 1901, and whose colorful adult life belies her rather grim beginnings.

Orphaned at the age of 5 and raised by a strict, indomitable grandmother in rural Connecticut, Damon became an intellectual, a connoisseur of architecture and gardening, and an inadvertent feminist. Over her lifetime, she attracted a circle of well-known friends that included the choreographer Ted Shawn, the photographer Ansel Adams, the scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer (for whom she

18 I NMH Magazine

designed a house), and the philosopher Alexander Meiklejohn.

But in 1897, 16-year-old Bertha Louise Clark arrived at Northfield feeling nervous about her academic deficiencies and envious of the advantages she was sure the other girls possessed. Her father had been an itinerant stonecutter, traveling wherever

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

there was work. When her mother died, she and her older sister, Alice, went to live with their Grandmother Griswold, who was fiercely independent and had a deep disdain for 19thcentury innovation. “Grandma” considered wood stoves needlessly modern and refused to use a sewing machine or an eggbeater, yet despite her frugality, she grew extensive flower gardens that aroused disbelief among her neighbors. She was also a reader and a revolutionary, quoting Thoreau and Rousseau and participating in local struggles for emancipation and women’s voting rights.

Damon, in her application to Northfield in 1896, wrote that her object in life was “to be a somebody, variety not determined.” She wasted no time pursuing that goal. At Northfield, she became vice-president of her class and served two years on the board of The Hermonite. She delivered the class oration at Commencement and wrote “O Northfield Beautiful,” which became the school song. When her sister Alice graduated from Northfield a year after she did, the Commencement issue of The Hermonite stated that “she is known only as ‘Bertha Clark’s sister.’”

Poor Alice!

Damon went on to Pembroke College in Brown University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature and language, was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, and starred in several theater productions. She moved to Berkeley, California, with her first husband, who had secured a teaching post at the university; then watched the marriage dissolve when he had an affair with one of his students. Damon had begun cultivating her interests in gardening and

architecture, and she supported herself by building and remodeling homes in the Bay Area, despite never having had formal training.

Possessing a “great wit” and “having a real talent for gathering people around her,” according to Benjamin Lehman, an English professor at Berkeley, Damon built friendships with local artists and writers; she took

At the age of 15, Bertha Clark Damon wrote in her application to Northfield that her object in life was “to be a somebody, variety not determined.”

a road trip with Ansel Adams through the Southwest in 1927. She married again, and she and her second husband became pioneers in bicoastal living, going back and forth between a 250acre estate in Alton, New Hampshire, and Berkeley.

The grounds of her New Hampshire home provided an ideal laboratory for Damon’s experiments in gardening and landscape design. She also turned to writing, and what emerged in 1938 was Grandma Called It Carnal, the story of a childhood in which “carnal” meant “grasping for more and more things and missing more and more values.” Suddenly Damon was famous.

So was Grandma, who died in 1925 at the age of 96. As The Saturday Review put it, “Grandma is more than amusing or odd or even striking; she is a figure of significance in the pattern of American life.”

The book launched Damon on the lecture circuit, and in 1940 she became the first woman to be invited to speak at the Harvard Club of Boston. She insisted on entering through the front door, even though female guests were expected to use a separate entrance.

Damon’s second best-seller, A Sense of Humus, appeared in 1943. It was a rumination on her gardening life in New Hampshire. “To consider humus,” she wrote, “is to get a hint of the oneness of the universe.”

At the end of Grandma Called It Carnal, Damon describes how the doctor wrote on her grandmother’s death certificate: “Cause of death: Just stopped living.” The same might be said of Damon herself. As she grew older, she spent more time in Berkeley, her life setting somewhere in the west. She died in 1975. [NMH]

spring 2015 I 19

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BY GEOFFREY GRAY ’97

Their films premiere at festivals around the world.

Their artistic and professional philosophy began at NMH.

THE

TRIBE

From left: SeeThink Films’s Luke Meyer ’97, Ethan Palmer ’96, Andrew Neel ’97, and Tom Davis, the lone non-NMHer.

PH O TO: D ENN IS B U R N E T T

At the office of SeeThink Films, hanging along the ceiling like a shrine among the rafters, is a set of armor and a sword, symbols of Darkon, the documentary film that brought Andrew Neel ’97, Ethan Palmer ’96, and Luke Meyer ’97 together again. Before they started production, they were headed in different directions. Neel had started writing film scripts. Palmer worked as a studio photographer for Condé Nast and several magazines. And Meyer knew he didn’t want to write short fiction anymore.

WHAT WOULD BE NEXT?

spring 2015 I 21

Darkon re-routed them all. Set near Baltimore, the film revolves around a clique of suburbanites devoted to liveaction role playing — the Darkon Wargaming Club. Instead of becoming warriors and wizards on computer screens, the members pledge allegiance to teams or countries like “Laconia” or “Nurgle” or “Elidor,” and set off to state parks and don armor to fight and test their magic spells against one another. The documentary is a romp, a fun yet dark and biting exploration of an American micro-subculture and its functions, belief systems, and homespun religion.

Earning the trust of the Darkon Club devotees wasn’t easy. They were prickly about how they are perceived by outsiders (especially filmmakers from New York). To prove their commitment to portraying their subjects fairly, Neel, Palmer, and Meyer negotiated with the Darkon “noble council,” and then joined the Darkon world themselves after the film was completed. On weekends, they trekked down to Baltimore and put on the armor.

Neel took the name Olsef. Meyer was Monahar. Palmer was Renza, and the documentary they made became a kind of cult classic. In 2006, the film premiered at the influential South by Southwest Film Festival, and received the coveted Audience Choice Award. Along the way, Neel, Palmer, and Meyer discovered that they shared a similar take on the world that allowed them to work seamlessly together. They formed SeeThink Films, a production company based in Brooklyn.

Since then, the SeeThinkers have completed and released a blizzard of work.

While Darkon was in production, they created Alice Neel, a documentary about Neel’s grandmother, the legendary painter, and New World Order, about conspiracy theorists, namely Alex Jones, the popular Internet radio celebrity.

Between those projects, the SeeThink crew, which includes producer Tom Davis (the token non-NMHer), also made The Feature, a fictionalized documentary about the life of video artist Michel Auder, and King Kelly, a satire about a teenage Internet striptease star. They also co-produced films with likeminded directors and producers: Bluebird, a small-town drama set in northern Maine, featuring John Slattery of Mad Men fame, and Stand Clear of the Closing Doors, about an autistic boy from the Rockaways who goes missing during a hurricane. This body of work is unusually large for a company so young. And despite the variety of eccentric characters and esoteric plotlines, there are strong threads that tie the SeeThink projects together.

“In all of our films, there is an overriding anti-establishment overtone — we’re embracing people who are in a state of friction with main-line values,” Neel says. “We’re also talking about tribalism, an appreciation for how tribes work, how they function, and how they don’t.” The characters in the films are all outsiders, yet they long for a connection to a greater group. This individualversus-group tension is an ever-present and talked-about dynamic that the SeeThinkers lived firsthand at NMH, which bred its own tribes.

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SEETHINK FILMS:

“

I knew the SeeThinkers well on campus nearly 20 years ago, and still do.

What’s remarkable about their story is that, coming from such different groups at NMH, they managed to find each other after graduation and form their own. Neel spent four years on the Mount Hermon campus, considered the land of the jocks. A student leader in C1, member of the disciplinary committee, and recipient of the C1 jacket (that obnoxious yellow paisley blazer passed down within the dorm and worn to campus events), Neel was known, then and now, to bear a playful grudge against “those snobby Northfielders.”

e’re embracing W people and characters who are in a state of friction with main-line values.”

“There was a prevailing sentiment that Northfield was the more accepting campus, and yet there was more cliquiness and judgmental behavior there,” Neel says. “Hermon maybe had people who were more ‘bland,’ but they also weren’t exacting judgments on the world.”

Ethan Palmer, who was a student leader in East Hall, rowed on the crew team, and claims to have narrowly missed the senior-year yearbook title of “God’s Gift to Women,” scoffs

at Neel’s assessment of Northfield’s tribes. Palmer lived happily among an eclectic mix of students, which was crucial, he says, in teaching him how to be both an effective member of a group and a strong individual. While NMH’s diversity became almost a cliché, so belabored was it by school leaders, “having to figure things out with a group of people teaches you a ton about how to navigate yourself,” Palmer says. “Like where you are strong and weak. How to apply yourself.”

Meyer was a day student, stationed in Gould. He ran an unofficial offcampus residence at his family’s home amid the cow pastures and apple orchards of Conway, Massachusetts.

On most weekends, the beds and couches and floors of Meyer’s home were filled with students who spent the mornings drinking coffee and breaking down life’s complexities with Chuck Meyer, Luke’s father, a pilot and opera buff, and horsing around with Luke’s brother Nick ’00 and sister Anna ’06.

On campus, Meyer worked in the darkroom, displaying a gift for photography. “It’s a form where you can take the world around you and show others, in a very direct way, how you see it,” he says now. “There’s less room for interpretation, and I think that appeals to teenagers, who want to be understood as autonomous people.”

Looking back, the memories inflated with nostalgia, the SeeThinkers and I see our NMH moment dominated by camaraderie, learning from others what we didn’t know, in roving conversations that continued from dorm rooms to diner booths. Until then, we’d all been

SeeThink scenes, clockwise from top: Ethan Palmer shooting footage for Breaking a Monster, the company’s most recent completed film; still images from Stand Clear of the Closing Doors, Breaking a Monster, Darkon, and King Kelly.

PHOTOS: C O U R TESY O F SE E T H IN K F IL MS

spring 2015 I 23

“

As filmmakers, we’re at a crossroads. We’re facing interaction with a more mainstream element of Hollywood.”

Left: The SeeThink crew at the Stateside Theater in Austin, Texas, where Breaking a Monster premiered at SXSW in March.

Above: Luke Meyer confers with musician and Monster star Malcolm Brickhouse. Opposite: a sampling of SeeThink film posters.

locked in to the customs and ideas of our nuclear families — our childhood tribes. NMH forced us to adapt to other ways and to each other. From all the new information we were absorbing, we became (or thought we did) better versions of ourselves, whether we were Hermon football players or Northfield Frisbee chuckers. The result was a deep and timeless bond.

“There was an inherent trust,” Neel says. And that trust that began 20 years ago has created an almost utopian

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environment at SeeThink Films.

“Everyone has equal say, with an almost familial devotion to one another’s needs,” Neel says. “No one’s working for anybody else.”

SeeThink began at Ethan Palmer’s bachelor party, where he and Neel and Meyer traded notes on their future plans. Neel had graduated film school at Columbia, and was working on a script about roleplaying games. A video-game enthusiast,

he imagined the movie as a blunt social commentary, a dark reveal of loneliness and the search for meaning and connectedness in a modern America.

Neel’s script was based in fiction, but when he discovered the real-life version in Maryland, he decided to make a documentary. Meanwhile, Meyer had graduated from Eugene Lang College at the New School, worked on a documentary in St. Louis with Branch Rothschild ’98, and was looking for another film project. He signed on to direct Darkon with Neel, and moved back to New York.

After graduating from New York University, Palmer had tired of studio photography and was looking to shoot film. The Darkon project was appealing, not only because Palmer was interested in a new art form, but because he found the Darkon role players intriguing characters to explore.

PH O TO S : D E N N I S B U R N E TT ; C O U R TE S Y O F S E E TH I N K FI LMS

A story becomes more interesting if you “go through the eyes of an outsider,” Palmer says. “You get more perspective. There is no better way to critique the culture you live in than by looking at it through the eyes of people who don’t live by the rules.”

The SeeThink projects that followed Darkon were equally well received: New World Order and King Kelly premiered at SXSW; The Feature appeared at film festivals in Berlin and Copenhagen; and Alice Neel was designated a Critics Pick

by The New York Times.

Jarod Neece, a producer and senior programmer at SXSW, says Darkon “was one of the biggest stories to come out of the festival in a long time, and it just keeps going,” because the film has such a loyal following. In general, SeeThink’s films are “pure and honest, not snarky,” Neece says. “They have an immediacy. They’re just very personal documents.”

The company’s most recent completed film is not only its most commercially viable, but also arguably its most ambitious. In 2013, Meyer directed Unlocking the Truth, a short eponymous film about a heavy-metal rock band.

Unlike so many other slasher-style bands born in suburban basements, the three members of Unlocking the Truth were raised in rough Brooklyn neighborhoods; also unusual, the band members were 12 years old.

Inspired by the music of “World Wide Wrestling,” which they watched on TV from their apartments in Crown Heights, Flatbush, and Bed-Stuy, the kid band developed their own sound.

Three months after the short film was released on YouTube, it had more than 1.5 million views — a viral sensation.

SPIN magazine wrote about the metal boy band, a manager got involved, and the trio signed with Sony. Meyer and SeeThink started to shoot footage, collaborating with another production company, and the feature-length Breaking a Monster premiered at SXSW last March. Neece calls the film “the best thing SeeThink has ever made.”

Three teenage heavy-metal musicians from Brooklyn. Role players in Maryland. An eccentric portrait artist. A teenage sex star. “To us, it’s a quilt,” Palmer says. “We’re stitching together a patchwork quilt of contemporary American life, these avenues into America.”

The SeeThinkers are currently working on documentary and feature films based on psychotherapy cults, fraternity hazing, and Japanese anime; Academy Award-nominated director Darren Aronofsky, actor and director James Franco, and independent producer Christin Vachon have signed on to produce their upcoming projects. These NMH-bred filmmakers who pride themselves on giving voice to antiestablishment, outside-the-norm characters and personalities are now “facing interaction with a more mainstream element of Hollywood,” Neel says. “As filmmakers, we’re at a crossroads.”

In a way, the conversations happening at SeeThink today are similar to those we all had 20 years ago at NMH. “Our open-minded approach to filmmaking is in sync with values NMH tries to instill in kids,” Neel says. “NMH prepares kids for the big leagues, but with a free-thinking, interdisciplinary approach. It encourages flexible minds.”

At NMH, Neel and Meyer shared one class together: J.C. Beall’s class on world religions, which dissected tribalism, identity, and belief. Neel loved the class, and today, remembering his fondness for cavorting with various tribes on campus as well as the tribes SeeThink has captured on film over the last decade, he wonders for a moment about a career change. “Maybe I should go back and teach at NMH,” he says.

The subject he thinks he now knows most about? “Religion,” he says. [NMH]

Geoffrey Gray ’97 is a New York Times best-selling author, documentary producer, founder of the interactive magazine True.Ink, and a writer and contributing editor at New York magazine.

spring 2015 I 25

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TALKING ABOUT

FERGUSON THE SHOOTING DEATH OF MICHAEL BROWN IN MISSOURI BROKE OPEN A SOUL-SEARCHING CONVERSATION ABOUT RACE IN COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY. NMH WAS NO EXCEPTION.

year ago, most students at Northfield Mount Hermon had never heard of Ferguson, Missouri. That changed late last year, after a St. Louis County grand jury voted not to indict one of the city’s white police officers for fatally shooting a black teenager.

Michael Brown, Darren Wilson; 10 days later, Eric Garner in Staten Island. The names quickly became indelible, and the questions multiplied: How should an institution like NMH respond to such events? With outrage and protest? With neutral, fact-based discussions? Or — because the end of the semester and final exams were looming — by simply soldiering on?

BY JENNIFER SUTTON / ILLUSTRATION BY PETER STRAIN / PHOTOS BY JEFF WOODWARD

spring 2015 I 27

TALKING ABOUT FERGUSON

n a campus of 650 students and more than 300 teaching and working adults, there was no simple answer.

Many students and faculty were impatient to discuss the two cases and how they represented pervasive racial profiling that exists across the country. Others viewed the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner as tragic, but saw little connection between what had happened to the two men and life at NMH; they wanted to stay focused on classes, activities, college applications.

The news from Ferguson came during NMH’s Thanksgiving break, when the campus was quiet, but administrators and faculty gathered and agreed that NMH’s mission — to engage students’ intellect and compassion and empower them to act with humanity and purpose — called for the entire school to take on the conversation, even though many institutions across the country were choosing not to address it at all.

“We often talk about NMH as a bubble, but we’re not immune to what happens in the rest of the world, nor should we be,” says James Greenwood, associate dean of multicultural education. “When people felt so deeply about was going on, it would have been irresponsible not to provide the community with an opportunity for dialogue about something that generated such a response nationally.”

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THE CONVERSATION

BEGINS Some teachers, like Sally Komarek, had already brought the topic of Ferguson into their classrooms. “We have to press ‘pause’ and look at what’s happening right now, because this is going to be one of the stories we read in textbooks 30 years from now,” Komarek told her U.S. history class that week.

Talking about race is hard, but it’s even harder in a time of crisis, when people’s opinions get stronger and they become less open to other perspectives. That’s how it unfolded in some of the dorms, with “a lot of heated arguments” among students, according to Luis Locsin ’15. “There was always a split — whether Darren Wilson should have been indicted or not, whether it was a race issue or not. We were going hard on each other. But we didn’t get a whole lot out of those discussions until people calmed down and started listening a little more.”

At an all-school meeting that focused on the Ferguson announcement, Head of School Peter Fayroian urged students to think critically about how different media outlets covered the Ferguson and Staten Island cases, and how their own conversations developed. “Don’t just listen to other people — politicians,

FE RGUSON LE SSON PLANS In the weeks after the grand jury decision in Ferguson, many faculty members tackled discussions of Ferguson, Staten Island, and social justice any way they could.

activists, or even your parents, friends, and teachers,” he said. “Go to the primary sources, get the facts, and build your arguments. Be the kind of scholarly people in the world who affect change.”

Meanwhile, the faculty was adopting myriad approaches as they talked with students. Many found that looking at the Ferguson case through the lens of specific academic topics (see sidebar) was helpful not just because students see the classroom as a “safe place,” said psychology teacher Kara Walker, “but because if students can apply the knowledge and skills they’re learning to a real-life tragedy, they’ll be able to do it with other situations in the future.”

History teacher Jim Shea said he tried to keep his own opinions private, to avoid influencing his students’ thinking, as he talked in his Government and Civil Liberties class about how grand juries work within the U.S. legal system.

“I also tried to keep emotion, mine and theirs, out of this particular discussion,” he said. “Not that there isn’t a place for emotion in discussions of politics and current events, but I wanted to come at this from a different perspective.”

Other teachers, like Bea Garcia, who teaches NMH’s Diversity and Social Justice course, and advanced Spanish, and is assistant dean of the faculty, did not hold back. “We focused on the human aspect of Ferguson, putting it in context with other American stories that have so many similarities, and I was clear — this was racism; this was power and oppression. Had Michael Brown robbed the store? I don’t know.

But you don’t kill a person for that. You don’t leave a person’s body lying in the street for four hours.”

The reaction to these classroom conversations was mixed, which wasn’t surprising, given the diversity of the student body. “I thought there was too much debate,” Kevin Ouyang ’15 said. “It was

HUMANITIES: For English teacher Janae Peters, it wasn’t a question of whether to talk about Ferguson with her ninth-grade Humanities students. “It was just a matter of how,” she said. The class had just read Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, and at first Peters wasn’t sure how to connect the 16th-century comedy with the shooting of Michael Brown. She settled on a discussion about the power of language — first, how Shakespeare uses words to describe things and people, and then, the language “we use to talk about blackness,” Peters said. “So much of the language that surrounds black males in our society cultivates fear.

We need to be thinking about that.”

PRECALCULUS: For the final weeks of the semester, Jim Vollinger instituted a practice he called “social justice minute.”

Students took turns bringing in news stories about social justice issues and leading brief discussions at the beginning of each class.

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY: Kara Walker and her students discussed images of the protests in Ferguson posted on the Internet by CNN, and applied psychology concepts such as obedience, aggression, and group conformity.

THE CONCERT CHOIR, led by Sheila Heffernon, studied protest music from slavery through the present for a Fall Family Days performance, and prepared narrative explanations to accompany each song.

AP STATISTICS: Kate Hoff asked her students to graph data from studies of the racial breakdown of traffic stops in different cities. They analyzed if drivers were given more tickets depending on their race.

GOVERNMENT AND CIVIL LIBERTIES: Jim Shea compared how grand juries typically operate in the U.S. judicial system with how the St. Louis County grand jury proceeded in the Michael Brown/Darren Wilson case.

FORENSIC SCIENCE: Chemistry teacher Michelle Hurley asked students to review evidence reports released by the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office regarding DNA on the police car and the gun and crime scene management, and to interpret the data.

U.S. HISTORY: Chris Edler’s students had been studying the McCarthy era; they compared the denial of justice to those deemed “unAmerican” in the 1950s to the perceived lack of justice in the Ferguson incident.

NINTH-GRADE WRITING: Nicole Hager, dean of students, asked her students to write and present to the class a six-word memoir that captured their thoughts and experiences in the weeks following the Ferguson protests.

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TALKING ABOUT FERGUSON

“HAD MICHAEL BROWN ROBBED THE STORE I DON’T KNOW. BUT YOU DON’T KILL A PERSON FOR THAT. YOU DON’T LEAVE A PERSON’S BODY LYING IN THE STREET FOR FOUR HOURS.” BEA GARCIA, Spanish Teacher and Assistant Dean of the Faculty

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“BEING A WHITE MALE ALMOST GIVES ME MORE RESPONSIBILITY, BECAUSE AS A GROUP, WE’RE THE ONES IN POWER. A LOT OF KIDS DISAGREE, THOUGH.” WILL HASLETT ’16

“THERE WAS TOO MUCH DEBATE. WE WERE TALKING ABOUT THE HUMANITY OF AN ENTIRE GROUP OF PEOPLE, SO WHY WAS ANYTHING UP FOR DEBATE ”

“ I WANT STUDENTS TO UNDERSTAND WHY AND HOW PEOPLE CAN FEEL SO DIFFERENTLY, AND THAT YOU CAN’T DISMISS PEOPLE AND THEIR CONCERNS.” JAMES GREENWOOD, Associate Dean of Multicultural Education

KEVIN OUYANG ’15

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TALKING ABOUT FERGUSON

frustrating to go over the same details again and again and not get anywhere. We were talking about the humanity of an entire group of people, so why was anything up for debate?”

“When the discussions stayed with the facts and didn’t get to the heart of the matter — that people had died — that was discouraging and isolating,” said Monique Roberts ’15.

But in Roberts’s AP Environmental Science class, teacher Becca Malloy asked the students to observe a moment of silence, then showed images from the protests, discussed resources where students could find more information, and invited the students to speak if they wished. “We just said what we were feeling. We didn’t comment on what others said,” Roberts reported. “There was a moment when everyone understood that people are dying because of systematic racism, and that we, as a student body, as a school, still have a lot to learn and a lot of work to do. That gave me hope.”

Yet after a week of discussion in classes and advising groups, some students grew restless, asking their teachers, “Can we stop talking about Ferguson?” The topic was getting old and repetitive, they said; NMH was overdoing it. That kind of “diversity fatigue” — a phrase coined nearly a decade ago — is risky, according to Greenwood.

“Sometimes people think that talking about race and diversity only perpetuates those issues, that if we ignore it, it’ll go away,” he said.

“That doesn’t work for most things in life. It tends to make things worse. Tensions build up until they surface and explode in unproductive ways.”

Garcia doesn’t use the term “diversity fatigue”; she calls it “privilege.” A white person in the United States, she said, can choose to think about race or not think about it, but students of color don’t have that option. “They can’t shut it down. It is their life.” Many of NMH’s students of color live in neighborhoods where what happened to Michael Brown could easily happen to them, Garcia said.

When Eric Gooden ’15 heard students say they were tired of talking about Ferguson, he bristled. “Hearing about Michael Brown and Eric Garner felt like I was reading something from a history book from the civil rights era,” he said. “This should be important to everybody living in this country, thinking about how it feels to be pushed back 60 years.”

Will Haslett ’16 agreed, even though, in conversations in and out of class, he found himself in what he calls “the awkward position” of being a white male. “That almost gives me more responsibility to talk about it, because as a group, we’re the ones in power. We’re the ones who inflicted racism from the beginning,” he said. “A lot of kids disagree, though. They’re totally offended by that idea.”

As people learn about cases like Michael Brown’s and Eric Garner’s, it is impossible to reach consensus on how to respond, whether it’s on the NMH campus or anywhere in the country. “Some felt our approach was too aggressive; others felt it was not aggressive enough,” Greenwood said. “One thing I hope students gain is an increased awareness of the various viewpoints people hold in our society, and how those various viewpoints emerge. I want students to understand why and how people can feel so differently, and that you can’t dismiss people and their concerns.” [NMH]

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LET US

NOT BE SILENT

BY NAOMI CHRISTIANSEN ’18 Christiansen is a freshman from Bronx, New York. This is a slightly edited version of a reflection she delivered at an all-school meeting on Dec. 8, 2014.

I have a 10-year-old cousin with curly brown hair. He likes to sing, he loves to dance, and he’s learning to play flag football. He goes to a public school in uptown Manhattan. He is the kindest and most stubborn kid I know, and I’ve been watching him grow up from the moment his mother brought him home.

But because he’s got skin the color of milk chocolate, because he’s a male, and because he wears hearing aids in school, he’s got a 1-in-4 chance of being suspended from school at least once. From the time he turns 14, he might get stopped by the police a couple times because he looks “suspicious.” When he gets older, we’ll have to tell him to be careful when he goes out on the street.

Don’t pull your hoodie up, don’t sag your pants, and don’t draw too much attention to yourself. Because the truth is if you’re a black male in the United States, whatever you do is going to be looked at differently.

If you are an adult and you go to an office party, people will assume you can dance. When you go to buy something at a drugstore, they will be afraid that you’ll steal something.

That’s just how it is.

That’s a reality where I’m from; it’s a reality for black males all over America. It’s a reality for minorities in Northfield Mount Hermon.

Nobody means to hurt anyone, but

it happens. And I’m mad. I’m mad that race has to affect my cousin, I’m mad that people are dying because of ignorance, and I’m mad that no one seems to have anything to say about it. So I’m saying something.

The reason why Ferguson and Michael Brown matter is not only because he was yet another unarmed black male targeted by a police officer, not only because he was shot at least six times, but because a life was lost.

You’re changing the channel; you don’t want to listen to me anymore. He’s just another person who got shot. Things like this happen all the time. Besides, it’s too sad.

Who wants to hear about the endless struggles of strangers, when nothing’s going to change.

You think what happened in Ferguson doesn’t affect us in this tiny school community.

But these things don’t just happen outside of our community. So I’m saying something.

In the past week I’ve heard people make a joke about black people and fried chicken. Someone said something about how girls are considered inferior in some countries and then just laughed about it.

No matter how these words are twisted into sentences, no matter who says them, they are meant to hurt. They’re meant to make people feel less than who they are. I just want it to stop.

We see pain and we laugh and make it funny because that’s just who we are. We like to bring something bright out of the dark.

But it’s not funny when someone is killed because of who they love or what they look like. It’s not funny when someone is not allowed to learn the multiplication tables because they were born a girl. It’s not funny when your friend is hurt by a joke but has to sit and listen to it because she doesn’t want to be the only one saying something.

Stop turning a blind eye. Stop making jokes out of things that aren’t

“FIFTY YEARS A GO, THINGS WERE A LOT WORSE. THE REASON WE HAVE MORE EQUALITY AND UNDERSTANDING TODAY IS BECAUSE PEOPLE KEPT TALKING.”

funny. You’re someone who can actually help, just by turning on the radio and listening.

Just by talking. Just by learning information and spreading it. If anything is going to change it’s all about you, right?

I don’t think the jokes are going to stop tomorrow, but there’s a reason to keep talking. Fifty years ago, things were a lot worse.

The reason we have more equality and understanding today is because people kept talking.

So in contrast to our usual closing for these reflections: Let us NOT be silent.

spring 2015 I 33

â&#x20AC;&#x153; We will prepare students to thrive in a world that requires them to be brave and creative.â&#x20AC;?

Learn, Build, Act. NMH forges ahead with a new strategic plan.

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NOR T HF IE LD MO UN T HER M O N 2 0 2 0

01

T H E PL A N

The Plan

Let’s be honest: The phrase “strategic plan,” as Head of School Peter Fayroian points out in his “Leading Lines” essay on page 3, tends to make people’s eyes glaze over. It’s right up there with “Roth IRA,” “Congressional subcommittee,” or “content management.” But creating a strategic plan is crucial for a place like Northfield Mount Hermon. Faculty, staff, and students have a mission they work to uphold every day, and they also must consider how that mission will manifest itself a few years down the road. How should NMH’s curriculum, facilities, and goals evolve to keep the school competitive and financially sustainable, and to support students as they prepare to enter a world in a constant state of flux?

Over the past 18 months, Northfield Mount Hermon asked that question of alumni, parents, faculty, trustees, and members of the Alumni Council. What emerged is not so much a road map — go here, then there; do this, then that — as it is a field guide, with rich descriptions of NMH’s priorities and visions, both tangible and intangible, accompanying the numerous directives.

And even though the words “strategic plan” might be boring, the stuff that’s in the plan is not. Fortifying the school’s financial aid reserves to bring a more diverse group of smart, determined students to campus? Not boring. Renovating the health center and building a new fitness center, an on-campus day care facility, and a new boathouse? Not boring. Revamping NMH’s science and math curriculum and building a new cutting-edge facility to house it? Definitely not boring.

While the strategic plan introduces new ideas and projects, it also more clearly defines what NMH already does well and where there is room for improvement.

And although it was created with the next five years in mind, the plan is firmly grounded in achievements of the past, going all the way back to school founder D.L. Moody, who didn’t just want his students to become smarter; he wanted them to become better people who would go into the world and act on their convictions.

spring 2015 I 35

N O R T HF IE LD M O U N T HER M O N 2 0 2 0

T H E PR I OR I TIES

02

The Priorities Educational Action and Innovation: NMH

Advising Individuals in a Diverse Community:

Resilience and Sustainability: NMH

will create innovative new programs and facilities; ethical, collaborative, and crossdisciplinary academic curricula; and opportunities for students to have real-world experience.

NMH will refine its mentorship of students as individuals and as members of a community, and will remain committed to its financial-aid program to sustain a diverse community.

will forge a sustainable future by teaching students — the next generation of leaders — to care for themselves, their planet, and their society.

THE MAKEOVER

Imagine a typical NMH classroom: one teacher, about 15 students, and one academic focus. Now think bigger: an expanded classroom in which 40 students and three teachers are studying science and math at the same time, weaving the two subjects into one cohesive exploration. That’s the future at Northfield Mount Hermon.

NMH’s new strategic plan calls for sweeping changes in the school’s science and math program over the next several years. It’s part STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), the national educational approach that combines science and math to give students a holistic, analytical, quantitative look at the world, and emphasizes group work so students hone their collaborative problem-solving skills. And it’s part “mastery learning,” an instructional method in which students progress through an academic subject at their own pace, with more control over their work and more time to develop the knowledge and skills they’ll need in college.

“If we pair these two approaches, that’s a powerful way to teach math and science that few other institutions are doing,” says science department chair David Reeder. “We have academic programs that we’re proud of, but with this new curriculum, we’ll be pushing ourselves to innovate in a more intentional way than we are right now.”

In 2013, former NMH trustee Richard Gilder ’50 gave NMH $10 million in cash toward a much-needed replacement for the 50-year-old Cutler Science Center. Head of School Peter Fayroian asked faculty to envision what could happen inside the building first, before thinking about the building itself.

36 I NMH Magazine

So a group of teachers and administrators began visiting other high school science and math facilities and consulting with experts in academia and technological fields from places like Stanford, Harvard, MIT, United Technologies Aerospace Systems, and Sandia National Laboratories.

The takeaway: NMH needs to prepare students for what Associate Head of School Sharon Howell calls “the transdisciplinary, collaborative, and self-initiated work that awaits them in college and life.”

To that end, science and math teachers will work in teams, leading students through a core curriculum — physics, biology, chemistry, algebra, geometry, trigonometry — as well as a series of collaborative interdisciplinary projects.

In the new facility, there will be larger classrooms, with space for teachers to introduce or review concepts and for students to work independently, either on their own or in groups. There will be technology-rich lab stations and “maker” spaces, along with supplies and equipment, for building projects.

Science and math teachers will phase in the new curriculum over the next several years. They’ll start with the mastery-learning element, developing math-science modules — contained units — that they’ll try out within regular core courses next year. The introduction of more interdisciplinary work into advanced science and math courses has already begun. The expanded classroom scenario, with teams of teachers and students, is expected to launch as a pilot program for ninth graders in the fall of 2016. Eventually, science and math teachers hope to team up with humanities and arts faculty to take interdisciplinary work even further — in other words, STEAM.

NOR T HF IE LD MO UN T HER M O N 2 0 2 0

THE MULTIPLIER EFFECT

Maurice Coleman ’87 is a banker, so he sees financial aid not only as an act of generosity but also as a strategic business investment. Award financial aid to students who are passionate about education and determined to succeed, and watch the positive ripples they make in society and for the school.

In economics terms, it’s called the “multiplier effect”: investing capital in someone or something that ends up producing more value than you initially put in. Coleman, a senior vice president at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, points to himself as evidence. He’s a market leader in financing community development projects for Bank of America’s commercial real-estate division; last year alone, he subsidized 800 new housing units in New York and New Jersey, providing more than 2,000 people with homes. He also sits on the boards of several nonprofits that finance small businesses and affordable housing and teach people without many resources how to thrive in their communities.

But 30 years ago, before Coleman was awarded financial aid to attend NMH, his future didn’t look so promising. He grew up in Trenton, New Jersey, during the crack cocaine epidemic, and graduated from Trenton Central High School at the “top of the heap,” he says; he got good grades, was a talented basketball player, and led the student council. But he floundered on standardized tests, and didn’t get accepted to any of the colleges to which he’d applied. An adviser in his high school happened to be an NMH summer school teacher, and she pointed him toward NMH’s Transition Year Program, which sponsors high-achieving students from low-income families.

“That decision was the turning point of my whole life,” Coleman says.

Besides excelling in classes, Coleman played basketball, ran a community service program, and hosted a radio show at NMH, and won a Headmaster’s Award from former head of school Richard Unsworth. He went on to Columbia, earning a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees; he also was a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship. After a few years on Wall Street, he taught at Noble and Greenough school in Massachusetts, served as a dean, and directed the school’s Upward Bound math and science program.

In 1999, it was back to Wall Street, and

T H E TA N G I B L ES

03

The Tangibles Build a new science and math facility in 2016–18; re-imagine curriculum to incorporate more technology, engineering, design, coding, statistics, ethics, and applied sciences; create opportunities for interdisciplinary project-based learning between all disciplines.

Invest in financial aid to ensure that diversity continues to be one of the pillars of an NMH education.

Create a Center for Learning Through Action for NMH’s experiential-education programs: international study/travel, the Hayward Farm, workjob, service learning, and social entrepreneurship.

Devote resources to sustainability projects in and out of the classroom, and uphold sustainable standards in the construction and maintenance of all campus building projects.

Develop a new skill-building curriculum that integrates and enhances existing courses in health education, diversity and social justice, and college counseling.

today, in his day job at Bank of America, Coleman manages and lends millions of dollars in markets where access to affordable housing is limited, if not nonexistent. “People in civic jobs, education jobs, service jobs — I want to make sure they have a safe, affordable place to live,” he says. “When your home is safe, everything flows from there.”

That’s how Coleman felt at NMH. “One thing NMH gave me was a safe place to study,” he recalls. “It was an environment where you weren’t ridiculed for doing your homework. I got

the opportunity to be a scholar.”

Compassion begetting excellence is Coleman’s story, and it’s the very spirit with which D.L. Moody founded Northfield and Mount Hermon, Coleman believes. “Moody wanted us to compete, he wanted us to achieve, and he knew there had to be a school committed to leveling the playing field.

That’s NMH.” [NMH]

YOU CAN F IN D T HE FU L L STR ATEG IC PL A N AT N M H S C H OOL .ORG / A B OU T- N M H / S T R AT EG I C - PL A N

spring 2015 I 37

38 I NMH Magazine

DEAR SENIORS...

NINT H GRADE R S N E E D A D V IC E. OLDE R ST U DE N TS GIV E IT. EM PAT H Y H A PPE NS.

The

author Cheryl Strayed is best known for her memoir Wild, which traces her 1,100-mile solo trek on the Pacific Crest Trail through California and Oregon. But preceding that book was Tiny Beautiful Things, a collection of advice columns she had written anonymously for a website called The Rumpus. “Dear Sugar” was the name of the column.

Last fall, the seniors in the English department’s creative nonfiction class read Tiny Beautiful Things and latched onto Sugar’s philosophy of “radical empathy”: comforting and advising others by telling your own story. Offering more than sympathy, it shows the advice seekers that there’s a way out, or unrecognized benefits hidden in their problems. When a man wrote to Sugar mourning the death of his son, she wrote back, “The strange and painful truth is that I’m a better person because I lost my mom young.”

The seniors knew that their teacher, Meg Donnelly, taught ninth graders, too. “Do your freshmen need advice?” they asked her. Donnelly thought that yes, they probably did. Some of her ninth-grade students hesitated at first, but after she assured them they could remain anonymous, they agreed to write to the seniors.

The letters came with the salutation “Dear Senior” — “Dear Wise Senior,” in one case. The seniors fought over who got to answer which letters. “They really worked together to figure out how to respond, and there were a lot of varying opinions,” Donnelly says. “Some students were a little tough love. But they said that if they were the ones getting advice, that’s the kind of advice they would have wanted.”

The two groups of students never met in person, but that wasn’t the point. “The freshmen just wanted to be heard,” Donnelly says. “They felt their experience was so unique, so lonely, and yet all the seniors had felt the same things. To tell your story and to hear someone say, ‘Not only do I feel sorry for you, but I also understand’ — it really helps.”

PHOTOS BY JEFF WOODWARD

The advice givers, clockwise from top left: Lizzie Roswig ’15, Zeke Smith ’15, Nicolò Frisiani ’15, Fiona O’Brien ’15, and Aryaditya Khatau ’15. Not shown: Santi Cordero Fuentes ’15.

spring 2015 I 39

DEAR… Senior, Everyone around me seems to know what they are

doing. Dancers who spent their childhood perfecting their moves, freshman varsity athletes who can complete the Pie Race without any problem, singers who’ve received college-level training. The problem is, I am not one of those people. I am pretty good at many things, but not really good at any one thing. I get good grades, but not stellar. I love to play my musical instrument, but I’m not the best. I’m like one of those bridesmaids who are there to make the bride shine — the perfect degree of average. How do I solve this problem? — An Average Freshman

Dear Freshman,

I am standing onstage as the lights go up. I take a deep breath and recite my first line.

I know the production from front to back, inside and out. Taking a play from script to stage is what I find fun and exciting. From the smell of a freshly constructed set to wearing a period costume to interactions with fellow actors — I love it all and I figured that out at NMH. The point of high school is to discover what you are passionate about. What’s wrong with being average? Nothing. You just haven’t found what you are passionate about yet. Stop comparing yourself to others, because average is not relevant.

During my first term at NMH, I realized I hate sports. I was on the thirds soccer team, and I didn’t like most of the people on the team. I felt uncomfortable talking to them outside practice.

The next term, I auditioned for the musical and I loved every moment of it. I realized that I want to do theater professionally. I had done a few shows in middle school, but after that first play at NMH, I became serious about continuing it beyond high school.

What I love about NMH is that it offers so many opportunities to explore. For now, you may feel average, but over the next few years, you will find what you are passionate about.

Just keep searching. Put yourself out there, because the more you try different clubs or sports, the better you will discover yourself.

— Lizzie

40 I NMH Magazine

Dear Senior,

I feel as though my grades are getting worse and worse. I love it at NMH, but sometimes I have trouble finding time to study. It seems like everyone has their life together, and even though they might not be getting A’s, they aren’t having trouble. I know that I didn’t sign up for four easy years, but I’m starting to question if I’m good enough to be here.

— Freshman

Dear Freshman, Judging whether

you are good enough for NMH already happened when the admission office accepted you. Now you have to prove them right. But be honest with yourself. You don’t “have trouble finding time to study.” You just get easily distracted. It’s normal.

I had the same problem a couple years ago.

For my entire academic life, I surfed along with easy A’s given by easy teachers. Then, in my sophomore year, I had an amazing, super-strict history teacher — and my grade started dropping.

My parents told me to work more, and I was a bit worried, but not enough to change anything. By the midterm, I had a C+. At that point, it wasn’t about my parents anymore; it was about me. It was a matter of pride and self-esteem. I started studying history more than any other subject. I read all the chapters twice, learned the important dates by heart, did research online. I ended up with an A+ in the class. I had to reach the bottom of the pool to find out I was sinking, and then push as hard as I could to swim up before I used up my oxygen.

Don’t make the same mistake. Don’t sink all the way to the bottom. The will to achieve will come as you mature, and right now you are in transition, but one thing you can do is to pick up that backpack lying on the floor of your room, walk to the library, and study. Nothing is stopping you. You just have to want it. You don’t know how deep your pool is; you don’t know how much oxygen you have. So don’t risk it. Swim. — Nicolò

Dear Senior,

Freshman here. I have a small problem with athletics. I play baseball, and it is my main sport. Sadly, baseball isn’t the most popular sport at NMH, and lacrosse players and hockey players often make fun of it.

I have played baseball for 10 years, so this drives me crazy. It makes me want to quit. I need advice, or at least some witty comebacks.

— Freshman

Dear Freshman, Don’t

quit baseball, bud. It sucks being on a team that doesn’t get support. I was on the football team last year, and we lost pretty much every game. Then our team got scrapped at the end of the season. We got crap from so many people, and I absolutely hated it.

What you have to do is stop caring about idiots’ opinions. You should be proud of the sport you love. More people follow baseball than hockey, not only in the U.S. but also in the rest of the world.

Baseball has a far richer history, and is a far more universal sport.

I’m from India, and we don’t have baseball or hockey, but growing up, I always knew who Babe Ruth was. If you had asked me to name a hockey player — hell, if you had asked me to name a hockey team — I wouldn’t have known what to say. Now that I’ve been living in the States, I can, but my point is that baseball is a more globally recognized sport.

Don’t hang out with people who make you feel small. If they are your friends, just tell them to shut up about it. They should respect that.

— Aryaditya

spring 2015 I 41

DEAR… Senior, I’m struggling with boy problems. Previously, guys

never liked me, but now all these guys are coming out with strong feelings. There is a friend of mine who likes me, but I consider him like a brother figure. I don’t know how to act. I know I should tell him the truth, but I’m afraid of the reaction I’ll get.

Why is high school so full of hormonally charged guys and girls?

We’re here for a damn education, not to be falling in love. How do I preserve my friendships and still have a “game plan” about what to say when a guy wants our relationship to go a different way? I’m hoping you can help. — Save Me!

Dear Save Me,

Ugh, that is incredibly frustrating. But first of all, be flattered. This is obviously the universe telling you that you are super-rad and people love you.

Second, I agree with you about being here for an education. But isn’t there an education in learning how to have healthy platonic and romantic relationships? Unfortunately, there is no “game plan.”

If there is, I sure as hell haven’t found it.

Sophomore year, one of my closest friends and I used to spend every study hall together. He told me about his family and what it was like growing up in a dangerous part of a city. I would listen, amazed by what he had to share, and I would offer stories of my own.

One night after study hall, he told me he loved me. I didn’t know what to say. I certainly didn’t feel about him the way he felt about me. But I didn’t say anything. Not then, at least. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. I had a boyfriend from home at the time, and I used that as my excuse.

I was so afraid I would lose him as a friend if I admitted that I didn’t reciprocate his romantic feelings. It took a long time for me to get past that and tell him. But this is what you have to do. You need to tell your friend.

It doesn’t have to be dramatic. The last thing you want to do is make a big deal, in which case he would walk away feeling embarrassed and discouraged. Keep it casual; slip it into a conversation.

Telling my friend I didn’t love him was a two-year process. There was fighting, name-calling, tears, and pain. This can be avoided if you are as upfront as possible. You never know how your friend is going to respond. He might be relieved that you are bringing it up, or he might burst into tears and delete your number, your Facebook friendship, and every text message that you and he have ever exchanged. But it is easier to sleep at night, knowing that you have been completely open with those you hold close, even if it comes at a cost. — Fiona

42 I NMH Magazine

Dear Wise Senior,

When my fall-term sport ended, I was left with hours of time in the afternoon. Originally, that sounded fantastic. I thought I would get all of my homework done in that time, but so far that has yet to happen. I might start on an essay, but it won’t get finished. There are so many things to distract me. I am a day student so I don’t have my own space on campus. Once I get home at night and realize how much work I have, I feel stupid for not doing it in school. I tell myself that tomorrow will be different. I will get work done. It doesn’t happen. What should I do? — Freshman

Dear Freshman, I cer-

tainly understand your issue. It has struck me once or twice, maybe more, in my NMH career. It’s common, especially for students who are adapting to the new workload and figuring out time management.

However, I have great news. This challenge will only make you a better student. So be thankful it’s happening in your freshman year and not in your senior year. Don’t worry, you can solve this.

Last winter term, I didn’t do a sport or extracurriculars, so I was free from 1 pm until the next morning. I thought, as you did, that I was going to be very productive, that I would go to bed early every night.

However, that wasn’t the case. That term was the least productive in my NMH career. Experience has shown me that if you don’t keep busy, you tend to be less productive.

So, freshman, explore some extracurriculars, clubs, or a sport. Don’t just sit around and do nothing, because that is exactly what you will do: nothing! Procrastination is like a credit card; it’s fun until you get the bill. Get a debit card instead.

— Santi

Dear Senior,

Almost every night, I have trouble falling asleep. I cannot pinpoint the reason. It’s not like my roommate is up late, or I can’t stop worrying about my grades. It’s like my body has some instinctive fear of sleep. I do all the necessary things: minimize light and sound, make sure the temperature is comfortable; I’m even taking medicine I got from the infirmary. What do you think is causing this problem and how can I stop it?

— A Tired Student

Dear Tired Student,

My freshman fall, I also had insomnia.

I would have sleepless nights followed by weary days, and I never understood why.

My bed was near a window that faced the chapel, and I would lie awake for a long time, listening as the chapel bell rang 11 times, then 12 times. As the minutes ticked by, I would become distressed because I knew that the less sleep I got, the more tired I would be the next day or the day after.

An important lesson I learned is that the night is your friend. Sometimes staying up late is a treasure to be discovered. Chances are you have a lot of commitments and responsibilities during the day, but after you go to bed, you have nothing to do and nowhere to be. Embrace that nothingness. Let it be a breather for your mind and body. You will begin to enjoy your time awake, being completely relaxed.

Don’t worry about the next day until it comes.

Once I learned how to enjoy the night, I started falling asleep much faster. It was almost as if some force took away my time awake as soon as I started finding happiness in it. But I never complained because I was getting more sleep.

One final suggestion: As you are falling asleep each night, recount three to five moments during your day that made you happy. This will help you focus your thoughts, which will help you fall asleep. Also, it will ensure that you fall asleep thinking positive things. — Zeke [NMH]

spring 2015 I 43

ALUMNI HALL

Board Gets New Chair Economist and college professor Stephen Fuller ’58, P ’98 will become chairman of the NMH Board of Trustees this month, just as NMH launches a new strategic plan designed to guide the school through the next five years.

“We have a lot of work to do, and the challenges are enormous,” Fuller says. “The school is strong, with an excellent reputation, but we can’t sit back and rest on that reputation. We need to move forward.”

Fuller has served on the board since 2012. His predecessor, William Shea ’72, served one three-year term as chair and 10 years on the board.

Fuller lists among the board’s priorities an upcoming campaign that will support the school’s strategic plan; increase financial aid; and fund new buildings, improvements to existing buildings, and higher faculty salaries.

He also is determined to broaden the network of NMH graduates who remain connected to the school. “These are all things that will position NMH for the next century,” he says.

Calling himself a “quiet leader,” Fuller brings to the board chairmanship decades of experience as a scholar and consultant in the fields of economic development, public policy, and urban planning.

He taught at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., for 25 years, including nine years as chairman of the Department of Urban Planning and Real Estate Development and one year as director of doctoral programs in the School of Business and Public Management. He joined the faculty at George Mason University in 1994 as a professor of public policy and regional development and served as director of the Ph.D. Program in Public Policy and director of the Center for Regional Analysis. He has authored more than 800 articles, papers, and reports in the field of urban and regional economic development, with a focus on the Washington, D.C., economy.

Fuller spent two years at NMH, where he played soccer and ran track, worked in the laundry — “I could iron 32 shirts in an hour,” he says — and was so influenced by his teachers that when NMH built six new faculty homes last year, he funded the Baldwin-Baxter House in honor of two of them, Alice Baldwin and E. Mary Baxter. “Teachers are what make NMH special,” Fuller says. “They’re the ones who made the difference for me.” Fuller passed along his allegiance to NMH to his daughter, Elizabeth, who graduated in 1998.

Although Fuller recognizes that his economic expertise will play a major part of his board leadership, he considers network building his responsibility as well. “NMH is so important to so many alumni in terms of who and what they have become, how they’ve realized their potential in their careers and lives,” he says. “It’s time for us to recapture that sense of commitment.”

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A L U MN I C O U N C I L P R O F I L E

K AT E H AY E S ’ 0 6 Home: New York, NY Work: Senior Associate at Echoing Green, a global nonprofit that provides seed funding to early-stage social entrepreneurs who are working to solve the world’s biggest problems.

Alumni Council position: Chair of the 16-member Young Alumni Committee What you do: I focus our team on engaging and re-engaging young alums through social media, in-person events, and peerto-peer outreach.

Why you do it: NMH provided me with a foundation for what already has become an amazing career. It allowed me not only to have a robust academic experience, but also to learn about the world and how I wanted to live in it. The lessons I learned at NMH were so central to who I am as a person, and this is an opportunity to give back to an institution I am thankful for every day.

Most satisfying moment on the Alumni Council: When the Young Alumni Facebook page hit 1,000 “likes.” The Young Alumni Committee thought about how to reengage alumni who were less involved with NMH, and we knew that social media was the best way to do it. Our social media task force worked hard to provide content specifically targeted toward this group, and it worked.

2014–15 ALUMNI COUNCIL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Secure your future ... and the future of NMH

www.nmhschool.org/alumni-get-involved Caroline N. Niederman ’78 President thedoc@txequine dentist.com Dorrie Krakower Susser ’56 Secretary dksusser@gmail.com Carolyn “Ty” Bair Fox ’59 Molly Talbot ’93 Nominating committee co-chairs

Stuart Papp ’93 Strategic advisory chair J. Peter Donald ’05 NMH Fund chair 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, P ’11, P ’12 Ex-officio, staff liaison

A charitable gift annuity gives you: • • • • •

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

Sample rates based on a single life CGA* Age 65 75 85 Rate 4.7% 5.8% 7.8%

Visit nmhschool.plannedgiving.org or contact:

Jeff Leyden ’80, P’14 Director of Capital and Planned Giving 413-498-3299 jleyden@nmhschool.org

Sue Clough P’06, P’08 ALUMNI DANCE RECITAL I Yvonne-Marie Sain ’02, a dance teacher in New York City and Connecticut, performs during NMH’s annual alumni dance weekend in January. Alumni who graduated between 1987 and 2014 returned to campus and taught workshops in commercial dance, writing and dance, composition, theater jazz, modern, Bhangra, and yoga.

Senior Associate Director of Planned Giving 413-498-3084 sclough@nmhschool.org *Rates displayed are for illustrative purposes only.

PHOTO: GLENN MINSHALL

spring 2015 I 45

CLASS NOTES

VITAL STATISTICS page 92 / IN MEMORIAM page 94

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EDITH BENDER SOUTHWICK 395 N 70th Street Springfield OR 97478-7206

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(B. J.) ELIZABETH JANE SMITH JOHNSON 167 Main St Wenham MA 01984-1446 robert.johnson53@comcast.net

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DORCAS PLATT ABELL 30 Walden Lane Pittsfield MA 01201-1572 sabell3@nycap.rr.com

Following her retirement from the faculty of the University of Texas-Austin, Janet Taylor Spence moved to Cape Cod, her family’s summer home for many years. Her sister, Christine Taylor Frazier ’44, and her husband live in Avon, Conn., and spend time on the Cape during the summer in their cottage next door. Four years ago Janet attended the NMH graduation of her grandniece, Taylor Frazier ’11, daughter of Jonathan Frazier ’69— Janet’s first visit to the combined campus. For old time’s sake, the family drove around the deserted Northfield campus—a nostalgic but somewhat sad occasion.

Louise Thomas Cooley has rheumatoid arthritis, which slows her down, but she tries to play bridge twice a week. Her husband, Denton Cooley, is retired from doing surgery but goes to his Texas Heart Institute every day. They are busy with 16 grandchildren, nine great-grands, and three more expected in spring. Denton is 94 and Louise is 90.

She enjoys receiving emails from Northfield and sends best wishes.

Betty Zumwinkel Fulton lives with and is spoiled by her daughter, Joanie, in Colorado. She is still “up and at ’em” and reads a lot. She, too, sent greetings to all.

Louise Pfuhl Darby’s big event of 2013 was the wedding of her son, Karl, to Denise. Friends and relatives (150 of them) came from near and far to join in the big celebration, including her newest great-grand from Texas, Margaret (five weeks old).

Louise is 90 now…“hard to believe,” she says.

Charline Thomas Bridge: “Allyn and I are still here and glad walkers and canes are available. I am still enjoying being an AARP tax aide and doing puzzles. Much of the year has been taken up with medical stuff (I had a melanoma and we have a daughter who is fighting cancer, both good at the moment), but we have cut back on travel. We’ve seen/enjoyed a lot of Europe and many cruises, but now everything involves so much walking we like to stay right here in Southern California. We run away to the beach several times a year and love to watch the water while we read, do puzzles, take naps, and make sure the tide comes in and out.

“I still have trouble thinking that the Mt. Hermon campus is now our school—the Northfield campus will always be ‘my school’ for me. I lost touch with Ann Steimer Taft, but Sue Spencer Harris is now in California after many years in Italy, but not close enough to drop in on, alas. Life is still good, but horizons have certainly shrunk.”

Meredith Pattison Gaskill writes: “I had to leave just before the end of our junior year when my father died. I was born in East Northfield when my dad was chaplain for the Northfield Schools, and Lillian Dawe Allen and I went to the threeroom grade school together. I moved to Calgary, Alberta, when I was 7. I married a man who was born in Seattle, and he died 14 years ago and left me with a big family—most of them live nearby. I have 17 grandchildren and seven great-grands, and they are great about keeping me involved. It’s hard to believe that most of us are 90 or about to be.

Hope we all have the same wonderful memories of the Seminary. When I saw Carleton Finch’s (’41) picture, I remembered that we went to grade school together.”

I (Dorcas Platt Abell) celebrated my 90th birthday in August with 96 friends and family members. I’ve lived in Pittsfield since I was 16 (my folks moved here during my last year at Northfield).

I’m healthy and was still able to play some tennis last summer and enjoyed swimming in our pool adjacent to the tennis courts. A small battery-operated scooter helps me get up the hill. Bridge and reading are my hobbies, and I’ll spend four months in N. Ft. Myers, Fla., again this winter. My sister, Ginny Platt Carlson ’38, and two nieces live in Ft. Myers and we get together often.

I would love to hear from more of our class. Best wishes to all.

KEEP IN TOUCH Help us save paper and keep you connected with NMH. Send us your current email address and we’ll make sure to update you on major school happenings.

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STAY CONNECTED Facebook www.facebook.com/NMHschool Twitter www.twitter.com/NMHschool flickr www.flickr.com/photos/ nmhphotos NMHSocial www.nmhschool.org/nmhsocial Alumni Events www.nmhschool.org/alumni

S CI E NCE TEA C H ER GEOR G E “MR . PAT ” PAR T R ID G E , W H O TAU G H T AT NOR T H FIELD FR O M 1944 TO 1971, L E AD S A C H E MIST RY L AB IN PALM E R HALL, C IRC A 1950. PH O T O : C O U R T E SY O F N MH AR C H IVE S

spring 2015 I class notes I 47

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CARLETON FINCH 612 Rindge Rd Fitchburg MA 01420-1310 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! He sends his greetings to all.

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CORA LEE GETHMAN GIBBS 355 Blackstone Blvd, Apt 554 Providence RI 02906-4953 coraleegibbs@aol.com

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LOREN BULLOCK 1 Arch Place #120 Gaithersburg MD 20878-6600 mlbullock9@gmail.com

Greetings from Loren Bullock. Had a fabulous 90th birthday party last November with 150 friends and family, with DJ and 1940s music. A real celebration! Am grateful my health is holding.

Jean and I are beautifully settled and comfortable in our new condo. Still a docent at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., once a week, giving tours at the Postal Museum.

Art Miller, with wife Marjorie and family, was honored at a Pentagon ceremony on 12/20/14 for 20 years of their family fund’s philanthropic support for Navy and Marine Corps families in need.

Paul Allen has moved from Somers, N.Y., to a small care facility in Livermore, Calif., to be near his son and daughter-in-law.

Paul McGrew and Sally are still in their home in Los Altos, Calif. We’re all longtime retirees now, aren’t we? What a new world we’re living in!

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NMH ROBERTA BURKE BURPEE 3220 River Villa Way #121 Melbourne Beach FL 32951-3035 bobbieburpee@gmail.com

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CHARLTON R. PRICE 1501 17th St, Apt 514 Seattle WA 98122-4103 charltonrp@gmail.com

Here in NMH Magazine, the current Northfield and Mt. Hermon classes of 1944 are now combined to keep in touch with each other and to share some of our more than 70 years of experiences and memories.

Now we have two honorary presidents: Yvonne Snyder Elliman and Jim Babcock. Yvonne, originally from Rumson, N.J., now lives in New York City and in Westhampton (Long Island). Early on, she was a fashion model in Italy and New York.

She has traveled internationally and throughout the U.S., and has lived in Hawaii, Italy, Switzerland, 48 I NMH Magazine

and Brazil. She has been a longtime active volunteer leader in many New York–area social service and community organizations. Her long marriage to the late New York bank president, Don Elliman, ended only in 2013, just short of his 101st birthday.

Jim Babcock grew up in Westerly, R.I., and has long lived in Glastonbury, Conn. After a management career at United Technologies, he founded and ran, with his son, a travel agency in Glastonbury, and is now a full-time house husband with his wife, Billie. Jim has been a longtime fundraiser for Mt. Hermon and for NMH, and was one of the organizers of our ’44 Class Scholarship Fund.

I regularly mention the fund here, to remind you all that “direct descendants” of N ’44 and MH ’44 (your great-grandchildren, for instance) can have “first call” on scholarship support at NMH using income from this fund. The fund principal is now more than $220,000.

Yvonne, Jim, other classmates still available, and I—your scribe, Charlton Price—want to hear about your life today and/or your stories of our Mt. Hermon. Also, I would like to put you in touch with any other classmates you’d like to reach who are on my combined class list, current as of December 2014. I’ll be phoning or emailing as many of you as I can, a few each month, throughout the year. But don’t wait to hear from me. Please use my contact information to get in touch.

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ARLENE FINCH REYNOLDS 5643 Slater Ridge Hilliard OH 43026 arlenerey@aol.com

Irma Klein Schachter has been in touch with Connie Caldwell Lambert, who spoke of her dance

activities. Connie is in a group in both Florida and Ithaca, N.Y. They are called “Coquettes Not Rockets,” and just had a couple of shows in Riviera Beach, Fla. She also keeps busy with Bingo on her iPad with people all across the US. Irma told me that Helen Bardwell Hinman’s husband, Cory, has died.

Irma also wrote: “We did have our gang here for the weekend prior to Thanksgiving—24-strong, and a great-grandson and great-grandnephew who are each 8 months old.”

Barbara Goodwin Fellows feels that she has gone on her last long travel adventure: Alaska. She still goes to Maine every summer. We will have lunch on her return to Columbus, Ohio. Her grandson, Nate, is a freshman at Ohio University.

Barbara Baldwin Knapp keeps up with her gardening and watching all her grandchildren mature successfully around the country. She also loves having great-grandchildren.

Jackie Snyder Johnson and Irma are willing to help at our 70th reunion. Who else is coming? I do hope I can.

After living 50 years in my home in Clintonville, I have moved with my daughter and son-in-law to a large condo in Hilliard, Ohio. We still can attend our church. We are now preparing for the 29th year of our Christmas Day celebration of Christ’s birth—a reunion for 800 homeless and lonely. I

have about 30 faithful chairs to coordinate the 200 volunteers. Good news: all inflammation remains out of my eyes and there’s no need for more infusions after March 2015!

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PETE DEVENIS 9 South Meadow Ridge Concord MA 01742-3000 ingadevenis@aol.com

In 2014, four of our classmates passed away. Of the 138 in our graduating class in the yearbook, we now have only 46 left on the class list, exactly onethird. Congratulations on being fortunate enough to be in that select group.

Fred Gross passed away on 8/22/14 at his home in Glastonbury, Conn., after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Fred served in the US Navy on an aircraft carrier during WWII. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in mechanical engineering and worked for Pratt & Whitney developing jet engines. Fred’s hobbies included refurbishing a Ford Model A Roadster to perfect condition, sailing, tennis, and biking. He leaves wife Ethel, daughters Beth and Linda, sister Joanne, and four grandchildren.

Richard “Spook” Morrill died on 9/16/14 after a short illness. He lived for many years in Granby, Conn., with his wife, Gwen, before retiring to their summer home in Port Clyde, Maine. Richard graduated from Williams with a B.A. in history, and from Columbia with an M.A. in library science. He worked for libraries in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Adams and Leominster, Mass. He then served as director of Prosser Public Library in Bloomfield, Conn. He is survived by his son, Christopher, daughter-in-law Susanne, and two grandchildren.

John “Bull” Rikert died on 10/5/14. He was one of the few remaining four-year classmates. He and I were both assigned to Cottage IV during our first year. There are now only seven classmates remaining out of 30 who spent all four years at MH (Bill Bahnson, Winthrop “Wink” Cornwell, Peter Devenis, Richard Kessler, Charlie McVeigh, Paul Rinden, and Cal Swan). John was a WWII veteran, having served in the US Army. He was a food chemist at General Foods, Standard Brands, and Nabisco for 20 years before his retirement.

He continued to work part time after retirement as health inspector for the City of Stamford and the Town of Darien, Conn. His hobbies included skiing and fishing. John is survived by his wife Julie, son Darrell, daughter Jennifer, brother Paul, and stepchildren Michael and Kimberly.

Ted “Wobble” Wright passed away on 10/15/14.

When he ran around the track field at MH, his lower body used to wobble from side to side. Ted was also one of the select group of 30 classmates who attended for four years. His favorite teacher at MH was Louis Smith, once saying, “He taught me how to write.” Ted lived most of his life with his wife, Eileen, in Charlottesville, Va., from September through May, but liked to spend June through August at a summer place on Lake Damariscotta in Jefferson, Maine, where he enjoyed bass fishing.

Eileen died in 2002. Ted graduated from Princeton

with an A.B. in biology in 1949, an M.A. from Wesleyan in 1954, and a Ph.D. from Yale in 1959.

He taught biology at Johns Hopkins for six years and at the University of Virginia, retiring after 31 years as professor of biology but continuing there as emeritus professor until his death. His specialty was genetics and biology of drosophila (study of fruit flies). In this field, he was an expert, and co-author of 54 research papers and several books. His sister, Lydia, and 10 nieces survive.

With our 70th class of 1945 reunion June 4–7, the Reunion Committee—Peter Devenis, Carnot Evans, Don Krueger, and Cal Swan—has been hard at work. Class Gift Chairs are Dick Unsworth and Colin Selley.

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BETTY BOLGER FLEMING 456 Riverside Dr Princeton NJ 08540-5421 bettyb.fleming@verizon.net

I greatly regret that our class column was blank in the last NMH Magazine. I had gathered all the news and coordinated your stories when three events took over my life. As many of you know, my brother, Bill Bolger ’44, died after a long illness. My husband, Bob, had a successful operation two days before, and our computer went down. I am now happy to be back in the business of being your scribe.

Isabel MacLeod Walker emailed me in the midst of a terrible storm in California. Happily, she escaped the mudslides and floods. She has managed to be active all year with a few clients and a group for cancer patients that she started in 1975 when she was at Stanford in the oncology department. “I keep up with the ‘grands’ (ages 8–21) and try to understand their attachments to hand-held phones as a means of constant communication. I think of my four years with ‘Silent Time,’ and I am grateful for learning the joys of silence. Had a real rainstorm and hope for more, as California has a major water shortage. Manage to drive to Santa Cruz on weekends to do paperwork, read, and use the ocean view and beach walks to recharge the batteries. Will keep up with Jean Scheller Cain, Joan Skillman Shaw, Nancy Adams Shields, and Joan Litchard Wyon during Christmas card season.”

Joan Litchard Wyon says she has no news other than being alive and well: “My memories of NSFG are clear and special, and one of the blessings for which I give thanks to God. We can rejoice in the great leadership and promise for the future at the school as our ‘tour of duty’ winds down.”

Sunny Sundt-Busch sent a cheery note, mostly talking about her good Northfield friends, Jean “Cass” Cassidy Gowans and Ruth “Dinky” Rogers Hague. Cass apparently keeps very busy with houseguests whose families have students at Dennison University, all the while being happily accessible to Sunny for health updates, discussions of concerts attended, memories of happy and funny times as well as the arrivals of new great-grandbabies. Dinky lives with her son, David, and her puppy. As for Sunny and her husband, Bill, they welcome many visitors to their home: “All our children and their families, our church, our camping

friends, choir, and neighbors, too.” Summertime still involves camping, traveling near and far with their companion dog, a Cavalier Spaniel. Most recently, they watched 600 hot air balloons ascend into the New Mexico sky.

Alice Elder Leake: “With Mt. Hermon brother, Joe Elder ’47, at last officially retiring from a half century of exciting teaching and international service, we celebrated our sisters’ 80th and 90th birthdays with family reunions in Madison, Wis., and Marquette, Mich.—welcome days of being together!”

Jane Shanahan Anderson said, “The aging process is so challenging with the many losses we experience—not only of our loved ones, but also of ourselves due to our physical and cognitive decline.

A good support system is mandatory, which is usually provided by our ‘children’ and friends.

Fortunately, I live near two daughters who keep me in good spirits, as well as give me the energy and desire to give back to those less fortunate. Apparently, once a social worker always a social worker!”

Elaine Wilson Kuck happily reports that everything is the same. She lives in a town house in Darien, Conn., with two of her four daughters and six grandchildren close by. She uses a cane, as her back and knees can be troublesome. Elaine still drives but only goes to stores that have carts she can push.

Jeanette Mitchell lost her husband in 1976 and has been on her own since then. She worked as a veterinarian in France until 1971. After retirement, she went to law school and is now working on a thesis comparing American and French administrative law. “I don’t go back to the States anymore. However, I’ll always welcome my classmates here in Paris. I live in the center of the city. Best wishes to all.” I may take Jeanette up on that, as I have a grandson who is studying very near to Jeanette’s home in Paris, poor Jeanette—perhaps the whole Fleming household may call up to visit one day.

Jane Everett Haslun sends her very best. Her husband, Bill Haslun ’46, reports that they are holding their own and are still independent while living in their little cottage in their over-55 community…the average age is 85! Bill says, “It’s not Sandals, but lovely and what we need.”

If you are not hearing from me via email, it means that I do not have your email address. Please write to me at BettyB.Fleming@verizon.com to bring me up to date.

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HUGH FINDLAY 500 Ocean St Apt 152 Hyannis MA 02601-4766 hughf@occia.com findlay22@verizon.net

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JOAN PEARSON TURNER 49 Seymour Ct Concord MA 01742-5753 turnerjoan4@gmail.com

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CHARLES A. KENNEDY PO Box 112 Newbury NH 03255-0112 chask@myfairpoint.net

A common theme in the notes received this time is that age 85 is not for the faint of heart. Jack Daggett, recovering nicely from heart bypass surgery, called R.S. Elliott to check on his wellbeing. Jack is volunteering with the Charlottesville, Va., chapter of Habitat for Humanity, where his boss turned out to be Peter McFarren ’71. Peter is only the second NMH alum that Jack has ever met off campus.

John Hall must hold the record for teaching courses on Gilbert and Sullivan in West Virginia.

His latest effort was The Sorcerer, which demonstrates how deeply he has studied the Savoyard canon. For relaxation, he heads to the Shaw Festival in Canada during the summers.

Apologies to Bob Willard for moving him from his home in Minnesota to Michigan in the last column; my ignorance of the postal code abbreviations is to blame. Bob keeps in touch with Bob Bacon, now located in Maine after many years in the construction industry in Chapel Hill, N.C. Bob reported that Bruce Brackett passed away in St. Paul, Minn., on 9/14/14. Bruce had served in the Navy and was a graduate of Babson Institute.

Several of our classmates are in Florida. Dave Giordano is active on the executive committee of a nursing home, and is a doctor emeritus on the Sarasota Memorial Hospital medical staff. For fun and sport, he sails his 30-ft. Catalina boat in the Gulf of Mexico.

Chuck Haffenden has downsized, but remains in the same country club community in Homosassa, Fla. He remains active in Kiwanis, Elks, and American Legion, but notes his comedic role in the US Navy musical, Sea Plane, commemorating the first flight across the Atlantic by the NC-4. He played the Kennedy Center in Washington to an audience of members of Congress and Washington VIPs. Bravo, Chuck. His sensible take on life at 85: “Many friends that I run into say, ‘Nice seeing you.’

My retort is, ‘Beats viewing!’”

Writing from Miami, John Adams recounts his adventure on a motorcycle trip from Burlington, Vt., back to campus in 1977 for a bit of “time travel.” He arrived on a summer Sunday to find the campus deserted, but did find his last assigned seat in chapel for a few moments of nostalgia.

Harry Cook now lives in Deltona, Fla., after Hurricane Sandy destroyed his home on Long Island. Being 40 minutes from Disney World and Universal assures him that the grandchildren will visit often.

Roly Coates takes a class in writing memoirs, which prompted him to write an essay on his experiences singing in Sacred Concerts over the years. Roly holds the class record for years in the alumni choir.

An advantage of living in New Hampshire is the proximity to campus after a career that took me to Hawaii, Texas, and Virginia. Last fall I made the trip back for the Rope Pull. In the opening remarks, I learned that if the seniors won, the dean would spring 2015 I class notes I 49

be thrown into the lake; if the juniors won, the head of school would be tossed; and if it was a tie, I would be thrown in as the oldest alumnus in attendance. Fortunately, the seniors won and I stayed dry. Before Christmas, I received a letter from the Commonwealth of Virginia informing me that I had passed away and sincere condolences were extended to my family. Before I had a chance to resign as your class secretary, the bureaucratic error was discovered, so I am still alive.

Mark your calendars now and start planning for Reunion 2017, our 70th!

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PHIL BAKER 1900 N Signal Hills Dr Kirkwood MO 63122-6831 bakpn30@earthlink.net

Norm Ashworth writes: “Living down in the

sunshine (Florida) is great. We play a little golf, go out in the boat every once in a while, do some volunteer work with the city and the VA, travel a bit (went to Africa for three weeks this summer), visit the kids or have them come visit from time to time—got our first great-granddaughter in August (2014)—before you know it, there’s no time to do anything!”

Fred Lighthall has been retired from academic life for 16 years now, but has kept doing research examining the many levels of social and organizational life that cause bad, sometimes disastrous decisions. “My health stays good with a program of exercise and the watchful eye of my wife of 39 years, Maureen. She took up painting after her career as a high school English teacher, and lately has enjoyed considerable success (four solo shows in the last year). We were last at Hermon at the dedication of one of the new cottages to my sister, Mary Lighthall Compton ’44 who, with her husband Bill, were mainstays of student life at Hermon for many years. Mary and Bill’s daughter, Betsy Compton ’72, served on NMH’s Board of Directors, and it was an occasion for a wonderful family reunion with their sons, Bob and Richard.

Gordon Benedict retired to Florida in 1992 after 37 years with Connecticut’s Northeast Utilities Service Corp. Unfortunately, he lost his wonderful wife, Doris, last April following a cerebral hemorrhage. Gordon says that he is fortunate they raised three children who were, and are, a great source of pride, as is a beautiful and talented 16-year-old granddaughter. He continues living in Florida during the colder months and returns to Connecticut in late May to be with his family until the fall. He keeps active with golf two days a week, along with some tennis. He also recommends something called “pickle ball” that he says has taken off in Florida, and says he will soon be taking lessons.

Class Secretary Phil Baker: “For a change we stayed close to home (St. Louis) this year, but we do manage to stay busy. Especially wife Bev “Sandy” Anderson Baker ’48, who, after a nursing career, a master’s degree in the field of social work, and a host of other activities and involvements, is a very good watercolorist and now teaches art. We have two daughters and a son, seven grands, and 50 I NMH Magazine

three (soon to be four) great-grands. I’m long retired from my market research business, but still have involvement here and there, e.g., our church, Civil War Roundtable of Missouri, a local book club, etc. It is also nice to see NMH organize so well around class notes. Very best wishes to fellow ’48ers—male and female—everywhere.”

Ted Dow: “Since my last news, I had a mild stroke in January 2012, but had a full recovery. In August 2013, we finally had two weeks visiting the coast of Norway—beautiful! We deliberately selected Norway’s smallest ship, which was an excellent decision. We have two grandsons attending college (University of Rhode Island), and twin grandchildren in their senior year of high school in Maine, one of whom just became an Eagle Scout.

Last October, my cardiologist replaced my old pacemaker with a new model, which seems to work well. We have lived 49 years in our 240-year-old house and barn, which have enough tasks to keep us busy. We celebrated 60 years of happily married life last June.”

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CAROLYN NOBLE SANTORO 88 Henry Ave Harrison NY 10528-4421 doncary@optimum.net

Barbara Bolger Collett ’50: “We have been in Gainesville, Fla., since 1968, when husband Bill came to help start the first dental school in the state. We are making our fourth move to the Village here in Gainesville—a retirement community.

When the light bulb goes out, we call management.

It seems like a good move, as Bill can no longer play golf, and we are healthy enough to fully participate in the interesting program they provide.”

Don’t forget to send me news during the year and I will see that it goes in the next alumni magazine.—Cary Noble Santoro

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JIM HANCHETT 300 1st Ave, Apt 8B New York NY 10009-1844 jch46@cornell.edu

DAVID DURHAM 149 Ontario St. Honeoye Falls NY 14472-1139 dedur@aol.com

Class news from Jim Hanchett: Paul Rikert (White Plains, N.Y.) made it back again for Christmas Vespers (30-something times, he estimates) and revisited the Northfield hills he sledded and skied when growing up as a townie. Choral Director Sheila Heffernon maintains some Al Raymond traditions, such as the singing of “Dost Thou Remember” to herald the season. And so was another (30-ish) trot through the Pie Race. “I’ll call it running, anyway,” says the former Hermon crosscountry runner. He covered the course in the same time as in several recent years. (“Can you run that slowly?” he wondered aloud. But he did get a pie.)

He’s still skiing, too. He missed our NMH Hoggers football last fall.

Elliott Serafin (Ada, Mich.) works out every day, plays a lot of golf, and “hangs out with my family.” He says, “I’ve always been active. So far, so good.” On tap for travel have been Sarasota, skiing, Arizona for spring training (he favors the Cubbies), and Southwest Indian art, plus favored European locales like Paris, Seville, Provence, and maybe Wimbledon. There are also visits to the Chicago Symphony.

After many years of distinguished service with the Coast Guard Auxiliary in the waters off Long Island, Harland “Will” Williams (Syosset, N.Y.) has become a landlubber. He says there was a turning point when two cops had to help him off his boat. He headed for the station, where he has been lending a hand with shore duties. Will philosophizes that “if you stay around young people, you stay younger longer” and “They even listen to what I say.”

Bill Gill (Prescott, Ariz.) generously volunteers as driver for a museum centered on the area’s abundant history, which reaches back into pre-history.

Some 100,000 inhabited the neighborhood 9,000 years ago and left pueblos and mounds of interest.

Spanish explorers, pioneers from New England, ’49ers, and the U.S. cavalry came later. Nowadays, Bill lunches with wife, Mary, at her nursing home.

Paul Dubeau (Baltimore) is “still perking along.”

He recalls that, as a B squad member, he hit a fly ball that Dick Hall ’48 caught in the outfield. Hall was Paul’s floor leader in Crossley one year. Fastforward: they were reunited at the stadium when Hall was pitching for the Orioles. Paul says Dick didn’t remember him. Your correspondent “minireuned” with Hall at Yankee Stadium in his KC years. Another Hermonite, a baseball teammate, also turned up that night. We both remembered him.

Kathy and The Rev. Dave Durham (Honeoye Falls, Va.) made a 54-day See America journey last year, from New York to San Diego via Vancouver (where a daughter lives). Along the way, Dave displayed his prized Swiss stamp collection at an Indianapolis exhibition for the first time in all the years since his interest was piqued in the 1940s. He didn’t win anything at the show, but he did preach at a local church. Stops at Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, and Yosemite followed.

Bob Knapp, settling into retirement living at Elim Park, Cheshire, Conn., finds himself in the very good company of neighbors Bill Schultz and Dave Powell ’48. You’ll recall Dave as a twin great-grandson of Dwight L. Moody, a fine football and hockey player, and a chorister who became a Whiffenpoof at Yale. They gather from time to time for mini-mini-reunions. Bob and the founder’s descendant made a day trip not so long ago to check out Northfield and Hermon.

Fred Glotzer (Norwalk, Conn.) is still working—in his 60th year as a CPA. Kerwin Stotz (Charlottesville, Va.) was asked what he was up to and he made an honest reply: “about six-foot-two.” Well, that’s about what he was when he was snapping the old pigskin to Dick Worthington for coach Bull Rineer far above the Connecticut’s waters. He said he’s one of a local

senior center’s “Still Sharp Singers.” He didn’t sing much on Hermon’s hill, being a day student from Turners Falls. He doesn’t get back much anymore, but does still have a brother living in Greenfield.

As the old year faded into some good, some bad history, Lee Farwell (Farmingdale, Maine) was continuing a lengthy stay in rehab, waging a courageous battle with ambulatory troubles.

Whitey Heist and Mary Lyman Heist’s grandson, Andrew Heist ’06, an NMH alum contact to ’49, left the old school on the hill a while back and moved to Virginia as coach for the USA Swim Club.

From Dave Durham: Can’t really be 65 years, can it? Well, over yonder are Pres and Carroll from ’34, so we feel pretty young! Our school outdid itself with lovely accommodations, outstanding food, a neat and beautiful campus (could it ever be otherwise?), and young people with a smile ready to give us a lift in their golf carts to our next destination.

Being among the ancient ‘grands,’ we enjoyed the privilege of eating in the Myra B. Wilson Room of Alumni Hall. Impressive were the fascinating and educational seminars offered on Friday—and the nine young folk on a student panel answering questions. But tops for me was the sense that NMH is on its way to a fine future, a future in tune with the creative juices of Dwight L. Moody and Headmaster Speer—yet ready for the changes and challenges of the 21st century.

Conversations: Ah, the heart of our reunion!

Gathered together were Larry Andrews, Don Bond, Phyllis Meres Cocroft ’49, David Durham, Ken Hungerford (recipient of the Annual Citation in recognition of his outstanding volunteer service to NMH!), Paul Jacques and Beverly, Don Mayhew, Sandy McIntyre and granddaughter Sylver Penney ’12, Nancy Croser McKersie, Bill Mellin, Joyce Heisenbuttel Neill ’49 and Clark, Paul Rikert, Cary Noble Santoro ’49 and Don, Barry Stein, Don Swicker, Harland “Will” Williams and Iris Helk Williams ’52, and Nancy and Dick Worthington. We also laid claim for the weekend to Fred Monett ’50 and Al Higgins ’50.

Don Mayhew, an outgoing reunion co-chair (Joyce Neill continues as co-chair), announced that he is no longer able to carry out the duties.

He suggested that a committee was still needed, but probably not with an explicitly designated chair. Committee members Hungerford, Durham, and Williams agreed to continue to serve in their current capacities, as did Jim Hanchett (unable to attend this reunion). Mayhew suggested that the members of the reunion committee be encouraged and authorized to recruit other class members to assist in fund solicitation and news-gathering—and to the extent possible to attend September and March meetings at NMH prior to our next reunion in 2019.

Saturday afternoon we gathered at our class of ’49 tree near the gymnasium for a memorial service led by David. The names of 16 Northfield and 16 Mt. Hermon alumni from our class who have died in the past five years were read.

We left the weekend delightfully renewing former friendships and with pride and confidence in the future of our school. We hope to see even more of you in 2019!

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JANET-MARIE FITZGERALD WHITLEY 6794 Willow Rd Vacaville CA 95687-9425 janwhitley@aol.com

From Jan—In our last magazine issue, Janice Anderson Wilkes was listed as having passed away.

It should be noted that Janice served as reunion chair at either our 40th or 45th reunion. She will be missed.

Jane Heywood Brown is our reunion chair for 2015. Our next reunion will be in five years, when most of us will be pushing (very aggressively) 90.

Jane recently welcomed two new grandchildren. Her son’s first children are twins, a boy and a girl.

Lois Seekamp Dole still does hospice work.

Husband George appeared several times on local TV regarding the 60th anniversary of Roger Bannister’s four-minute mile. George was the only Yank in the race; he was at Oxford and won the CambridgeOxford mile that year (1964). Lois was in nursing school in Manhattan and babysat for his sister, who insisted they meet. The rest is history. George’s father was a Swedenborgian minister in Bath, Maine, where George became minister in 1959. He continues to run several times a week. Their middle son, Andrew Cole ’84, is a tenured professor of religion at Amherst College. He is dad to their only grandchildren, George and Genevieve. Andrew’s wife is also a Swedenborgian minister serving a UCC church in Northampton, Mass.

Lois didn’t think she would make reunion this year, but might if her roommate, Jean Cook Glidden, did. Jean wasn’t thinking of attending, but has reconsidered if Lois attends. Hope I have them both now!

Jean had a bad fall in late summer that resulted in a nasty concussion and severe vertigo. She is unable to drive and still has vertigo. Husband Dick will drive her to reunion.

Barbara Bolger Collett feels fortunate to have a relationship with her grandchildren, as she never met her own grandparents. They lived in occupied Netherlands during WWII. She and husband Bill celebrated 30 years of his successful triple bypass surgery on 2/14/15. (Gene and I will celebrate 62 years of marriage the same day.) In December 2014, Barbara and Bill moved to a retirement community (The Village) in Gainesville, Fla. They are looking forward to good experiences in their 59th year of marriage. They welcomed their first great-grandchild, Alaina Jade Gates. Father is son of their daughter, Dianne. Their PGA grandson had hip surgery in July 2014. He is recuperating and hopes to return to the tour in 2015. Barbara reminded me that her mother, Coby Bolger, who raised Irish setters, sold one to Mira B. Wilson. Barbara would like to communicate with classmates via email. Anyone interested?

Mario Di Cesare, widower of Lee Hoskins Di Cesare, still enjoys living far out in the country—a decision he and Lee made 20 years ago to discover the beauty and mountains of western North Carolina. He continues his passion for the College for Seniors, which will be offering more than 100 courses in the spring, and is reading Shakespeare again.

Janet-Marie Fitzgerald Whitley: Gene and I welcomed our seventh great-grandchild on 11/30/14. She joins our six great-grandsons. Alexis Ann Whitley is only the second girl out of 17 born Whitleys. Her grandfather is our deceased son, Brian Whitley. Her dad is Brian II, who works two full-time jobs: as a fireman/EMT in Lodi, Calif., and as an emergency room tech at Kaiser Hospital in Vacaville. He also has two sons, Brian III and Aiden.

Please remember reunion and try to attend. A surf and turf dinner (lobster) is planned for Thursday. We will be joining the 50th reunion class of ’65. Other than transportation costs for attending, the only other cost is $100 for the alumni dorm fee if you stay on campus. For everything else, we are guests of the school. If you bring a guest, they will be subject to additional charges. The school will provide more information. Reunion starts on a Thursday afternoon and goes through chapel on Sunday. You can attend all or part of the festivities. Since Gene and I travel from California, we will incur ample transportation costs, but it is well worth it. Come and see how the Hermon campus is definitely the NMH campus. So much of Northfield was brought over to the other side of the river. See you at reunion!

From Bob White—Let us salute with pride and gratitude our veterans of armed conflicts while at the same time search for a better way to resolve differences among peoples. A new twist is the emergence of terrorism. If all goes well, the class’s 65th reunion will have a panel of classmates to discuss the issue.

We are anticipating looking back on our 65th as another stellar experience on the hill.

I received a Christmas greeting from Vic Scalice indicating high activity.

Bruce Dunn is still on his bike spring, summer, and fall, and hikes all year utilizing “micro spikes” in the winter months. He is also writing The Pygmalion Conspiracy, which is the first of four volumes in The Grandchildren of Lemma series.

Bruce and Al Higgins are making personal calls to classmates encouraging them to attend reunion.

Other members of the Reunion Committee are working on the presentations, which we anticipate will be ready and accepted for you to enjoy at Reunion 65. But the real bonus for all will be your presence, to experience renewed friendships, relive old times, and get caught up on the “since then.”

Our creative Phil Dietterich will share his musical talents with us at reunion, but in the meantime, he shares a song that demonstrates what has happened in relationships since the ’40s/’50s. (View it on YouTube: “Hey Nonny No Sex Appeal”).

Those who connect to share thoughts/experiences as class notes roll around will, hopefully, be at reunion to share their stories firsthand. Best wishes.—Bob [Editor’s note: Prior to publication, the NMH community learned of the death of Class Secretary Bob White on 1/25/15—his last class notes column is published here posthumously. The class lost another vital volunteer, Class Gift Chair Mark Jander, on 1/15/15. Both will be recognized more fully in the fall issue of NMH Magazine.]

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51 N

PAT MCCORMICK HOEHING 7125 San Benito Dr Sylvania OH 43560-1129 sylv.snail@bex.net

By the time you receive this issue, the campus will be at least “51” shades of green and the NMH class of ’15 will have graduated.

Judy Ives Hubbel writes that due to husband Ed’s health concerns, they have made the move from Lexington, Mich., to Richmond, Va., to be close to their son, Pete. Please contact me if you would like their new address and phone. Judy says: “It was sad to leave Lexington, but Richmond is very welcoming.”

Marilyn “Skip” Smith Noll and Walter expressed 14 years of gratitude and love for each other, having met after the death of their spouses.

Skip, who has a mastery in her use of words, recalls that “Joy flew back into our lives like hummingbirds in spring.” Both Ed and Walter are among the honored spouses who have attended many of our class reunions!

In 2016 we will be celebrating our 65th reunion.

Yes, tempus fugit! After all these years, we should have an abundance of wisdom to impart. A few of you emailed me some pearls of wisdom for the current NMH students. We may be old in the eyes of youth, but these truths are universal. The students probably don’t read the NMH Magazine alumni columns, but we send those thoughts anyway!

You can always enlighten your grandchildren with them...

W.B. Yeats: “Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire”; the Dalai Lama: “When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know, but if you listen you may learn something new.”

Bob MacFadyen ’51 climbs aboard a jet—when he was in the Air Force—to promote summer camp.

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And from us old-timers: “Make good friends, the kind you will keep for a lifetime”; “Enjoy the arts, which are so important in life at NMH (or anywhere). Be discerning with the ideas and emotions expressed”; “Listen, think, and question.”

In jest, we ask: “With the current emphasis on math, science, and technology, can we assume NMH grads will know who won the War between the States, or who the vice president is? Will they hear the words of Shakespeare, Tennyson, Plato, Thoreau, and others? Are they encouraged to step out of their comfort zone with electives?” Just wondering!

Remember that 6/30/15 is the end of the fiscal year for donations to the NMH Annual Fund. In closing, one final bit of wisdom: “Take walks and soak in the beauty of the place and those eternal hills. Your soul will thank you!”

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FREDERICK W. MILLER 479 Carleton Ave Glen Ellyn IL 60137-4705 fwcemiller@sbcglobal.net

Richard “Dick” A. Swain, 80, of Mentor, Ohio, passed away on 2/18/14 after suffering a thalamic stroke. Dick was active in baseball, cross-country, outing club, chess club, and choir at Mt. Hermon.

He later graduated from Ohio Wesleyan in Delaware, Ohio, and from Capital University School of Law in Columbus, Ohio. He practiced law in Mentor, Ohio, and become a municipal court judge.

He was “on the bench” for 27 years, retiring in 2002. His final resting place was his summer home in Big Moose Lake in the Adirondack Mountains, N.Y. He is survived by his second wife, of 10 years, Susan, three children from his first marriage, and eight grandchildren.

From Class President Bob Owen: “Leif Carlson came over from Cape Cod to visit with Nancy and me on Nantucket. My brother, William (Bill) P. Owen ’54, has a summer home there, which Nancy and I have visited over the years. Bill Calkin (Golden, Colo.) married his piano teacher last December. He lost his wife, Connie, several years ago. Jack Cheney (Lander, Wyo.) is our Renaissance man, from hunting all the game in his state, rock collecting and polishing, and making his own beer and wine. Sandy Lamb (Queensbury, N.Y.), my senior-year roommate, the youngest member of our class, is a successful doctor who has run many marathons.

“From Bob Owen’s family, a grandson who is third year at West Point is the catcher on the Army baseball team; a granddaughter is a swimmer at Rice University, a member of the U.S. national team of prone paddleboarders at the World Championships in Nicaragua, with silver medals in her event; and another granddaughter is pole-vaulting in high school and in a club in Boulder, Colo., coached by a former world record holder (Bob was a pole-vaulter at Hermon, you may recall); and another granddaughter plays soccer on a team in Colorado. Bob says, ‘Nancy and I have three daughters, six grandchildren, and will be celebrating our 60th wedding anniversary in June 2015.’”

Bob MacFadyen sent a photo of himself while he was a lieutenant in the Air Force. The photo was a promotion for summer camp and a “joy ride.” “Bob Munro, Mesquite, Nev., must have his own photo, taken like mine at Burlington, Vt. As I recall, he made the Air Force his career. John Wragg was Navy. John Bassette did survival training in Colorado. My linguist twin brother, the late John MacFadyen, spent two years translating secret Romanian military documents.” Bob says he spent his two-year career flying KC-97s doing midair refueling on B-52s and practicing bomb runs to Moscow.

Daren Rathkopf (Cold Springs Harbor, N.Y.), his wife, Mira, and their two daughters and their families went to Udine, Italy, to spend Christmas with their daughter Ann’s Italian in-laws and their family. Daren will “quasi-retire” in January 2015, meaning he told his law partner not to expect him to be available for any engagements that might interfere with his spending time at his lakeside cottage in Canada.

Jan Marfyak (Rio Rancho, N.M.) updates us since 2006: “Can you believe it—we’ve made it to our 80s? Back at Hermon, I never thought I would live this long. The amazing fact is, I’m in pretty fair shape. I love it out here. Because I have chronic bronchitis, the air, low humidity, and altitude are helpmates.” Jan retired at age 65, in 1998, after years of state and federal government service. Married and divorced three times, he now lives alone with a stepson for company while the young man attends University of New Mexico. Jan’s two children have two children each and live in Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. “I do a lot of volunteer work [here] and am involved in politics.”

The oldest granddaughter of Fred Miller earned her master’s degree in speech pathology at Saint Louis University in May 2014, landed a job in an elementary school southwest of Saint Louis, and was married in November 2014 in Illinois.

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JULIE TAYLOR CLEMENS 2258 Lamberton Rd Cleveland Heights OH 44118-3552 jtclemens@cs.com BRUCE G. HOLRAN 80 Sycamore Dr, Apt 313 Elizabethtown PA 17022-3016 (10/1–5/31) PO Box 293 Lake Clear NY 12945 (6/1–9/30) bruceholran@comcast.net

By the time this newsletter reaches you in spring of 2015, there will be more recent news sent to classmates by the NMH email, “Blasts to the Class.”

To receive those, the NMH office needs to have your email address. If you have info for the school, it can be sent to NMHNotes@nmhschool.org. It is important for NMH to receive the news, especially when it is about the death of a classmate and the school needs an obituary to make it official.

Two deaths in the class: Gayle Muir Dempsey (11/7/14) and Mary Gail Scott (11/24/14). Gayle Muir’s obit was discussed in the last email to the

class by your scribe and now we do have Mary Gail Scott’s (“Gail’s”) obituary sent in by a friend.

Gail died in Randolph, N.H., of pancreatic cancer.

Graduating from Brown (then Pembroke), Gail majored in international relations, had a secondaryschool teaching certificate, and worked for Congresswoman Edith Green and the Washington Daily News in D.C. right out of college. With a “wide range of interests,” she was a docent and researcher at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. For the past 35 years, she worked as a journalist and photographer, beginning with the boating industry and yacht racing in New England. (Scribe: You may remember Gail’s wonderful photography of sailboats, which was part of the 50th Class Art Show, displayed on the Northfield campus.) A memorial will be held in Randolph, N.H., in the summer.

The mini-reunion in October 2014 was the 18th since the class of 1952’s 45th reunion in 1997.

Those who can make it to NMH find there is a true feeling of camaraderie and affection among the classmates. The Friday noon welcoming luncheon (this year, at the Greenfield Country Club), the Friday night lobster dinner, the Saturday class meeting/lunch in the Mira B. Wilson Room at the dining hall, an afternoon program—Dave Hartman was gracious to offer a second year of his film shorts from around the world—strolls around campus ending with the class dinner at the Steak House—all have been described annually. This year we remembered classmates who have died, with a brief memorial. Your scribe read each name slowly. There was an impressive number—some 39 Northfield and 61 Mt. Hermon classmates. Some noted that they could think of each person of their school as the names were read. One realizes there were approximately 150 in each class, so 300 total enrolled in our combined classes. The moment of silence following was heartfelt with sadness. We were also very aware of two spouses who had died last August: Tom Luche, husband of Winnie Bogardus Luche, who tragically died in a car accident, and Nancy Broad, wife of Russ Broad, who died of cancer. The news of the deaths of both Anne Webb Burnham (Northfield math teacher) and her husband, Dave Burnham (teacher and spiritual guidance leader at Mt. Hermon), was on our hearts as well. They died within days of each other in late spring 2014.

Received messages on a lighter side that include requests for email or snail-mail addresses, comments on recommended books, news of other classmates. These are all welcome and answered as much as possible. No addresses are printed in the newsletter, but they can be sent individually to classmates and/or placed in the “Blasts to the Class” emails, which are secure coming from the NMH communications office.

Jean Munro Bedell and her husband continue their work in both Nicaragua and India (which included a son and grandson on the trip). Dottie Peck Foster and her husband once again helped administer and lead workshops in Guatemala, and raised funds to help schools demolished by earthquakes there.

Leanna Young Brown hasn’t slowed down much at all; she just has help taking care of “computer challenges,” a trainer to keep “physically fit,”

and someone to help with finances and other matters. This allows Leanna to attend the International Women’s Forum, be a part of a talk show, attend her book club of 48 years, and write a column, “UpBeatNJ.” The birth of a baby in the family now proudly makes her a great-grandmother.

A sailing yacht is the home (half the year) for Suzanne Brown Longacre and husband John. The Zeelander is cruising the Bahamas now but will come to rest in Florida in early May 2015. Then the Longacres can visit family, celebrate being 80, and “swap houses” around the country until their next venture. Their combined grandchildren are attending Wesleyan, Bennington, Drexel, and one is awaiting college acceptance.

Last night Drew and I (Julie Taylor Clemens) sang in a local choral group. The main piece was “Hodie” by Ralph Vaughan Williams, accompanied by lots of brass. It was demanding and exhilarating.

One of our classmates, Sarah Reynolds Clague, was in the audience. Her ceramics were included in a local art show with three other artists. Sarah continues to employ her artistic talents in the field of ceramics with fanciful figures (another participant in the NMH 50th Reunion Art Show).

Keep in touch! Best wishes for a healthy 2015 since it is now May!—Fondly, Julie

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WILL LANGE 1309 Towne Hill Rd E Montpelier VT 05651-4143 will@willemlange.com ABBY “AJ” NICHOLSON HODGES 2300 Totem Trail Minnetonka MN 55305-2242 ajhodges@comcast.net

The fall 2014 mini-reunion was a success. Here’s a report from Bob Chutter: “A small, but talkative mini-group in Freeport, Maine: Bev Bolton Leyden, Emmy Warren Taylor, Deane Lanphear, Dick Handy, Eileen and Howard Stiles, and we enjoyed lunch in a busy dining room. Ken Lindfors’s wife, Betsy, had a hip replacement but didn’t wish to push it. Gus White was returning from Seattle, and there were a couple of others who had medical situations that precluded their attendance.

Gerritt Vander Veer and Toni are on the high seas sailing to Florida.

“Deane looked better to me, but still has breathing and leg problems. Dick Handy was without his wife, who seems to be holding on with some difficulty. The Stileses seemed unchanged. We agreed we were lucky to be there, and are planning another gathering next year.

“We’ll be returning to Vermont in time to pack some clean clothes and head out for a Road Scholar trip to the Silk Road, three weeks to include Iran!

On our return trip, we’re planning on visiting our granddaughter in Athens.”

Gus White recently received the Brown University Alumni Association’s 2014 Joseph M. Fernandez ’85 Award, which recognizes individuals who have worked to bring diverse alumni together to contribute positively to their university com-

munity. White was the first African American to be an alumni trustee at Brown. He also served for 11 years as a member of the Board of Fellows of the Brown Corp. White was also honored by the Stanford Alumni Association and inducted into the Multicultural Alumni Hall of Fame, which recognizes alumni for their distinguished service to their communities and society.

This fall marked the 10th Annual Augustus A. White Spine Symposium, hosted by the Carl J. Shapiro Department of Orthopedics at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center held in honor of White who served as their orthopedic surgeon-in-chief for 13 years.

Bob Holton and Karen recovered from surgery in time to make a trip through Poland, the Czech Republic, and Germany. They also joined a celebration for his twin sister, Nancy Holton Calhoun, who, he reports, “is in the last few weeks of her life here on Earth.” I remember she had that Holton smile, too.

Holly Goodhue VanLeuven reports that A.J. Nicholson Hodges’s daughter is now mayor of Minneapolis. Congratulations, A.J.!

Ida and I continue well enough. We had a great trip to Iceland last summer, and took along with us a videographer from my station, N.H. Public Television. You can watch the resulting half-hour show online by Googling NHPTV. Click on “Windows to the Wild,” and then “Iceland.”

The TV crew and I were in the Chihuahuan desert of Mexico for a week filming imperiled bird species and documenting the efforts of biologists to save the remaining grassland habitat. Fascinating... and I picked up some more Spanish!

Keep in touch.—Will

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DENNIS KELLY 668 Main Ave Bay Head NJ 08742-5346 dskelly1935@gmail.com BE JAY FROEHLICH HILL 50 West Main St Apt 105A, Hopkington MA 01748-1662 bhill24@juno.com

DAN FRICKER 165 King St Waterville CQ, Canada J0B 3H0 dcfricker@videotron.ca MARCIA SAMUEL PO Box 483 Hackettstown NJ 07840 mnutsam1@verizon.net

From Marcia Samuel—I am honored to be joining Dennis Kelly as class correspondent, presenting, with your help, the news of Northfield ’54.

It was wonderful to enjoy our 60th reunion and see so many of you there! Unfortunately, due to family illness, Betty Vermey could not join us. Ann Newman Sundt, however, dusted off her Northfield social chairman skills and arranged a mini-reunion at the end of September in Pennspring 2015 I class notes I 53

sylvania, giving Toni diSteffano Norton, Toni Browning Smiley, Ann, and me time to catch up

with Betty and each other. Toni Norton made the five-hour trip from Boston and arrived early for lunch!

The following day we bid adieu to Betty and Toni Norton and explored Seward Johnson’s Grounds for Sculpture on the site of the former N.J. State Fairgrounds. This is an awesome display of many works of art, including a good representation of Seward Johnson’s life-size (and larger) human figures. It is well worth the trip to Hamilton, N.J. Gail Schaller Storms is fully recovered from her hip replacement operation. She celebrated by selling her 1995 BMW in a bidding war and has replaced it with a 2011 black BMW. She terrified her children by taking great delight in driving the 80 miles home. Sounds like a hot-rodder to me!

Toni diStefano Norton and husband John spent an enjoyable Viking cruise on the Danube and Rhine. They were happy to get back home for two main reasons: Toni is working on a book about the 18th-century Salem artist Benjamin Blyth; and their newly adopted “lovable handful” rescue apricot standard poodles named Tosca and Caramella.

Sandy Phippen Klein found our 60th reunion talks most interesting and had a fun weekend. Her husband, Donald, recently retired, and they are traveling from Colorado to Massachusetts on a regular basis. Three of their four kids are on the East Coast; grandkids are in both locations. They have a rental home on Cape Cod and are able to live there off-season.

Ann Newman Sundt joined a new mediation group: The McCammon Group, who specialize in alternative dispute resolution. She says, “They take their work seriously! They’re sending me to a fourday training class—love it!” In between mediations, she continues to work as a “recalled judge” for the Maryland Courts, conducting mediations and settlements. Plans for the summer involve sailing

Ann Newman Sundt ’54 and Toni Browning Smiley ’54 “talking” to a handsome Seward Johnson “person” at Grounds for Sculpture.

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the Snake and Columbia rivers on the American Queen line. Ann says, “We’re incredibly lucky— healthy, love what we do, and blessed by family and friends.”

Barbara “Bobbie” Helmle Simon returned from a three-week tour of five countries in southern Africa and was jet lagged when she arrived at reunion. Her best surprise was seeing Kay Johnson Howells, her bridesmaid of many years ago, who was back after 10 years. Bobbie started (as of this writing in December 2014) her ski season in Killington, Vt. She would enjoy a visit by any classmates who are in the area.

We were saddened to hear that Sallie Curtis (known to us as Miss Curtis) passed away. She was the favorite of many of us. Debbie Fryer Gorin and her daughter would make a special effort to get together with Sallie when they returned for reunion.

After more than 90 years, her sweet smile and warm manner will be missed.

From Dennis—I apologize for not being able to submit our class notes for fall 2014 describing the festivities and attendees at our 60th reunion. Here are the combined class notes columns for both fall 2014 and this current issue.

Ed Sundt’s second novel, My Helsingsfors: Andreas Larsson Benstrom, has been published and is available on Amazon. It is a fictionalized version of an autobiographical essay Ed’s father wrote in 1929. His first novel, Children of the Wind, was well received. I loved it and passed it on to friends of mine. The novel recalls a tragedy in Hartford, Conn., in 1944.

I took my granddaughter, Hannah, on a tour of four colleges in Pennsylvania. We stopped in Bryn Mawr, a small town on Philadelphia’s “Main Line,” and called Betty Vermey. She invited us to her place for coffee and then took us on a personalized tour of Bryn Mawr College, Betty’s alma mater and where she was director of admissions. We were impressed by the college and loved the tour.

Jay Crawford traveled from his home in Lexington, Va., up to Charlottesville and met Dave Jansky for lunch. Dave was in Charlottesville to attend the “Jansky Lectures” held at the University of Virginia—talks by various radio astronomer scientists in honor of Karl Jansky, Dave’s father, a scientist at Bell Labs who discovered unseen galaxies emitting radio waves. He is considered the father of radio astronomy. Jay also spent 10 days in England around Surrey, and then 10 days in Portugal.

Curt Ormond lives in Colorado Springs, Colo.

It’s been a banner year for him since he took up running a few years ago. He’s run in 25 10K races around Colorado and set a record for his age group in a 5K race. Ten years ago he also took up tennis, and was recently recognized by the U.S. Tennis Association as the oldest competitor over 40 in the 3.0 championships held in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

His team, The Colorado Racket Club, finished fourth in the national championships. Curt, who has 13 grandchildren, promises to be at our 65th reunion in 2019.

And talking of great tennis players, Stu Leyden was a leading tennis player while at Mt. Hermon and has continued his interest throughout his life.

Maybe he and Curt can play a match and entertain the rest of us at our 65th reunion. Stu has been

busy attending family graduations, weddings, and family reunions, but in May 2014 he and his wife Donna will have moved to the Nobel Retirement Center in Norcross, Ga. Charley Blatchford’s family is doing well and his grandson, Patrick, who has had a rough go of it medically, is coming along, and, with much help from professionals, has made significant progress.

Charley is struggling with some emphysema, but with the help of oxygen he is managing well. He and his wife Judy have been enjoying new adventures in railroading, taking some trips on scenic railroads in California.

Bill Young lives in Scituate, Mass. His company, Young Enterprises, produces microbes that eat pollutants in waters. Bill wanted to know if I had any contacts that might be interested since I live on a barrier island and always seem to be on the water one way or another. I put him in touch with a nonprofit organization called “Save Barnegat Bay.” They are in the business of trying to make our local 30-mile bay on the coast of New Jersey habitable for aquatic wildlife.

Last September I visited briefly with Toni Browning Smiley, who is a CPA and lives in Washington, D.C. I have had an ongoing battle with the IRS for the past five years. At our reunion last June, Toni indicated that she might be able to help and, indeed, her sage advice and counsel was very helpful.

And now, class of ’54 notes, fall 2014 edition: Those of you who were unable to attend our 60th reunion (June 2014), look ashamed! You missed a wonderful weekend and a terrific party. We had 45 classmates return, plus assorted spouses and significant others. There were seven classmates who had never been to a reunion before, including Cathy Olney Irzyk, Spence Phillips, Bernie Lee, Bill Young, Erland Kennan, Jim Judson, and Dave Owen. All had a great time. We had two honored guests, Sam Green and Phyllis Ganz Green—the only remaining faculty from our time at NMH, plus Marge Hubbard, wife of Dick Hubbard—a great friend and loyal Mt. Hermon guy who unfortunately passed away in 2011. Marge always enjoyed our reunions and wanted to be kept in the loop.

Things got under way on Thursday, when I picked up Don McComb at his home in New York City on my way north to NMH. Don has some trouble with his knees and hips and now uses a walker and cane. We met up with Stan Peck and George Hamilton shortly after arrival on campus and we all tried to set up housekeeping in MacKinnon Cottage, one of the new cottages right behind the chapel. Several of us trucked over to Winchester, N.H., to acquire some hors d’oeuvres and beverages for a reception at the cottage. We enjoyed a good dinner in West (Alumni) Hall, including a few lobsters I managed to poach from my contacts in the kitchen. A nice reception followed at the cottage, welcoming new arrivals. We employed green watering cans to dispense some particular beverages that all seemed to enjoy.

On Friday Dan Fricker, Dave Jansky, and I attended an Alumni Seminar at the Rhodes Arts Center with the athletic director and several coaches, in which a strong case was made for

ending the football program at NMH. We also inquired about the cross-country coach’s knowledge of the McVeigh Cross-Country/Track scholarship fund. Surprisingly, none of the coaches knew it existed! Friday afternoon I conducted a seminar at the Blake Student Center, “How to Become Filthy Rich in the Yacht Delivery Business in Three Easy Steps.” Step one is: “Never enter the yacht delivery business,” and steps two and three are to repeat step one. As some of you know, I have run a yacht delivery business for 52 years, moving power and sailing yachts around the world. The seminar covered some unusual adventures I’ve encountered.

I was surprised that there was a standing-room-only crowd. After dinner on Friday evening, we gathered at the cottage for a reception and an evening of socializing with old stories of hijinks on both campuses.

On Saturday morning, about 20 people and I trucked down to the boathouse at the river’s edge and under the guidance of the rowing coaches, went rowing in the sculls on the Connecticut River.

The school, however, needs to take advantage and improve their lovely piece of waterfront property on the river. At midmorning all returnees convened in the chapel for convocation and a Q & A session with the head of school and some current students.

Later, we enjoyed a private luncheon under tents— one for Northfield gals, the other for Mt. Hermon guys. Some played golf, while Susie Craig Hastings, Cathy Olney Irzyk, and I restored our “1954” numerals carved in Senior Rock adjacent to the chapel and painted the numerals gold with a clear coat of epoxy for protection. In the late afternoon we gathered at Senior Rock, and under the guidance of The Reverend Phil McKean, a memorial service was held. All 69 names of our classmates who have passed away were read.

Saturday evening we gathered at Beveridge Hall for a private dinner party of filet mignon, wine, and dessert. During the dinner, Shelia Heffernon, director of music at NMH, introduced six students, who entertained us with old familiar songs—all to a standing ovation. In attendance was Joe McVeigh ’76, the son of legendary teacher and coach, Fred McVeigh. As most of you know, we honored Fred by establishing a scholarship in his name at our 45th reunion. Beverly Bolton Leydon ’53 was there—she inspired me and gave me guidance to produce the video slide show.

Following the dinner, with the help of an NMH A/V technician, we played a 17-minute video on a large-screen TV—a slide show old classmates had sent me, accompanied by music. It was titled “The Way We Were” and included Barbra Streisand’s famous song, as well as some songs from the 1950s.

I made copies of the slide show and converted it to DVDs that were given out to everyone, and mailed to some of those who could not attend. If anyone would like a copy of the DVD, please email me a request (dskelly1935@gmail.com), and I’ll pop it in the mail to you—no charge. Following dinner, we adjourned to the dorm for more old stories and socializing.

On Sunday morning several classmates sang in the choir at chapel as they had 60 years earlier.

After a lovely luncheon in West Hall, we said our goodbyes followed by a hardy shout of “We’ll see

you in five if not before!”

Those beautiful young ladies from Northfield’s class of 1954 attending, other than those noted above, were: Sandy Phippen Klein, Brenda Williams McLean, Gail Schaller Storms, Eileen Higgenbottom Simon, Debbie Fryer Gorin, Marjorie Hewett Yale, Kay Johnson Howells, Ginny Reed Fisher, Carol VanDyke Smith, Connie Fowler Ludwig, and Mardy Moody O’Neil. What babes!

Those handsome young men from Mt. Hermon’s class of 1954 attending, other than those noted above, were: Bob Salisbury, Fred Rice, Ed Snyder, Sparky Stiles, Paul Bergstrom, Bill Owen, Burt Karp, Steve Kurtz, and Joe Ribeiro.

I constructed an “Ode to the Hill(s)” that I meant to read at the Saturday evening dinner…

Ode to the Hill (s) “The shadows are lengthening for us now. The twilight is here. Our days old have vanished tone and tint. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Our memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed and caressed by smiles of yesterday.

“I listen vainly but with a thirsty ear for the witching melody of the old hymns we sang in chapel, at Christmas Vespers and Sacred Concert, the stirring sermons from the pulpit and the lectures in the classroom. I hear again the joyous voices on the athletic fields and the running of feet on the cinder paths of the track and the paths of cross-country trails. I can hear the shuffle of shoes and the swish of skirts at the Senior Prom and the Château Dance.

“But in the evening of my memory I always come back to this wonderful old school. Always there are echoes and re-echoes in my ears of the wondrous times we spent together on these lovely hills and beautiful valley. I want you to know that when I finally fade away, the last conscious thoughts will be of the hill(s), the hill(s), and the hill(s)—no one had it better!”

On a final note, Pres Blake and Carroll Rikert, both from the class of 1934, were there for their 80th reunion! Pres Blake, founder of Friendly’s Restaurants, is a very generous contributor to NMH. He and his brother invested in an ice cream–making machine and started to sell ice cream off their front porch in Springfield, Mass., in 1936. I introduced Toni Browning Smiley to Pres because she is in the process of writing a book on ice cream and needed a good source contact. Press is now 99 years old and drove his own car to his reunion. If he can do it, so can we! So stay healthy, eat wisely, get plenty of exercise, and we’ll meet again in June 2019 for our 65th. Save the date!

And thank you all so very much for your generous contributions to the McVeigh Scholarship Fund—it now totals more than $180,000!

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DONALD HILLER 102 Javelin Ct Cary NC 27513-5110 dhiller@nc.rr.com LISA TUTTLE EDGE 1110 Cooperskill Rd Cherry Hill NJ 08034 (11/1–5/31) 180 Main St Chatham MA 02633 (6/1–10/31) etedge@aol.com DON FREEMAN 23 Avery Brook Rd, PO Box 132 Heath MA 01346-0132 d.freeman4@verizon.net

From Lisa—Janet Bear McTavish writes: “A few years ago I began work on a ‘peace labyrinth’ that consists of about 40 quilts depicting the major world faiths in existence today, all of which have as a central message to follow what we commonly call ‘The Golden Rule.’ The idea to make this labyrinth came to me in a dream when I was worrying about the increasing fear, profiling, and anger that I saw being directed toward people of other faiths and cultural traditions. The project put together my own lifetime of learning, experiences, and skills.

By the time the labyrinth was completed in 2012, more than 60 people volunteered their help in its creation. [The labyrinth] traveled through the Midwest, where it was viewed at colleges, cultural centers, churches, quilt shows, and special events like the Nobel Peace Conference at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minn. For the past five months, it was on display at the Dayton International Peace Museum in Dayton, Ohio, where more than 1,800 people came to see it. This is the only peace museum in the country, and through mutual agreement, I have now given it to them to continue its journey. In January it will be installed at Urbana University in Ohio for a few months.

There it is being sponsored by the Alicia Titus Memorial Peace Fund Foundation. Alicia Titus was a flight attendant on United Airlines Flight 175, which crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center Tower on 9/11/2001.”

Kathy White Hitesman and her husband live in Maple Grove, a suburb of Minneapolis. Kathy works part time in her daughter’s law firm and continues her home-based embroidery business. They went out to California last Christmas to spend time with their son and family. He is a colonel in the Marine Corps and is the commanding officer in charge of the ROTC programs at UCLA and USC, as well as a professor of military tactics. Kathy had a great visit with Karin Schubert Krueger last October as she passed through the Twin Cities. Kathy says, “Actually it turned out she could hold my hand at the hospital while my husband was undergoing emergency triple bypass surgery! Having her with me was more than a blessing! We reminisced about Weston and our senior year 60 years ago!

Husband Don is recuperating well, thankfully!”

Karin Schubert Krueger is heavily involved in her church. She organizes activities for the adult spring 2015 I class notes I 55

seniors (large lunches, trips, service, and lots of fun times). Also, she was on the pastoral search committee—the only woman with nine men. Karin and Rex call 2014 “The Year of Travel”: “We put 8,000 miles on our car—lots of fun seeing relatives and friends. The first of the year, we head to Palm Desert for three weeks after visiting our son in Allen, Texas.”

Suzanne Rowan Sachatello and Charles welcomed their fourth grandchild, Bridger Charles, on 9/15/14. Suzanne has been going to Amelia Island, Fla., to take care of Bridger’s big sister, Sedona (3).

Diane Woods came close to moving to a CCRC (Continuing Care Retirement Community) located in Peabody, Mass., last summer. She then had second thoughts that she was not yet ready to move away from the New Hampshire seacoast, where she has many friends and activities. “I continue to slog along in my home and the locale that I love after having total knee replacement surgery in September. In this dreary December season, it is less attractive to me to be living alone and maintaining a home. I currently have wonderfully helpful renters in the apartment in my house. I am planning a February cruise to the southern Caribbean, which will help to take away the winter ‘blues.’ If anyone is coming through Durham, N.H., only 10 miles from tourist destination Portsmouth, get in touch with me.”

Bonnie MacGregor Snow is still very involved in historical activities in Orleans, Mass. Last December she gave a talk about the Battle of Rock Harbor at a ceremony to commemorate its 200th anniversary.

Maria Sheldon Honiss, who was first in our class to become a grandparent, celebrated the birth of twin great-grandchildren in July 2014. In the summer Maria entertains her grandchildren at her place in Niantic, Conn. Maria’s daughter, Wendy Honiss-Bourget ’78, returned from a half year of volunteer teaching in Ghana.

In April, my husband, Don, and I (Lisa Tuttle Edge) visited my cousins in Bremen and Duisberg, Germany. Herr Bildau would be pleased that I was able to carry a conversation in German with those family members who do not speak English. Cousin Kurt drove us on the autobahn going 200 kilometers an hour, which was a new experience, but overall we were treated royally and I am happy to have such interesting relatives. Kurt is a retired Rhine barge captain and made sure we saw the most interesting parts of the Rhine. Using a rail pass, we also combined visits to Berlin and Paris with a Go Ahead tour of Amsterdam, Luxembourg, and Brussels. Disney is filming The Finest Hours in my hometown of Chatham, Mass. It dramatizes a very daring Coast Guard rescue of 32 crewmen aboard an oil tanker that split in two during a storm in February 1952. Many of our friends are extras, and our yacht club is being used as the base of operations. In 1952 I was at the Coast Guard station when the men came in, so it feels like I’m getting my own movie. Our grandson, Mariner (12), son of Elizabeth Edge Fagan ’86, is an accomplished Optimist sailor and is on the U.S. National Team.

He has competed in regattas in Holland, Spain, and Mexico in addition to those in the U.S. From Don Freeman—Bernth Lindfors contin56 I NMH Magazine

ues his prolific academic career even in retirement.

In 2014 he published Early African Entertainments Abroad: From the Hottentot Venus to Africa’s First Olympians (University of Wisconsin Press) and edited an English translation of Sergei Durylin’s biography of Ira Aldridge, originally published in the Soviet Union in 1940 (Africa World Press). Bernth gave a lecture last year on Aldridge and the Ukrainian poet and political figure Tara Shevchenko at the Ukrainian Museum in New York.

Ernie Imhoff writes, “Parks are sometimes undervalued for their beauty and places of refuge and serenity. Last year, after walking and shooting images in Druid Hill Park in Baltimore for a half century, I created a photo essay (mydroodle. wordpress.com). Since then, I’ve roamed a smaller public gem of a park just north of Druid called Cylburn Arboretum. Classmates can see pictures from both parks at the website.”

Our 60th reunion is coming up, and Svein Arber has a plan: “If you’re still thinking about attending our 60th reunion, June 4–7, 2015, it’s not too late to firm up your plans. Once again we’ll be hanging out with old friends; reliving our student days as we watch our ’55 slideshow, ‘The Way We Were,’ adding our voices to the Hymn Sing on Friday night; socializing during our own cocktail hour and dinner in the Beveridge Hall lounge; and enjoying a fabulous program of on-campus events for all returning classes. And this time our class gets a special break: the school will provide all on-campus meals free of charge. So, by all means, join us!”

Dave Guarnaccia (Bella Vista, Ark.) is still working and still enjoying the people and railroad shops he deals with.

John Jorgensen and wife Barb spend seven months of the year in Scottsdale, Ariz., and the summer at their farm in Maryland near their four active grandchildren. They’ve enjoyed two trips to Scotland and Ireland on National Geographic cruises. At their farm, John and Barb continue to develop Black Angus genetics that result in superior quality grass-fed beef raised on the premises without antibiotics or growth hormones.

Mike Carter has been living in Lancaster, Penn., since 1971. He retired in 2006 from his career as a systems engineer. Mike now volunteers twice a week for Lancaster General Hospital: one morning in network security getting managers to follow up on vulnerabilities detected in their area of responsibility, and the other greeting patients at the Heart Group—a hospital-owned specialist practice. On Tuesdays Mike washes dishes at his church’s daily breakfast program, which feeds an average of 125 downtown people each weekday morning. Mike and his wife, Sherry, have two daughters, who are married. The older teaches elementary school in Berks County, Penn., and the younger one is an accountant for a large order-fulfillment company.

They have three grandchildren, ages 11 to 16.

Rich Rice took a trip to Peru last year, exploring Cusco and Machu Picchu. “If you haven’t been, I highly (11,500 feet) recommend it,” Rich writes.

Stan King enjoyed three weeks traveling in Europe by car with friends last year. He spent seven years in Germany while in the US Army, but his visit to Prague last October was his first trip behind the former Iron Curtain.

Margaret and Don Freeman both lost their mothers between late 2013 and September 2014.

Margaret’s mom died in Oakham, England, 10 days short of her 106th birthday, and Don’s mother died at age 101 in Newton, Mass. Don continues his singing career as a tenor in the Da Camera Singers in Amherst, Mass., conducted by NMH’s Sheila Heffernon.

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NELSON LEBO 1046 Millers Falls Rd Northfield MA 01360-9622 nlebo@nmhschool.org

DEBBY ADAMS MCKEAN 633 Leyden Ln #203 Claremont CA 91711 (Oct–May) 13 Osprey Ln Cushing, ME 04563 (Jun–Sep) deborah.mckean39@gmail.com

From Debby—I hope you are all entering this new year in good health and with a sense of fulfillment in your life. Phil and I are entering our fourth year here in Claremont, Calif., where we live at Pilgrim Place, a retirement community located near the Claremont Colleges. Pilgrim Place welcomes residents who have had careers in the church as clergy, missionaries, or leaders of charitable organizations. We return to our home in Cushing, Maine, for a few months in the summer, where we enjoy boating, swimming, and picnicking with friends. I continue to serve as a retired deacon at St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Claremont, in the Diocese of Los Angeles. As a founding member of the Claremont Homeless Advocacy Program (CHAP), I sit on their board and, with my husband, serve breakfast once a week to homeless participants in this program who have found shelter at the Quaker/ Friends meeting near our home. I also serve as one of the chaplains at the Health Services Center at Pilgrim Place. I enjoy the many activities and small groups that exist at Pilgrim, e.g., a women’s book group and a group that studies the writings of Emily Dickinson. I serve as a member of the Board of Friends of the Petterson Museum of International Art on the Pilgrim campus, and am a member of the Pilgrim Choral. There is exercise of all sorts, including a great deal of walking, aquatic aerobics, and a variety of exercise regimens. Phil and I enjoy our trips into L.A. to hear the Los Angeles Philharmonic perform at the Walt Disney Hall. And so it goes...life is good!

Karyl Allyn Condit enjoyed an “unforgettable trip” for her 75th birthday when she and her daughter traveled to China. Thanks to the Internet, she was able to find English-speaking guides knowledgeable about the missionary era and the places they wanted to visit. They spent a week in Fuzhou, where Karyl’s mother was born in 1912 to missionary parents. They walked the alleys of her old neighborhood, attended the Methodist church her mother attended, visited the summer mountain retreat where the missionaries escaped the heat, the school her grandfather established, and the river by which they left hastily in 1927. They made many

friends along the way, and found that her mother’s stories about growing up in China have become more real. Karyl shares her story as a living example of the value of family stories, written journals, and the wonders of Internet research, which made a site-specific trip like this possible.

Lucinda Young Kelly, living in Seattle, Wash., shared news of the birth of their son Bruce’s first child, Curtis, in Auckland. She and her husband, Thorpe, visited Auckland in January for Curtis’s first birthday. She recalled a “magical” summer in Seattle with 40 days over 80 degrees, but with negligible rain, “perfect for their annual Seafair celebration, when fireboats greet the US Navy fleet, Blue Angels soar, and hydroplanes race.”

Pattie Pelton Lanier serves on her county’s library advisory board, a nonpaid appointment for which she visits county facilities and recommends ways to improve library service. She also volunteers at a library fundraising event for adult and children’s programs. Her four grandchildren, two outside London and two in the States, are central to her life. She enjoys her visits to England, and recently introduced her two American grands to the marine life to be found on the beach after a storm.

She added water exercises to her workout regime in order to stay in shape for travel. Her observation: “Retirement certainly isn’t restful!”

Sally Foster Wallace writes that after 50 years in Urbana-Champaign, Ill., she and husband Jim have moved to Florence, Ariz., midway between Phoenix and Tucson. They are enjoying living around the corner from daughter Amy (Jim and Sally’s daughter), Ken (Amy’s husband), Lydia (Jim and Sally’s granddaughter, 17), and Sally James (Jim and Sally’s granddaughter, 13).

Ruth Ann Fredenthal has three small paintings (one of which has already sold!) in Philadelphia in an exhibition that opened on 1/18/15 at the Larry Becker Contemporary Art Gallery in Philadelphia.

Joan Thomen Phipps and husband Rod were busy with their church choir singing Christmas music in snowbound N.H. They spent Christmas with grandchildren and then drove to their winter home in San Diego, Calif., where they rang in the New Year with her brother, Willard Thomen ’63.

Elinor Abbot is retired and living in the Bridgewater Retirement Community in Bridgewater, Va., near her younger brother. She attended the Massachusetts College of Art after NSFG (and a “hippie spell” in Boston!). She became interested in world arts, received a Ph.D. in anthropology at Brandeis, and taught for a while. Then “after a knock-ya-over” Christian conversion experience, she worked as a cultural anthropology consultant for many years with the Wycliffe Bible Translators. The fascinating 40-plus years took her around the globe to work with languages, cultures, and translation teams from Argentina to Nigeria to India.

Dorrie Krakower Susser is well, and she and Sue Chandler traveled to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in July 2014 to join Jan Mitchellhill Leas at David and Evie Walsh Stevenson’s “for lunch on a beautiful summer day, surrounded by flowers and plants nurtured by Evie, the Master Gardener.”

Last September’s mini-reunion at the Zimmerlis’ was well-attended and a lot of fun! Equally fun was the Northfield brunch the following day at Benita

Pierce’s, where she, Lynda Gregorian Christian, Sue Chandler, Evie Walsh Stevenson, Jackie Blake Clayton, and Fiona MacKinnon all had a chance to catch up.

The class had its usual pre-Vespers dinner in Boston in December. Lynda, Benita, and Dorrie attended the dinner, and Judy Freeman also attended Vespers.

In not-so-good news, both Sue Chandler and Kate Guthrie Bergen are recovering slowly from bad falls. Do keep them in your thoughts and prayers as we all remember each other and our good times together at Northfield!

During the winter, Pattie Pelton Lanier, Elaine Tetrault Smith, and Caro Woolley Peterson visit together a few times in Sarasota and Venice, Fla., where they all have homes. They have a way to escape the snow, ice, and cold of New England. Elaine and her husband visited the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick, Canada, on a Road Scholar trip.

In June, Kim Buck took a trip to the Dalmatian coast with the Brown University Travelers—her first trip to the Croatian coast.

Holly Cullum Walker, whose health has always been good, has had a difficult year: ovarian cancer and a hip replacement. The new hip was a breeze, but the ovarian cancer is being persistent. However, Holly is upbeat and determined to return to her usual healthy self.

Dede Lawrence Smith’s husband passed away in early June 2014 after being ill with dementia.

Ann Carpenter Holbrook moved from Raleigh, N.C., to Hanover, N.H. She is a new resident at the Kendall Retirement Community in independent living. Her daughter and family live in nearby Lebanon, N.H. After her first weeks, she is very, very happy there.

Sharon Wright and Sue Chandler attended their 55th reunion at Oberlin College. Sharon moved from California to Fredericktown, Ohio, where she is living with her cousin and family, and is gradually recovering from her stroke. Sharon has severe difficulty articulating her thoughts, but can understand what people say to her. Her biggest frustration is not being able to speak what she wants to say. She takes great pleasure in the companionship of her dog, Poppy, whom she walks frequently around the six country acres where she is living. She is now on the waiting list for the Kendall Retirement Community in Oberlin, where there are three levels of care, as she hopes to obtain some speech therapy. She will be able to take Poppy with her when she moves there.

From Nelson—The annual class of 1956 mini-reunion was held on 9/26/14 at the home of Betsy and Bruce Zimmerli in Falmouth, Cape Cod. This is the third year that the Zimmerlis have hosted this event—kudos! Hermon and Northfield classmates, spouses, and representatives of advancement and archives were there. Newcomers this year included Harlan (Hi) Baxter and wife Jane, and George Davis and wife Elaine. Hi came from Minnesota and George from two miles down the road in Falmouth (he resides part time in Falmouth and Annapolis, Md). Also in attendance was Ralph Wadleigh ’57 and wife Janette. The biggest frustration is there is never enough time to get around

and chat with everyone.

A small group of classmates attended Dave Tait’s memorial service (July 2014) in Ridgewood, N.J. Bruce Zimmerli and John McClintock gave remembrances at a sad but uplifting service. Dave spent his military time in the submarine service.

Ashby Morton reports on his and wife Joann’s annual migration to Little Deer Island, Maine, and the local lobster population.

Dick MacKinnon was invited to “briefly” address the early inductees to the Cum Laude Society at a brunch in January.

Carol and I welcome a new Kiwi grandchild in April 2015 and will travel to New Zealand for most of May to be with our “down under” Lebo family.

A group of Northfield ’56 and Mt. Hermon ’56 classmates attended Christmas Vespers last December at Emmanuel Church in Boston. The Vespers service was preceded by an early class dinner at a nearby restaurant, with a reception afterward.

It is never too soon to plan ahead. Our 60th reunion (the last formal one) will be in early June 2016. Mark this date on the calendar, and plan to attend this joyous and memorable event. Mt. Hermon class of ’56 continued to lead in support of the Annual Fund for 2013–2014. Let’s keep up that tradition for 2014–2015.

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DAVID C WILLIAMS 619 East Side Dr, PO Box 6 Alton NH 03809-0006 revdcwms@metrocast.net

JEANNE SWARTZ MAGMER 12705 SE River Rd Apt 103A Portland OR 97222-9701 jeannemagmer@comcast.net

From Jeanne—NMHConnect works! What’s especially exciting is that the friendships we made almost 60 years ago still flourish.

Judy Wagner McKernon, Thalia Verros, and Wendy Hsu Lee were at the flume in Franconia, N.H. These loving friends try to get together at least once a year. They write, “We are grateful to Northfield for giving us the opportunity to become dear friends.”

Linda Shemwick Lindquist writes that Marianne Severance Parris and her husband, Charlie, visited in fall 2014 en route to Turkey.

The Lindquists also went to Africa on safari with Marianne and Charlie in 2013. “We always have the best time together” and Africa was “one amazing trip,” Linda said.

Joyce Moore Arthur and husband Bob enjoyed the holiday season at home in Wisconsin. They spent a week in Mexico with daughter Sarah and son Bruce and his family (wife and two granddaughters). Joyce and Bob celebrated their 50th anniversary in June 2014. Mexico was their “treat for hanging in together for half a century.”

Judy Clifford is busy adjusting to life without her partner/husband of many years. During the holidays, Paul Reyes and his wife, Pat, gathered in Minnesota with the flock of children and grands spring 2015 I class notes I 57

before the Reyeses departed for northern Florida for the rest of the winter.

Rachel Ladd Finale lives in Carmichael, outside Sacramento, Calif. Since her husband of 45 years passed away a few years ago, she’s filling the void by volunteering at the SPCA and for the reading program at a nearby school. She adores theater and attends with dear friends. Travel is another passion and she’s discovered river cruising. She invites any of us to join her.

Robin Foster Spaulding is HR director for her family’s company, Sheppard Envelope, in Auburn, Mass. “If you need any size envelope, give us a call.

One of our specialty envelopes is RFID identity theft envelopes...very popular in today’s world,” she reports. Robin is also a hospice volunteer and a hospice board member for the VNA Care Network and Hospice in Massachusetts. She is passionate about hospice and has worked with patients and families for more than 32 years. She also played Nurse Ratched last year for husband Linc during his recovery from a second knee replacement. “I am certain some of you can relate to that operation and recovery,” she said.

Robin’s 15-year-old grandson, Alden, spent six weeks on an amazing sailing trip with seven other classmates, from Newport, R.I., to the Bahamas.

They did all the navigating, sailing, living, and cooking on Geronimo—a 70-foot Hood design boat. The students worked on environmental studies and ended their trip in the Bahamas catching Loggerhead turtles, which they studied, logged, and tagged. The largest turtle Alden caught weighed 70 pounds. “Education has certainly changed for the better since our day!” And Robin’s oldest granddaughter is looking at colleges for next year.

Marilyn Blom Evans says, “Time has flown by since the start of the new century.” In June 2013, she and her husband celebrated 50 years of marriage and 40 years in their neighborhood. “We called it the 50/40 party,” she said.

Marilyn “Lynn” Medesy Farmer retired from United Airlines and is living in Parker, Colo. She keeps busy with volunteer work, her five grandkids, traveling, her dog, and classes at the rec center.

Donna Woodward Hawes, South Daytona, Fla., lives with the same guy she married 54 years ago. He is active in numismatics and Korean War veterans, and is organist at their local United Presbyterian Church. Donna is active in Embroiderers’ Guild of America, secretary of both Greater Daytona Beach Coin Club and Korean War Vet-

Northfield’s class of ’57 alums Judy Wagner McKernon, Thalia Verros, and Wendy Hsu Lee at the flume in Franconia, N.H.

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erans Chapter 189. They immensely enjoy their two daughters and two grands—granddaughter is working for Volusia County Schools and grandson currently an instructor in the US Air Force Drone Program. Aside from her recent hip replacement, Donna reports they are well, happy, and living the NMH motto: ”Head—in our civic commitments; Heart—in living the values learned at NSFG; and Hand—in playing to the glory of our Lord and in the needlework for veterans.”

Margery Kempers Wiegerink and former NMH faculty member and husband of 54 years, Ron Wiegerink, are currently living in Fearrington Village, a few miles south of Chapel Hill, N.C. They divided the last 14 years between Michigan and Chapel Hill. Their home on White Lake that led to Lake Michigan sold this last summer.

“Glorious days were spent sailing, fishing, hunting, snowshoeing, hiking, and sharing beautiful sunsets with friends and family,” Margery reports. They are now surrounded by their daughters, Suzi, Robin, and Tina, who live with their active and delightful families in Chapel Hill. They miss son Ron, who lives in Kalamazoo, Mich., with his family. The Wiegerinks have eight grandchildren, ages 5 to 21.

“We feel so blessed to have been able to travel extensively internationally and nationally in our younger years. Now, as we experience some arthritis, we are happy to enjoy all that North Carolina has to offer, from the mountains to the sea.” They celebrated Ron’s 75th birthday on Bald Head Island! What a beautiful place for those of us who love nature unspoiled. “Christmas 2013, we celebrated in the North Carolina mountains near Asheville with our entire family,” Margery writes. Their next trip to NMH will be in 2016, when they will go as former faculty to the class of 1966’s 50th reunion.

Gail Minault has retired from the University of Texas history department, where she’s taught the history of India since 1972! With a few Ph.D. students finishing up, she still has work to do, even though her formal classroom career is over. In September 2014, she gave a series of lectures on Indian women at the University of Oslo, Norway, as part of a university exchange program. She also spent time traveling in Norway and Sweden. Gail continues to sing with Chorus Austin. In fall 2014, the chorus performed an all-Beethoven concert, and in December 2014, Handel’s “Messiah.”

And for Oregon connections, Amy W. Jones is in Portland, living in the southeast with her daughter and grandson, Nicky (10). Amy volunteers at Nicky’s elementary school. She retired from teaching for Head Start 10 years ago. Her daughter is a family nurse practitioner at Reed College. Her other daughter is a neuropsychologist at University of New Mexico. Her son works at the school for the blind in Austin, Texas. Amy was in Nepal in 2014. She sings with the Francis Street Singers and seems to watch a lot of neighborhood kids, along with her grandson.

Judith Rosenbloom Hodges lives in Nashville, Tenn. She is a docent at Cheekwood Museum of Art and also at Nashville’s beautiful Symphony Hall.

Still a librarian at heart, she reads to preschoolers once a week. She serves on a couple of boards and some ad hoc committees, and makes time to take courses in Vanderbilt University’s retirement learn-

ing program. Her son serves in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China, and she visited there in spring 2014.

In summer 2015, she plans to go to the Northwest to visit her brother living in Vancouver, B.C., and her daughter, who teaches at the University of Oregon—and maybe even Jeanne Schwartz Magmer!

From Jeanne: Judy, you and any of our classmates are always welcome to visit me here in Portland, Ore. I’m really looking forward to seeing you. The only classmates who have taken me up on my invitation so far are Ginger Roe Lang and her husband, John, and Steve Springer and his wife, Barbara. The Springers stayed in my Newport, Ore., condo while they looked for a home in Silverton, where they now live full time. In addition to visiting in Oregon, Ginger and I celebrated our 70th birthdays with a three-week hiking trip on all three New Zealand islands. Ginger, we’re starting 2015 celebrating our 75th birthdays. Is it time for another hiking trip?

As for me, I live in the Willamette View Retirement Community with my partner, Mike Litt—a retired Oregon Health Sciences University biochemist and genetics researcher. My four children, six grandchildren, and two great-grandsons live along the I-5 corridor between Centralia, Wash., and Eugene, Ore. I swim, cross-country ski, hike, travel, and volunteer for my local schools and as a school foundation board member. I’m also active in Democratic politics and other social issues.

NMHConnect is a great way for all of us to reconnect and keep in touch. So those of you I haven’t heard from, “NMHConnect” and let me know what you’re doing. We’d all like to know!

From Dave—As I share these contacts with classmates, I’m aware that our class is just halfway between our 55th reunion and our 60th, scheduled for June 2017. Wow! Some “mini-reunions” are happening and we only know of some of them. The “biggie” was September 2014, when 17 of us got together for one or more gatherings in Maine—salmon dinner with Darrell Cooper and Judy in East Portland; lobster feast with Judi and Bob Mansfield in Bath; and seaside dinner at Robinson’s Wharf in Southport, plus a number of nearby tourist sites. In addition to Darrell and Bob, alums included Joyce Moore Arthur, Marshall Greenspan, Aldie Howard, Lloyd Mitchell, and Dave Williams, and most of their spouses. Special guests were former faculty Sam and Phyllis Green, and Aldie’s brother, Roger, and spouse.

Marsha and Bruce Johnson missed the Maine gatherings because they were traveling in France at the time.

We are hoping to do another Maine gathering in September, and hope that others will join together there and in other places as we prepare the big 60th! We also would like to know where other gatherings are being scheduled.

Sarah and Lloyd Mitchell included a stay with Pat and Dave Williams in Alton, and Lloyd’s service as the chair of NMH Alumni Council’s Diversity Committee. Now he is a member of the Strategic Advisory Committee and plans to join us in Maine again!

Joyce Arthur stays in touch with classmates Paul

Reyes and Judy Clifford, noting that Judy is busy

adjusting to life without her partner/husband of many years.

Please let Lloyd Mitchell know about any gatherings or contacts you have, or contact me (Dave Williams) at revdcwms@metrocast.net or to acquire Lloyd’s email address! We hope to see you on campus in June 2015!

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CLAIRE KURTGIS-HUNTER 7595 Solimar Cir Boca Raton FL 33433-1034 mizzengift@bellsouth.net WILLIAM HAWLEY PO Box 91927 Anchorage AK 99509-1927 hawleys@acsalaska.net

John Abel and son Bill Abel ’91 had a great trip

to Brazil last September, first to visit John’s former Cornell student-now-professor at PUC-Rio and then on to Brasilia for the annual symposium of the IASS—the association of engineers and architects in which John is still active. Following Christmas in the Minneapolis area, was an allfamily weeklong holiday excursion to San Francisco hosted by John. Such trips have become an annual tradition in the Abel family, with previous excursions to New York City and Washington, D.C. John is open to suggestions for next year—blue states preferred.

In December, Norm Barstow and his wife headed from their stateside home in Connecticut to Puerto Rico for “10 days of climate change.”

Mary Anne and Bruce Larsen celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a Baltic cruise starting in Copenhagen, and culminating with stays in Stockholm and Oslo. Bruce hadn’t been in Scandinavia since 1955! Mary Anne is the chairperson of Futures for Children, an organization that promotes education for Native American students.

Bruce and Mary Anne have mentored through the FFC program since 1991. Bruce is chairperson of the Southwest Museum of Arts and Antiquities, which furnishes exhibits to the many small towns of New Mexico, an underserved population. Bruce continues to serve on the Museum of New Mexico Board of Regents and the Museum of New Mexico Foundation. Bruce, much like Norm, plans to travel to a warmer climate, Kauai, in the spring, and to Berlin in October.

Faith and John LeBaron are apparently inured to colder weather, and plan to travel to Iceland in February to “delight in the Aurora Borealis.”

It is sad to report that Ed, more recently known as Ted White, our valedictorian, died in Westbrook, Maine, on 9/26/14 after a long battle with brain cancer. Ted became a gifted physician, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst, practicing first in California and then in Maine. At Mt. Hermon, Ed was inspired

by Al Raymond and sang in the Triple Quartet, a cappella, and the choir. He participated in singing groups throughout his life, and with his group “On a Wing and a Prayer” at St. Joseph’s Church in Portland. He is survived by his wife, Kathy Eliscu,

his mother, Margaret, his son, Randey, and his grandchildren, Victoria and Samantha.

Paul J. Severance: “Having my 75th birthday has helped focus my attention on my legacy and, as a result, I’ve ramped up my commitment to making whatever contribution I can make to combat climate change before it’s too late to avoid the most catastrophic impacts on the generation of my great-grandchildren. My vehicle for this work is The Conscious Elders Network, for which I am heading up an environmental action project. Our first major thrust was to organize 1,000 elders to rally at the nation’s capitol in conjunction with Grandparents Day in September 2014, and bring our concerns to Congress and the administration.

Want to join us? Shoot me an email! I continue to live in the Indianapolis area, and am already looking forward to my annual winter escape with a couple of months in my camper at my favorite state park in Florida with my wife, Robin, and my shih tzu, Teddy.”

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NANCY BISSELL GOLDCAMP 2002 Chantilly Dr Sierra Vista AZ 85635-4866 ngoldcamp@cox.net

PETER WELSH 10246 Old Shiloh Rd Pefferlaw ON, Canada L0E 1N0 peter@cantope.ca TOM BAXTER 30 Fortune Lane Millville NJ 08332-9439 baxtg741@comcast.net

From Betty Blake Hinkley and Nancy Bissell Goldcamp—Elana “Lannygranny” Brown Anderson wrote, “Bill and I live in Deer Isle, Maine, but we travel quite a bit, including to Mexico and London, where our two youngest grandchildren, Lorenzo and Penelope, live. However, a move is planned for them in January, as our youngest, Spencer, will transfer to the Thomson/Reuters office in Hong Kong, so guess where we’ll be going in the spring? We find plenty to do here on the island, and we enjoy rural life and our flock of laying hens.

We also play duplicate bridge together.”

Linda Knight Shane: “Orrin and I are always busy and wonder how we managed when we were still working. My activities include volunteering at Maine Medical Center through my participation in The Women’s Board (WB) of the Maine General Hospital. WB projects have contributed $100,000–$200,000 to the hospital per year in the past few years. I do a weekly shift in the coffee shop, and am on the committee for our various food concessions. During the tax season, I work full time for H&R Block and summers are consumed by family visits to the cabin that my sibs and I inherited from Mom. Then there is some work on Orrin’s consulting business, reading, taking the dog to the beach, crochet, cooking, and the gym. Orrin’s newest project is work with the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum, opening in June in Bethel, Maine. Come

see us in Portland if you are up this way.”

Emily Tucker Dunlap: “My son, his wife, and my granddaughters visited New York City for Thanksgiving—they’re nearly 5 and 7—a wonderful age to get to know the city. I’m working on my writing and had a piece published in the Metropolitan Diary section of the New York Times in November 2014. Best wishes to all of the class of 1959.”

Susan Lawrence Anderson: “Vangie Evans, Ernie Brazael, and I were hoping we could join you to celebrate our 55th reunion, but it didn’t work out for various reasons. We are so sorry and are hoping to be back for our 60th!

“Recently hiking in New Zealand for a couple weeks, I returned home with a torn meniscus in my right knee. The knee will be fine but, unfortunately, with the recent operation, I am homebound at the moment. Physical therapy is luxurious, even better than a personal trainer!

“Three years ago I went to Egypt. There were armed guards and army convoys for travel in the desert; friendly, hopeful, and proud students eager to talk; and no waiting time to see the incredible sites. I did the same thing in Israel a couple times and could wander through the Old City in Jerusalem or go north to the Golan Heights along the Lebanese border, with land mines 10 feet away on one side and Syria in the distance on the other, or go south to the Dead Sea. Even when I was wary of various conditions, the chance to visit magnificent places while I could these last three years pushed me forward!

“Thanks to Betty, Ty, Emily, Nancy, Barb, and all the classmates who worked so well to create a wonderful weekend. My best to everyone, especially Dan Poteet! Please call on me to help with the 60th.”

Susan’s knee has now healed, and she just returned from a week in England, where she celebrated her 74th birthday and saw Rembrandt’s last paintings at the National Gallery—he persevered despite great personal setbacks, and made some of his best paintings in old age. Good birthday message on her 74th!

Carol White Tietjen: “John and I are still enjoying all the delights of living on an island without a bridge (Daufuskie Isl., S.C.), with good ferry service to Hilton Head. Days filled with beach walks, golf, book club, water aerobics, guest speakers, friends, and fun. I also serve as a prayer chaplain at Unity Church. Since we now have all three sets of offspring and families located in New England, we have bought a condo in Quichee, Vt., and will be there from mid-May to mid-September.”

Diana MacKinnon Love: “George, my husband of 48 years, passed away very suddenly on 1/27/11, which of course left me devastated. Two years later I decided I needed to get out and get involved. I took up ballroom dancing, and several months later met a very nice gentleman. We started dating, and a year later, this past June 2014, we got married!

Truly a gift from the Lord, who kept His promise to me. Psalm 30: 10–12: ‘Hear Oh Lord and be merciful to me...You turned my wailing into dancing; You removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy that my heart may sing and not be silent.

Oh Lord I will give thanks to you forever.’” spring 2015 I class notes I 59

Betty Blake Hinkley: “Ty Bair Fox, Tom Baxter, Emily Tucker Dunlap, and I are all members

of the Alumni Council. In September 2014 we returned to campus for the Alumni Council meeting, and Tom, Emily, and I got together with Lynn and Randy Foster for a wonderful dinner at The New England House in Brattleboro. Ty had dinner at the President’s House, along with the rest of the Council Executive Committee. Ty is co-chair of the Nominating Committee, Tom and Emily are on the Awards Committee, and I am on the Reunion Advisory Committee.”

Ty Bair Fox adds, “As a member of the Executive Committee, I was invited to dinner with Peter Fayroian at Ford Cottage. He impressed us with his knowledge of all things NMH and his commitment to its future. Sharon Howell, the new assistant head of school, joined us, and we discussed the myriad ways the council can serve the school. Just as a lovely weekend on campus with the Alumni Council came to a close, we received some sad news. Beloved NMH faculty member, Sally Curtis, passed away. Many of us knew Sally as a teacher and friend, and we are richer for that.”

Karen Forslund Falb: “On 12/8/14, our daughter, Hilary, gave birth to a baby boy. Parents Hilary and Phil and baby Aaron are all doing well. Aaron is named for great-grandfathers Alfred and Axel.

Grandparents Karen and Peter are also doing well.”

Congratulations!

Tom Baxter has created a Facebook page for the class of ’59, and we encourage you to “like” the page. This is a good way to communicate news to the class in a timely way, and Tom sends out occasional news from the campus. The name of the page is NMH Class of 1959. If you don’t want to join Facebook, you can view the page by visiting facebook.com/NMHClassOf1959.

From Tom—On the occasion of his retirement, we acknowledge all the great work that Peter Welsh has done for the class of ’59 throughout the years; and in particular the work he has done through the years as class secretary. We also all need to thank Frank Partel for taking over the class notes and getting us to our 55th reunion by filling in for Peter last year. Peter writes, “I was very grateful when Frank took over doing last year’s class notes and understand Frank is wanting to return the baton to yours truly. However, I think it’s time for me to acknowledge that my ‘heart’ is no longer up to the task. Life at Cantope is much akin to life on any active farm. I am ‘on duty’ from 6 am–8 pm

Randy Foster ’59, Lynn Foster, Betty Blake Hinkley ’59, Tom Baxter ’59, and Emily Tucker Dunlap ’59 at the New England House in Brattleboro, Vt.

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and ‘on call’ from 8 pm–6 am. My energy level has been steadily decreasing over the past few years, although I understand that most of us suffer some semblance of the problem. That said, I think it best I retire now, hoping that Frank/Tom might pick up the ‘one-tined fork.’”

Class president Clark Peters has an update on the 59th Street signage: “I am pleased to report that our sign is now on each end of the street in a prominent spot. Peter (head) and I continue to chat about etching a brick with ‘59th Street’ at the entrance. I am hopeful that will be accomplished soon.”

Bob Myers says he “has stayed very busy this past year, intensely so since March, when our local county government has attempted to impose new zoning on this five-mile-wide peninsula that would emulate both Ocean Cities and Virginia Beach, protecting the fragile environment here that is used by academicians from around the world for environmental study, and our federally recognized limited water supplies is a high priority for us. The leaders are refusing to acknowledge the recommendations of two recent economic studies, one in which they were participants and the other they commissioned from a firm that clearly says they are on the wrong track. This all makes retirement interesting and challenging, but has severely reduced summer sailing recreation.”

Robert Friedman: “I am age 73, my wife age 76, and we are continuing to make tough adjustments to life. Each stage has its joys and its challenges. In 2015 I will have to accept the ‘loss’ of our Connecticut house, which is simply too much to maintain. We are in Florida, where we winter.

Until now, we have been playing with three houses.

The Connecticut one, a smaller cottage in Maine, and our residence in Florida. And this year we only spent three months in Connecticut, mostly marking time before and after our summer in Maine.

We truly ‘pass through’ Connecticut and have lost our social connections, spending so little time there.

We have decided to put the Connecticut house on the market. It will be hard to leave the house I designed and the beautiful grounds upon which it is located. I am now almost five years in retirement as a dermatologist, and I must say, I am loving it. I will be taking three courses: two on global issues (Sarasota Institute of Lifetime Learning), and one on 20th-century architecture (Pierian Spring Academy in Sarasota). We continue to be active in our alumni clubs—I am on one board in Florida—and we enjoy the rich cultural life of Sarasota County, with museums, orchestras, lectures, nature, and wonderful friendships. We are now grandparents of a beautiful granddaughter, born 7/3/14. Life continues to be fascinating, and I continue to mentor young people wherever I find them. I motivated several young people to go into medicine, one into dermatology and my son in nuclear medicine, which gives me joy. And I taught one generation of dermatology residents at the UConn School of Medicine, so I feel I fulfilled my major life goals. I loved the video montage we all received of NMH as the seasons pass. I continue to carry happy and rich memories of my time at NMH, and am so glad the school continues to offer its treasures to yet another generation, who will give back in spades to the world.”

Peter Olsen: “Was on way to Norway [last summer] and discovered I had viral meningitis, so never got there. Instead, spent the summer in and out of hospital care and recuperating. Did manage to publish my third book, an embellished memoir of a time spent as a taxi driver at a summer resort on Fire Island, N.Y. Pretty much back to normal now and back at the gym, running, biking, and swimming. So, if there is a 60th reunion, I plan to be present with camera.”

Dan Waugh (always accompanied by his wife, Charlotte) travels widely both for professional reasons and the sheer pleasure of learning about other parts of the world. In 2014 he presented at conferences in Bonn (Germany), Istanbul, and Cambridge (U.K.). The visit to Turkey also involved some exploration of historic sites in central Anatolia. A wildlife photography trip (organized by son Max) to Costa Rica last February was sheer pleasure, with another such trip to the Galápagos coming soon. Also planned for the coming year is a return to Sweden and a long trek in the remote Dolpo region of western Nepal. When not traveling, he is tied to his desk—currently buried in the editing and production of the next volume of The Silk Road annual.

Clark “CB” Loth: “I still maintain my pilot’s license, and I enjoy going up from time to time to bore some holes in the sky. Also, as Meadowbrook/ Bank of N.H. Pavilion is next to Laconia airport, it makes for a convenient means to go to board meetings. Susan and I sat with Kristin Kellom ’80 at the Vesper service. She is such good company, and her world-class voice is an inspiration.” We all love CB’s sense of humor, and in that vein he continues, “As of five weeks ago, I have a new titanium hip to go with the two titanium rods inserted in my spine six weeks earlier. It’s been a busy year, and as 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 each day, I am buying titanium futures. A simple case of supply and growing demand.”

Kim Boyle: “Spent over two months living [in Switzerland] this past summer, experiencing the life and culture of a truly amazing and beautiful country. Managed to improve my French to almost passable, and enjoyed the people, food, and particularly the beautiful scenery. Returned in early September 2014 to Ellen’s and my cat’s delight. Sorry to see the football program has been terminated. Many fond memories on Hermon’s Hill playing for school, parents, and Bull.”

In closing, I (Tom Baxter) am enjoying my trips back to NMH for the Alumni Council. There are four members of our class on the council, so we get to have a mini-reunion, including Randy Foster and Lynn, at each council meeting. We are looking to see if we can get a class of ’59 team for next year’s Pie Race, in answer to a “challenge” by Betty Blake Hinkley.

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PHIL ALLEN 427 Buena Vista Dr Modesto CA 95354 philhallen@gmail.com

Phil Allen: “A reminder that our 55th reunion is in May, a great opportunity to reminisce with ‘old’ classmates and to enjoy the impressive improvements and constant beauty of the school and its facilities. The NMHConnect app is a useful way to contact classmates about their plans for the May reunion, as well as discover the location of alums worldwide. After 44 years at schools in Montclair, N.J., New York City, and Rome, Italy, and the last 16 years as headmaster of St. Stephen’s School in Rome, my Irish wife, Judy, and I now split our time happily between Orbetello on the Tuscan Coast north of Rome and Modesto, Calif. Our daughter and family are in California; our son and his family are in Lyon, France. We are blessed to spend a lot of time with our four terrific grandchildren. I now enjoy a bit of consulting, gardening, reading, and seasonal high school tennis coaching.

We’ve had great visits to NMH in recent years with old friends and now ex-faculty members, Gina Onushco and Charlie Tierney. I’ve even had an opportunity to teach a European history class.”

Katy Gordon Kline: “After a career in museum work, I stepped back in from retirement to become interim director of the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Mass.”

Marv Kelley: “I am thoroughly enjoying retirement—three and a half years now, following the last seven years at NMH of my 34 years in charitable gift planning. I truly enjoyed my career and will especially miss the traveling and great relationships with so many wonderful donors associated with the three educational institutions I served. I haven’t become a total couch potato, but I have done more pleasure and current events reading since retiring than I did during all the years of working. I spend several hours a week volunteering for our local hospice agency, and I sit on two committees for our local United Way. I join my wife in spending a week each month providing home care for her mother in Alexandria, Va. It’s stressful, as I’m sure many classmates know, but it provides a glimpse of what it is to age. Looking forward to our 55th reunion in June and hoping we have a great turnout.”

Jon Ross continues to practice family law in New Hampshire with no present plans to retire. “I enjoy my work too much to let go. Kathy and I spend time enjoying our three grandsons. In April we took our three daughters and family to St. John in the USVI, camping at Cinnamon Bay in the national park to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. Truly a wonderful time. In June, we traveled to Hobart College to celebrate my 50th reunion. I saw NMH classmate Curt Ley at the 50th, also. We are blessed with good health and continuing curiosity about many things.”

Doug Barrett: “Sally and I celebrated our 51st wedding anniversary last September and these days are very busy with our 11 grandchildren. I made three visits to NMH this year: in May to see my grandson play varsity lacrosse versus NMH—he’s at

Westminster School, where Graham Cole ’61 was distinguished headmaster for many years. Exciting game, mixed feelings, but Westy won. In June I took a road trip with two other grandsons and visited NMH. The campus is ever-changing, with all the new buildings. Finally, in September I was there to see my granddaughter play varsity soccer versus NMH. Making those visits back to Hermon brings back fond memories of what I guess today we would call ‘the good old days.’ I spend quite a bit of my time with charity work, golfing, biking, and experiencing new ventures with the grandchildren; the best part is they keep me younger than my years. I am blessed that Mt. Hermon gave me a solid foundation to lead a productive and successful life. I’ll always remember that last football game against Deerfield in the snow, and the spectacular ending.”

Steve Wasnok: “We live on Long Island, 60 miles east of New York City. In the late 1980s we stopped by NMH during a trip with our son to look at New England colleges. I remember walking through Crossley to show him my old room and wondered what was going on when I saw pink ribbons on some of the doors. I did not realize the school had gone co-ed in 1971 until later in that visit! It is a great joy to us that our daughter and her family live only three miles from us. It has been so much fun spending time with them and watching our two grandchildren grow and develop. The Bowers boys (Bruce ’60, Bobby ’63, and Brent ’62) are from my hometown, Hanover, Ind. I am still in touch with Brent, who now lives on Cape Cod. I came to regret I never ran in the Pie Race as a student, and have since participated as an alum, including the 100th Pie Race, when Frank Shorter ’65 returned to run it again. You may remember that Jim Whyte, chaplain during our years, died from polycystic kidney disease (PKD), and his son Eric Whyte ’69 inherited it from him. I inherited PKD from my mother, who died from it just before I entered NMH. I have been very fortunate.

In 2007 my sister donated one of her kidneys to me. So far, it has functioned pretty well, although a virus did some damage early on. I certainly hope to be alive for the 75th! I would be happy to share what I have learned about PKD with anyone interested.”

Karl Radune: “Thirty-five years after our last outdoor adventures as young men, backpacking in the White Mountains and canoeing in Canada, I joined Albie Booth and friends for a new series of annual wilderness adventures in the north Maine woods, starting in 2005. The groups varied in size from year to year. Included at various times were Anne Booth ’91, Dave Clapp, Matthew Radune ’95, and Kat Radune ’95. Trips were HundredMile Wilderness, Cooper Brook South (2005); Hundred-Mile Wilderness, Abol Bridge South (2007); Lower Allagash River (2008); Upper Allagash River (2009); West Penobscot River (2010); St. John River (2011); Bow/Moose Rivers (2012); and St. Croix River (2013). After experiencing our second and third canoe capsizing, we ‘hung up our canoes.’ One of those upsets, at Little Falls, is captured forever on YouTube. This past year, bowing to the effects of age on our bodies, we used the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Gorman Chairback

and Little Lyford camps as bases for day hikes in the vicinity of Gulf Hagas in the Hundred-Mile Wilderness.

“Last June I attended my 50th Cornell reunion, joining three other mechanical engineers, one of whom was Bart Dawson and wife Marcia Ziegler Dawson ’59. We have all stayed in touch over the years and agreed to attend with our spouses/significant others. It was only the second college reunion I attended, and the first time the four of us were together since the 1960s. In late September my wife, Betsey, and I joined a small group for a bareboat charter trip in Croatia, organized by another of those four Cornell classmates. Seven of us sailed on a Lagoon 380 catamaran from the town of Split to the town of Dubrovnik, staying each night in a different island harbor town. A highlight of the trip was spotting Mel Gibson coming out of the Blue Grotto on the island of Bisevo. I had given up on my dream of a bareboat sail, and when this opportunity presented itself it was too good to pass up.”

From the Alumni Office: Thanks to Hannah Gray Sibley for her term as NMH class secretary.

If you would like to serve as class secretary for Northfield ’60, please contact Marggie Slichter (mslichter@nmhschool.org).

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GRETEL PORTER P.O. Box 369 Damariscotta ME 04543 sangam1008@yahoo.com CRAIG WALLEY 573 S 6th St Columbus OH 43206-1272 operacraig@aol.com

Graham Cole wrote, “After failing retirement sev-

eral times (I had a short stint as acting headmaster at Lawrenceville and then as associate headmaster for development at The Collegiate School in New York City), I have finally stopped working for money, but keep busy and out of Carol’s way serving a number of different nonprofit boards, doing some alumni outreach for Lawrenceville, doting on our grandson, and training our rescue dog. Hope to see many of you at our 55th!”

Larry Leffingwell: “I have two new grandchildren in the last 14 months: a girl (14 months) and a boy (4 months), which brings the total to 11 grandchildren. I am spending most of my time in Montana, but am still working on a limited basis out of Chicago. I talk to Rick Najaka occasionally, and he hosted a dinner for my oldest daughter in New York recently. He is Linda’s godfather. I am still able to ski, hunt, and fish, and am continually trying to improve my golf.”

Like most of us, Al Simpson laments that, though he still has “all my original body parts, a few of them don’t work as well as they used to.” He added, “Sue and I continue to be ‘snowbirds’—dividing our time between Florida and Rhode Island.

We try to take an international trip a year, and recently spent three weeks in France. I continue as president of our Florida neighborhood HOA, and Sue is busy as president of the SW Florida Mount spring 2015 I class notes I 61

A Class of ’62 mini-reunion took place in New York City. Back row: Dick Linthicum, Roger W. Smith, Ladd Jeffers, and Bob Seeley. Front row: Al Burnett and Jock Bethune.

Holyoke College Alumnae Club. We have six grandchildren (ages 2 to 11). Played a round of golf last spring with Bruce Schwanda and his brother.”

John Berlin: “All continues well here in Atlanta for the Berlins. Have completed my sixth value-based novel and one memoir, High Catcher (available on Amazon).” He reports that Doug Hemphill is at Notre Dame in their business school operations.

Connie and I (Craig Walley) took our 16th annual bike tour in Italy last fall, and cruised the Greek islands on a National Geographic tour. The rest of the time, we remain happily in Columbus, Ohio.

We had a visit from Pete Johnson, who was in town in connection with his 50th college reunion.

He recently reminisced: “Anthony Hill and I have been in regular contact since 1961. He played a key role in my courting my wife-to-be (he had the vehicle). He is a very skilled birder and bird-bander.

It’s amazing to see him band a hummingbird. We enjoy recalling our generally failed attempts to be cool and desirable to the girls across the river.” At present, Pete “gets great satisfaction from working to preserve open space on Cape Cod and goofing off with my life love mate, Ellie.”

Bruce Schwanda: “Anne and I spent our 43rd anniversary at The Wild Dunes Resort, Isle of Palms, S.C., in October 2014, and returned to Charleston for the annual Athletic Hall of Fame Banquet at The Citadel in November. We have four grandchildren; three in Virginia and one here in Orlando, so we see him a lot. I’m still consulting in the training and simulation industry, working about eight days a month and playing as much golf as possible, though I do not seem to improve.”

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SUE SAUNDERS CHANDLER 3/50 Walsh Street South Yarra Victoria, 3141 Australia susanchandler1@mac.com

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E. SCOTT CALVERT 440 Terrace St Ashland OR 97520-3004 scottcalvert@mac.com

“For he’s gone and married Yum Yum” was handwritten on a wedding announcement I received this fall (2014). Eric Riedel clearly had a busy year. He retired from a career as dean of students for the last 11 years at Hiram College in Ohio. My last communication from Eric was that he was “seeing” Northfield classmate Karen Anne Smith Zee (who was Yum Yum in our Mikado in 1962). They were married in September in Cambridge, Mass., with many Mt. Hermon and Northfield classmates, and The Mikado cast mates in attendance. They are liv-

MH ’62 alums Al Burnett, Jock Bethune, and Peter Halle win pies at the 124th Bemis-Forslund Pie Race.

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ing in Brookline, Mass.

On Veterans Day (2014), Jock Bethune, Al Burnett, Pete Halle, and Northfield classmate Cindy Kidder participated in the “oldest surviving road race” in America—the 124th Bemis-Forslund Pie Race at NMH. Anyone for the 125th? Later in the month, Jock Bethune, Al Burnett, Ladd Jeffers, Dick Linthicum, Bob Seeley, and Roger W. Smith got together in New York for a mini-reunion and phonathon.

Alex Welch wrote, “I ended up living in several countries in Asia and Australia for about 20 years.” In 1970 he was in New York City shortly before transferring overseas, when he spotted Dick Linthicum walking by on the street. Alex grabbed him and invited him for a drink; a long conversation ensued. Having taken a job with Gillette, Alex headed to Australia for training. Then it was on to Singapore, Korea, Indonesia, etc. “Have been back in Princeton, N.J., for the past 22 years. My wife, Anne Marie, and I have two children (Deanna and Cameron) and three grandchildren. Any folks traveling between New York City and Philadelphia, or just happen to be in the area, I would love to host a dinner or whatever.”

As always, I’m looking for news from the class.

As many of us moved past three score and ten in 2014, it becomes increasingly important to hang on to our age peers. If you have not done so, join the Facebook group, “Northfield Mount Hermon Class of 1962” and join the Alumni Community on the NMH site. Lastly, send me some news so I can share!

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DIANE SEWALL CHAISSON 25 Williams Rd N Grafton MA 01536-1237 diane@meadowlarks-farm.net WILLARD THOMEN 417 Nicholson St Joliet IL 60435-7043 wthomen@stfrancis.edu

From Diane—I went on a 3,000-mile round trip to Wisconsin and Minnesota for Thanksgiving and saw the “Baker Family Art Show” in Mineral Point, Wis. Nine members of my family took part in a four-month installation at The Walker House hotel. It included my stepfather, Charlie’s, lifelong production of paintings, drawings, etchings, illustrations, and haikus. It also had illustrations from his daughter, Charissa, her husband, Joe, and my brother, David; photographs from Charissa’s daughter, Andrea, and my sister-in-law, Jessica; pottery from brother Phil; and weaving from my 95-year-old mother, Madelon, and me. Other than that, Bill and I took a Phantom Gourmet trip to New Orleans last fall and continue to be busy at our local church. I am busy with new roles at the Weavers’ Guild of Boston, but have little time to weave. We spend time with grandchildren whenever possible and continue to enjoy retirement.

Katie Steinmetz Dater wrote last summer: “We were at the beach in Westbrook, Conn., for two weeks. The ‘kids’ and grandchildren were there

for a week, so I did not get anything extra done!

We went up to Vermont for a few days to see Phil’s brother. I did manage to have Pam Sargent Ryley and husband Roger, and Sandy “Dee” Freund Borden and husband Bob for lunch at the beach, which was fun. They both live fairly close to Westbrook.”

Betsy Sigler Roman was taking more of a hand in grandchild care last summer, as her daughter was being treated for stage 0 breast cancer—prognosis excellent. “And something else new in my life: hearing aids! I wish I’d gotten them 10 years ago.

You might remember I was working hard to process everything alums were saying at the reunion.”

Liz Martin O’Toole: “Our trip to Italy in May 2014 is still the highlight of our year! Since one of our grandsons has a birthday on April 15, chances are we will be in Pasadena and Los Angeles then.”

Heidi Herrick Davis: “Had a great visit with Jack Brock and his wife, Susan, when they visited Victoria in September. Tally five grandchildren for us now: two new babies in August (2014)! We have just moved back to the house we built many years ago ‘in the country,’ so all our grandkids can have the great outdoors to explore. It is wonderful to ‘reclaim’ the old place—it really feels like home!

I still fake the ‘urban,’ working part time at a little bookshop in Victoria called Ivy’s. It had its 50th this year, so please keep buying books at your local indie bookstore! Not only do I learn new things and meet interesting people every day I work, but I also come home with the most amazing ‘Little Main Street Tales’ in the evening! “[John and Susan] invited me to tea at the Empress Hotel...so there we sat ensconced in the silk brocade wing chairs of this iconic, elegant colonial outpost, surrounded by ferns and ceiling fans, munching on dainty cucumber sandwiches, dreaming of the days of yore, the Raj, and the glories of the British Empire...when suddenly reality hit: I felt like the worst turncoat ever, imagining all of my poor, rebellious Boston ancestors turning in their graves as they recalled heaving the very tea we sipped into Boston Harbor!”

Mimi Woodcock Karlsson wrote that those who watched Prof. Henry Louis Gates’s “Finding Your Roots—Anderson Cooper” on 10/7/14 on PBS would have heard some of her ancestral history.

An ancient pirate history shared with Cooper, the Vanderbilts, and Neil DeGrasse Tyson! You’ll learn of her notorious ancestors and the source of her Behçet’s disease, shared by Anderson.

Sue Curry Barnett is back to volunteering at Northampton High School as part of the Senior Property Tax Reduction program. Two mornings a week, three hours a day turned into nearly full time, so at this rate required time will be done by end of October. She loves the experience—a great work environment. She is still involved with past and potential students at Williston through hosting services and events. Sue stops in at Camp Fleur-deLis on occasion. Last summer it celebrated 85 years.

She was in Maine to celebrate her mom’s 96th birthday. Otherwise, it is yardwork, housework, time with friends, and finally working with a lawyer to set up a trust.

Elise Elderkin: “My daughter in British Columbia had a daughter in late August, and I met

her when she was two weeks old. She’s a lot bigger now. My London daughter is expecting a boy any day now. And the awful weather last winter left my house needing thousands of pounds of roof and wall work. So it’s been an eventful if expensive year, but I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. It’s still good to be alive!”

I visited with Wendy French Palm this summer! And heard all about her history of buying, renovating, and then selling houses. She is currently in a historic cape in Freedom, N.H., and working hard at getting all things up to current expectations in both house and gardens. Wendy wrote: “I have talked, emailed, and Facebooked Heidi Herrick Davis before, during, and after the last few national elections. My East Hall roommate, Lolly Davis, and I still are friends after 50 years. At the moment, we’re racing down Route 95 heading for Hobe Sound, Fla., where we’ll spend the winter. My children, Bill and Hillary, are in New Hampshire freezing and shivering, as are my three grandchildren.”

Jacquie Ballou Sullivan: “I am still working full time as a social worker in a nursing home in Norwood. It is a great position, with administrative responsibility. I am also on a National Association for Social Workers committee, which puts on a conference each year. Recently, I agreed to write a book on ‘Spirituality and Social Work’ from a Bahá’í perspective. This work will require intense effort, as it will include many sources as well as my own voice. Would love to hear from so many others.”

Sandy Freund Borden: “We had a very nice Thanksgiving with John and Mimi Karlsson and a friend of theirs from England at a place near where they live in Rhode Island.”

Harriet Goff Guerrero: “This year (2014) has been the 40th anniversary year of the language school we started in Cuernavaca in 1974! It seems like so long ago, but it has gone by so quickly. We have met so many wonderful people who have come to Cemanahuac in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Now some of their children are coming or they are bringing their families. In November I went to the meeting in San Antonio of the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages with the Cuernavaca group of language schools, as well as the national group from Mexico. Paco and I drove—a beautiful two-day drive, especially through the high desert north of San Luis Potosí. If anyone ever visits Mexico City or Cuernavaca, please let me know and we can get together. We even have some guesthouses in Cuernavaca if someone needs a place to stay.”

Felice Merritt Gelman: “I had a wonderful family vacation in Iceland this summer—three grandchildren, our daughter and her partner, as well as Yoram and me. What an incredibly beautiful and interesting place. We arrived just in time for the beginning of Bardarbunga’s eruption, but the only effect we felt was the car rental agent trying to sell us insurance against ash damage (we were not buyers). I wasn’t sure young children would find it interesting, but I was wrong. They were fascinated by the geysers, hot pots, rock formations, and black sand.”

Faith Richards Madore: “We visited Campo-

bello with my brother and his wife. On the way home to central Maine, we enjoyed a boat trip out to Seal Island, which has a large colony of puffins. That was amazing because we were able to view them from blinds at very close range. In September we spent a week in Prague…my first trip to Europe! Our hotel was right on the river, two blocks from the historic Charles Bridge. We had a great time touring the city. Finally, we spent a couple of weeks in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., in November. Both my mother and sister have homes there, but mother has been in a nursing home for almost a year. I am happy to say she is doing well, and we’re planning to be there to celebrate her 95th birthday.”

Carol Waaser: “I did a lot of traveling this year: a week in Majorca at cycling camp; some long weekend cycling tours in the summer; two weeks in France in August cycling from Paris to Marseille; and a five-day self-contained cycling tour with a few friends through eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island in September. Then in October I did something I haven’t done in 20 years—I took a non-cycling vacation! My 92-year-old neighbor and I flew to Venice, where we toured for two days, then boarded a small cruise ship as part of a Yale Educational Travel group. We sailed across the Adriatic and down the Dalmatian coast with many ports of call. There were lectures on archeology and tours of Roman ruins, as well as three concerts by a quartet from the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Society. On the cycling tour in France, I was chatting with a fellow cyclist and it turned out his sister is Connie Corvan Noon ’64. He went to Deerfield, so I mentioned something about the football rivalry…he had been at the infamous Hermon-Deerfield game when Science Hall burned down! Small world.”

The current level of funding of the class of 1963 Scholarship Fund is $188,680. The recent recipient is student Leah (class of ’16). Please consider adding a gift to this important class fund. Let’s shoot for full funding by the 55th reunion.

From Willard—Although Holt Anderson retired from full-time employment in October, he is assisting in developing a policy and governance framework for “The Learning Health System,” a concept that first emerged from the Institute of Medicine. He and his wife, Susan, were in Stuttgart over the Christmas holidays visiting their youngest son, who is stationed there with the US Navy.

Those of you who were at our 50th reunion may remember Thom Rill, who was Don Glascoff’s

Elise Elderkin ’63 with her granddaughter

spring 2015 I class notes I 63

roommate at Yale, along with Chuck Bates and Brent Goodsell. Thom was already laboring with only one lung after surgery and therapy for cancer.

He passed away a few months later. Don spoke with Thom often in his final days, and he constantly told Don what a special event our reunion was for him. Although he came to the campus knowing only Brent, Chuck, and Don, within hours of his arrival he felt as if he had also spent four years on the hill. “Such is the legacy of NMH. We all reach out and serve and love.” Thom’s one year at Andover as a postgraduate had been a living hell. He told Don frequently that Mt. Hermon was a very special place, a kind of heaven. D.L. Moody would have been proud of our class, as it adopted Thom and brought him into our family.

Brent Goodsell also shared memories of Mt. Hermon with Thom, and wrote an extraordinary tribute to him in the Yale Alumni Magazine (from the Sept/Oct 2014 issue): “Thom was all about planning and organization—which I am sure made him an excellent attorney. A date at our Yale dorm was like a military campaign. Roommates were, of course, evicted. The lighting was checked and double-checked; how many candles and where should they be placed; what offending articles needed to be put out of sight. The most important thing was the playlist. In those days that meant stacking the records on the player—always in what he thought were progressively more romantic tunes...We never knew how dates worked out, but Thom was invariably infuriated.” Don was very impressed with Brent’s beautiful writing. “I bet he learned how to do such work at Mt. Hermon.”

Don is working on a new film that will be ready by next reunion. He still invests in U.S. real estate with some Chinese partners, with whom he has been trying for some time to buy the Northfield campus with the hope of someday opening a new international school there.

D. Lloyd Jones was continuously in the hospital circuit (150 days) since February 2014 to heal a pressure sore that had tunneled and caused osteomyelitis in his right hip. By last May, with no medical success in Florida, he and his wife Anne went to Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. After surgery to remove his right hip ball and several inches of bone, Lloyd was admitted to Spaulding Rehab in Cambridge, where he stayed until early July. The next stage of recovery was three months at home in Maine being able to sit up only one hour a day. At the time of this writing, he was hoping to get the OK from his doctor to travel to his Florida home in mid-January 2015 to enjoy warm weather, friends, and neighbors. Lloyd is especially looking forward to getting back to the bridge table and even possibly entering some fishing tournaments.

Ricker Winsor loves living and working in Indonesia. He and his wife, Jovita, live a local life that is rich in many ways. Ricker’s exciting new connection with Novica, in association with National Geographic, is selling his paintings through their global site: novica.com. He and Jovita also have an export business of handmade items from Bali and Java. Ricker continues to paint and write as well as organize his large photo archive.

I had a wonderful trip to Germany, Austria, and northern Italy this past summer (2014). Highlights 64 I NMH Magazine

were finally seeing Neuschwanstein Castle, spending a week on Lake Garda in Riva, viewing Giotto’s famous cycle of frescoes on Mary and Jesus in the Arena Chapel in Padua, hiking in the Bavarian Alps

by Hintersee near Ramsau, and hearing a magnificent organ recital in the restored Frauenkirche in Dresden.

I am deeply saddened to report the sudden death of John Peter Van Hazinga, 68, while hiking in the Adirondack Mts. on 10/11/14. During his college days, Van worked on a research team that discovered ancient biological life in Mould Bay, Canada. He graduated with honors in geology from Dartmouth College in 1967 and enlisted in the US Coast Guard, serving as an officer during the Vietnam conflict. Following the war, he worked as a contractor and builder in Colorado, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, California, and New Hampshire. In recent years Van lived in Hillsborough Upper Village in New Hampshire, where he was an organic gardener, woodworker, poet, and lover of farming and wilderness. I had the privilege of visiting him on numerous occasions over the years when I would be back in New Hampshire on summer holidays, and can attest to his incredible organic fruits and vegetables. He also shared many of his poems. He was a quiet, gentle, philosophical soul. Formerly married, he leaves three children and six grandchildren. He is also survived by his sister, Cynthia Van Hazinga ’61.

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ROBERT EASTMAN PO Box 218 Shaftsbury VT 05262-0218 rheastman4@comcast.net

PAMELA STREET WALTON PO Box 33 Spofford NH 03462-0033 pawalton@myfairpoint.net

From Pam—I do remember our fabulous 50th reunion, but where have the past six months gone?

On Sunday the weekly clock is wound…and before you know it, it needs to be wound again. Sound familiar? Life passes at warp speed. Maybe your memories of July–December will return as you read what others experienced/enjoyed in 2014. We’re relocating/downsizing our residences, replacing worn-out body parts, celebrating the birth of grandchildren, traveling far and wide, volunteering for organizations/helping friends in need, and generally living life to the fullest. Since class notes are due twice per year and well before their publication, as I compile this column, Christmas Vespers has just been held on the NMH campus, but when you read this column, the class of ’65 will be about to celebrate their 50th!

Elizabeth Peterson Ghaffari is sorry to have missed our 50th and hoped everyone had a good time. She is currently marketing her third book, Tapping the Wisdom That Surrounds You: Mentorship and Women. The book has 80 short stories by and about real women and their experiences with mentorship (championboards.com/tappingthewisdom).

There are some stories from her Northfield days, so perhaps you will recognize the experiences. Maybe Elizabeth will return for our 55th.

Liz Spear Graham wrote to Franny BridgesCline that Amelia, Liz’s fifth grandchild, had just been born. Liz and Fran spent a wonderful week together in Amsterdam in early November—a benefit of reuniting with friends at reunion.

Nancy Jackson Moncure feels sad for classmates who had conflicts and were unable to be part of reunion. “The school went all out for us… great to reconnect with old friends and make new ones as well.” Last August, Nancy had rotator cuff surgery, so no shoveling snow this winter, but I’ll bet she’s back on the tennis court in record time.

She and her husband, John, took a trip to France in September 2014, which tells me she is healing well.

Jean Thompson echoed Nancy’s reunion comments, saying she still thinks about what a fantastic time she had at the 50th. Jean continues to help friends while they travel by babysitting their dogs and cats, and has even added chickens to the list of animals she’ll tend. Her personal family pets now include a small dog, which belongs to a dear friend who feels she cannot properly care for him over the winter. Jean says, “He’s a sweet boy and fits right in with the rest of the family.” Jean, Marcia Eastman Congdon, Nancy Schouler Smith, Pat Dunklee Putnam, and a mutual Northfield grade-school friend met for lunch in West Lebanon, N.H., later last summer to continue the lively discussions begun at reunion. They were hoping that Marcia Stacy Kemp would be able to join them, but she was recovering from surgery. Marcia wrote that reunion was wonderful—she loved kibitzing with classmates and Sally Atwood Hamilton ’65—but that she spent much of the summer recovering from four hospitalizations for mitral valve repair.

She finally feels great and is planning a vacation to visit family in Sweden this summer.

Our adopted classmate, Sue Chapman Melanson, wrote that the cottages at Oak Hill Farm in South Hiram, Maine, are doing well, and she and husband Art have date night by both sitting on the School Board of Sacopee Valley, that her 50th high school reunion in Wellesley, Mass., was also fantastic, and that in May she and Art adopted a vegan diet. Kudos to the Melansons!

As I began this column, I noted that I don’t know where the past months have flown. My husband, Ken, and I spent the summer enjoying Spofford Lake, and I played lots of tennis. In August my 55-plus 3.5 tennis team won the USTA New England Regionals, which meant we were invited to Nationals in November! In October (2014) we attended a family wedding in Durango, Colo., and spent the next two weeks touring Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, and Sedona. The first week in November, my tennis team played in Nationals in Phoenix, Ariz. The icing on the cake was having my partner and I win one of our matches and losing the other match 10–8 in a third set tiebreaker.

Sara Simon Stevens’s news definitely beats my acclaim to playing in the USTA Nationals.

Her daughter welcomed healthy twin daughters (Chloe and Phoebe) in November 2014—Sara’s 15th and 16th grandchildren. The blessed event was scheduled for late November, but as furniture/

Alums of the class of 1964 met in West Lebanon, N.H., left to right: Marcia Eastman Congdon, Pat Dunklee Putnam, Nancy Schouler Smith, Jane Abbot (grade school friend), and Jean Thompson.

boxes were literally being moved into a new home a week earlier, it became evident that the twins were anxious to be born. House keys were thrown to the movers and off they sped to the hospital with Sara behind the wheel. The first twin was born eight minutes after arrival, the second a few minutes later.

Sara retired from being an accountant, set up a new frame-shop business, attended our 50th reunion, welcomed four new grandchildren, and almost delivered the last two!

Thank you to those who responded to my plea for news for the column. Hoping the first six months of 2015 have been full of happy events for you and your families. Remember to write, call, or email me with updates about your adventures… and begin planning a New England June 2019 vacation to our 55th reunion.

From Bob—Peter Guild writes, “The year (2014) started with a wonderful adventure to the Galápagos Islands with Lindblad Expeditions. In June we went to Acadia National Park in Maine before attending our fantastic 50th at NMH. I then took a 3,000-mile ride in my Corvette to see friends in Bowling Green—Corvette factory, Chicago, Flint, Mich.—GM guys, New Castle, Penn., to see Charley Mansell, then to Syracuse to say hi to Patty Haggerty…miss Bill Haggerty a lot, on to Rochester, and then to Watkins Glen for an IMSA race. Our big event for the fall was a VBT biking adventure on Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, which was great until Ann crashed into the back of my bike and suffered a tibial plateau fracture of her left leg. She had to be ‘ambulanced’ off the island and up to Mass General. She is going to physical therapy and should recover fully.”

Pete Tietjen: “Took a drive out to Siberia for Vespers. Crikey, but I’d forgotten the winds.

Walked around the corner of the chapel and was blown off my feet. Such a difference in how the current choir sings from how we sang. There was a joy to our singing—dynamics, tempo, phrasing, and a sense of reverence—due to how we regarded Al Raymond, I suspect. Almost no sense of that, listening to the current Vespers. I got a nice email from Dan Snodderly, my roommate from junior year in Crossley. We both worked as editors as our principal occupation. He sounds fine, lives in Washington.”

Brian Farrell: “Had lunch with Terry Sweetser, who’s in New York City for a couple of years as an interim UU minister in New Jersey while his wife performs the same service at a church here in the

city and their daughter studies at the famed Actors Studio. We had a great time, and it made me very sorry I didn’t get to know him better when we were students together. He couldn’t make the 50th because of a health issue, which is now resolved.”

Jim Ault: “I write from Wellington, South Africa, where I am spending a month with my wife Margaret’s family. Just arrived yesterday to the dry summer heat down here. And it’s always great to be here with her large and fun family! My African Christianity Rising documentary film series is getting out to appreciative reviews…with screening/ discussions at the African studies and religious scholars conferences, as well as a gathering of theological school presidents from North America in San Antonio (where I hope to meet up with Bruce Esterline), the U.K., and Germany. I’m writing a book on that project that will have links to documentary video embedded in its text—a new kind of composition altogether.”

Steve Newcombe: “Congrats on a great 50th reunion. I have been besieged lately by calls, emails, and even snail mail from many of my old classmates. They invariably start off with, ‘you probably don’t remember me, but we both lived in Crossley and ate in the dining hall.’ They go on to mumble something about vague plans to visit the Pacific Northwest and ruminate about how nice it would be to get together and talk about old times. You could help me enormously by putting the following in the NMH Magazine: It is true that Oregon recently passed a law legalizing marijuana use. It is true that Washington State already has set up ‘grass’ stores for recreational use. It is true that I live very close to the Washington State line. It is not necessarily true that I am setting up a small trucking business or that I have bought several small warehouses in Polk County. What is an absolute fact is that recreational use of the evil weed does not commence until July. On a positive note, it is very likely that I will be setting up a new online shopping service in the near future and all my old ‘friends’ will be welcome to visit me there. The service will be called ‘The Cloud,’ although it has nothing to do with invisible data storage. If all goes well, maybe I’ll take out an ad in NMH Magazine next year and everyone can buy some ‘edibles’ to go along with their honey from the farm.”

Tony Roubound: “It was difficult to beat the rapture of reunion. [Last] July was my yearly trip to Seattle. Every summer I descend upon my son and daughter to renew the bonds of family and spoil

their diets. In August my other half and I went to Hawaii. We arrived in Kailua Kona approximately a week after the hurricane struck the island. Was the land askew? Did they have running water?

Would the airport be fully functional? Were the roads covered in sand or passable? The fact was that the trees swayed in the breeze, water was plentiful, the airport was buzzing with those coming and going, and the roads were covered with tourists.

We shopped the numerous shops of the west coast, tested the water at a secluded beach sheltered by trees, attended a luau with fire dancers from several Pacific islands, took a trip around the perimeter of the island, stopping at various towns and at the mouth of the large Kilauea volcano, whose lava flow would soon make the news a few weeks later, and polished the trip off with an evening dinner cruise along the west coast.”

D.K. “Skip” Smith sends greetings from West Africa: “For approximately six years, wife Teresa Petschl-Smith and I have been working full time in Nigeria; it’s the reason I didn’t get back to NMH for the 50th reunion. Most of the time we have been working for educational institutions; for another week or so, I will continue to serve as dean of the Faculty of Management and Social Sciences at Baze University in Abuja (the Federal Capital of Nigeria), and Teresa will continue to serve as head of administration at Start-Rite, a private primary/nursery school in Abuja. After leaving Abuja, Teresa and I have a few chores we need to do at her flat near Heathrow Airport; by January, however, we expect to have relocated to the house my father built 60 years ago in Middlebury, Vt. I look forward to re-engaging with old friends and introducing those friends to Teresa. Best wishes for a wonderful 2015.”

Dave Mensel: “Had a chance for a good visit with former roommate Dan Snodderly at his digs off DuPont Circle in Washington, D.C., [last] July.

First time we’ve had a chance to catch up in some years. Had a delightful visit with Chuck Sanborn.

Chuck was the faculty adviser on Overton’s second floor when Danny and I roomed there as seniors.

Dan was the hall adviser. Chuck had written a nice note about us for the 50th reunion yearbook. Am still singing with the Music City Chorus (barbershop, currently ranked seventh in the world after an appearance at the International Competition in Las Vegas). In the fall (2014), the chorus won the right to represent the district again at the upcoming Pittsburgh International. Still active with the DinoChords seniors barbershop quartet (not dinosaurs, just old). Annie retired last November, but I am still picking up the occasional forensic engagement, mostly business valuations and fraud investigations.

Am grateful to no longer be doing tax returns. Despite rumors, there’s no bounty on NMH graduates out this way, so former classmates are encouraged to stop by for a visit.”

Sally and I (Robert Eastman) celebrated our 40th anniversary with a trip across the country via train, a cruise from San Diego to Ft. Lauderdale via the Panama Canal, a quick flight to D.C. to watch Rob run in the Marine Corps. Marathon, and finally home, exhausted.

To see the unedited versions of these notes, visit northfieldandmounthermon1964.com. spring 2015 I class notes I 65

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WENDY SWANSON-AVIRGAN 106 Blueberry Dr Stamford CT 06902-1828 wsavirgan@aol.com HENRI RAUSCHENBACH 65 Far Fields Rd Brewster MA 02631-5206 henri.rauschenbach@gmail.com www.northfieldmounthermon65.com

From Wendy—Sincere condolences to the family of Dorothea Evergates, who died 7/2/14. Her sister, Diane, wrote, “Dorothea graduated from Northeastern University after spending her junior year in Valencia, Spain. Later, she joined the Army in military intelligence, spending several years in the Far East, Europe, and the U.S. She attained the rank of lt. colonel. She moved to Anguilla, British West Indies, and after spending several years on the island, moved to Tucson, Ariz.”

Ellen Anthony is “working on a multimedia show called ‘Specs’—a series of visual poems set to original music. Objects, figures, and perspectives transform. ‘Are we in the world or is the world in us?’ World premiere in November 2015.”

Sally Atwood Hamilton: “In September my husband, Mark, retired, and I moved from Florida to Walpole, Maine, on the Pemaquid Peninsula. I decided that after more than five years of editing the class notes section of NMH Magazine, it was time to hand that job off to someone else, so now I’m officially retired. Having spent my professional life writing and editing publications, it’s ironic that I’m ending where I started—editing another yearbook for NMH. My first experience with publications was working on our 1965 Highlights at Northfield. Now I’m editing our 50th reunion yearbook, most likely the last publication I will do.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at reunion.”

Deborah Boldt: “Moving to Santa Fe in 2000 fulfilled a 25-year wish. I’m grateful for our 50th as a chance to reconnect with many friends I’ve lost touch with. My film, Fresco, was broadcast on PBS in 1999 and was followed by three years of educational and community outreach in the Twin Cities. When I moved to Santa Fe, I brought my parents with me. They lived to be 92 and 95. I got interested in elder issues, joined the board of a local nonprofit, wrote a guide to local, senior-friendly restaurants, and produced a video portrait of several colorful elders. In 2008 I had the temerity with two colleagues—an educator and a family therapist—to start a nonprofit, Reel Fathers. We support men to be strong, nurturing co-parents, and youth to consider fatherhood anew. We’ve developed something of a novel method, using a father-focused movie or video as a catalyst for dialogue and teaching relationship skills. But running a nonprofit is not for the faint-hearted! Nan Healy Schwanfelder, a fellow Santa Fean, has been wonderfully supportive. See you all in June.”

Deborah notes that Calista Chapman Diane was a supportive counselor for nephew Tom Boldt ’90 when he was at NMH. Susan Brunnckow Oke and Derry “have moved to a smaller, easier-to-manage house. Son 66 I NMH Magazine

Wesley, a Canadian Air Force officer, and his family have moved to England for a three-year posting.

We look forward to visiting them in April, an improvement on Skype visits.”

Robin Burroughs: “I became a nurse, married and divorced, and left Buffalo for New York City in the late 1970s to study acting, which I did for a few years. Had a few small film and theater roles and had a ball, then realized I needed to make a real living. I was risk manager for a small hospital system and then for the New York City public health-care system. I left the city system to be a health-care risk management consultant with a large medical malpractice insurance company, where I stayed for nearly 20 years. I retired a year ago and left Manhattan to live in a tiny historic town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. I am painting, throwing pots, and knitting. I travel whenever I can and did the longest zip line in the U.S. last summer.

I have plenty of room for anyone coming through the Chesapeake area. From what I have seen on our website, our classmates have led fascinating lives, built families and careers, and have contributed to our varied communities and professions. How wonderful to have been part of such a remarkable group of women, even if only for our junior year.”

On their way to Tucson from visiting a son in Santa Barbara in September 2014, Tony Cantore and Ann visited Candace Lindsay at her home in Buckeye, Ariz.

Abigail Teile Crine: “I happily continue to work and work out full time, compete sometimes, and look forward to volunteering in 2015 with the Institute for Lifestyle Medicine in Boston. We will be working on self-assessment, self-awareness, and a nutrition, exercise, stress reduction education curriculum. I started my psychotherapy practice in the 1980s based on an integrated model of wellness; and here I am again with much more science and research fueling a global initiative. Exciting!”

Angela Croce Gomez will not be able to attend reunion. She wrote, “My husband and I are both retired: me from NYS and various nonprofits, and Jose from IBM and as a public school math teacher.

We volunteer, helping with English learning and as ‘Book Buddies’ at an elementary school. Our children are all in their 30s, two married. Both sons work in the Boston area—landscape architect and acoustics consulting. Daughter is in California as development director for an independent school.

We are still in the Poughkeepsie area, and maybe some Northfield classmates in the coming year(s) may stop by.”

Deborah Crockett Rice: “I live full time on Cape Cod near the great beaches with my husband, Ferran, and our two Maine coon cats. I am working full time and have two jobs: at Falmouth Hospital as a cancer outcome specialist, and at Hurley Travel as a senior travel consultant. I have traveled all over the world, the latest venture going to the South Pacific—Bora Bora and Moorea, and Tetiaroa—Brando’s private island. I have had a theater company in Boston—the Court Rep Theatre—where I served as artistic director. Also, was involved in producing a Vietnam Veterans Against the War documentary for PBS. Have directed various plays throughout the years in Boston and the suburbs. I have had a very full 50 years since Northfield!”

Holly Gamble Schinler: “I was in New Hampshire at the end of June taking care of my grandchildren while my daughter finished her last week of teaching at Keene Middle School. We drove by the Northfield campus and I caught a glimpse of East Hall. Got a big lump in my throat!”

Perry Hay Huntington: “My husband, Greg, and I are retired and live in Florida. Before that, I worked as the head of environmental claims for AIG in New York City. I would like to work with the elderly, as I have seen firsthand that nursing homes are not the solution. I went to Jordan this year, which was amazing—extensive ruins and important biblical sites. Then Greg and I were in Turkey, Ukraine, and the Balkans in June.”

Judy Hullfish Lewis: “After Northfield, I graduated from SUNY-Brockport. Although my degree is in elementary education, and I did teach for a short time, most of my working life was spent with the elderly in long-term care working as an activities director. I have twins, who are grown and married, and three grandchildren. I retired in 2008 to care for my husband. I was widowed in 2009. I’m enjoying retirement and stay busy with church and volunteer activities.”

Cathey Hyde Gage: “I’m still working with brain injury survivors as a ‘life skills coach’ for the Disability Board of Charleston County, and I love my job. I spend summers on Lake Sunapee, N.H., so I have the best of both worlds. Siri Lewis and I get together a couple of times a year, and we’re both looking forward to the reunion.”

Sarah Keniston Michael: “My husband and I are retired, he from 35 years in a private law practice and me from teaching Latin and French in high school, middle school, and sometimes at Miami University over the past 20 years. Son Charlie teaches film at the University of Georgia, and his wife teaches French at Emory. They have two sons (ages 5 and 3 weeks). Daughter Katie is a social worker for the VA in Chicago and recently married.

Daughter Eleanor is a lawyer in the Connecticut governor’s office, and her husband is a high school Latin teacher. They have two boys (4 and 6). Jim and I serve in several capacities locally—Planned Parenthood, local art center, Miami University Art Museum, Audubon Miami Valley, and so on. We are avid birders and travel when we can, visiting friends and family.”

Beverly Lancaster Lindsey: “After a 20-year pastorate in Chester, N.H., I retired at the end of June 2014, and my husband and I moved to the

Deborah Monroe ’65 (left) crossed paths with Alison Marshall Zanetos ’65 in California.

Richmond, Va., area to be closer to family. We are involved with two churches. I have done some supply preaching and Charlie has done some solo gigs in various churches in the area. The Reunion Planning Committee has asked me to help participate in the worship and memorial services for our 50th reunion. We will be remembering too many departed souls in our class.”

Pamela LeClair-Rogers: “I have been having fun emailing back and forth with a few gals from our class using the reunion website. Alison Marshall Zanetos is as warm and energetic a woman as she was a teenager at school. Pam Street Walton ’64 and I have stayed good friends. My husband and I try to visit Pam and her husband on Spofford Lake each summer. Daughter Tara has changed careers and returned to school at 47, and plans on becoming an ICU nurse or a nurse practitioner. My husband and I are blessed with a medical supply business that is doing well. I’m still writing and currently working on a large-scale musical project. Hoping to participate in a medical mission trip this spring with my ER physician brother. Would love to hear from Judy Leavitt ’64 or Sara Davis Lylis ’64, Jonathan Cole, and Marty Dardani. We welcome summer visitors who find themselves in the vicinity of Little Compton, R.I.!”

Elinor Livingston Redmond: “Life for me is full and busy. One main activity is volunteering for the local hospice organization. At times I work with a ‘home patient’ and at others I volunteer in an end-of-life care facility. I also keep bees, sell honey, and make hand cream to sell. I am involved in a local congregational church. Dan and I have two grandchildren who live with their parents in Manhattan. A golden retriever puppy joined our household. Dan and I are smitten and are coping with the change.”

Ellen Lougee Simmons: “I have three daughters living in San Francisco, with two sons-in-law and two grandchildren, so I spend a lot of time there! My other two daughters live in Houston, and one is married with a little girl, Hallie (6 months).

One daughter, Abby, is working for a school district here, and the other, Winnie, is a social worker who works in adoption. I spent a week hiking in Sicily in April (2014) with friends, took my mother and sister to Bermuda in May, spent the summer in Maine, and then spent 10 days in Scandinavia after attending a wedding in Sweden. I am still serving on a few boards, but enjoying more time with family and friends. So looking forward to our 50th reunion!”

Alison Marshall Zanetos: “My biggest news is that Dean and I have three grandchildren: Dylan (3) and Kylie (16 months) in Port Washington, N.Y., and Dean (2 months) in Redondo Beach, Calif. I still work for Neil Diamond. Have enjoyed communication with Pam LeClair-Rogers, Debbie Crockett Rice, and getting together with Deborah Monroe, all thanks to the ’65 website.

I’m still in contact with Deborah Peck-Triolo, Barbara Lanckton Connors, and Deborah Epstein Popper. Liz Spear Graham ’64 and I are still in the same book club and walk through the Hollywood Hills every weekend. Dean and I won’t be at the reunion, but wish everyone the best time!”

Judy Mintie Scollay: “In July (2014) we were blessed with our first granddaughter, Annabel Hazel. Rich Scollay and I are still planning to come to reunion. I’m teaching sewing classes and Rich is working for Habitat for Humanity doing electrical work.”

Coco Pratt Cook arranged a get-together with Nan Waite Cuddeback and Ilene Fennoy while Coco and Warren were doing a whirlwind trip of culture to New York City last September. Per Nan, “We had a great time catching up on news and talk of the upcoming reunion. Coco also visited with Judy Preble Miller and has a picture of Judy playing the piano.”

Priscilla Prutzman wrote that she was looking forward to a visit from Betty Naughton for the annual Creative Response to Conflict holiday party in New York City.

Richard and Candace Reed Stern celebrated the marriage of their daughter, Caitlin, last September in Castine, Maine. They were joined by Wilson Hall dormmates and lifelong friends: Doug and Rachel Rikert Burbank—Caitlin’s godparents, Ellen Lougee Simmons, and James and Cynthia Gilbert-Marlow. “The wedding ceremony concluded with the Northfield benediction. We had a great time celebrating with a lobster dinner under a tent on the beach, flying kites, waving sparklers, and a lively bonfire.”

Dave Stone: “I returned for what I thought would be a simple work weekend last September as reunion co-chair, expecting planning sessions over meals. I discovered much more. There was electricity in the air in every class we observed. Students were totally engaged, teachers collaborated rather than lectured, give-and-take was encouraged, technology was totally integrated. We got a fine education in the early 1960s, but this is light years ahead. I came away knowing my support of NMH is thoroughly well-founded.”

Hermione “Hez” Symington Ainley: “Still alive and well and really hoping to make it to the reunion. Am working as a caregiver for people with Alzheimer’s, having been a teacher, canal boat hirer, and restaurateur. Widowed since 2004, now living alone with Henry the cat. Not sure how many faces I shall actually remember, but hope if I get [to reunion] it will all come flooding back.”

Anne Winter Forsyth: “After retiring two years ago, I have been happily reading, exercising, attending concerts, bird watching, and volunteering for two churches. Our independent travel and Road Scholar programs take us to a variety of places, primarily in the U.S. I’m writing this next to Lake Quinault on the Olympic Peninsula, which David and I are visiting with our daughter and her fiancé. I am looking forward to reconnecting with classmates in June.”

Beth Zelnick Palubinsky: “Still singing, occasionally sitting in with old band mates, creating a couple of new projects with a friend, Bernardine Watson, who’s a fine poet. Last November we wrote, produced, and performed This Trip So Far—a journey with music and poetry through four decades of shared growth, exploration, and steadfast friendship. I sit on the board of directors of SeniorLAW Center, a leading Pennsylvania nonprofit legal services organization, emphasizing representation,

Left to right: Rachel Rikert Burbank ’65, Candace Reed Stern ’65, Ellen Lougee Simmons ’65, and Cynthia GilbertMarlow ’65 at Candace’s daughter’s wedding, September 2014.

education, and advocacy for Pennsylvania’s needy seniors. Just at the time of our 40th reunion, I had completed my first round of studies with Celebrant Foundation & Institute, learning to create ritual and ceremony—civil, not religious—for people desiring personalized ways to mark life milestones.

Al and I celebrate 35 years of marriage in March.

Elinor Livingston Redmond and Dan stayed overnight with us a few months back. I talk with Brad Fitzgerald regularly, amazed at his bravery and good humor as he continues to recover from his illness, and was in close touch with Barbara Lanckton Connors and Molly Hinchman as we plan an NSFG get-together in Philadelphia for late winter.”

From Henri—Continuing on with our quest to make California seem closer to Gill than many previously thought, I recently had the chance to spend some time with Dana Haberland and Bob Fries in San Francisco. It is an amazing experience to see people that you haven’t seen for 49 years and realize that not much is different. Dana spent four years at Hermon (as did I), but Bob had the unusual journey by attending his sophomore and senior years.

They both lived in Hayden (a life of privilege) and are both still working (Dana in the chip business, and Bob is a lawyer). It was a good opportunity to discuss our own and the school’s evolutions.

This past winter I almost made it to Miami, but the snow delayed and then cancelled the trip. I had been scheduled to catch up with Rodney Walton.

There was a curious assemblage of folks at Mark Boeing’s house. It brings to mind Bert Clough’s eloquent rendition of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and particularly the line: “Like a patient etherized upon a table.” Etherized upon the Barcalounger were Peter Barber, Mark Boeing, celebrity guest Dave Zimmerman, and Matt Couzens and Tim Schiavoni. We had all gathered to watch

In Arizona, Candace Lindsay ’65 (left) and Tony Cantore ’65

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the Bruins win, which, some of you may be aware, did not happen. Dave flew in from somewhere in the South. This was a very good time and we thank Boeing for his hospitality.

Matt Couzens also had a long visit with Peter Ticconi, who was in the Boston area on GA Tech business. They talked about the last reunion, when Peter had made up some coffee mugs and T-shirts to go along with our tales of Mt. Hermon. Peter visited Matt’s orchard and Matt put him on his horse, Hannah. I would like to have seen a picture of that.

This past October there was a wonderful article in The Boston Globe about Kurt Vonnegut and the time he spent living on Cape Cod. Our classmate, Mark Vonnegut, was prominently featured, and the article had several pictures of Mark as a youth and today. Interesting contrast.

And, lastly, the clock is ticking down for our 50th reunion, so if you haven’t gotten involved or scheduled it, you should.

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MARILYN ATTWATER GRANT 43 Spring St Hope Valley RI 02832-1628 classsecy1966@verizon.net FRANK SAPIENZA 425 Washington St, Apt 6 Brookline MA 02446-6128 sapienzafc@cdm.com

From Frank—Our 50th Reunion Committee has been working hard and having fun preparing for our big 50th.

Peter Fulton has been in touch with Frank Lihn (in Thailand) as he writes his first novel. Peter will publish it in e-book form from his mediafu-

The class of ’66 Reunion Committee prepares for the big 50th.

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sionarts.com platform, hopefully next year. He has also been in touch with Howard Goldberg before and after the release of Howard’s indie film, Jake Squared. One review mentioned that Howard may have borrowed from Federico Fellini and Woody Allen. Nice company to be mentioned with! Peter also mentioned Mary Armstrong Conley’s amazing paintings. Mary is part-time faculty in Boston College’s art department.

Andrew Wright writes, “I have been scrambling around the architectural world since I graduated from Rice University with a master’s in 1976. But I think I almost understand it now. Currently working on a health and nutrition center in Haiti, then a couple of New York City public schools, restoration of a Unitarian church, and some residences.

Never happier than when I am puzzling my way through a design, but I spend way too much time running a business.” Andrew has also been working with members of the Oglala Lakota Nation on a prototypical compressed-earth block building on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

Ron Cooper headed off to his retirement retreat, The Villages, in Florida, which has 50 golf courses.

Jim Weiss and a small group went to the NMH Vespers Choir at the Emmanuel Church in Boston.

It was a great time.

Peter Talmage retired from teaching renewable energy at Greenfield Community College over a year ago, but continues consulting on all matters renewable. He writes, “I have been doing a variety of workshops for the town of Gill’s energy committee on solar hot water, photovoltaics, making thermopane window inserts, converting bikes to electric drive, and a deep energy retrofit (think super-efficient) on a small house in Kennebunkport. When it’s done, the house will generate about twice the energy it consumes from a photovoltaic array. Our cottage that I built in Kennebunkport two years ago is also super-efficient. My wife, Chris,

has been working with Around World Women in Amherst. This group welcomes foreign women students to the area and helps them get oriented to what, for many of them, is a strange new place.

As a result, we are moving to Amherst next year so Chris can be closer to her work. So, at present I am also doing a deep energy retrofit on a big house in Amherst that we purchased. We will be renting out three rooms to these same foreign women students.”

Peter is OK with the move and says, “I can find interesting things to do pretty much anywhere.”

Steve Ollove: “I’m still creating my crossword puzzle once a week for the sports page of the New York Post, but have ended my syndication and other custom puzzle work to focus more on my golf game. Spending the winters in Tucson, Ariz., and trying to lure Ken Stephens and Dan Cole out here to take their money on the links. Looking forward to seeing you at the reunion. My daughter is working at Boston College in sports media, covering football and baseball. She says they still speak of your athletic exploits there.”

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DONNA EATON-MAHONEY 97 Gifford St Falmouth MA 02540-3306 dmeato@aol.com DANA L. GORDON 106 Westphal St W Hartford CT 06110-1183 mounthermon1967@comcast.net

Peter Higgins joined the ranks of the retired and used some of his new free time to journey with wife, Jen, to visit their farmer son, Rory, in Grass Valley, Calif. Also on the itinerary is the cottage they share with Peter’s brother and a few others in County Kerry, Ireland. Travel time is a bit shorter to visit their three grandchildren in Concord, N.H., just a couple of hours north from their home in Cape Ann, Mass.

Wendy Alderman Cohen and husband Jeff are happily retired on another Massachusetts cape: Cape Cod in Yarmouth Port. Son Peter was married in Montauk, N.Y., in June. He and his wife, Lisa, live and work in New York City. Wendy and Jeff were excited about their February 2015 journey to the beautiful “old city” of Cartagena, Colombia, for the wedding of daughter Laura. She and mate Jose both live and work in Boston.

Bill Hicks, wife Ardena, and daughters Rachel and Sarah live in Chattanooga, Tenn., where Bill is now retired after spending most of his professional life in health-care administration, policy development, and analysis. Now he concentrates on his writing, primarily about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Bill encourages everyone to visit his website (discipleshipanddiscipline.com), which is based on the yet-to-be-published book he’s written by the same title.

Nancy “Nan” Dodd Uhl moved from State College, Penn., to Durango, Colo., in 2003 when she left her job as director of a nonprofit that helped international students acclimate to life in central Pennsylvania. In Durango, she enrolled

in a three-semester program in renewable energy, learning to design and install photovoltaic systems.

She says she did OK, climbing around on roofs and keeping up with those 20-somethings. Because Nan has always enjoyed teaching, she went back to teaching basic skills at a community college and an adult education center. Since retiring in May, Nan has enjoyed hiking throughout the endless places to explore in the San Juan Mountains, the high desert, and the red rock canyons in Utah.

Sheila Morse is one who does not equate retirement with leisure. In addition to world travel, she has become involved in politics in her hometown of Guilford, Vt. Our class has benefited from her proximity to campus and generous hospitality, as she has provided accommodations for weekend reunion meetings and a gathering before Sacred Concert.

Not quite retired yet, Max Millard has one more year of teaching in San Francisco before he plans to call it a career. But once that happens and he has more time on his hands, Max intends to help out with the planning for our 50th reunion. All our classmates are encouraged to follow his example.

Best wishes to Faris Bennett and Tom McCraine, who were married in August 2014. Marea Gordett attended the celebration.

Aaron Newton and his wife, Page, spent Christmas in Cambodia, where their youngest son, Seth, married his wife, Sopheap, in front of her parents in a traditional two-day ceremony. The previous time they saw the couple was when they came to Sedona, Ariz., from Sweden, where Seth was earning a doctorate, to attend the wedding of Aaron’s oldest son in April 2014. Aaron has one more show to work on before being fully retired—a film being shot in Prescott, Ariz., about the former highway patrol officer who started the Make-AWish Foundation.

Helen Fowler toured Belize and Guatemala, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia, Scotland, and the Cayman Islands in 2014. She also made several trips to LAX to visit grandchildren. Helen enjoys seeing her daughter, Sarah, somewhat more frequently, though her busy nursing job allows for precious little time off. New granddaughter, Hannah, was born last June to son Chris and his wife, Robin, and is baby sister to big brother, Josh (5).

Linda Hoff-Irvin’s son, Sam, recently completed his studies at Columbia College in Chicago. Linda is looking forward to his financial independence, so welcomes inquiries from anyone with opportunities for a talented aspiring songwriter. Linda reports retirement for her is on the hazy horizon, but she and husband Jim enjoy their weekends hanging out in Lake Geneva.

Dr. Bill Johnson became a first-time granddaddy in October 2014 with the birth of Aiden Neill. Bill says, “What an experience!”

Mark Eluto retired from school psychology in June 2012, while keeping a small part-time private practice. In September he babysat one day a week for his first grandchild, a granddaughter born in December 2011, while his daughter taught as an adjunct in the graduate psychology program from which she graduated. Since then, she has made Mark the proud grandfather of another granddaughter, who turned 1 in October 2014. Mark’s

son became engaged with plans to marry in 2015.

Wife Barbara plans to keep teaching for one more year before retiring.

Also enjoying frequent visits to grandchildren is Bruce Burnside, who has three (ages 1, 3, and 5), the offspring of his middle daughter. Bruce’s youngest daughter, a member of the class of ’02, was married last October, and she and her new husband have been assigned to Mexico City for two years. There seem to be no creative endeavors Bruce does not dabble in. Response to some poems he wrote for his mother’s birthday was so positive, he put together a book of more than 60 of his favorites for publication. Bruce is also recording his own readings of most of the poems, accompanied by musical arrangements that he wrote.

While he was in Boston (April 2014) to run the Boston Marathon, Jim Archibald had a reunion of sorts, enjoying a chance to catch up with senior year roommate, Bill Cooper.

Of course, the big reunion is our 50th, just a couple of years away. Holly Taggart Joseph, who expects to be there, says that she hopes and expects to see every one of our classmates there as well.

Keep your calendars open for early to mid-June 2017.

So far, we have it on good authority that the following classmates are planning to make Holly’s wish come true and attend the reunion: Wendy Alderman Cohen, Donna Eaton Mahoney, Marlee Meriwether, Claudia Stanley Moose, Jean Walker, Sheila Morse, Pam Crawford, Bonnie Parmenter Fleming, Gretchen Christol Langdon, Laura Thompson, Helen Fowler, Debby Buhrman Topliff, Sylvia Kuhner Baer, Robin Whyte Reisman, Linda Hoff-Irvin, Marty Ratcliff Rix, Tina Dobsevage, Irma-Riitta Simonsuuri Jarvinen, Nancy Dodd Uhl, Becky Parfitt Kennedy and Vin Kennedy, Eliza Childs, Will Melton, 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, and Bill Hicks.

These classmates have said they might come, but it’s still too early to say for sure: 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, and John Mudge.

We hope you’ll add your name to the “I’m Coming” list by the next time these notes come out.

Many of the above-listed classmates are among the 120-plus members of our class Facebook page. If you’re on Facebook and not already a member, you can join by going to facebook.com/nmh1967 and request membership. You can also keep up with the class at our website, nmh1967.com.

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KRIS ALEXANDER ESCHAUZIER 49 W Lynne Ave Portland ME 04103-1656 pkeschauz@maine.rr.com PETER L. ESCHAUZIER 49 W Lynne Ave Portland ME 04103-1656 pkeschauz@maine.rr.com MARK G. AUERBACH PO Box 60784 Longmeadow MA 01116-0784 mgauerbach@gmail.com

Visit our “NMH68 Alumni” Facebook group for up-to-date class postings. It’s a closed group, so only other NMH ’68 classmates can visit the page.

Jeff Miller and Cliff Dodge have joined our 50th Reunion Committee. We need some volunteers to help put together our twice-yearly class newsletters and a 50th reunion yearbook. If you are interested, please let Mark Auerbach, Kris Alexander Eschauzier, or Pete Eschauzier know.

NMH began a new program for classes heading toward their 50th reunions. NMH ’68 met and mentored members of NMH ’18, who will graduate the weekend before we convene for our 50th. At a “back to school” weekend last September, members of our class spent time on campus. Mark Auerbach, Nancy Lovett Bray, Jean Davis, Becky Bright Freeland, Steve Tower, and Buddy Whitehouse attended classes with NMH ’18, had dinner and conversation with them, discussed NMH with Head of School Peter Fayroian, and met with members of the NMH Advancement Team to begin planning our 50th. If you’re interested in attending the next weekend in September 2015, let Becky or Mark know.

Bill Newman and his wife, Karen, hosted their annual NMH ’68 Washington, D.C., minireunion in September (2014). Twelve members of NMH ’68, representing our class from New York to California, were at dinner. Six women (Alison Ely Barschdorf, Pam Beam, Carol Bolton Dane, Deborah Sliz, Ruth Stevens, and Marjorie Swett), six men (Steve Cone, Fred Cook, Gary Hopson, Jon Ives, Bill Newman, and Rafe Sagalyn), spouses and significant others gathered for a great evening.

Nancy Alexander Randall writes: “While trucking through the parking lot of our local ski area on a very icy day last February, I slipped and went down hard, cracking my right hip. This landed me in the hospital for two nights and rehab for four, and then it was time for me to be home on my own. While I was in rehab, I got an email from Betsy Brunner Lathrop, who had heard of my predicament. It nearly brought me to tears when she said that she thought it was about time she took some time off and visited Vermont. She flew all the way from California in the dead of winter to sit around and watch me looking decrepit—she saved me, body and soul, by doing that. I’ll never forget what a calm and centering lifeline she was for me during that time, and I will be forever grateful. It’s pretty special—almost 50 years after we have all spring 2015 I class notes I 69

gone our separate ways.”

Ann Burbank is still working part time as a nurse practitioner in Rochester, N.Y., and has three beautiful young grandsons. Her loves continue to be family, friends, nature, and travel. She was in Machu Picchu, and is off to South America before spending time in Miami. Ann’s hoping to work on Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2015, and wishes everyone well.

Harriet Chessman’s novel, Someone Not Really Her Mother, will be published by Atelier26 Books this spring. When first published in 2004, the book was selected for the Good Morning America Book Club and the Reader’s Club of America, and named a best book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Richard Dewhurst’s book on pre-Columbian archeology in the Americas, The Ancient Giants Who Ruled America (Inner Traditions/Bear and Company), was named “One of the Best Books of 2014” by Amazon, and is currently in its fifth printing. For Richard’s interview with Red Ice Radio, see youtube.com/watch?v=rjXDH3rjwfI. Cliff Dodge: “I regret not making it back to the last reunion, but it coincided with a rare family reunion with my brother back from Chile and sister from Alaska. Daleela and I will celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary next June. When we married, I moved back to my hometown of Lancaster, Pa., where we live in a 1927 stone house that Daleela purchased and began renovating before we started seeing each other. Remarkably, the house is located on the same street and three blocks from where I was born and raised! Our journey together has been fantastic, the only downside being how fast time has gone by! My research activities as a senior geologist with the Pennsylvania Geological Survey are more exciting than ever, and are especially relevant as we map the geology and investigate the groundwater in areas undergoing rapid development of the Marcellus shale gas play, which is poised to become one of the largest natural-gas fields in the world. I found time to do more academic studies and recently co-authored a paper on the discovery, description, and naming (new genus and species) of a unique fossil bryozoan (colonial organism that superficially resembles coral), extending back in time by 300 million years. I still do a lot of photography and work with many kinds of imaging technology, personally and professionally. Our son, Andrew, is a junior music major at Tufts University, which gives us a good excuse to visit Massachusetts more.

We love visiting our vacation home in Bend, Ore., where the lifestyle is definitely more laid-back.”

Susan Donaldson James left ABC News for freelance work with NBCNews.com. She became a grandmother twice within six weeks.

Paul Haagen: “After Christmas 2013, I went to Jon Ives’s wedding in Middleburg, Va. Jon reconnected with his college girlfriend, Tempe, and has been living a storybook romance ever since.

In May (2014), I returned to my old haunts in Philadelphia to see my older son, Jonathan, graduate from Wharton’s MBA program. I then headed to Shanghai for a conference and a chance to spend time with my younger son, who works in China. I am still professor of law and associate dean at Duke Law School. I direct Duke Law’s summer program 70 I NMH Magazine

in Hong Kong, and so had a front-row seat for the early stages of the surprisingly resilient Occupy Movement. I also continue to teach sports, advising Duke athletes going into professional sports, and work with several of my former students who are trying to start their own entrepreneurial ventures.”

Gary Hopson has taken a new position at Booz Allen Hamilton, working on a contract with NASA. “I’ll be traveling around the country boosting, supporting the subscribing RRs, and recruiting new RR participants.”

Alida Howard Woods is still in western North Carolina and is very involved with local advocacy and board membership at the YWCA and Children First. Alida would welcome NMH friends anytime.

Marion McCollom Hampton: “I’m in Belmont, Mass., with my 15-year-old daughter, who’s in the public high school here along with Steve Holt’s son, Danny. Good school, great kids, lots of high school angst and drama. Was it like this for us back in the day? Probably, but we had that five-mile hyphen between the sexes. I’m still working hard as a partner at Banyan Family Business Advisors. I stay sane with league tennis, friends, and visits to New Hampshire on weekends. I’m mainly a ‘lurker’ on Facebook and other social threads, but I love hearing what others are up to. Looking forward to our 50th!”

Jeff Miller checked in after many years and joined our 50th Reunion Committee. After NMH, he got a B.A. at Macalester College, an M.A. at Georgetown, and (toward the end of his government career) an M.S. at the National War College (National Defense University). During his college years he started what would become a nomadic life: three visits to the Soviet Union and one to Japan.

He got married just after undergrad, and, after grad school, began a government career that afforded him opportunities to live, work, and travel abroad during the course of seven postings in Europe and the Middle East. These were interspersed with some postings to Washington, D.C. Toward the end of his career, he spent time in the Afghanistan and Iraq war zones. They are now retired, have two children—now in their 30s—and he says they “hit the trifecta early: after college they got jobs, they were out of the house, and they had health insurance. We are still traveling, and I am doing some occasional consulting.”

Anne Mitchell Murcek says she’s still working on “this old house,” volunteering, and singing in their church choir. Husband Bob is an EE in charge of Geisinger’s data network. Oldest daughter, Rebecca, is married, with two daughters, and teaches the medical microbiology course to secondyear med students in Syracuse. Three younger children are all New York City residents: Catherine Murcek ’01 teaches yoga and dance; Sarah is pursuing a career in vocal performance and works as a nanny; and son Robby works for Knewton, an educational software developer. Anne and Bob spent Thanksgiving in Syracuse and had the whole family home in Lewisburg for Christmas.

Rebecca Schrom Lamb’s mother passed away at 96 and both of their children were married last summer. Becky’s still brokering insurance and busier than ever. She continues to work with The Women’s Foundation of Colorado, whose goal is

financial literacy for young women, and is looking forward to seeing everyone at our 50th.

Nancy Stevens retired on 12/01/14 after 15 years as rector of The Church of the Epiphany and four years as missioner with the deaf. “I was off for several months before the last three weeks of leave-taking, so David’s already adjusted to having me home after 10 years of solo retirement. I’m adjusting to less email and fewer hugs; I really miss them—the hugs, not the email—after sharing 60–70 every Sunday for all these years. A highlight of my time off was a Viking River Cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest. Kevin and Jenn moved back to Rochester from North Carolina last year.

Stephanie left the bank and now works in the D.C. office of Zurich Insurance, and Shannon lives in Cleveland teaching violin and working to develop her massage and bodywork business. After many ups and downs, Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, which Lindsay co-wrote, premieres at La Mirada Theater in Los Angeles, running April 17–May 10.

David and I will be there for opening weekend.”

Breaking news: Nancy and husband, David Williams, became first-time grandparents on 12/14/14!

Steve Tower is involved with several initiatives around Northfield since he closed his Sylvan Learning Center in Keene, N.H., in May 2014, and transitioned into semi-retirement. He now has time to broaden his commitments as chair of the Board of Friends of Schell Bridge, chair of Northfield’s BSA Troop 9 Committee, and chair of the board of deacons at the Trinitarian Congregational Church in Northfield. He and Heather Blanchard Tower ’73 continue to sing with and serve on the board of Amherst’s Da Camera Singers. He’s also been preparing several 8th graders for their SSATs, and is looking forward to our 50th and working with Team ’68 toward Reunion 2018.

Jay Ward has become the NMH registrar. “I still teach one class per semester, but I am no longer coaching. Classmates will now get their transcripts from my office. I promise to keep them confidential.”

Deb Whittaker retired as public programs manager for Denver Botanic Gardens, but is busier than ever traveling around training laughter yoga leaders and teaching classes on organic food. Son Mark (28) is currently at Columbia, and daughter, Jessie, lives in Fort Collins, Colo., with three-yearold granddaughter, Kyla.

Dorothy A. Yule won the 2014 Meggendorfer Prize for Artist Books, presented by The Movable Book Society at their biennial conference in Philadelphia, for her book, Memories of Science. Samples of the book and more of Dorothy’s work are on her new website: leftcoastpress.com.

Class notes scribe Mark adds: “I presented my ‘Public Relations 101’ workshop for the Hartford/ Springfield Speakers Network and Western New England University, and I co-starred with author Eddie Shapiro at the Chester Theater Company’s benefit, Nothing Like a Dame, Shapiro’s talk about the great women of Broadway musical theater.

I’m providing the theater and arts coverage for The Westfield News group in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and my theater reviews end up on BroadwayStars.com. I’m also a monthly contributor to ‘Succeeding in Small Business’ and PRIME

Magazine. I post my writing here: mgauerbach. blogspot.com.”

Class notes editor Kris Alexander Eschauzier, Karen and Bill Newman with son Patrick, and Evie and Jay Haberland got together in August 2014 for drinks and dinner at Evie and Jay’s lovely home in Round Pond, Maine. “We went through a shocking amount of wine and gossiped about the rest of you as we gazed at the harbor!” says Kris.

“Sadly, co-editor Pete Eschauzier was slaving away in Portland and wasn’t able to join us.” Later that week the Newmans visited Kris at Heron Island, around the point from Round Pond. Eschauzier grandchild number five arrived in August 2014!

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SUE PINEO STOWBRIDGE PO Box 26 Silver Lake NH 03875-0026 sue.stowbridge@gmail.com

As I write, the world is frozen and some music from our time is rolling around in my head. There is Gordon Lightfoot’s line, “I’m on my second cup of coffee and I still can’t face the day…” and more appropriate to the season, Maine Public Broadcasting recently played Benjamin Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols,” which brought tears to my eyes. I have happy memories of those days with Mr. Raymond.

If you have ever logged in at nmhschool.org but did not receive this column in December, please update your email address. Our NMH list includes 204 addresses, 77 of which are invalid. On average, about 80 people open messages, which suggests a lot of us are not particularly interested in emails from NMH. You may not realize that our class is building a separate, private list on Mail Chimp, and we urge you to join that group, especially if you would like to stay connected to the old gang but not the school. We do not share our list with anyone; and the MH side of the class already has nearly everyone on their list. We need to catch up with them, ladies, so please join the Mail Chimp list by finding Karen Hoff McMahon on NMHConnect’s online directory. If you’re a Facebook user, search for Northfield Mt. Hermon Class of 1969 Alumni NMH69.

After leaving the emergency assistance program where she was executive director for 17 years, Bonnie Blair Peterson returned to school and got her doctorate before her 60th birthday. In 2007, she started teaching in the grad program in public administration at Valdosta State University (VSU).

Although pay is poor for adjuncts, she enjoys teaching both master’s and doctoral students. The biggest challenge is that she teaches the electives, which change on a regular basis. When Bonnie wrote, she was on the committee of 12 doctoral dissertations.

Husband Jim is planning to retire after 30 years as head of the political science department at VSU. His specialties are the Czech Republic, Russia, and NATO, and he has written four books. He looks forward to writing more and possibly enjoying some downtime traveling with his wife. Bonnie says, “As grandchildren arrive, teaching may go by the wayside!” This thought has led them to leave the house in Valdosta, where they have lived for

32 years, and move to Atlanta, near both of the children. Bonnie has had fun trying to pick out areas near Atlanta and check out houses that are on the market.

Chris Fleuriel still works at the VA in Augusta, Maine. Son Sam is a senior at Champlain, and daughter Shoshi is a freshman at Syracuse. In the fall, Shoshi had a 12-hour internship with a congressional candidate, a 10-hour-per/week workstudy, was involved with the campus Democrats, served as peer adviser, and was carrying 15 credits.

Chris hopes she doesn’t burn out.

Marti Hall Malabad is still traveling with her husband. They camped and kayaked in Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia in July and August (2014), and also enjoyed a sailboat cruise in May, going up the Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore, with many stops in between. In October they did another week cruise. They love spending time with their grandkids (6 and 8). Marti would love to hear from anyone visiting the Virginia Beach area.

Kate Handzo Gray had a great time at reunion.

She and her husband were very pleased to be invited to the beautiful October outdoor wedding in Texas of the oldest daughter of Louise Windecker Sasaki and Nori Sasaki.

Karen Hoff McMahon finally sold her house in Charlestown, N.H., at the end of June (2014) and moved at the end of September to a detached condo in Concord, N.H. Breaking news is that just as this column was in development, Karen wrote that grandson Russell was born on December 3.

She says son Jeff and his family are doing well. They are not far away, so she has been able to visit. “It’s so wonderful—having had three boys myself, I remember how fun and terrific little boys are!”

Katie Marshall Greenman and her husband are now settled on the shores of Alamoosook Lake in Orland, Maine, in the year-round log home her father had built in the late 1990s. They have access to an 1895 log cabin, where they have spent summers since 1978. Their daughter’s family (with girls, 7 and 4), son and fiancée, and other family and friends visit often in the summer. Katie has taken on the presidency of the Alamoosook Lake Association and the guiding of environmental protection efforts. Having completed a five-year commitment as an adjunct instructor teaching early literacy development at Eastern Maine Community College, she is taking the leap into foot reflexology. She says that singing with Voices for Peace helps her keep sane. She hopes to make our 50th reunion.

Jane Porvancher Angelich is on the East

Kate Handzo Gray ’69 (left) celebrates with Louise Windecker Sasaki ’69 at Louise’s daughter’s wedding in Texas.

Coast! She and her husband moved from California to Bethesda, Md., in May 2013. Jane was hired as the VP of e-commerce for National 4-H Council, which is headquartered in Chevy Chase. She is having a great time running this division of the organization and experiencing all that D.C. has to offer. Her oldest son and his family live in D.C., so the added benefit is that they are now 20 minutes from grandchildren (2 and 5). Jane’s sister moved from California to Connecticut, and her 89-yearold dad moved from Florida to Connecticut, so most of the family is now relatively close by. One of Jane’s passions is helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses, so she added a feature to their retail division to support small, product-based business owners. She says if you are in that category and are in 4-H or have children that are, check out the small-business section of the website, 4-hmall.org.

She would love to help!

Becky Rounds Michela says that she is not working for pay this school year. She would like to spend more time in Maine on the family tree farm and think more about the upcoming generation.

She finds that she needs to learn more technology and to solve those moments of brain freeze.

Joanna Schoen Tillson wrote “from sunny and beautiful (but very cold) Bhutan,” where there was no central heating and getting dressed in the morning reminded her of getting ready to go skiing. She was finishing her year as senior librarian at Royal Thimphu College and planned to head to Southeast Asia in December for some warmth. She doesn’t know what comes next, but at least she would be able to sit on a beautiful beach to ponder where she wants to live and what she wants to do.

Noemi Stewart Anderson is on that growing list of people who have moved. She wrote that, in July 2013, she and Greg moved to Mt. Laurel, N.J. Gretchen Vandewater began raising honeybees in April (2014) and harvested a little honey this fall. She says she left most combs full for food and insulation for the winter. The bright side of being stung is that she no longer takes ibuprofen for the arthritis in her hands. She is fascinated by the complex community process of beekeeping, from their genetic quirks to their entertaining dances of communication. She uses organic methods and has adjusted lawn care accordingly. It’s hard work at times, but lots of fun and rewarding. When she wrote, the countdown to retirement was less than 500 days.

She continues work as an OT in the school system.

While she enjoys working with the students, the documentation is tedious and excessive, and it’s difficult watching the teachers succumb to the burden of mandatory testing and paperwork, which stifles their creativity. “In this information age, we need to teach students how to think, find answers, and creatively solve problems, not simply absorb data to regurgitate on tests as proof of teacher competency and school system merit.” When Gretchen wrote, she had just finished hosting Thanksgiving for three sons and their ladies, plus one girlfriend’s two young daughters. Colin, 36, lives in East Atlanta; Cory, 33, lives in Decatur; and Tommy, 31, lives close by. Colin commented that this was their first holiday dinner where the women outnumbered the men! “I loved it,” Gretchen said. She had a great time at reunion and is already looking forward to spring 2015 I class notes I 71

the next one.

It’s not too early to start thinking about our 50th reunion. What would it take to get you there?

Is there something we can do for you to make it happen? Send your thoughts and comments along, and I’ll share them with the committee.

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ROLAND LEONG 55 Kenmore Pl Glen Rock NJ 07452-2013 rl99@me.com

Al Gilbert attended his first post-graduation Christ-

mas Vespers this past December. Also in attendance was Susan Hanna Huleatt and her husband, Rick.

En route to NMH, Al stopped into Wakefield to have Sunday brunch with Don Hodgkins and Faith Goodwin Hodgkins, but instead was recruited into Don’s church choir. Fortunately for Don, Al’s music-reading skills of hymnal song acquired at NMH were fairly intact. Christmas Vespers was just as beautiful and moving 40 years later, and Al encourages everyone to attend next year.

Don Hodgkins writes, “Our son, Thom, was married in Newport, R.I., in September, and our daughter, Allyson, continues her third year of med school at the University of Miami.”

Steven Harris: “Still working at TJX as a software engineer. Visit with family on occasion.

Everyone here is in good health at the moment, which is life’s greatest gift.”

It appears it is not sufficient for classmate Paul Murtha to educate poor females in Ecuador, he also brokers peace agreements between rival gangs.

He writes, “Peace accord [was] reached between the local ‘Bloods’ and ‘Latin Kings’ groups. It was quite a full workday hammering out the agreement. This was in March (2014) and, to date, harmony reigns between the gangs.”

John Fitzgerald: “Since the reunion, a small group of alumni and friends assembled by Jonathan Crowley of the NMH development office, me, and others exchanged emails as he briefed the chair of the Investment Committee on the NMH Board of Trustees in an attempt to follow up on both his earlier homework on the subject and my call dur-

ing the awards ceremony for the school to manage its endowment in a socially responsible manner by judiciously divesting and reinvesting with the help of Amy Domini Thornton ’68 and others, who accepted our invitation to try to help bring expertise to an advisory committee.”

David Smith writes that his son, Hunter Smith ’00, “recently married Zorka Milin. The wedding was in Belgrade, Serbia, in an old orthodox church attached to Kalemegdan Fortress overlooking the confluence of the Sava and the Danube. This provided an excuse to see the Balkans and take in the sights around Trieste, Italy. Susan and I had a great trip and promised to be back in Italy/Slovenia/ Croatia. Still biking, skiing, seeing plays, friends, and enjoying retired life (including making beer and wine—the beer is good, the wine—OK). Recently started teaching bridge to a group of friends.

Great memories of the Cloud and playing FYB and bridge. Anyone passing by is welcome to drop in.”

Mike Aisenberg: “Thanks for including such a nice chunk of my update in the last notes. I appreciate it, and hope perhaps it will generate some communication from classmates.”

Charles Andros: “I am in Brazil for the 21st time. I had an opportunity to go to English classes in Viçosa do Ceará. It was interesting, as always, and hopefully I inspired some students to learn English, although English classes are only once a week here. Now I am in Tianguá, also in the Serra de Ibiapaba, which is long and rolling. Rain season is getting under way slowly. I hope all is well in the U.S. and look forward to reading the notes!”

Walter Lowe: “The year (2014) has been a blur. But the highlight for me was the 45th reunion in June. It’s always a joy to reconnect with classmates on the hill. I also continue to enjoy the email banter between West and East Coast ‘core’ classmates—those who typically attend the interim reunions and who financially support the school.

The conversations are a hoot and topically diverse.

I just became aware that one of my neighborhood golf buddies, Roger Quinn ’68, is a Hermie who played basketball and football with Dyson, Herman, and Rodney. We are everywhere, and we have Mt. Hermon largely to thank for our dispersion.

Still loving retirement, and can’t wait for the next interim event!”

Ulgen Gulcat ’69 (left) takes in the view with his wife on their multi-country trip.

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William Bretschger: “I have lost 14 inches from my waist. I still possess the confidence to walk onto the mat and shake the hand of my opponent with full knowledge he will be looking at the lights in a matter of seconds. I am still involved in all aspects of real estate development, consulting from my own business. My family is growing—I have 11 grandchildren, I admit I never tire of their company—and live in awe of my children, who have blessed Susie, Cherrill, and me with their willingness to believe the importance of family. Our home—Orient Lodge—was added to the National Registry of Historic Places. It is most easily viewed from CTTrust.org, as only one of two historic districts in Stamford, Conn. I remain active in the local historic district commission, as well as serving on the board of the Historic Neighborhood Preservation Program. Just started returning to form and won the WGC Trap Championship. My closing thought to my classmates is: I rarely take pride in the accomplishments, and endeavor to bear witness to the crisis of change, and give thanks for the hardships that I have overcome and the opportunity to mentor all those who have sought me out.”

From our Turkish classmate, Ulgen Gulcat: “This July my wife and I drove through 14 countries in a round trip in two weeks from Istanbul to Innsbruck, Austria. We survived through the torrential rains of the Dalmatian coasts and islands, and arrived at lakes Como and Lugano of northern Italy; visited Bolzano further north, where, surprisingly, German was the dominant language. Passing from Italy to Austria, we drove through the hairpin curves of Stelvio Pass, which is famous among the motor-bikers. From Gratz, Austria, we returned through Serbia and Bulgaria on a very crowded highway. We had a stopover at Sofia, a modern city with a lot of history. Finally, we reached the cool banks of Meriç (Maritsa) River. It was good to be back home!

Currently, I am still in part-time teaching.”

Kirk Johnson: “I’ve moved from the unforgiving winters of the Northeast to the low country of South Carolina. Biking, boating, fishing, hiking... just being outside all year long. Still practicing orthopedic surgery, developing a hip and knee replacement program in the Hilton Head Island/ Bluffton area. Linda and I are completing the construction of Ridgeland Ranch, a good home for

(Kneeling) Paul Murtha ’69 helped broker a rival gang peace accord in Ecuador.

our horses and for the family—our ‘final’ construction project! Enjoy following the adventures of my fellow ’69ers! In just over four years, our 50th. I’m planning on attending, God willing.”

Peter J. Kropp: “Thanks to my ’69 Mt. Hermon classmates for the support during my recent medical situation. Emails, phone calls, and Facebook messages really helped. I’m quickly recovering from back surgery for the leg pain that has been bothering me for some time. I’m happy to report that the surgery appears to be successful, and I’m hopeful that with more time I’ll be totally pain-free.”

Please give your friends and acquaintances a call or email. There’s no time like the present for such things, and let’s not have regrets of things we should have done but did not do. My very best wishes to you all.

NMH and both plan to attend our reunion in June 2015.

Sue Hurlburt Jacques has retired from teaching and is working retail at a Talbots.

Please keep in touch and email me news. I would love to hear from many more classmates.

Hope to see you at our 45th class reunion!

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NEIL KIELY 111 Ferry Rd Bristol RI 02809-2902 neil@marketinginmotion.com

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

skiing at the same time as Suki Whilton Agusti, so they have decided to make it an annual event!

Marian White Blackwell is doing well and keeps in touch with Lauren Jarvi, but would like to hear from Merrill Mead-Fox and Susan Grun Rogers. Are you reading this, ladies? Contact me for Marian’s email.

Thanks to all of you for supporting this column.

I think it is time for someone else to take over. If interested, contact NMH’s Marggie Slichter at mslichter@nmhschool.org.

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DAVID C. ELDREDGE 311 E 10th St, Apt 1B New York NY 10009-5106 d.eldredge@verizon.net

Although I was disappointed not to receive more updates on my classmates’ lives, I was delighted to receive a wonderful email from Louise Rothery.

She lives across the water from my brother in Beverly, Mass., so we are planning to reconnect in the spring! Louise writes, “So here I am living in Marblehead, Mass., for the last nine years and where I intend to stay for the rest of my days; I love this town! I work for the Association of Corporate Counsel as the executive director of the Northeast Chapter, and it keeps me very busy. The nice thing is that I work from home, so no more commuting into Boston every day and fighting the traffic and the weather. I take a daily dance class that keeps me fit, ski in the winter, and sail and garden in the summer. I have a nice man in my life, no children, one golden retriever, and wonderful friends.”

Louise wrote and illustrated a book five years ago about the glass ceiling, Lest We Forget: A Salute to the Women Who Entered Corporate America Without a Road Map. It is now required reading at Bentley University’s Center for Women and Business. She was putting a copy in the mail for me, which I am excited to read. Louise ends by saying that in July 2012 she crossed “participating in a dancing flash mob” off her bucket list.

Isabella “Britain” Hill and Enid Sodergren Oberholtzer are thrilled to have reconnected with

Alwyn Taylor we knew and loved. Sincere apologies to Alwyn! Hope retirement is going well.

On a sober note, Jane Merrill Berube informed me of the passing of Allyson Ledoux Davis from brain cancer (10/10/14). Allyson lived in Weston while at Northfield. Jane has been dealing with her son’s complications from the brain radiation he received as a child to cure his brain cancer. Whatever your form of prayer, please include Jane and her family. She still enjoys teaching and performing dance with her troupe, Mas Uda Dancers.

Penny Weigand Morgan moved back to Florida. Her son got married and she is hoping for a grandchild, but in the meantime is busy working, writing grants for the Foundation Department of Bethesda Health. She serves on the board of the Handweavers Guild of America and continues to pursue her passion for weaving.

Sister Monica “Tinker” Elmer spent three months in Tuscany at her community’s new mission, Mount Tabor Ecumenical Centre for Art and Spirituality (visit mounttabor.it).

Debbie Arnold Chavez writes that she and her son, Kyler Chavez ’05, made a trip to China in honor of her father, Allen Arnold ’40, who grew up in Kunming.

Anne Nashold enjoys working and exhibiting as a visual artist in North Carolina. She teaches at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Duke. Her son is now in veterinary school at Penn.

Lisa Paszamant Clark finds herself in Vail

The biggest event since last column was a surprise visit from Brad Foster last July, who was swinging through the Northeast visiting clients of his specialty paper business. In between reminiscences over dinner and drinks, Brad caught me up on his “newish” life in Richmond after a life spent mostly in upstate New York, and his equally “newish” role in the business that he and other long-term employees took over as partners in the face of inept owners/ managers running it into the ground. They’ve been able to thrive and grow as one of the only firms able to produce high-quality specialty embossed papers in the U.S. So, we have Brad to thank for all those quality times we spend with quilted TP. Ray Wagoner: “After finishing up at Mt. Hermon, I attended Vanderbilt University, mainly because I wanted a college where women wore dresses rather than ratty jeans and sweatshirts. After ‘losing my way’ for a while, I finally managed to ‘squeeze’ four years of college into seven. Upon graduation, I realized that sex, drugs, and rock and roll didn’t pay the electric bill, so I donned a three-piece suit and followed the straight and narrow. I married, had a few kids, divorced, and then lived the single life for the next 20 years. In 2010, I married the woman of my dreams. Our blended family now consists of five children, nine grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. Not exactly the quiet life I had envisioned. I officially retire next month and am looking forward to the next stage in my life.

“I have lived in Little Rock, Ark., since the late 1970s. I rarely discuss my Mt. Hermon experience with anyone here because whenever I mention attending a prep school, the people in this area always want to know what trouble I got into that

Al Gilbert ’69 (left) and Don Hodgkins ’69 at Vespers

Louise Rothery ’70 and her golden retriever, Salty

Lisa Paszamant Clark ’71 (left) and Suki Whilton Agusti ’71

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KATHERINE TRUAX SCIMENTI 1 Wood Stone Rise Pittsford NY 14534-3668 katetruax@aol.com

First of all, a correction. Somehow, Alwyn Chase Taylor’s name was reversed—she is indeed still the

spring 2015 I class notes I 73

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HEATHER BLANCHARD TOWER 46 Main St Northfield MA 01360-1023 smtower@comcast.net BILL STEWART 28 Wildwood Pl El Cerrito CA 94530-2049 billstewartnmh73@gmail.com

David Eldredge ’71 (left) and Brad Foster ’71.

resulted in my being sent there. Though I rarely discuss my Mt. Hermon days, I have to admit it was the best time I have ever had. I fondly remember the food fights, butter pads stuck to the ceiling, Nimitz’s car for sale in West Hall, the strange sound emanating from the chapel when the electronic bells would freeze during the extreme cold, the auto-flush toilets in the bottom floor of Crossley, the broom closet with a teletype that was our first computer center, and the freak snowstorm that closed the school for the first time in 42 years.

I have not returned since graduation, but, in the next few years, my wife and I plan on an extended RV trip around the country and Mt. Hermon is on the top of our list of destinations. I still have my maroon Mt. Hermon jacket. Any word from Archie Agan and Charlie Zienowicz?”

Jim Morrisette: “I recently attended the wedding of Leif Jansson, son of Jerry Jansson. Jerry and I have been hanging out some. Each attended the other’s 60th birthday party, and we went to the BYU-Connecticut football game recently. He’s still as conservative as ever, and I’m still a liberal Democrat, but we have fun with it. Jerry says he hopes you put that in the bulletin just the way I wrote it.

“I have artwork online (amazingthings.org). Click on Art Shows and scroll back to 2006. My show was called ‘August Combo.’ Some of my portraits are on there. Also, I’m on YouTube singing at the Chicken Bone Tavern in Framingham. Go to YouTube, Jim Morrisette Sings at the Chicken Bone.”

And here’s hoping I hear even more from others of you in the New Year as well!

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KAREN BESHAR ZAKALIK 397 Woodbridge Ave Buffalo NY 14214-1529 karen.zakalik@gmail.com facebook.com/groups/47624874849

TOM SISSON 86 Punchbowl Trail West Kingston, RI 02892-1033 1972nmh@gmail.com

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From Heather—Thanksgiving was an interesting day, as we had our first power outage. I will say I was truly grateful that we were having a vegan Thanksgiving, as everything was cooked on the stove top and we had everything we had planned, relatively on time!

Vespers was wonderful, as always. The Chamber Orchestra outdid itself and the choirs sang traditional pieces, which were stunning. The chapel was bathed in candlelight; the first strains of “Dost Thou Remember” instantly brought me back to the first time I heard it, and the recessional of “Adeste Fideles” with the soaring descant keeps me there.

Channing Harris ’72 made the trek back. My children are busy and happy and were home for Christmas. It was great to have them nearby and they like to keep us up to date on their activities!

News is sparse here—hint, hint! David King did a couple of interviews in connection with his recent term as visiting writer at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y. Check it out on the Writes Loop.

We would love to hear from more of you. Much is shared on Facebook, so save some for us!

From Bill Stewart—David Holleb writes, “The year is winding down, but Regina and I are still cycling as long as it’s above 40 degrees. It would be great if we could have an NMH alumni cycle ride. Our younger son will be graduating from University of Scranton this spring with a degree in neuroscience. He hopes to apply to med school next year. Our older son is a deck officer on an ocean tugboat pulling a 1,000-foot barge and 100 feet high between Jacksonville, Fla., and San Juan, Puerto Rico. We would like to join him on those cruises during the winter! Our 15-year-old Shiba Inu died last October, so we are feeling the loss of our pooch. I walked him every day in the heat, cold, and rain, and it seems really odd now not to have to get up early in the morning for his onemile hike. Tom Bartlett, let’s go for a bike ride the next time you’re in New Jersey!”

Tom Schmidt: “I have started a business with my daughter called Eagle Eye Aerial. We own a growing fleet of quadcopters and hexcopters, or drones. We are safety-driven and privacy-conscious.

We provide search-and-rescue services. We film aerial video for commercials and media and for private industry. We can drop rose petals on a married couple exiting church or deliver and drop cargo in a remote spot. It is a challenging and exciting business.”

Greg Burrill: “I’m in my 10th year as a substitute teacher for Portland (Ore.) Public Schools, still playing bass, being active in the teachers’ union and local politics, and living with roommates as a reluctant landlord. In another way, everything has changed. I have lived for decades following the

aphorism, ‘Belief is a trap; adopting a belief too strongly blinds you to other possibilities.’ 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. I invite you to think about what it would have.”

Skip Weaver: “My son, Stephen, got married in August 2014. I stopped teaching at Seminole State in September, but am now going through the hiring process at Mid-Florida Tech. Still living in Clermont, Fla., with my min-pin and my pug.

Have had John Miller and John Lazarus to visit.”

Ann Bolas Siwiak: “On personal leave from teaching high school for the next year and a half.

Actively working on becoming healthy. Slowly divesting my abode of 29 years of accumulation.

Pondering the role of a teacher in today’s climate.

Returning to the philosophical tenets imbued within my soul during four years of religion at NMH. Being grateful to everyone at NMH for being born so that I had the benefit of your intelligence and your friendship as I solidified the foundation of who I became. Especially appreciative for Mike Watkins and Emilykaye Lonian Mitchelson.

With every student who walked across my threshold in high school, I sought out each one’s intelligence so that I could learn as much as I did from Mike and Emilykaye. ‘Education and hard work,’ the words of Sidney Poitier at our graduation, have guided how I have taught and who I am.”

David Hill: “Neurosurgery for a brain tumor led to a career change. Then, after several years teaching English for business communications, I returned to the U.S. and UPenn for a master’s in education. Great to reconnect with American pragmatics as well as an old alma mater. I’ve just finished my program, but envy my 23- and 24-year-old classmates’ energy levels, which they all seem to take for granted.”

Nancy Elkington: “Partner Ted and I spent much of 2014 on the road. In the spring: two weeks in Ireland filling our eyes and souls with natural beauty and visiting historic sites. In the summer: we happily camped in our new teardrop travel trailer with our two dogs in Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. In the fall: stimulating trips to Pittsburgh, Williamsburg, and Washington, D.C. I continue to really enjoy Facebook as a venue for building and rekindling friendships with NMH pals.”

Amy Halsted: “For factors personal, professional, and physical, I got serious about retirement last spring, after 27 happy years with the American Physical Society. Put my house in eastern Long Island on the market at the end of June (2014) and it was under contract 10 days later (thanks to Greg Burrill for his astute advice on this transaction).

Wanting to return to my Yankee roots, I househunted in northwestern Massachusetts/southern Vermont through the summer, and made an offer on a glorious place in Bennington in late August in between trips to Connecticut to spend time with my gravely ill father. In a three-day period at the beginning of September, my darling father died, my offer on the house was accepted, and I retired.

It was a big week in the life of little Amy. I’ve been

in the charming, nifty, spacious Bennington house since Halloween. I’m nicely set up now to get to NMH reunions, and have plenty of room to host school chums before, after, or any time. Please come! Retirement is incredibly great—don’t wait too long, dear friends.”

Allison Lee Worthy: “This fall my husband and I attended his 40th high school reunion in Raleigh, N.C., and much to my surprise and great pleasure, Blount Stewart ’72 was there with his wife, Anna Cretier, who attended the school. It was great to catch up with Blount, who is living in D.C. My husband is a Raleigh native and grew up knowing Blount and Sheila Woodson Horine. Small world!”

Rob Howland is living in Vermont and working at a new job in New Hampshire. He has successfully weathered the late-fall storms in Vermont and New Hampshire that have caused lengthy power outages and difficult traveling. Family is doing well, with a daughter at University of Vermont studying environmental sciences, and a son in Boston working for EnerNOC, an international energy intelligence software company. Rob is hoping to hear via Facebook from more classmates, and especially any that live in central New Hampshire.

Heidi Groshelle: “All’s good here in San Francisco. It is such a joy to live here. I am still working with technology startups and dreaming about retirement! Also looking forward to turning 60 in February and entering what I am calling ‘the next third.’ I continue to work with clay, making pieces that I enjoy using and sharing with others. My older son, Zane, lives in Brooklyn. He is the chief marketing officer at a tech startup, and my second son, Eli, stayed west—living in Oakland and working in San Francisco. I really enjoy reading about all of you.”

John Lazarus: “Met up with Skip Weaver while in Orlando for a golf event. Good to catch up, talk reunion, and have a good meal together.”

Mark Spitzer: “I have a new job as a passenger physician for Holland America Cruise Line. After I finished my orientation, I did a two-week cruise from Dover to St. Petersburg via Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, chartered by Garrison Keillor and A Prairie Home Companion. Just celebrated my 60th birthday by getting a flu shot. We climbed for three weeks in Thailand, then explored Myanmar. Was advised by friends to skip Angkor Wat and went to Bagan, which has more than 2,000 temples that we were free to explore. Had a great visit with Erik Lindgren ’72 at his 60th birthday concert—a gogo at Tufts in September (2014).”

Dave Schut ’74 with best friend Frodo at home in Detroit

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STEPHANIE LYNN GERSON 877 Oakdale Circle Millersville MD 21108-1434 Stephanie.l.gerson@gmail.com

It was a four-person 40th reunion for the books!

This winter, photographer Mike Price, Kerry Rosenthal, and Jon Zeeman ’73 traveled to Port Au Prince, Haiti, visiting Richard A. Morse ’75, owner/manager of Hotel Oloffson and leader of mizik raisin band, RAM. Every Thursday night Richard hosts a musical jam at his hotel. Jon was guest guitarist. Mike was featured columnist for The Palm Beach Daily News for seven years.

Steve Meyer lives in Leiden, The Netherlands, still working in exploration at Shell Oil. In his bicycle-friendly country, he bought an electric bike, making his daily commute a bit calmer. Daughter Justine, 15, goes to the International School of The Hague. Steve wonders when classmate John Burnham will come over to Holland for a cover issue on sailing, or when Mike Price will come to write some comedy. He regrets missing our 40th reunion, but promises to attend the 50th.

Chris Boyd is on the faculty of Florida Gulf Coast University as the library’s head of technical services. Chris “couldn’t make the 40th on account of this move, but I enjoyed a small one of my own last March with Dave Schut, Dave Trout, Chip Barr, and a few other old friends from the Detroit area.”

In Detroit, David Schut still plays live music, rehearsing in two bands, with frequent gigs for The Innocent Bystanders. Son Evan is at University of Michigan’s mechanical engineering school, and daughter thrives in Minneapolis. Dave worked medical jobs during college, but defected to medical malpractice arbitration law. “I met wife Suzanne through law school classmates: the three most important people in my life would not even be here if I hadn’t chosen this profession; I wouldn’t want my life to work out any differently.” Dave has had four years of chemo for prostate cancer, and a successful right ACL knee transplant. “This has changed my outlook and I am so grateful for every day.”

Since 2006, Annette Elizabeth Blue and Roman Bitsuie ’73 have been planning the Navajo Nation 4,000 Mega Watt Solar Project. They’ve been working with Tetra Tech Engineering since 2009 on feasibility studies, environmental clearances, design and layout of sixsSolar farms on 22,000 acres of Navajo Nation lands near Farmington, N.M. This project benefits the “Forgotten Ones,” traditional Navajo relocated individuals

Steve Meyer ’74 with Blueberry Queen, Union Fair, Maine

from the Bennett Freeze area over 40 years, and brings economic empowerment to the Navajo for many generations to come.

Aileen “Cricket” Swenson Perry is happy. She found an incredible rental house on Otsego Lake, Cooperstown, N.Y., spending Labor Day weekend with Jeff Marotta ’72 and wife, and Stan “Kim” Houston ’72. The guys took over buying food, but shared cooking while Cricket recovered from three broken ribs. It was a wonderful weekend, and they’ve found their new vacation place for next summer.

Karen Johnson Brown: “I just read all the great news from our class in the NMH Magazine and am so upset for missing reunion! I’ve never been because I always figured that the folks I remember and would like to see wouldn’t be there. Well, this year they were all there. Sorry I missed the old gang.

Next time I’m there for sure.”

Jane Heist Gamber: “So missed celebrating June reunion, but I was thinking of you from Goose Creek, S.C., while celebrating Matthew’s graduation from Navy Nuclear Power School.

Our other two followed more traditional routes, graduating from St. Paul’s School. Mary went to Princeton and works for a San Francisco education policy nonprofit; Peter chose Cornell, now consulting for a New York City commercial real-estate firm. Husband Scott works hard keeping us afloat.

I’m heavily involved in garden club and various nonprofits. See you all in five years!”

Josie Hart recently reconnected with Marquand dorm mate Penny Gillis Townsend, who is the new head of school at Ransom Emerson in Coconut Grove, Fla. She enjoys receiving notes from Anne Lawrence Salle about South Florida business events. Keith Gray, Anne, and Josie got together for holiday dinner. “I am privileged to count Bonita Hyman as a classmate and friend.

Her posts are thought-provoking and inspirational.

Again, thanks to ’74 volunteers for making our 40th reunion a huge success.”

Bonita Hyman fulfilled a lifetime dream: debuting at Teatro alla Scala in Milan as the Erste Magd in Patrice Chéreau’s production, Elektra, by Richard Strauss, launched at summer 2014’s Festival de Musique, Aix en Provence, now on DVD. Bonnie performed at Summertime Music Festival, Jurmala, Latvia, and the 33 Nordrhein-Westfalen UNICEF Gala fundraisers. “I teach private voice at two private conservatories, lead three choirs, and vocal train middle school kids. I’m proud that handsome son, Cameron, turned 16.”

Yolanda Suarez Merchant divides her time between Southampton and New York City,

Bonnie Sue Boswell Claypoole ’74

spring 2015 I class notes I 75

Bonita Hyman ’74 doing the diva glam thing in Jurmala.

working as Wells Fargo’s financial adviser and as independent international art dealer of Pollocks, de Koonings, and Warhols. She continues painting and exhibiting, with four paintings at the Hill Street Gallery, Southampton, N.Y., this winter. Son Alex graduated from Columbia in May 2013 and is a junior analyst for JPMorgan.

Gail Doyle Ratte’s daughter, Emilia, lowers tuition costs as a UConn senior, doubling in political science and history, moving toward entertainment law. Maddie, a University of Pittsburgh junior, pursues biology. Surviving a tragic burn at 13, she plans a Ph.D. in physical therapy. Youngest, Charles, is a University of California-San Diego economics sophomore studying hard. After selling her pulp and paper company to a Portuguese manufacturer, Gail’s second career is paying for everyone’s education. “Sorry I missed reunion; so sorry about our great friend, Sam Koch. I can still see that twinkle in his eye when he smiled, a wonderful spirit who inspired many.”

Jill Harrington Nichols sold her painting “Grand Canyon” to the director of the FBI (JillNichols.com).

White House Senior Advisor Valerie Bowman Jarrett wrote a Huffington Post article, “Great Strides for Women under the Affordable Care Act.” While some were watching the State of the Union address, Rebeca Schwartz-Avila was on the Jeopardy show. Good answer to dead-poet question: Milton.

Harry Bick and wife Sandi moved to Fort Worth, Texas, a few years ago and are enjoying their two-story town home. His online business thrives and he enjoys contact with Bonita Hyman, Debbie Hayes Boyce ’75, and David C. Johnston.

Bonnie Sue Boswell Claypoole from Marquand is an ICU nurse in Houston. Her older daughter is a music promoter in Houston; the younger studies art at University of Colorado-Boulder, where Bonnie plans on moving. She misses the east, and lived in Pittsburgh in the 1980s with her husband of 16 years, who died in a work accident in 1999. Bonnie loved Evelyn Shrock’s class, and speed reading with Larry Lightner, where she and Elizabeth “Buffie” Judd cracked up from his morning lethargy.

Judy Armbruster had four golden retriever pups last June. “In July we did a one-week diving trip to the Galápagos on a live-aboard, followed by a week in Peru and Machu Picchu.”

James “Jef” Fasser and wife Kathleen live in Concord, Mass. Two older children launched from 76 I NMH Magazine

Nancy Doonan Coppelman ’74 celebrates with husband Jon in Naxos, Greece.

Pam Nelson Heath ’75 (left) and Mark Codey ’75

college to D.C. and New York City. Jeff has had a rewarding career in landscape architecture since graduating from University of Virginia. He’s the director of landscape architecture with the BSC Group, a Boston-based consulting firm.

Nancy Doonan Coppelman’s Julia graduated from Northwestern with clustered honors, launching her legal assistant position at the Washington, D.C., law firm, Sanford Heisler. In August, Anna railroaded across Tuscany before flying to Athens for her Greek, Latin, and archeology semester. Nancy and Jon traveled abroad again after 25 years, meeting Anna in Athens before Naxos, where magical shaman Dimitris brought the island alive.

Adventures culminated in Crete.

Lyn Tranfield Bennett and husband Dave anticipate daughter Vera visiting from her internship at Chiodo Brothers Productions, Los Angeles. Son Chris enjoyed sophomore year at Drew University.

He is a theater major, and was in Moliere’s Les Précieuses Ridicules, which Lyn and Dave attended.

Merry O’Dowd Adams loved reunion rowing, biking, farm visits, and making wonderful friends.

At her lamppost back home, she planted the calla lily bulbs from the flower farm of old friend Scott Nickerson ’73. Merry and husband Ed bought a cruiser/racer boat, visiting Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and Cuttyhunk, plus occasional Narragansett Bay sails and weekly beer can races. They visited Humbolt Bay, Calif, and the Redwood Forest, followed by a Sonoma Valley inn-to-inn bike ride. While laid up in November with broken toes from a falling stone sink, Merry read Christopher Matthews’s gift, A Passion for Souls: The Life of D.L. Moody, written by Lyle Dorsett.

In sad news, Sally Butcher Ansley died on 11/29/14 in Des Moines, Iowa, from a severe recurrence of breast cancer. Her sister, Sue Butcher ’71, writes, “We thought she was healthy in remission. We miss her terribly and can’t believe she’s gone.” Family was with her in hospital, including her brother, Peter Butcher ’80. Sally lived and worked in Ankeny, Iowa, near son Michael and granddaughter Janie (3). “Sally loved Northfield and the friends she made there,” her sister added.

Last spring I met David W. Torrey ’73 at Torrey Architecture Boston, who showed me his work and provided mentorship, later visiting his Newton and Wellesley projects. MIT website designer Christine Vielmetti Daniloff ’82 admitted, “I can do whatever I want as long as it’s good” over coffee.

In August I saw gasification plant expert Bradley Schneider. I’m joining another four-person

reunion in the White Mountains with Susan Fenske McDonough, Lyn Tranfield Bennett, and Meredith O’Dowd Adams.

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KAREN PERKINS 252 Monte Grigio Dr Pacific Palisades CA 90272 onoclea@verizon.net

Jamie Robinson writes, “There is a Facebook page

for our class. Please drop by and say hello!” Search for “Northfield Mount Hermon Class of 1975.”

Tempe Reichardt, Will Runyon, and their significant others had lunch last October in Walnut Creek, Calif. Both are well and eager to see classmates at June’s reunion. Tempe started a new company, Gabriel-Glass North America LLC, which is the exclusive importer of a stunning “universal” wine glass from Austria. Tempe writes, “The glass is appropriate for every style and type of wine, is made of lead-free crystal, and dishwashersafe. Most importantly, the design of the glass is intended to allow the full expression of the flavors and aromas of wine to emerge in the glass.” It has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, on Fox Business News, The Today Show, on the nationally syndicated WCBS radio show, Blue Lifestyle, and in other trade press. See winegls.com for more information.

Tempe got together with David Foell ’74 last August in New York City. It had been years since they had seen each other, and David is doing great.

Debbie Knight Snyder: “Our youngest son, Jake, graduated from high school [last] June and is now at Cornell, making this fall the first time in two decades that I haven’t had to wake someone up for school in the morning! In addition to Jake’s graduation from high school, our middle son, Rob, graduated from University of Chicago with a degree in economics. Our oldest son, Will (who graduated from UMass-Amherst in 2012) graduated from City Year—a full year of service to the Boston Public Schools.” Debbie keeps in touch with many NMH friends via Facebook. She sees Beth Brown Madsen ’76 and her fun family as frequently as time allows. Debbie also had the pleasure of seeing her lifelong friend, Mark Codey, last summer when he was visiting his sister on Cape Cod; he’s doing great, as always.

Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett is looking forward to three things in the coming year: “the wedding

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SUSAN LORING-WELLS 12 Ames Haven Rd, PO Box 273 Shutesbury MA 01002 susanloring@me.com JOE MCVEIGH PO Box 883 Middlebury VT 05753-0883 joe@joemcveigh.org

Tempe Reichardt ’75 and Will Runyon ’75

of Kathy Lyons Egan’s daughter atop Mt. Hood; the publication of my book, Carolina Israelite: How Harry Golden Made Us Care about Jews, the South, and Civil Rights (University of North Carolina Press) in May (KimberlyMHartnett.com); and our 40th reunion.”

Stephen Johnson is a big fan of NMH reunions, although he has only attended two in all the years since we graduated. Why? At our 35th in 2010, he met (for the first time!) Laura Stookey ’76, who was shadowing our class as part of the planning for her reunion the following year. Something clicked and these two have been a couple ever since. They made it official in July 2014 with a small wedding on the shores of Lake Champlain, Vt., with several NMH folks in attendance. Laura and Stephen look forward to celebrating their (almost) first anniversary at our reunion, and again at Laura’s reunion in 2016. Some guests were Gunnar Baldwin ’77, William “Buzz” Constable ’68, Peter King ’74, Beth Brown ’76, John Stookey (former trustee), Helen Stookey Jones ’74, and Neil Johnson ’77. Stephen writes, “Peter King and the Prescription got everyone dancing at the reception, and we’re looking forward to dancing to their righteous sound again at reunion!”

Pamela Nelson Heath was in Pacific Palisades, Calif., last December visiting her family, and I was invited to their home for an amazing brunch.

Pam has lived in St. Thomas for close to three decades. She owns Daysail Fantasy (daysailfantasy. com), which offers personalized sailing trips from St. Thomas to St. John “in the beautiful waters of the U.S. Virgin Islands.” Pam, Mark Codey, Maureen Miller Hallock ’76, and Donna Lazerwitz Roggenthien ’76 had all met in St. Thomas the previous August.

Our reunion is fast approaching. By that time, your scribe, Karen Perkins, will have finished out another year teaching high school physiology, and her daughter, Shannon, will have graduated from Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. I can’t wait to see you all.

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ANNE HOWSON 85 Sutherland Road #2 Brighton MA 02135-7159 ahowson@rics.bwh.harvard.edu

John Spence is taking a leave from teaching this

year: “I decided to take care of my health and needed a break. I am filling the void with exercise and introspection. I will run my first marathon in March (2015) and will also be doing the California AIDS Life Cycle from San Francisco to Los Angeles in June. I may be asking for people’s fundraising support, since both endeavors raise money for AIDS organizations. Considering the fact that the Pie Race was really the last time I ran in my life, I am constantly amazed at how quickly your body adjusts and strengthens.”

Grady Forrer has a new job as director of presidential communications for the president of George Washington University, which is “a nice and welcome career change, having spent more than 10 years working in the biopharma sector.

Had the pleasure of having drinks with Dick and Louise Schwingel in Florence in September (2014) when we were all in Italy at the same time.”

In February 2014, David Ruekberg was diagnosed with a low-level form of prostate cancer: “My urologist urged surgery, but I felt active surveillance was the best option. I was interested in a laser treatment being studied at NIH in Bethesda, but on my second visit an MRI-guided biopsy showed the cancer had become more aggressive, so surgery it was. I switched to another highly skilled but friendlier urologist, who performed a robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy at the end of October.

Twenty-four hours after surgery, I was home and have recovered quickly. I am grateful for an excellent surgeon, my wife’s care, and friends (including Paul Crowder), who helped me feel at ease during this process. Men, get your PSA tests and DRE annually! This is an easy disease to beat, if caught early. Looking forward to seeing you all in 2017.

Thanks for continuing to be faithful with this duty!

It really is interesting and often fun to read what classmates have been doing.”

Joanie Kaplan Williams: “It has been an amazing year for me watching our new company grow to 15 people and having seven senior living projects under development. So happy that my husband stopped waiting for me to make my first million before buying a catamaran. He finally decided to wait no longer and use his own money. My son, Blake, graduated from SCAD in November and will be seriously job hunting after the New Year. My daughter is the graphic and Web designer of our marketing company, Chandon Nicholas, and has

already won us eight graphic design awards! Hope to get an opportunity to see fellow NMHers during 2015 for concerts, parties, or any other excuse.”

Paul Crowder: “My older daughter is a junior mechanical engineering and math major at University of Portland (Ore.). My younger daughter will play women’s soccer at Florida Southern College starting in fall 2015—I’m in the twilight of my at-home soccer parent career. My climbing and back-country skiing buddies are looking forward to having my undivided attention, and I’m thinking about an expedition in Alaska in May 2017. I’ll be down just in time for our 40th reunion in June of that year.”

Mark Tajima is currently the chief operations officer at Energia LLC, a mission-oriented energy efficiency company in western Massachusetts. “We just passed our five-year mark and have doubled in size each year, with 28 young men and women of color doing energy efficiency and deep energy retrofit work all over western Massachusetts. I also serve as chairman of the board of Co-op Power—a consumer-owned energy cooperative, and Northeast Biodiesel—a biofuel processing plant using recycled vegetable waste oil to create diesel biofuels.

It is great when you love your work. Thanks for all of your work in keeping this group together.”

Anne Howson: “Hello, classmates! I am still slogging along—working in the pressure-cooker boot camp known as (institution name intentionally omitted to protect the innocent), and clearing out the emotional and physical aftermath of losing three family members (and two friends) in the last 10 years. Things are definitely looking up, though—I am over the main hurdle and looking forward to the future! Thanks to all who write and thanks to all who read.”

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CARRIE NIEDERMAN 1021 Arlington St Houston TX 77008 thedoc@txequinedentist.com CATHY ABRAHAM HOPKINS 2590 Centre St RR #1 St. Catharines ON Canada L2R 6P7 cathy.hopkins@gmail.com

It was so wonderful to hear from you all. Check out our “NMH Class of ’78” group on Facebook.

There are beautiful and poignant moments shared by many.

Ellen Cook Humphrey’s three boys are now 17, 16, and 14. They now tower over their mom.

They attend Andover, Middlesex, and Cardigan Mountain School. Ellen is still working as a physical therapist in Lake Forest and living in the house she shared with her late husband, Will, who died too young from leukemia in March 2012. “Keep Calm and Carry On is the mantra, but sometimes excessive wine consumption is required to maintain a level head. The boys keep me guessing, and our three dogs which, at 12 lbs. each, equal one ‘real’ dog, function as one big cheerleading squad, routinely chanting ‘Go, Momma!’”

After 16 years, Hirath Ghori “finally got together with my dorm parents, Dick and Louise Schwingel, spring 2015 I class notes I 77

Hirath Ghori ’78 (center) visits Dick and Louise Schwingel in Cambridge, Mass.

Ellen Cook Humphrey ’78 with her three sons

for lunch in Cambridge. Lots of laughs, catching up, and a secret or two revealed!”

Lisa Glovsky-Zeien: “My son became a bar mitzvah last June, and to celebrate we are off to ski in Switzerland and tour Florence and Venice over the holidays. Had the pleasure of hanging out with Kayt Kirk Kalsow over Thanksgiving break. She’s a special ed teacher in Southern California, and also teaches in children’s homes. Kayt is currently in school for a master’s degree in her field. Ellen Sennott McGillivray is back in real estate and busy being a mom.”

Nina Martin-Anzuoni is un/underemployed after eight years of public health emergency planning. “I have been spinning, weaving, knitting, and creating beaded and chain maille jewelry. It has been fun, but has had limited financial success.

I expect the new year will find me hunting for part-time employment. I am also in my third year of representing my town on the Mohawk Trail Regional School Committee. My son, Nikolai (17), is a senior at Mohawk and will soon be leaving for college. My husband, Nick, is still working for the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and is fire chief for our town.”

Heidi Nelson Walter has been living in Maine for the last 10 years. “Moved here for work, and am in my 10th year with Brunswick Police Department. My partner, Linda, and I bought a house last year, and have spent the year making it our own. I have two German shepherds, and between us, we have five cats. I was fortunate to see a post on Facebook showing the former sign for the entrance of the Northfield Campus was for sale in an antiques store in Greenfield. I got right on the phone and bought it. I drove down to pick it up a few weeks later. It is proudly displayed in my den near the fireplace hearth.”

David Kopel visited Buenos Aires in November, where his daughter is working. He had a great time at the River versus Racing soccer game, where the crowd intensity was even greater than at NMH versus Deerfield.

From the Crowder Clan, Chris writes “We welcomed my mother, Suzanne Buckson Crowder ’54, and sister Liz Crowder ’83 for Thanksgiving in Westport, Conn. They drove up from Baltimore and D.C., respectively. Brother Paul Crowder ’77 and sister Cathy Crowder Johnston ’80 spent the holiday in Louisville, Colorado, and Minneapolis.

My immediate family spent an amazing 11 days in August in Kenya on safari—‘glamping’ (glamour camping). You really do come to appreciate this

area as the cradle of mankind.”

Peggy Jacobs Bader: “This past fall was a funfilled NMH ’78 whirlwind in New York City, as I got to see Matt Heller, Erika Monsees McCormick, and the long-lost Charlie Humphreys! Matt and his wife, Susan, have moved back to D.C., where Matt has assumed the position of executive VP for marketing and communications for Communities in Schools (CIS). Matt and I have been actively working together on building a partnership between CIS and the New York City Mission Society, of which I am a board member. Matt and Susan spent time over the summer with my daughter, Molly (18), in D.C. while she was living there and working as an intern at the Environmental Working Group. Erika remains gorgeous, fabulous, and perfect, and she and I had a long, fun catch-up breakfast. She is working as a drug prevention specialist in her hometown of Scituate, R.I., where she lives happily with her husband of 30 years, Tim, and their four grown children. Charlie Humphreys swung through the city with his beautiful wife, Laura, and their son, also called Charlie (8), who looks exactly like his dad. Charlie is a criminal defense lawyer in Dallas at his own firm, Humphreys and Peterson. I am well, living in NYC with my wonderful husband of six years, John, my two amazing children, Molly and Eli, and my two equally amazing stepsons, William and George. In addition to my work with the Mission Society, I am the vice chair of the Education Committee of the Guggenheim Museum, and am involved with lots of projects focused on education.”

Cathy Abraham Hopkins: “Beth Graden Rom and I saw James Taylor in November and I felt like I was 17 again! I completed Ironman Arizona a couple of weeks before, which reminded me that I’m not 17 anymore, but it sure was fun.”

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PAIGE RELYEA LEHMAN 5236 SW 89 Ter Cooper City FL 33328-5140 paigerelyea@yahoo.com

CARY LIEBOWITZ BONOSEVICH 1972 Littleton Rd Monroe NH 03771-3275 bonosevich@hotmail.com

Our retired math teacher, Carolyn Mann, sent an article about a project Leila Philip is collaborating

on with husband Garth Evans. From the October 2014 article (villagernewspapers.com): “Inspired by the natural beauty of the Quiet Corner, Woodstock residents Leila Philip and Garth Evans have created ‘Water Rising,’ an association of stunning watercolors and haunting poems. The authors are publishing ‘Water Rising’ and plan to use the book, together with music composed by Shirish Korde, to generate conversations about and support for environmental stewardship. All net proceeds from the book will go to organizations working to preserve the beauty and natural resources of New England, especially in the Quiet Corner.

“Garth Evans is an internationally renowned sculptor whose experimental abstract works are displayed in major museums worldwide. Leila Philip is an award-winning writer known for her distinctive work in literary non-fiction. The couple spent 12 months pushing beyond their usual artistic genres to create works that evoke the distinctive rhythms and sense of place of rural northeast Connecticut. The resulting book generates an exciting new sense of how word and image can interact to create new meanings as it explores the ways in which we locate ourselves in a rapidly changing natural world.

“Renowned composer Shirish Korde has engaged with Evans and Philip to compose music in response to the watercolors, as well as to set some of the poems to music. The book will be released with performances of this new art collaboration. To learn more about this book and collaborative art project, visit water-rising.com.”

Jen Baker Warren: “Hard to believe that we graduated more than 30 years ago! I don’t really feel like I have changed much. Still have long brown hair, still a somewhat introverted hippie, and still love being outside. But am now a mother of three (Florian, 27, manages a restaurant in Asheville, N.C.; Emma, 20, is a junior at St Lawrence; Lucy, 15, is a junior at Verde Valley school). I teach fifth grade and am trying to get my business up and running: Journeys Educational Consulting. Went to a great talk about getting money out of politics

by Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s fame. Check out: stampstampede.org (yeah, still an idealistic liberal, too!). Anyway, I love visitors, so come on out to Santa Fe, N.M.!”

Estelle Dorain Burgess: “All is well in Vermont. Fall has come to a halt and winter seems to be knocking at our door! Just returned from a little vacation time with our girls, Lindsey Burgess ’03 and Callie Burgess ’04. We had 12 glorious days in southern Florida. We had a wonderful visit with Paige Relyea Lehman and her family. Always nice to be with our NMH friends. Feels like we never left them!”

Andrew Bourne had lunch with Jon Cline last November. “I also got to meet Jon’s son and his sister Joy Cline’s (’80) husband and son. Jon and I had not seen each other since the class of 1979’s 15th reunion.”

Jay Kanzler: “My second feature film, Marshall the Miracle Dog, is complete and will be released in spring 2015. It stars Lauren Holly, Shannon Elizabeth, and Matthew Settle. There is a coach in the film with a very familiar name (hint: my soccer coach at NMH). More recently, I have been

busy representing the small businesses of Ferguson, Mo., that were damaged and destroyed during the looting and riots, resulting in interviews on CNN, Fox, and the BBC. Finally, my son, Jay, now has his driver’s license. Where does the time go?”

Catherine Johnson Lewis: “My mother, Elaine, my son, Freddy, and I traveled to New England in October 2013 and visited the Northfield campus.

It is, of course, not only the place where I had an amazing high school education, but also where I grew up from the age of 8. We walked all over the campus and it was very nostalgic. We even were allowed a few minutes inside the auditorium. The fall colors were beautiful, and we talked about the many memories my mother and I share. We spent a while outside Chutter House and East Hall, and my son was very interested in the story of the bell tower, Mountain Day, the legend of Gloria Harding (who fell down the elevator shaft), and many reminiscences of growing up in a house attached to a dormitory. We are all well here in California. Finally getting some much-needed rain and enjoying work, Labradors, gardening, friends who visit. Freddy, named after his grandfather, Fred Johnson, is now 20 and in college studying for a degree in business administration with an emphasis on finance. Elaine is in good health and now an amazing 80 years old.”

Caryn Liebowitz Bonosevich: “I still live in New Hampshire while my husband is in Fort Worth, Texas. Looking forward to moving to my new home in Texas sometime over the next year.

My kids: Mike (28) now lives in Midland, Texas, and is the sales manager for three Staples stores.

Sara (26) lives here in New Hampshire and works as a nanny in Vermont; she is still working on getting her college degree. Sam (24) lives in Rutland, Vt., with her partner, Elisabeth; Sam is in search of full-time IT work. Lauren (22) lives in Burlington, Vt., with her longtime partner, Keith. Lauren is the store manager for Spencer’s. As always, an open invitation to anyone visiting north of Franconia Notch and soon an open invite for Ft. Worth.”

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JACK FARRELL 22314 Cairnloch St Calabasas CA 91302-5873 jack@jackfarrell.org ANTONY PANG 33 Club St 08-14 Singapore 069415 aa1105@yahoo.com

LYNELLE KUCHARSKI 94 Cambridge Dr Glastonbury CT 06033-1379 lynelle@lynellekucharski.com

KRISTIN KELLOM 5 Main St Northfield MA 01360-1018 kkellom@nmhschool.org

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FRANK CHANDLER 20 Overlook Park Newton MA 02459-1344 frankchandler1@verizon.net class of ’81 website: www.nmh81.us

MARINA COLMAN PO Box 3555 Taos NM 87571 marinacolman727@yahoo.com LILIAN BLACKEN HANNAPEL 1242 Robin Rd Mount Pleasant SC 29464-3811 lilhannapel@gmail.com

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SALLY WILLIS PO Box 1456 Frisco CO 80443-1456 willissally@hotmail.com

MICHAEL RICKARD 1470 N Grand St W Suffield CT 06093-2521 mrickard330@cox.net

From Sally—Charlie Crowley writes, “I graduated from Lehigh University, finished med school, and live in Ridgewood, N.J. I am a practicing ophthalmologist. I married a dance teacher from NMH that I met in med school—Elizabeth Ozimek taught in 1989 or 1990 at Northfield. I have four kids: Claire is a freshman at Middlebury, Colin (15) at Delbarton, Edie (12), and Ian (9).”

Scott Jensen is still in Austin, Texas, running Rhythm Superfoods—a veggie-based snack food company. “Wife Cyndie is due in April with our second boy. Aksel, our first, is 3 in June and keeps my 51-year-old person running like a 30-year-old.

Stubb’s Bar-B-Q is still going strong as a sauce company and restaurant/live music venue. I travel to Asia often and have tried to find Eddie Lin several times in Hong Kong, to no avail…please post if anyone knows his whereabouts. Lost my father, Ralph Jensen ’58, this past summer to cancer-related pneumonia. Prompts me to remind everyone to tell their parents they love them today and tell them why they love them!”

David Rutan is still living in Los Angeles and recently saw humorist Dylan Brody perform. “I also see Jonathan Huston from time to time,” said David. “Besides my electrical engineering job in the cell phone industry, I stay busy as a National Lawyers Guild legal observer at various protests, mostly animal rights.”

Alison Mandaville: “Very busy taking over the coordination of English education and credentialing here at Fresno State. It’s a bit crazy living between two places (summers, weekends, and winter break in Seattle), but I’m glad I can escape the daily 100 degree weather here in July/August. Our daughter is graduating from Macalester College in May with a double major in environmental studies and art, so maybe she’ll have some creative ways to address climate change! Together with a colleague in Baku, we published a book of translated poetry

by women from the region of Azerbaijan (12th century-Soviet era). It’s a UNESCO-sponsored project. I continue my local work with future educators, my global work with colleagues in Georgia and Azerbaijan, and my own writing—poetry, and about comics and graphic novels. Kelly Armor visited us in Seattle and it was so great to hear about all the amazing work she is doing: training teachers and child-care providers to use music from around the world in their classrooms.”

David Whitman: “I spent the day at the NMH alumni booth [fall 2014] during the Head of the Charles. It was awesome, and we clearly had the best alumni swag of all the schools. It was great to be back on campus for Pie Race. I then had dinner with Sheila Heffernon, Jim Block, and Dick Peller.

The self-proclaimed theme of the day was ‘more cowbell.’ It was terrific to see fellow classmates: Claire Rodman, Izzy Ramirez, and Jamie Bailey.

Claire and I got the chance to spend some time with Chris and Bonnie Shepard. Chris is now retired. Both are doing well living in Northfield.

There are lots of photos on our Facebook page of both the Head of the Charles and the Pie Race.

Check them out and join the page if you haven’t already done so: NMH Class of ’82.”

Sarah Meyer Stevens: “Starting a new chapter of my life working at Denver Water! I am still active, running races and placing in my age group.

My girls are now 14 and 15, excelling in school, and still not giving me any gray hairs. When I think back at NMH when I was their ages, I think ‘yikes...!’ If anyone is ever in the Denver area, send me a message. I am on Facebook.”

Julia Walker: “We’re living between Connecticut and Vermont. Benjamin is a junior in high school and Matthew is an 8th grader at the school where I teach first and second grade. Looking at colleges and secondary schools at the same time is like another job.”

From Mike—Carol Cahill: “I am living in Billerica and working in Lawrence, Mass. I’ve been a public defender since 1990 and now run the Essex County office in Lawrence. We handle representation of indigent defendants in Haverhill, Lawrence, Newburyport, and Salem courts. I am divorced and raising my 13-year-old daughter, Meghan. I spend most of my time driving her to practices and games for the many basketball teams on which she plays.

I would love to hear from—or have a visit from— any of my old classmates/friends from NMH.” Andy Hewitt: “I’ve had the opportunity to eat a few meals in Alumni Hall over the past few months since our son, Benjamin ’16, started as

Carol Cahill ’82 (left) and daughter Meghan

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(left to right) Sarah Meyer Stevens ’82, Sally Willis ’82, and Amy Price Lutz ’82 at the Annual Rocky Mountain/ NMH Mountain Day in October 2014.

a junior at NMH. Karen and I got to watch him row on the Connecticut River and play the part of Don John in the NMH production of Much Ado About Nothing. I’ve enjoyed my time on the NMH Alumni Council as we’ve reviewed the school’s new strategic initiative. Dave Whitman and I caught up at the NMH tent in Boston during the Head of the Charles Regatta in October. I was rowing for San Diego Rowing Club, along with Dodd Wragg ’52. Our older son, Christopher, is a sophomore at University of California-Berkeley.”

Dylan Brody released two major pieces through Rooftop Comedy and Rooftop Media this year, a one-hour video special, More Arts/Less Martial, and a full-length digital release audio recording, “Dylan Goes Electric.” Both are available at shop.rooftopcomedy.com. He’s been very excited to have more opportunities to open for one of his heroes, David Sedaris. You can see two of those opening sets at Dylan’s website, dylanbrody.com.

Ellen Bossert: “I am the chief marketing officer of NanoSteel. We design nano-structured steel for vehicle light-weighting and additive manufacturing.

This company is the latest in a line of disruptive businesses I’ve led aimed to convert novelties into necessities. My partner, Suzanne, is an ordained minister who works with our ministry/therapy dog, Maestro, to help many different populations at Boston Medical Center, including homeless addicts, kids with terminal illnesses, and psychiatric patients. Our older daughter, Brooke, is an 8th grader at Dana Hall, and my younger, Kate, is a 6th grader at the Riverbend Montessori School.”

Izzy Ramirez got a pie at this year’s Pie Race (2014).

Andy Hewitt ’82 (left) caught up with Dave Whitman ’82 at the NMH tent in Boston.

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NMH friends in Brattleboro, Vt., summer 2014 (left to right): Brian Rooney ’82, Jon Heinemann ’83, Dan Bellow ’83, Kirsti Hastings McCabe ’84, David Hiler ’83, Oliver Dow ’83, and Billy Maloney ’83.

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ALLYSON GOODWIN 45 Mount Hermon Rd Gill MA 01354-8801 agoodwin@nmhschool.org ANGELA LAMBERT 249 Islington Street, Unit #10 Portsmouth NH 03801-4266 drangela@mac.com

Doug Wilk was on campus in June (2014) to participate in the dedication of the Mec Peller House, for which he was the architect. It was a very exciting project and so great to have Doug at the helm.

Tempie Thompson and her family visited campus last November for her son’s interview and admissions tour. Tempie, husband Ken Smith, and kids Jack and Piper live in Rhode Island. Tempie is contemplating her next professional move, and will likely be helping with her husband’s nonprofit, which works to get combat veterans education and jobs.

Audrey Hanson Davis writes, “I have spent almost all my post-NMH years in central Massachusetts happily married to my husband, Marq, and raising our two sons. Austin (17) is graduating Grafton High School in June and looking forward to college. Charles (21) is a junior at University of Hartford. He is a great runner and was very successful in his high school career. In the spring of his freshman year of college, he called home to say he’d lost his vision in one eye. After a lot of tests, specialists, and eventually losing sight in the other eye, he was diagnosed with a rare mitochondrial disease called Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy, with no treatment or cure. [It was] very traumatic for him as an independent 19-year-old and us as well. Austin has a 50 percent chance of losing his sight. After understandable anger, frustration, and depression, my son is stronger and more positive than ever. He has set a goal of running in the Paralympics (if anyone has experience in how to make this happen, let me know) and is doing better than ever academically. I’m so proud of my boys.

I work for Reliant Medical Group and enjoy my downtime with family and our cats and dog.”

Daniel Bellow writes, “[Saw] my high school classmate, Bart Raser, with his new Daniel Bellow oil can at Crispina French’s Holiday Shindy (December 2014). I cannot imagine a better place to be an artist. So many people have offered support,

encouragement, and love, bought my pottery, sold my pottery, sent their children to be my students and apprentices, taken me and my arguably mad enterprise seriously.”

Gretchen Bowder lives in Melrose, Mass., with her two kids, Gus (18) and Georgia (16), her husband, Paul, and their beagle, Sally. After a long stint as a cabinetmaker, she switched to teaching middle school Spanish, which she has been doing for 12 years. She taught at Shore Country Day School in Beverly, and some kids went on to attend NMH. She also plays banjo, guitar, and sings in a bluegrass and western swing band; she and the band have been at it for about 20 years, and they have a weekly gig at the Burren in Somerville. She said, “Edith Wendell ’84 and Beatrice Ward ’82 stop by to hear us from time to time!”

Tarja Bennett-Williams has made it back to the East Coast. She is in South Carolina with her husband at the university and has a son who is about to graduate.

Mike Sleeper had a well-attended exhibition of his new large-format photography at Focus Gallery in Cohasset, Mass., last November. There were more than 100 people who attended the opening, and his work can be viewed on sleeperfineart.com.

Mike says, “I owe a large amount of my success to Phil Calabria and that little darkroom on the Northfield campus. I probably have over 100 decent images of classmates from our NMH days.”

Please do post them on Facebook, Mike! Mike posts fabulous “Monday Morning Pics” that I recommend for inspiration. Also, he recently offered this note on our class of 1983 Facebook page (hint: please join): “After a festive (single malt–fueled) Thanksgiving party, I had a bizarre dream in which I was delivering a narrative in front of a group of people and ended it by actually singing all of ‘Jerusalem,’ end to end.”

Julie Raymond Jennings’s daughter, Kendall, toured NMH in the fall. She is very busy in Chapel Hill, N.C., with her thriving business, Uniquities, and her family. Her kids are in ninth, fourth, and first grade.

Leila Abu-Gheida lives in Arlington, Va., and works for FHI 360. Her job took her to Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, and Nigeria last year. She is covering mostly health-focused development projects throughout West and Central Africa and MENA region. Leila writes, “Fun fact: met up with a virtual friend of Daniel Bellow in Kinshasa. The job pace is challenging, but on the

Jasjiv Sahney is still in Bangalore, India. His elder

Bart Raser ’83 holds an original Daniel Bellow ’83 oil can.

other hand I am never bored! My stepson, Pasi, is in the National Guard in Oregon, daughter Soraya and stepdaughter Nuria are here with me in Arlington. Gretchen Bowder and her daughter, Georgia, came to visit us here in D.C. this year. Would love to see others!”

Laurie Smith and I (Allyson Goodwin) stopped by to see Daniel Bellow and his impressive studio last August on our way to a weekend together at Kripalu. Dan gave me a sweet piece of pottery to bring to our former headmaster, Dick Unsworth ’45, which I delivered to him in October. Dick was thrilled! Daniel had a milestone birthday party with several NMH friends in Brattleboro last summer: Kirsti Hastings McCabe ’84, Brian Rooney ’82, Jonathan Heinemann, David Hiler, Oliver Dow, and Bill Maloney were on hand to celebrate.

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MARGGIE SLICHTER

mslichter@nmhschool.org

Great to hear from Jabu Maphala! Jabu writes, “Two of my three kids, Woody and Judith, have finished their undergraduate studies and are taking a few years before going to grad school. My youngest, Caroline, is graduating next year. I decided to quit the corporate environment and to take a new path.

I have just completed my first year of a doctoral program in business at the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg. I hope to defend my proposal in July. Anyone heard from Ronald Jones?”

Jens Hermjakob still lives close to Frankfurt, Germany, and is working for an IT company. She enjoyed a four-week vacation in March 2014 to Los Angeles and Hawaii.

Also living and working in Germany is Nancy Huston. Nancy and Marggie Slichter “talk” shop via email from time to time. She has also helped with NMH admissions efforts over there. Thanks, Nancy!

Juan Rachadell is working at a hospital in Portugal and visited family in Madrid in January 2014. He sends his best wishes to the class of ’84!

son, Maryk (22), is at Trinity College Dublin, and his younger son (19), at Tufts.

Catherine Trinka Hamilton: “We are living happily in Burlington, Vt. I work as an executive at Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Vermont and teach part time at the University of Vermont in their master’s in public health program. Along with health-care reform, my 8-year-old twins, William and James, keep me busy. We see [my brother] Eddie Hamilton and [wife] Maja Smith Hamilton a lot, but can barely keep up with their Nordic skiing and triathlons.”

Andrew Dole writes, “Since 2004 I have been back in the Pioneer Valley. I teach in the religion department at Amherst College. I’m married to Sarah Buteux, currently an associate pastor in a Congregationalist church in Northampton, and have two children, George (7) and Genevieve (4). We have visited NMH on several occasions, including shortly after the Northfield campus was shut down.”

Sharyn Gewanter Collinson says hello from the Baltimore area. Desmond Mullen is now at Organic Transit (Durham, N.C.)—a startup creating solar-electric pedal-powered hybrid bike/cars.

They’re creating environmental prosperity for all by making the most efficient vehicles on the planet.

From Portland, Maine, Bill Pusey writes, “I continue to work in the banking industry for Promontory Interfinancial Network. We bought a second home up in Rangeley, Maine, this summer.”

Bill enjoyed the ski season at Saddleback. Also in the Portland area is Mary Pat Clarke. She has recently joined the NMH Board of Trustees. Thank you for your service to NMH, Mary Pat! Caroline Stookey Dennis relocated to Portland last year as well.

I had the pleasure of catching up over lunch with Kristin Hanson Martin in Cambridge last December just before NMH Christmas Vespers. At the time, Kristin and her husband, Bill, were getting ready to depart for Mexico to see the monarch butterfly wintering grounds! That same day, Laura Vantine and I raised a glass after Vespers in Boston.

We all agree that a class of ’84 gathering in Boston is a must in 2015. Chris Nagle and I are in regular contact and enjoy an annual spring visit on the Cape. We always include a dinner with two alumni from the class of ’56, and last year Linda and Bill Batty ’59 joined the fun.

Being on campus means I get to see those intrepid souls who come back for the Pie Race.

This year, Sarah Prescott blazed in again with an amazing time, and Kerry Doyle also made an impressive showing, with a pie to show for her efforts.

Some travel for work this year took me to Chicago, and the highlight was dinner with Heidi Kronenberg. Heidi is the founder and managing director of Magnolia Care Solutions, which provides case management and guardianship services to disabled individuals.

I continue to enjoy summertime sailing in New England and heard from Ingrid Halonen via Facebook last summer when I sailed into her neck of the woods in Maine. I am enjoying the challenge of parenting my three 20-something kids, who are nearly semi-launched. Anyone know a good

support group for this stage? I enjoy connecting on Facebook with many of you, and admiring photos of your kids, pets, and travel!

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JENNIFER BUELL HORSCHMAN 67 Joyner Ave Ashville NC 28806-4308 jenhorschman@yahoo.com

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GEOFFREY LOCKE 19 Whittier St Northampton MA 01062-9722 gwlocke@gmail.com

I adjusted to U.S. life after a phenomenal three weeks in Argentina and Uruguay. Highlights were watching the Perito Moreno glacier dramatically break apart, hiking to view the Upsala glacier, eating and drinking, and hanging out at the pool and beach in the stunning town of José Ignacio, Uruguay. I have another paper published in an academic journal, a wonderful and challenging class of graduate students at Smith, and a busy clinical practice. Yesterday, Laura Fitch Mattson ’85, who lives in Rye, N.Y., with her husband and two teenage boys, stopped by my home for a much-needed visit. Laura was visiting her mother, Dorothy “Dot” Rugg Fitch ’51, who lives in Greenfield, Mass.

Ben Robertson published a book, The Last Generation, which is currently number one on the Amazon young-adult historical fiction best-seller list. Congratulations, Ben. He is living in Keene, N.H. Markham Roberts has also published his first book, Decorating the Way I See It, and it’s receiving rave reviews on Amazon.

Missy Crowe moved to Jensen Beach, Fla., to be closer to her mother, and she continues her work as a professional commodities trader/instructor.

She planned to visit with Ginny Wasiuk Lay over the holidays. Missy would love to hear from other NMH friends living near her in Florida.

Erika Riddington writes: “I’m geeking out in my first year teaching public urban middle school science. It’s so much fun, so much work. Home is in Arlington, Mass., with husband Hugh and children Annika (11) and Magnus (6). I’d be happy to see friends in the area if I ever get to a Boston alum event.”

Karin Kimbrough, who lived in Crossley and played lacrosse, wrote from her home in New York City: “I am married with two boys, 8 and 10. I am

Catherine Trinka Hamilton ’84 and her family

spring 2015 I class notes I 81

still working as an economist focused on financial markets, but I recently made a career switch. After nearly 10 years working at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, I have moved to a role in wealth management at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Outside of work, I have become an expert soccer mom and can name all the Premier League teams.

I am determined to get to our next class reunion— hope to see many friends there!”

Leslie Pasternack is still making theater on the New Hampshire seacoast. This fall she starred as controversial figure Dorothy Vaughan in Strawbery Banke Museum’s historical play, Saving Portsmouth.

She also continues to use theater to raise awareness of the effects of traumatic brain injury on military veterans and their families. She and her husband, Paul, are happily exhausted by their Siberian Husky, Boris Pasternack.

Christy Coker Gordon, who resided in West Gould Hall, wrote for the first time to say hello.

She lives in Brookline, Mass., has two sons (13 and 18), and would love to connect with NMH classmates, including John McCurtin, Robert Samuel Duffy, Heidi Goodyear-Sachs, and Eileen Pierce.

Alex Beech recently accepted the position of COO at an investment firm in New York, although she will continue to pursue theater. Her musical class was workshopped in Michigan and England, and earlier this year she had projects in four cities.

Melinda Petit married her partner, Jill, last November. They live in Natick, Mass., with their twins (now 10). Mel started a new position at Staples Corporate in real estate management.

After 20 years in the private sector as an executive in commercial real estate and then health care, Shawn Fisher is now transitioning to a life in the ministry. He has completed his master’s in theology and ethics. As part of his ministry he is composing music, performing, and writing. If anyone is interested in hearing his music, visit shawnfishermusic. com. Shawn’s son, Garrett, is now a high school freshman and is learning to hunt from Shawn’s brother, Kevin Fisher ’88.

Bruce Mendelsohn wrote, “After six years at MIT, I landed a new position at Nichols College as director of marketing and communications, which lasted only three months—a major culture clash and a midcareer disappointment. Now with some extra time as I network and pursue a new job, I am devoting some energy to my volunteer positions as a trustee of the Auburn Public Library and, of course, with my classmate, Gillian Williams, on the board of the Rensselaerville Institute. I get to see Gill often, and I like her more every time I see her. Heather and I went to Morocco last year over the Christmas and New Year’s holiday, fulfilling a lifelong dream of ours to visit Fez, Marrakesh, and Casablanca. In March 2014, our daughter, Abby, had her bat mitzvah in Cleveland, and in April, Heather and I returned to Rome as chaperones for a group of her Latin students.”

Bruce attended a mini-reunion this past September hosted by Schuyler “Skip” Bush and Chuck Abel. Bruce, Chuck, Dan Carson, Alysa Ray, Jeffrey “Chip” Konowitz, Kim Noerager ’87, John Bete ’87, and Elizabeth Wright O’Brien ’87, along with spouses, significant others, children, and even a few dogs, met at Skip’s house in Amherst, 82 I NMH Magazine

Mass., for a BBQ. The next morning, Jeanne Yee MacNevin and Aliina Laine joined the reunion group for a brunch at Chuck’s house in Holyoke.

Brunch extended late into the day, with many NMH memories and laughs. Our 30th reunion is in June 2016—it’s not too early to start making plans to return to campus for a weekend of more memories and laughs.

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KIT GATTIS PO Box 380234 Cambridge MA 02238-0282 kitnmh@gmail.com www.facebook.com/NMH1987 website: nmh1987.org

In December, a time capsule from 1795 was found in the head of a golden lion statue on top of the Old State House in downtown Boston. I often feel that these class notes are a kind of time capsule of their own. I’m still learning how to be a cool circus guy like Henry Wheaton ’88, and keeping up with dancing as well. Hopefully, I’ll have a nice dance finished for the Alumni Dance Weekend in January, and some circus acts in time for our next reunion.

John Bete continues to diligently stamp out pain and disability at Cape Cod Hospital as an osteopathic physiatrist. Wife Robin and kidlings, Jack and Maris, tolerate his guitar playing and other silly nonsense. He welcomes reunions with friends from NMH—find him on Facebook!

Meg Clews lives with her family on Peaks Island, Maine, and works as a family nurse practitioner in Portland at a community health center. She works with recent immigrant refugees from Africa, and the underinsured and homeless population. This summer she got together with Merrit Carey, Lisa Wise, and Jenn Seavey for an awesome mini-reunion at Merritt’s house in Yarmouth. What a blast—love you, Gould girls!

They missed Susanne MacDonald. Meg is headed to the Dominican Republic again this winter for a volunteer medical program with Partners for Rural Health.

David Kotz is very proud of his daughter, who has just accepted an NCAA-Division 1 scholarship for fencing at New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Ben Lee ’86 is chairman of the department of classics at Oberlin College, and misses his former 18-year-old self and his NMH buddies. “Happy to report my niece, Daisy, is now a frosh, loving NMH!” Melissa London lives with her wife, Margo, her dog, Chance, and her Australian bearded dragon, Albert, in hip and groovy Somerville, Mass. She is in her 10th year teaching in Brookline. She mounted a photography exposition featuring her own work. She thanks Maryn Wright Barrett and her husband, Keith, who helped her get the show up and running. Some of the photos featured were shot while on safari in Tanzania with B.J. Cameron and his family. She visited Jennifer Pack Kimball and her husband, Rich, in January.

Betsy Murray Sensenig is working as a substitute teacher while supporting her husband, David, in his architectural design and construction

company, and growing her health and wellness business, and chasing after her kids. Tim (18) is applying to colleges, his first choice is in Florida. Ben (9) is a busy third grader, while Katelynn (4) is their precocious drama queen.

Evan Russack’s been working hard and enjoying his wife and two boys, Trevor (7) and Lucas (4). He lives in Boulder, Colo. (visitors welcome anytime). He often thinks about all the friends and moments he had at NMH. Siobhan Reagan lives in Upper Manhattan with her husband, Kevin, and is teaching high school English in New Canaan, Conn., at St. Luke’s School.

Will Sheats is living in Columbus, Ohio. He is still doing the chef thing, but struggled with the recession. He took this opportunity to go back to get his bachelor’s in culinary management from Johnson and Wales University in 2013. With fresh degree in hand, Will joined the workforce again but decided that corporate contract feeding was “sucking the marrow” from his bones. Gringo Loco Taco was born (check out their Facebook page). He just completed his first year of running a taco cart. “The leap into entrepreneurship is hard but gratifying,” says Will. He keeps in touch with Rich Phillips (a new dad), Matt Daigneault, and Scott Lehman. Will is looking forward to getting together for the next reunion.

Martha Slater is having a ball teaching K–3 drama at the Cincinnati School for Creative and Performing Arts, trying to get her head around having a college-bound senior, and enjoying good memories of mahjong, beer, and painting garden gnomes in Vermont last summer with Alysa Ray ’86 and Siobhan Reagan. Thanks to the efforts of Kathy McGee and Emily McGee ’90, one of those gnomes is just waiting to be found and replaced on the Northfield campus by Naked Heaven classmates—who is up for the challenge?

Morgan Sturges Vaughan and husband Tristan live in East Hampton, N.Y., with their adopted son, Frankie. They run Round Table Theatre Company, a nonprofit theater focusing on Shakespeare, classical theater, and arts education.

Round Table recently produced Hamlet at the John Drew Theatre in East Hampton. Morgan is also the arts education program manager at Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center. She has monthly dreams that she is back at NMH and so excited to be there—and then suddenly realizes she’s 45 years old and can’t stay. She misses you all.

Geoff Weed is now a ninth-level, chaotic good elf thief with a plus-two sword of smiting he acquired by defeating a hill giant.

Eden Wright was married in May 2014 to Motti Butbol in Sausalito, Calif. It was a small Scottish/American-meets-Israeli wedding on a dock facing the Golden Gate Bridge, complete with a chuppah and bagpipes. Jennifer Williams ’88 and Cassandra Coe ’81 were there, along with family and friends. Motti is a chef in San Francisco, and Eden’s expanding interior-design firm has had its best year yet. She’d love to get together with any Bay Area NMHers.

Don’t forget to connect with us on Facebook and our class website (nmh1987.org).

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ANNE STEMSHORN GEORGE 10 Fox Chase Lane Durham NC 27713-9458 anastasia.s.george@gmail.com

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CHRIS ROOF 465 Concord Ave Cambridge MA 02138-1217 roofsound@comcast.net

JOHN CARROLL Box 4722, One Lamplighter Way Mount Hermon MA 01354-9638 jcarroll@nmhschool.org CARYN CROTTY ELDRIDGE 2 Steele Rd London W4 4AF UK slickcke7@gmail.com

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ROBBIANNE MACKIN 101 West End Ave New York NY 10023-6349 robbianne.mackin@gmail.com TRAVIS LEA 2447 Claremont Ave Los Angeles CA 90027-4601 travislea@gmail.com KRISTIN STEELE 458 Montauk Ave New London CT 06320-4606 kaste@conncoll.edu TORYN KIMBERLEY STARK 1828 Birch Heights Ct Charlotte NC 28213-4047 torynk@yahoo.com

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DAIRO MORENO 3102 Durand Dr Los Angeles CA 90068-1614 demoreno@post.harvard.edu

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JENNIFER SADULA DE VORE 2830 Brook Dr Falls Church VA 22042-2302 devorejr@msn.com INI OBOT 297 Sickles Ave New Rochelle NY 10801-3700 iniobot@yahoo.com

CATE STEELE HARTZELL 18 Rockledge Ter Chatham NJ 07928-1216 cate.hartzell@gmail.com

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SUSANNAH SPRONG CAHILLANE

coloradocahillanes@mac.com

Sarah Cureton Chinn and husband Robert welcomed Tyler Michael into the world on 12/5/14.

He was born a healthy 8 lbs., 15 oz. All are doing well and slowly adjusting to their new life as a family of three.

Celeste Wilhelm Dakai and husband Tom welcomed twin daughters, Isabelle Michelle and Katherine Diana, on 3/24/14. “Bella” and “Kate” are both very happy and healthy.

Erica Steckler and family welcomed new baby Tait Gabriel in August 2014—big brothers Asher and Brenner are thrilled! In December, Erika completed her Ph.D. from Boston College, focusing on corporate sustainability and social responsibility, and is now enjoying her teaching role in Northeastern University’s management group.

Song-hee “Susie” Bae and her husband welcomed a beautiful baby boy, Ethan Cha, into the world on 3/21/14.

Molly Goggins Talbot completed the New York City Marathon last November. This was her first marathon, but certainly not her last! Great job, Molly!

It is our hope that, as the class of 1993, we can increase our participation in the giving campaigns in 2015! Remember, the goal is to have as many of us donate as possible. A simple $10 donation would be a huge help and make a big difference!

Thank you in advance!

You can contact new class secretary Susannah Sprong Cahillane via Facebook or through email with any information you would like to share with our class. We would all love to hear about your accomplishments, family news, and adventures!

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CAROL KOLDIS FOOTE 234 Skinner Rd Shelburne Falls MA 01370-9526 carol.foote@gmail.com

DAN FURLONG 450 Warren Wright Rd Belchertown MA 01007-9364 furlongtime@gmail.com

Hey, 1994 classmates! Thanks to those of you willing to share some current information about where and how you are, and who you’ve seen. We realize that a lot of you share information on Facebook, but this is an avenue to reach out to and hear from people that you may not see on the site.

Keep the information coming—we love being able to keep each other up to date!

Dan Furlong is living in Belchertown, Mass., with his daughter Charlotte (13). He recently visited Kahlil Lozoraitis at his home in Brooklyn.

Dan is frequently in Boston and New York, and welcomes the opportunity to revive some Hogger memories while there.

Carol Koldis Foote visited with Jennifer Kaep-

pel Bondy at her new place in Florida in the spring and when Jennifer was visiting Massachusetts in the fall. Due to a Facebook post that placed them within about 500 yards of each other, she ran into Aaron Rutz outside a local restaurant and took a moment to catch up. Her brother, Steven Koldis ’92, came east from California for a family visit during the holiday season. Carol is still a broad-based fundraiser for a local hospital, and has daughter Lydia (8), son Gus (2), and husband Nathan to keep life entertaining. She volunteers for the NMH Alumni Council as a member of the Nominating Committee—wanna get involved? Give Carol a shout. And, hey, set up a monthly recurring gift, too!

John Franklin Blackmer Sera wrote from California extending hello to our classmates. He is married and has a toddler.

Matt Verson shares: “I live back in Leeds with my wife and parents in a big house that just got bigger, thanks to an addition. I’ve been working and have a healthy daughter who is nice enough to keep me home from work for a few weeks. Her big brother, Acer, pays her lots of attention and looks to be a fine helper. I mainly do tree and garden work and property maintenance in the winter.

Quality of life is pretty high, and deeper every year.”

Christina Lamb Sidell writes, “I just got back from a month of shore sailing down the Eastern Seaboard from New York to Fort Lauderdale with Oceans of Hope, a nonprofit relay sailing around the world to change the perception of multiple sclerosis. The entire crew is made up of people with MS, and it was an amazing experience. My husband Phil Sidell and son Quinn came to New York City and Fort Lauderdale to support me and the cause. It was extremely cold, but very rewarding to meet so many people living with MS!” K.T. Doud: “I am living back in my hometown of Ann Arbor, Mich., and working with Planned Parenthood of Mid and South Michigan training the medical staff. I was so disappointed not to be able to attend the 20th reunion, and I will promise to be there for the 25th! My children Ginny (11), Toni (9), Marc (7), and I drove to Massachusetts for the Thanksgiving holiday to visit my father and aunt. We drove onto the Mt. Hermon campus after the snowstorm. The campus looked so beautiful with the snow-covered buildings and trees—it made me so nostalgic. I wanted to give a shout-out to Wanda Vargas and her baby girl, and to Laura Snyder Craford with her wonderful family.”

Laura Snyder Craford: “I’m in my last semester of grad school for my MSW...finally. Longest road ever when you have a baby in the middle of it all.

We are still living on the river in Portland, Ore. The kids, Lillian (9), Jack (7), and Sam (2), spent the majority of the summer either in or on the water!

I think about the fun we had at reunion last June, and already know I’ll be at the 25th!”

Gretchen Davidson Keneshea reports: “Dan Furlong was my husband’s first introduction to NMH alumni. The two of us met almost four years ago in Killington, Vt., at, you guessed it, a Snoop Dogg concert. I never would have imagined that our 20th reunion would be the first stop on my secretive bachelorette weekend extravaganza, but it was! Katie Barrows Chipps [was] by my side

spring 2015 I class notes I 83

to celebrate the last of my single days, and she was also there to witness the commitment I made to my husband, Lincoln Keneshea, in Newport, R.I., this past summer. Clearly, NMH has been woven into the fabric of some of my biggest life moments. I’m sure I missed out on a few momentous moments during reunion weekend, so someone will have to fill me in! I hang out with Mason Bragg and meet his wife, Lisa, and baby girl, Josephine, during his short trips back east. A group of us attended a Newport Polo Match earlier this past summer to celebrate his one-year wedding anniversary. As no surprise, Mason was out on the field during the break throwing around a Frisbee with who else but my now husband. I think Lincoln would have fit right in with the Hogger crowd! I took him to his first Christmas Vespers last year, and exposed him to the NMH community. Happy 20th everyone!”

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AMINA GAUTIER 1219 West Grandville Ave Apt 3B Chicago IL 60664-1925 amina.gautier@gmail.com NICHOLAS VIDA 8731 Venice Blvd Los Angeles CA 90034-3216

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JON RINI 47 Park Place Cir Unit 39 West Hartford CT 06110-1424 jonathanrini@hotmail.com HEIDI GEIS 2140 Woolsey St Apt B Berkeley CA 94705-1890 heidi.m.geis@gmail.com

Cliff Dyer and his wife, Jayme, moved to Boston

last summer. Cliff is a software engineer at a company that is pioneering new technologies in digital video marketing and advertising. He has also been taking classes in partner acrobatics and hand-balancing at a circus school, and is close to mastering his first handstand.

John Lilly visited NMH for the first time in 10 years to try to win a pie in the Pie Race, which he missed by 30 seconds. He lives in Durham, N.H., with his wife and two kids (7 and 11), is a former lawyer, and is now fundraising part time for the University of New Hampshire Foundation.

Ah-Young Kim lives in the New York City area and has three kids (ages 8, 5, and 3). She has worked with the United Nations since 2005, first doing humanitarian work, then political affairs, and now covers North Korea sanctions and Security Council issues. Through her work, she does a lot of interesting travel and enjoys working with a more global perspective.

Zeke Nims and his wife, Amber, live in Winchester, Mass. They have two boys (3 and 5) and are happily living the dream, but without the time to enjoy it. Zeke works in Cambridge, Mass., at a small biotech/pharma company. In his spare time he works on house repairs, tuning classic SAAB 84 I NMH Magazine

900s, and rides a cyclocross bike. Most of the “free” time is spent training his boys to be little terrors.

Cara deBeer lives in Somerville, Mass., and works in online marketing. In her spare time she takes a lot of poorly composed, blurry iPhone photos of her husband and daughter, who was born in February 2014.

Elizabeth Little Cagnon lives in Rhode Island with her two kids, Ethan (10) and Bella (4). She is a financial adviser with Merrill Lynch and stays in touch with Gwen Coutu Arcangelo.

Dan Demaine lives in West Glover, Vt., with his wife and three young children (2, 4, and 6).

They’re starting their own small dairy farm, milking 25 cows. Dan met his wife, Theresa, working on a farm in the Hudson Valley 11 years ago. Since then, they have worked on a few different farms while saving enough money to buy their own. While it has taken them a little while to get their Vermont farm in shape, they plan to start shipping milk in the next month.

Colin Fredericks lives near Boston and works for HarvardX, the branch of Harvard that helps professors create online courses. He keeps in touch with Eric Tapley, who is living in New Hampshire with his wife and kids.

Brittney Latourelle O’Grady has been living near Charlotte, N.C., for the past eight years. She has been working for the FBI for 10 years. She loves her job and has worked on some high-profile cases, including the arrest of Charlotte mayor Patrick Cannon and a Raleigh terror-cell case that made national news. She and her husband, a commercial pilot, have a 21-month-old daughter, Allie.

Noelle Young-Bryant lives on Mount Desert Island, Maine, with her husband, Anthony, and their three children (6, 4, and 1). Her brother, Alan Young-Bryant ’98, died two years ago. She is pursuing her master’s in social work, focusing on the integration of prenatal wellness, spirituality, and self-care.

Tanya Luthi has been living in Vancouver, B.C., for the last few years and loving her work as a structural engineer. She bounced around since college—Chicago, Austin, and New York—before landing in Vancouver. She says NMH won’t be the same without Dick Peller and wishes him a happy retirement.

thrilled, and we look forward to spending time between Christmas and New Year’s with Phil Dahn and his wife and newborn son at their home in Seoul, Korea.

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MATT GAMON 4653 28th Rd South Apt A Arlington VA 22206-4125 mattgammon@aol.com

BRIAN PRESSMAN 14007 Palawan Way Apt 311 Marina Del Rey CA 90292-6270 brainjpressman@gmail.com

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AUDREY KORTE 5 Oyster Ln Warren RI 02885-1522 aekorte@cox.net

MELIA KNOWLES-COURSIN 125 Longfellow Rd Apt B Gorham ME 04038-1848 meliakc@gmail.com MOLLY LOVEDAY 52 Curtis St #2, Somerville MA 02144-1254 chefmollyloveday@gmail.com

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KATHERINE “CRICKET” BORNTRAEGERWHEELER NISBET 15 Allens Rd Southsea, Hampshire, PO4 0QB, UK katherine@kbwnisbet.co.uk

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LAUREL HAVAS 1513 K St SE Washington DC 20003-3240 laurelsuzanne@gmail.com JULIA COHEN 514 Hale St PO Box 172 Prides Crossing MA 01965-0172 jmacleodcohen@gmail.com

Frances Bean writes, “Our baby boy, Charles Holbrook, joined the Bean-Evans family, and is already eight months old. Still working as a math specialist in private practice.”

Yogiraj Graham: “I’d like to announce the birth of our daughter, Indira Rani, born on 7/15/14 in Los Angeles. My wife (Sasaneh Graham) and I are

Lucy Hubbard Mandarakas ’02 and family

Keiko Achiwa Connor ’02 and husband Brendan Connor with their baby, Maya da Costa.

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JOSH GRUBMAN 14 Deldorf St Quincy MA 02169-1820 joshuagrubman@gmail.com

Pooja Desai Patel ’04 with her husband and son, Rian.

taurant in New York and moved back to California.

She is currently running her family’s wine business as president of Gemstone Vineyard in Napa.

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CHRISTOPHER A ZISSI 30 Berkshire Dr Winchester MA 01890-3233 christopher.zissi@gmail.com

DANIELLE HENRY BEALE

dhbeale@gmail.com

Another year in the books and we have been quite active. Ben Daniels is now assistant general counsel at Fresenius Medical Care in Waltham, Mass.

Alex Lloyd married Rachel Conrad on 8/16/14 in Austin, Texas. Lawrence Delevingne married Lindsay Slote last August. During 2014, Lawrence has been able to catch up with classmates Alphonzo Terrell, Neale Mahoney, and Brendan Connor ’02.

After stints in New York; Vientiane, Laos; and San Diego, Rujeko “Ru” Hockley is back in New York and working as assistant curator of contemporary art at the Brooklyn Museum. Josh Bigelow visited Alex Fischer in New York City to celebrate the beginning of the holiday season. Josh flew in from Los Angeles, where he continues to run the bus transit–monitoring company he started in his dorm room at USC. Alex is still at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he just launched a new teaching and research program on environment, peace, and security, and where he continues to act as the associate director of the Haiti Research and Policy Program.

Amy Marks sold her catering business and res-

Thank you to everyone who wrote in to update us on your whereabouts! I love small-world stories, so I was thrilled to hear that Jeanette Caceres Schaudt and her company, Local Lathers, is being sold in my dear friend and colleague Jill Lindsey’s namesake boutique in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

Ashley Bean lives in Carbondale, Colo. In winters she is a professional ski patroller at Aspen Snowmass, and in summers she is a team rider for Badfish Stand Up Paddleboards.

Gelila Bekele had her first child, Aman, with her partner, Tyler Perry. Congratulations!

Lucy Hubbard Mandarakas sent in a picture of her little family, husband Nick, and children Charlie and Emily, standing in the spot Nick proposed years ago in Brooklyn!

Danielle Henry Beale welcomed her first child, Parker Vianney, with husband Garrison on 11/4/14.

Sara Stephens Wilson welcomed her first child, Stella Mowery, with husband Dan on 12/7/14.

Sara and Danielle Henry Beale joke that they timed their pregnancies so that Stella and Parker would attend NMH and have an arranged marriage!

Gelila Bekele ’02 with partner Tyler Perry

Danielle Henry Beale ’02 with her baby, Parker

Geoff Gonzalez is working toward a second bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at Florida A&M University. Over the next several months, he will be distracting himself with Florida State basketball games.

Jason Wilson is living in Chicago with his partner, Olivia Tsipris. They met in law school and have been together more than five years. Jason coaches a youth hockey team in Wilmette, Ill. The kids are 9–10 years old, and finished in second place at a tournament. There is a coaching profile of Jason on wilmettehockey.com. His youth hockey team went shopping over Thanksgiving and donated more than $200 in groceries to “A Just Harvest” in Chicago. Jason still sees Scott Sortal ’01, who is a teacher at Mt. Carmel High School in Chicago and is the reason Jason is coaching in Wilmette. Last year, Scott married Sara Stutz.

Maria Schrautemyer Abe married Masahisa Abe in May 2013, and moved to Tokyo. She has reconnected with old friends from NMH, including Yuka Terada and Kaoruko Handa. Liz Kaminoh ’03 visited Japan and a group of NMHers had a mini-reunion for her visit, including Kanako Takahashi ’05, Tomoko Araki ’04, Asako Kakuta ’05, Maria Schrautemyer Abe, Minoru Toyoda, and Kaoruko Handa.

Kate Perry is living in Seattle, managing and bartending at Rumba—one of the top rum-centric bars in the country. She loves it, travels a lot, and gets to drink all of the rum! She spent her holidays with her sister, Abby Perry ’05, childhood friends, and Nathaniel McVicar and his wife and children.

Kelvin Martinez and wife had a daughter, Isadora Ana, born on 12/25/14.

Brendan Connor and Keiko Achiwa Connor welcomed their first daughter, Maya da Costa, on 8/20/14 in New York City. Mom and baby are doing well and the new parents are excited to be a family.

Meagan Delaney and her partner, Todd, are still successfully running Meagan’s store, The Rising States, in New York’s Lower East Side. Stop in to check it out.

Allan Olson wrote that he received his M.B.A. from NYU-Stern! Congrats, Allan!

Valentin Meloty-Kapella graduated last September from an advanced master’s program in financial markets from the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management. He joined the European Public Affairs department at BNP Paribas— a French bank with an international presence. He would love to catch up with any fellow Hoggers!

Valentin, Geoff Gonzalez, Eduardo Ponce de Leon, and I all attended Hobart and William Smith Colleges together, so it was wonderful to hear from two out of my three NMH college guys!

Zach Bruning is doing well and wrote in an update consistent with his nature. Danielle Henry Beale stated, “Zach Bruning, never change!” I hope you all were able to catch Brett Gallaway ’03 as himself on an episode of this season’s Kourtney and Khloe Take the Hamptons!

I hope you all are doing well, and please continue to write in! All the best—Anne Morgan

spring 2015 I class notes I 85

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DEE GUO 57 ½ East St Vernon CT 06066-3848 deedith@gmail.com MIRA SHARMA 350 Prince Arthur West, Apt 1105 Montreal, QC H2X 3R4, Canada mira.sharma.mcgill@gmail.com

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JAMIESON BAKER 740 Driggs Ave #3 Brooklyn NY 11211-5364 jamieson.baker@gmail.com JANE LILLY WARREN 480 10th Ave Apt 2FS New York, NY 10018-1109 janelillywarren@gmail.com DANIELA FRIAS 779 Ave E Apt 2 Bayonne NJ 07002-4051 daniela8_5@hotmail.com NINA SCHEINMAN nina.scheinman@gmail.com

After six years in New York City, Erica Smith moved to Philadelphia, Penn., where she enjoys teaching special education at Mastery Charter School. She is contemplating a doctoral degree in education.

David Schwartz is currently living in Los Angeles and earning an M.B.A. at the University of Southern California. He will be moving to San Francisco to work for PwC next fall.

Sarah Simons is enjoying her role at Public Health Solutions, managing federal contracts for HIV care in New York City. Her photography has been selected for two shows, and she has recently seen fellow Hoggers Rumman Hossain, Allison Jones, Emma Olson, and Rachel Varnergardner.

Brendan Mysliwiec is living and working in Washington, D.C., and frequently gets together with D.C.-area Hoggers.

Rumman Hossain is living in Brooklyn, N.Y., and can’t wait to DJ at our 15-year reunion.

Jong Seong “John” Kim was discharged from the Republic of Korea army last December and has returned to New York City. He will be continuing his career as a hedge fund analyst in the city.

Mackenzie Blake Russell is nearing the end of her Ph.D. program at Stanford, and while she is sorry she missed reunion, she was happy to catch up with many classmates last year at Vespers in New York City. She recently hung out with Nina Scheinman and attended some Bay Area young alumni events. She has also run into Jessi Barber and Tara Lihn ’02.

Pooja Desai Patel and her husband welcomed their son, Rian Desai, on 3/29/14. Pooja is a senior client manager for Interbrand in New York City, and is still learning how to strike a balance between motherhood and a full-time career. She recently spent time with Vanessa Palomo and sometimes 86 I NMH Magazine

runs into a familiar NMH face on the streets of New York.

Nina Scheinman was married to Drew Remiker on 7/19/14 in Berkeley, Calif. In attendance were Lindsey White, Jack Hubbard ’03, Dana Inglehart, and Rumman Hossain.

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DONNIE BLACKWELL 15 Rolling Green Dr Amherst MA 01002-2723 ptowndon@gmail.com ARJUN PANT 14 Egmont St Apt 1 Brookline MA 02446-3615 arjunpant@gmail.com JINGPING ZHANG 94 Rivington Street, Apt.#18 New York NY 10002-2257 jingping.ellen.zhang@gmail.com

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LAKOTA COON 67 Coon Holler Lane Castleton VA 22716-2931 wackylacky@gmail.com

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DITH PAMP 4025 SE Clinton St, Apt 2 Portland OR 97202 dith.pamp@gmail.com

From Dith Pamp—It was so great to see so many responses to my call for updates! It seems like many folks from our class are doing amazing things. I am living in Portland, Ore., recently finished my master’s from Oregon State University, and am working for my alma mater, Lewis & Clark College.

Kayla DeVincentis lives in Boston and is a project manager at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, Mass., and began her M.B.A. in health-sector management at Boston University.

Dina Eldib works as a patent attorney in Cairo, Egypt. She married Farouk Tatanaki in April 2014 in the United Arab Emirates.

Caroline Henderson says, “I’m in San Francisco, where I’ve been for three years, and am starting my own consulting practice in online campaigning.

I’ve also started volunteering with Girls, Inc., and am planning to split my time between consulting and working with adolescent girls. I’ve also been dancing and singing a lot…I wrote and recorded my first song this fall, and I had my first performance. I’ve been taking a Beyoncé choreography dance class and got to learn “Run the World” from one of her choreographers.”

After graduating from Howard University in 2011, Amani Kancey has served President Obama in his administration. She began her career at the White House, and was later appointed to serve as special assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Transportation. This past summer, she resigned from her post to attend Boston College Law School, and is work-

ing on her startup company and book.

Tae Hyung Kim is back in Ithaca, N.Y., to resume his graduate studies in architecture at Cornell after completing mandatory military service in Korea.

Teresa Le has been living in Johannesburg, South Africa, for the last four years and is finishing her master’s in development studies. Teresa says, “I love having visitors (Ablorde Ashigbi has been my favorite!).”

Kelsie Leonard lives in Waltham, Mass., and is working through a second degree in biology at UMass-Boston. After graduating, she would like to get into conservation work. She says, “Recently, I ran the Pie Race—actually got a pie!”

Lewis Maday-Travis says, “I’m in Seattle in my third year of teaching sixth-grade science at Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences. I live in a co-op with four others, where we share chickens and odd rituals. I’ve traveled all over the world, mostly with students; I’m gearing up for a service trip to Zambia this summer to our sister school in the country’s capital.”

Theo Samets graduated from NYU Law in May 2014 and started as an associate in the real estate group at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton last September. He lives in Tribeca with David Weiner, and they see some of the many NMH folks in NYC. Recently, Theo has seen Ayana Christie, Blisse Wilkinson, Jordan Desnick, Sara Potash, Sara Eardensohn, Matt ShephardLupo ’06, Alex Boll, and Kitty Vieira. Theo spent August (2014) in Asia with friends from law school and had a whirlwind few days in Seoul, where he saw Suzi Han, Violet Kim, Young Kyu Kwon, YJ Lee, Jung Min Woo, Yea Kim ’08, and JooYeon Hahm ’08. On the same trip in Bangkok, Theo saw Naomi Ritz and Up Saksanguamanoon ’08.

Donnie Smith is currently living and working in Saint James, N.Y. He is the associate dean of admissions at The Knox School, and really loves seeing NMHers on the road. “I had the pleasure of having dinner with Ayana Christie and Shirley Eng ’90 in D.C. Recently attended a gathering with Roberta Taggart, Kitty Vieira, Rebecca Donald, and hosted by Kate Hayes ’06 in New York City.”

Pauline Stevens is living in Vermont and has been working at a nonprofit (One Percent for the Planet) for the last three years.

Emily Thomas is living on Prince Edward Island, having graduated from University of Prince Edward Island in May 2014 with her master’s. She is in the process of figuring out what comes next, but is enjoying being out of school!

Sara Tower says, “I’ve been farming at New Lands Farm in West Springfield, Mass., for two years now, working with immigrants and recently resettled refugees. I had a good time visiting campus back in May for the Farmer Teach-In with Pauline Stevens and Carla Cevasco. I’m also singing again with Sheila Heffernon in the Da Camara Singers in Amherst.”

Jules Toraby is in his second year of law school at Elon in Greensboro, N.C. He attends Elon with Sharon Dunmore ’10 and Abigail Seymour. He recently became a certified yoga instructor and teaches both a power flow and acro yoga, and plans to run his first half marathon.

Nina Scheinman ’04 with husband Drew Remiker on their wedding day.

Dina Eldib ’07 married Farouk Tatanaki in April 2014.

John Wang ’07 and wife Shelly Wu at their September 2014 wedding in Los Angeles.

Class of ’62 Mikado Wedding: Karen Anne Smith Zee (“Yum Yum”) married Eric Riedel. Pictured from left: Carly Wade (“Katisha”), Cindy Kidder, Karen Anne, Eric, and Doug Werner (“The Mikado”). All participated in 1962 production of The Mikado.

Eden Wright ’87 married Motti Butbol, May 2014, in Sausalito, Calif.

CELEBRATIONS! Gretchen Davidsen ’94 married Lincoln Keneshea in Newport, R.I., in the summer of 2014.

Gretchen Davidsen Keneshea ’94 (left) and Katie Barrows Chipps ’94 at Gretchen’s wedding last summer.

spring 2015 I class notes I 87

John Wang says, “I’m working as a portrait and wedding photographer based in Southern California (yellowfinstudios.com) and, on the side, I work as a manager at the acupuncture clinic my wife and I operate (she’s a licensed acupuncturist/Chinese medicine doctor). If any of you are coming my way, whether to Los Angeles or Taiwan, please do not hesitate to contact me.” John married Shelly Wu on 9/14/14 in Los Angeles. Sam Wood was one of his groomsmen. John and Shelly had a second wedding in Taiwan last November with 300 guests, including alums Austin Lee and Yu-Yi David Hsia ’08.

Bill Ward worked for the Wendy Davis for Governor Campaign in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2014 after helping manage the successful re-election of Holyoke’s mayor Alex Morse—the youngest openly gay mayor in the United States. After a couple of years doing political work, he’s glad to be back in New York City (and, at least for the time being, in the private sector) working at the technology company Palantir.

Lydia Wileden moved from D.C. to Ann Arbor, Mich., last summer to start a Ph.D. program in public policy and sociology at the University of Michigan.

Blisse Wilkinson lives in Brooklyn and works at Morgan Stanley in equity risk management.

Following NMH, Sam Wood went to the College of Charleston, Greenfield Community College for his associate’s degree, and graduated from Berklee College of Music with a degree in music production and engineering. Sam says, “The impact of my medical history led me to medicine, so I completed a one-year postbac program at Goucher College to get all my pre-med requirements, applied to med school this year, and got in!” He lives in Boston, working at X-Chem Pharmaceuticals doing preliminary drug research regarding the treatment of cancer and autoimmune conditions.

Adam Zelenka lives in Brighton, Mass., with his dog, Bonkers, working for a mathematics publishing company in Cambridge.

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EMILY JACKE PO Box 342 Middlebury VT 05753-0342 ejacke@middlebury.edu SARAH-ANNE TANNER 17 Powder House Ter Somerville MA 02144-2035 tanner.sarahanne@gmail.com

From Emily—Thank you to everyone who wrote in response to my rambling request for news. I’m writing to you next to my first Christmas tree in my own apartment. Somehow having a Christmas tree is one of those things that makes me go, ‘Oh gosh, I’m an adult. Sort of.’ I asked if you all felt like adults yet, and while no one directly answered my question, I think the things our classmates are up to speak for themselves.

Jane Kaminski lives in Pittsburgh working as a bicycle and pedestrian advocate, exploring urban homesteading methods, and restoring two 1880s brick houses.

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Josh Throckmorton writes, “Since graduating from Occidental in 2012, I’ve been at Swarthmore College, where I coach baseball and serve as the writing program coordinator.” If there are any NMH events or folks in the Philly area, he’d love to catch up. And Cody Valdes is a teaching assistant in political philosophy at Tufts, where he is working on what he calls “not grad school, but an unofficial postbac.”

Speaking of grad school, Julia Mix Barrington is finishing up course work for her English Ph.D. with a Shakespeare focus at Boston University.

Renee Forcier lives on Prince Edward Island and is working on her second year of veterinary school.

And Kayci Wickline is nearly done with her nursing degree and has bought a house in Northfield— first homeowner in the class of 2008?

Also in the NMH area is Jarad Weeks, who continues to play music and manage the Tire Warehouse in Greenfield. I brought my car in to get snow tires at Thanksgiving and found Nick Clough working behind the counter. And while I’m plugging people, if you haven’t already checked out Spencer Hattendorf’s band, The Rooks, you’re missing out. They’ve released one EP and are working on their second.

Ben Weyers is still working for Geezeo in Connecticut and playing Ultimate Frisbee on the side.

Rebecca Young works for Zulily out in Washington State, and swing dancing whenever she can.

And as for me, I visited Sarah-Anne Tanner in Boston after Thanksgiving and was delighted to see Becky Gillig, Rachel Koh, Jim Montague, David Rome, Max Mazzone, Nikki Rossetti, Allison Hartman ’09, Alexander Cesari ’09, Henry Cesari, Spencer Hattendorf, Rebecca Young, Eli Stiefel, and Brooke Evans for the seventh annual gathering. I’m finishing up my communications fellowship in Vermont this spring, and hopefully I will know what’s next by the time this magazine is published.

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DAISY LETENDRE 2635 41st St NW Apt.2 Washington, DC 20007-1272 daisycletendre@gmail.com

Eshalla Merriam: “I am living in the D.C. area, where I meet up with Sophie Bober and Turner Delano regularly. Sophie finished an entire season of Salem in less than one week. Turner, whom she lives with, is enjoying her work as an executive recruiter for nonprofits. My cousin, Alyssa Bobe ’03, is visiting for the holidays!”

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ELI SPECTOR PO Box 75 Old Westbury NY 11568-0075 elishsp@gmail.com

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OLIVIA VAN COTT 43 Cleveland St Greenfield MA 01301-1905 vancott.olivia@gmail.com

NISHA MALIK 409 Davis St Greenfield MA 01301-1414 nishamalik92@gmail.com

OLIVIA WOLPE 3161 Washington St San Francisco CA 94115-1619 oliviawolpe@gmail.com

Hello, Hoggers! It’s Olivia Wolpe here to narrate just a sliver of what class of ’11 has been up to this year.

Orelia Jonathan is preparing for graduation from Wesleyan University and organizing her third trip to South Sudan, where she will bring school supplies to her family’s remote village. This time she is hoping to bring other American students to run a training program for teachers for three weeks in June. She is also looking to continue her research on child soldiers and rite-of-passage practices in South Sudan. We will see her on campus very soon, as she returns to Summer Session to teach ESL and public speaking for the second time this summer.

Geneva Jonathan, also at Wesleyan, is hoping to start working in clinical psychiatric research after graduation. This summer she will be in the Virgin Islands leading an overland service trip. Joining the Jonathan twins at Wesleyan are Mackey Hemphill, Nayan Ghosh, Nishaila Porter, Daphne Kroessler, Jesse Warren, and Anthony Muraco.

Hanson Cheng is continuing to kill it at RISD. He and some fellow students, along with a professor, are investigating the application of 3-D printing in relation to architecture. He submitted a proposal for a weather museum, and in classic form downplayed the magnitude of it all.

Julie McCausland is a senior at University of Colorado-Boulder and studying linguistics, with a minor in technology arts and media.

Alexi Garrow at McGill University is “currently procrastinating and flirting with the idea of being a real person,” while John Foley wants to make it clear that he is just flirting.

Deenie Schlass graduated from Emory University with a double major in finance and Arabic.

She is the first to major in Arabic at Emory, though she wants to be clear: she did not found the degree.

Last fall, Deenie was offered a job at CitiGroup and she will begin in their sales and trading division in June.

Junius Ross-Martin is at Trinity University. He continues his love of procrastination—something he developed an affinity for at NMH—and finals week found him effervescent and juiced at a Mexican restaurant, trolling Facebook. He is looking forward to our five-year reunion.

Jordan Anderson tried to tarnish the indubitably high reputation of this column with unwarranted rumors. Mentioned among these were mustaches and Iggy Azalea’s butt.

Eleanor Mackenzie is graduating from the University of New Hampshire with a double major

in social work and women’s studies. She is interning at a shelter for pregnant women and new mothers who have come from domestic violence situations.

Sierra Dickey is a senior at Whitman College in Washington, studying environmental humanities.

She is also a tireless speaker on behalf of divestment programs at Whitman and beyond.

Jordan Kreyling was nursing a headache while sitting in Texas A&M University researching Magic: The Gathering Cards.

I graduated from Sciences Po Paris in spring 2014 with a degree in political science focused on the Middle East. I spent last year in Beirut having a wonderful time living and working, and an even more wonderful time once I had stopped working.

I’m now in San Francisco, sorely missing Lebanon, though appreciating the public transport and consistent electricity.

And a big thank-you to Olivia VanCott and Nisha Malik, who have superbly taken on these class notes in the past.

Clearly, 2011 has lost none of its heart and certainly none of the ego. With this, we bid adieu and hope that we have piqued your interest in this lively (if exhausting) group.

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NMH PARKER PELTZER 120 Passumpsic Ave PO Box 453 Wilder VT 05088-0453 ppeltzer@gmx.com WILSON JOSEPHSON 50 The Oaks Henniker NH 03242-3450 josephsonw@carleton.edu

From Parker—I had a great time catching up with a few of our classmates. Some highlights... Patrick Joyce is going to school in Greenfield. Not only is he still Alpine ski racing (he plans to be on the team at UMass next winter), but he is working this year as NMH’s assistant coach.

Tyler Hudgins is excited to be studying earth science. He has taken up boxing, and is on the club team at Syracuse. He lives in an apartment in town with his dog, Zeus—a black Lab and German shepherd mix.

Katie Lindeman was freezing the yeast colonies that she has been doing genetic experiments on, pausing her research to take a term abroad at the University of Edinburgh. She will return to her molecular biology this year, though. Katie began this project last summer while also working in the Wesleyan admissions office. Kate gave my sister,

Ryan Kelly '12, now a senior at Duke University, manages the Duke men’s basketball team, which won the 2015 NCAA championship in April.

Mackay (’15), a campus tour.

This is going to be my first summer in the last five that I have not had some work at NMH. Hopefully, other members of the class of ’12 will be back as Summer Session teaching interns, with Upward Bound, or just helping out at reunion. Let me know how it goes.

I’m off to meet Teagan Atwater for a little backpacking. He is taking a break from planning a big seminar on entrepreneurship for Connecticut College. If any of you are involved with entrepreneurship clubs at your school, Teagan would love to exchange ideas.

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From Elisa Fischer, mother of Douglas Fischer, who died on 5/17/14: “Doug roared into our lives on Halloween night, 1994. He was a big baby, blond with big brown eyes. He filled us with joy, with a smile that radiated happiness. He was our sunbeam, our Doug Bug, our little boy blue. He laughed often, long, and hard. He was independent from the start. Early on, he loved climbing and exploring. His favorite words were ‘no’ and ‘why.’

“Doug went to a neighborhood elementary school in New York City, and played baseball, soccer, basketball, and Ultimate Frisbee. He loved the Knicks unconditionally, year after year. At 9, our New York City boy headed off to camp in the Adirondacks, climbed his first mountain, and could not believe the view. He was hooked. Douglas hiked all 46 high peaks in a span of just four summers.

“As a senior at NMH, he traveled to New Zealand for five weeks with the school. He met a Maori who could trace his ancestors back 65 generations, and Doug was amazed by this. He kept a journal during that trip and was proud to share it with us. One line is worth repeating: ‘I want to be that grandfather at the table full of stories.’

“At NMH, he participated in the VOTES project, ran the school’s annual blood drive, and was part of Operation Happy Birthday—a club that raises money to buy birthday presents for underprivileged children. Doug once told me that he only joined clubs he believed in; he refused to join more just because it would look good for his college application.

“Douglas chose to take a gap year between high school and college because he needed to be in charge of his own life. He worked for a textile company for eight weeks, flew to Reno with a friend, and biked to San Diego, logging about 1,000 miles.

He then worked as a delivery boy for several weeks before traveling cross-country on a Greyhound bus. Douglas got his driver’s license in Arizona and bought a 1993 Chevy van—complete with a bed, stereo, and TV—that he drove back to New York.

He was so proud of that van, and talked about using it for more trips. We questioned the size and he told us, ‘Go big or go home!’

“His next trip was to Chile and Argentina. I hugged Douglas fiercely the day he left, and then he said, ‘One more,’ and hugged me again for a long time. He is smiling in every photo taken on

spring 2015 I class notes I 89

“We will never know what happened on May 17, 2014, but we do know, despite the searing pain in our hearts, that Douglas would want us to live, and to live better than we had been living. We are trying to be kinder people. We are trying to figure out how to talk about the problem of teen suicide.

We are trying to learn how to navigate our world without our big, beautiful, kind son.”

The Fischer family has established a summer camp scholarship fund in Doug’s name through the Adirondack Scholarship Foundation. For more information, visit adkscholarship.org.

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Doug Fischer ’13

that trip. He was excited about returning to his old camp in the Adirondacks as a counselor and told a friend of mine that he was going to be good at the job because he was patient. He seemed ready for Oxford College at Emory University.

faculty notes LYN KELLOM PO Box 1546 New London NH 03257-1546 rbmzkellom@comcast.net

On an autumn 2014 southern jaunt, Wendy and Chuck Sanborn stopped in Virginia to reconnect with Jerry Davis. Many acres of long-held land on a quiet road are home to an extended Davis family complex. Jerry does security work on weekends, and also plays golf; son Channing lives with Jerry, while son Sterling Davis ’91 resides and works in California.

One of the legacies and real joys of having been part of the NMH school community is that people stay in touch. A phone call from Sara Anderson ’71 filled me in on her current library projects as the head librarian at Lawrence Academy in Groton, Mass. Lee and Lou Turner stopped by for lunch last October on their way home from Dartmouth Homecoming Weekend, where Lou’s class of ’55

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Would you like to be in touch with classmates? The class of ’14 needs a class secretary to contribute columns to NMH Magazine. If you are interested, please contact Marggie Slichter ’84 at mslichter@ nmhschool.org.

Amherst College students Raheem Jackson ’13 (left) and Mohamed Hussein ’14

was one of two classes honored; last August, Wendy and Chuck Sanborn joined us here for supper. A pub meal with Jeanne and Dale Conly ’52 before they flew off to Portugal, and an open house for Margot Torrey’s family summer cottage’s 100th anniversary were great fun. A few days Down East with Sam and Phyllis Gansz Greene highlighted Maine seafood, island exploring, and a tough jigsaw puzzle.

Carolyn Mann sent the obituary of former faculty member Robert F. Muttart, 74, who died on 11/24/14. Robert taught Bible from 1967 to 1968.

Carolyn is well and busy.

Joseph R. Curry passed away on 12/12/14 at age 81. Joe was a faculty member at Mt. Hermon School from 1961 to 1971. He taught history, coached wrestling, and was director of the summer school. He went on to be headmaster of Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Mass., for 28 years. His two daughters, Lisa and Dana, survive him; his wife, Jenny, died in 2000.

“Being Sally meant being a person of cheer, conversation, curiosity, generosity, grace, and deep faith.” So was intoned in the homily for Sarah “Sally” M. Curtis at her memorial service at

Rutland (Vt.) Trinity Episcopal Church. Sally died on 9/11/14 at the age of 92. I first met Sally when I arrived fresh out of college to teach American history at Northfield School for Girls. To help me acclimate and to answer myriad questions, she had been designated my “big sister,” and throughout all the succeeding years we always greeted each other with “Hi, big sister” and ”Hi, little sister.” Sally’s sharp, piercing mind was immediately obvious.

Never rude but always forthright, she would “tell it like it is”—be it to a student or colleague. She had a dry wit and a wonderful belly laugh. And then there was that old Yankee grit and stubbornness— though her eyesight was failing, she attended an NSFG luncheon at Kendal in Hanover, N.H., and made an annual trek to visit good friends on coastal Maine. She faithfully participated in NMH June reunions, and sang her heart out in Sacred Concert.

As will everyone, I shall miss you, “big sister.”

—Lyn Kellom

Faculty and Staff Retirees Dick Peller

math teacher

Ellen Turner

academic dean

Faculty and students consider it a privilege to know and work with Dick Peller. He is the quintessential independentschool teacher, involved in every facet of school life, and he has done it with boundless enthusiasm for more than 40 years.

Dick and his first wife, Mec, welcomed students and faculty into their home constantly, forging friendships that continue to this day—all while raising two accomplished children, Annie ’97 and Michael ’98.

With his current spouse, Ellen Turner, Dick has continued to give his warm attention to the entire community. He coached five varsity sports at NMH, with some notably successful teams, but the real tribute to his coaching is all the former players who keep in touch and come to visit. As chair of the math department, Dick has mentored many teachers into a tightly knit, organized group. Students find him patient and creative, and they often cite classes with him as their most memorable NMH experiences.

What’s Dick’s secret? He has embraced his work, no matter how difficult, with good humor, humanity, and purpose, energized by the relationships he has developed over the years with students, alumni, and faculty. It is hard to imagine NMH without him, but his example and spirit are so much a part of this school that he will never truly leave.

Ellen (Cameron) Turner has given her all to her family, our students, and this community.

In her college admission work at Kenyon College, she saw NMH students stand out for their compassion, passion, and engagement in the world, and was drawn to work with them.

Since coming to NMH, she has held an impressive variety of positions: She has taught psychology, health, diversity and social justice, and aerobics, and served as the director of counseling, college counseling, advising, and student services. She has also been the ninth-grade dean and academic dean. In each position, she has provided wisdom, clarity, and passion. She is positive and effusive in communicating what makes NMH a special place, and she works long, late hours to ensure its continued excellence.

For students and faculty alike, Ellen has consistently offered a sympathetic ear, a laser focus, a definitive answer, an action plan, a follow-up conversation, and a full jar of candy. She has helped an entire faculty be better in their work with students, and she has helped many hundreds of students become their best selves. Just as she ends each message with gratitude in her weekly advisor notes, we, too, end with gratitude. Ellen, thank you for all that you have done for us, for our students, and for NMH.

— Jay Ward ’68, Science teacher and registrar

— Meg Donnelly, English teacher

Bob Cooley

english teacher

Hughes Pack

science teacher

What do Homer’s Iliad, Beethoven, Toni Morrison, and the Cleveland Browns have in common? Bob Cooley: a passionate fan of the greatest epic, composer, and modern writer— and maybe-not-the-greatest-butstill-beloved football team.

For over 40 years, Bob brought this enthusiasm to NMH. To help students better understand the books they read, he filled his classroom with art, books, and music. A firm proponent of the world as a classroom, he led study-abroad programs to Greece, Egypt, and Italy.

Bob inspired students to pursue their own passions, to critically and creatively examine not just texts but also their own lives. From his early days teaching Greek and ancient history to his years as a dean and an English teacher, Bob fostered a love of learning with a focus on social justice.

Bob readily agreed to teach NMH’s first Harlem Renaissance class, enriching the students’ experience with an annual field trip to Harlem. Looking for new ways to support students, Bob started NMH’s first peer-mediation program and developed the Minority Concerns Project in 1985. His pioneering work is both an inspiration and challenge to the next generation of NMH teachers.

Never stop learning. When you’re excited about your work, it shows. Hughes Pack has been enhancing his learning for his entire career. Be it piloting the “Minds on Physics” project at UMass, working at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, or building the NMH observatory with his own hands, the message is clear: to educate life-long learners, we need to be life-long learners. There are no yellowed pages of lecture notes in Hughes’s classroom. Everything is evolving: the topics, the methods, the projects.

Hughes’s enthusiasm is contagious, whether he’s building a solar car, teaching a mountain-biking class (which he kept up until retirement), advising student Ecoleaders, mentoring younger teachers, bringing the NMH observatory into the digital age, or discovering, with students, a Kuiper Belt object beyond the planets. Hughes is a popular teacher among students—a Student Choice Award winner— and his colleagues also take pleasure in his energy. His heartfelt love of his job is his greatest legacy.

Hughes and his wife Joan came to campus in 1978 and raised two boys, Noah ’04 and Eli ’07, to love the NMH environs. Happily, the entire Pack pack will remain in the Pioneer Valley.

— Barbara Watson, English teacher (retired)

— Craig Hefner, Science teacher spring 2015 I class notes I 91

Sherry Margeson

dining services

Cindy Harris

registrar

Throughout her 28 years at NMH, Sherry has been an energetic, passionate, and caring leader in Dining Services. She arrived in 1987 as an administrative assistant, overseeing accounting and communications for a program with five dining halls and 50 staff members. She began her career with an electric typewriter, and in 1990 was the first dining services staff member to work with a computer.

Sherry became the office manager in Dining Services more than 20 years ago. As a resourceful and organizational force, she has envisioned and planned thousands of events and celebrations, written just as many catering menus, and created memorable weddings and special-occasion events for NMH alumni, faculty, and trustees. She has counseled staff; acted as a calm, patient liaison between Dining Services and the NMH community; helped lead our transition to a single campus; and set a positive, vibrant tone as Dining Services became an integral part of the NMH experience.

Sherry and her husband Allan are proud parents of sons Ian and Cam ’09, and now enjoy time with their first grandchild, Oliver.

Sherry’s most treasured NMH moment was perhaps Cam’s acceptance to NMH, and his remarkable legacy as an NMH student.

Cindy’s journey to NMH is a long story that involves engine failure and an emergency landing. The short version is that Cindy left a high-paying position in marketing to work for minimum wage in the Mount Hermon mail center. Why? To give her son, Greg ’92, an NMH education. Luckily, she stayed for the next 15 years!

Within two years, Cindy had become the manager of both the Mail Center and then the Safety and Security department.

Next she was director of the Work Program, and in her last move, she became the school’s registrar, a job she loved. Cindy enjoyed solving scheduling problems, and made it a point of pride to provide both teachers and students with their first choices. While working behind the scenes as the registrar, Cindy also involved herself directly in the lives of students as an advisor, as a chaperone on NMH trips to India and China, as a supporter of both the girls’ and boys’ basketball teams, and as a member of the student-organized Cancer Team. As a six-year cancer survivor, Cindy’s ongoing fight against the disease has inspired the NMH campus community. Kudos and many thanks to Cindy for her characteristic “can do” attitude, her practical solutions, her good humor, and her indomitable spirit.

— Rich Messer, Director of Dining Services

— Meg Donnelly, English teacher

vital statistics Births and Adoptions ’93 Ethan Cha to Song-hee “Susie” Bae and husband, 3/21/14 ’93 Tyler Michael to Sarah Cureton Chinn and husband Robert, 12/5/14 ’93 twins Isabelle Michelle and Katherine Diana to Celeste Wilhelm Dakai and husband Tom, 3/24/14 ’93 Tait Gabriel to Erika Steckler and family, 8/14 ’97 Indira Rani to Yogiraj Graham and Sasaneh Graham, 7/15/14 ’02 Maya da Costa to Keiko Achiwa and Brendan Connor, 8/20/14 ’02 Parker Vianney to Danielle Henry Beale and husband Garrison, 11/4/14 ’02 Isadora Ana to Kelvin Martinez and wife, 12/25/14 ’02 Stella Mowery to Sara Stephens Wilson and husband Dan, 12/7/14 ’04 Rian Desai to Pooja Desai Patel and husband, 3/29/14 Weddings and Civil Unions

’62 Eric Riedel to Karen Anne Smith Zee, 9/28/14 ’67 Faris Bennett to Tom McCraine, 8/14 ’87 Eden Wright to Motti Butbol, 5/14 ’97 Gretchen Davidson Keneshea to Lincoln Keneshea, summer 2014

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’01 Lawrence Delevinge to Lindsay Slote, 8/14 ’01 Alex Lloyd to Rachel Conrad, 8/16/14 ’02 Maria Schrautemyer Abe to Masahisa Abe, 5/13 ’04 Nina Scheinman to Drew Remiker, 7/19/14 ’07 Dina Eldib to Farouk Tatanaki, 8/14 ’07 John Wang to Shelly Wu, 9/14/14 Deaths

’27 Carolyn Beecher Hager, 6/24/14. ’31 Violet Warren Ayres, 9/16/14. Mother of Warren W. Ayres ’65. ’32 Margaret Henderson Bilcheck, 8/3/14. ’32 Louise Leroy Shartzer, 4/27/13. Daughter of Johannah Lion Wolcott (1908). ’34 Isla Barker Cembalisty, 10/3/14. Former spouse of Joseph Cembalisty ’28. ’34 Ruth Johnston Craft, 9/1/14. ’35 Margaret Lanphear Hayes, 2/7/13. Mother of Donna Hayes Kennedy ’59. Sister of Irene Lanphear Thompson ’34 and Shirley Lanphear Lyman ’38. Cousin of Evelyn Lanphear Slater ’38 and Brenda Slater Holske ’61. Aunt of Deane Lanphear ’53, Janice Thompson Butler ’54, Judith Thompson Flemister ’57, and Dennis Lanphear ’61. Great-aunt of Karen Lanphear Malinowski ’77, D. Bradford Lanphear ’79, Kristin Lanphear LaPorte ’82, and Wendy Flemister Shairs ’82. Sister-in-law of May Thompson Lanphear ’33. ’35 Cornelia Kittredge Hedman, 12/23/14.

Daughter of Hazel Waters Kittredge (1913).

Sister of Constance Kittredge Kearney ’41.

Niece of John H. Lotz (1898). Cousin of John Lotz ’23. ’35 H. Duncan Rollason, 11/30/14. Brother of Elizabeth Rollason Greene ’39 and David Rollason ’43. Uncle of David Rollason ’69, Louise Rollason Daniel ’70, and Amy Rollason Feran ’71. ’36 Betsey Barber Barney, 1/1/15. ’36 Richard McDonald, 10/14. Father of Farrand McDonald O’Donoghue ’61. ’37 Dale Fitelson Cavanagh, 5/26/13. ’37 Jean Washburn Hernandez, 3/1/14. ’38 Matilda Hendrickson Hunt, 12/19/14. Mother of Candace Hunt ’72. Sister of Jane Hendrickson Froelich ’31, Mildred Hendrickson Knell ’34, and Ruth Hendrickson Curd ’36. Aunt of Betsy Froelich Hill ’54 and Susan Knell Cone ’58. ’38 George Morrill, 1/3/15. Brother of Janet Morrill ’35 and Margaret Morrill Talbert ’38. ’38 Jane Cashen Walker, 1/3/15. Mother of Andrew Walker ’80. ’39 Shirley Chace, 11/18/14. Cousin of Russell Chase ’39. ’39 Charlotte Ogilvie Coddington, 3/26/13. Sister of John Ogilvie ’45. ’39 Dorothy Howland Fenoff, 4/24/13. Sister of James Howland ’37. Aunt of Judith Howland ’61 and Robert Howland ’73. ’39 Josephine McNeill Ferrara, 1/12/13. ’39 Barbara Sumner Herrington Frazier, 6/9/14. ’39 Paul Smith, 6/27/14. Father of Deborah Smith Cole ’65, Rebecca Smith Anderson ’68, and Charity Smith Gray ’81. Granduncle of Eli Stiefel ’08 and Dana Stiefel ’12.

’40 Lowell Bollinger, 9/25/14. ’40 Howard Gallup, 6/3/14. ’40 Richard W. Nash, 4/2/14. Brother of Thomas Nash ’36 and Harold Nash ’37. Uncle of Harold B. Nash ’69. ’40 Raymond Suckling, 9/29/14. ’40 Joan Best Thomsen, 7/4/13. ’42 Beverly Butler DeAgazio, 11/6/14. Daughter of Helen Bruce Butler (1914). Great-niece of Lillian Wainwright (1901). ’42 Paul Finefrock, 7/11/13. Brother of Robert Finfrock ’32, Howard Finfrock ’32, John Finfrock ’35, and Wilbur Finfrock ’40. Stepfather of Donna Wells ’71. ’42 Camille Ferraris Marcello, 12/10/13. Cousin of Ruth Harpin ’40. ’43 Robert Bodington, 12/14/14. Brother of Gwendolyn Bodington Ball ’45. Cousin of Carolyn Sutton Wells ’62. ’43 Robert Krueger, 1/2/15. Brother of Donald Krueger ’45 and William Krueger ’49. ’43 Harry Schanck, 6/7/14. ’43 Donald Schurman, 11/3/14. Father of Dale O’Reilley ’64. Former spouse of Roberta Powers Schurman ’44. ’43 Charles Woodruff, 11/25/14. ’43 Toni Novak Wyman, 11/4/14. Sister of Gertrude Novak ’44. ’44 Mary Storey Bowring, 10/27/13. ’44 Robert Carpenter, 7/29/14. ’44 George Cartwright, 1/10/15. ’44 Emily Ambler Collins, 6/21/13. Mother of Susan Gibson-Moley ’73. Aunt of Curtis Ambler ’64 and Tracy Ambler ’67. ’44 Jane Treadway Noel, 6/8/14. Cousin of Robert Shaw ’38. ’45 David Boulton, 7/19/14. Brother of Marcia Boulton Allen ’48. ’45 Richard Morrill, 9/16/14. Brother of Jane Morrill Geraghty ’51 and Dexter Morrill ’56. ’45 John Rikert, 10/5/14. Father of Darrell Rikert ’81. Brother of Paul Rikert ’49. Nephew of Reuben Rikert (1911), Derrell H. Rikert (1911), Carroll Rikert, Sr. (1913), Benjamin Rikert (1916), Emma Rikert Babson (1916), and George Rikert ’26. Cousin of Carroll Rikert, Jr. ’34, Gladys Rikert ’38, Connie Rikert Harris ’40, Naomi Rikert Minott ’40, David Babson ’41, Camilla Rikert Bittle ’41, Ruth Rikert Greenwood ’42, Catherine Rikert ’45, Richard Rikert ’52, David Rikert ’63, Rachel Rikert Burbank ’65, Hannah Rikert Morvan ’66, Jon Corson-Rikert ’69, Rebecca Bittle Johns-Danes ’76, and Tryfan Evans ’88. ’45 Theodore Wright, 10/15/14. Brother of Mary Wright Rainey ’39 and Lydia Wright Beaumont ’42. Cousin of Harriet Hume Waters ’39 and Katherine Hume Reif ’43. ’46 Elinor Currier Gooch, 12/7/14. Sister of Virginia Currier Stickney ’39 and Nan Currier Hilfrank ’45. ’46 Thomas Greer, 1/1/15. Son of Charles Greer (1917). Nephew of A. Wilson Greer (1913), Margaret Greer Ball (1916), and George Greer (1917). ’47 Frank Alessandrini, 1/3/15. ’47 Bruce Brackett, 9/14/14. ’47 Mary Lyon Connor, 11/13/14. Mother of Peter Connor ’70 and Joan Connor ’72. Aunt of Alison Lyon Weintraub ’63. Cousin of Rachel White Adams ’23, Marian Tinker Freese ’42, Stanley L. Houston ’42, Jeanne Adams Hallager ’43, Sally Adams ’45, Paul Houston ’65, Douglas Houston ’69, Bill Hallager ’70,

Stanley K. Houston ’72, Christina Hallager Thomas ’73, Anne Hallager McGonagle ’77, and Rachel Martel ’00. ’47 Owen H. Jander, 1/21/15. Brother of Sylvia Jander ’47 and Mark Jander ’50. Uncle of Owen Jander ’81. ’47 Louise Manry, 7/13/14. Granddaughter of Kate Colson King (1890). ’48 Virginia Rand Finley, 9/8/14. Sister of Anna Rand Lewis ’54. ’48 Richard Fish, 6/26/14. ’48 Jessie Miller Linicus, 12/20/14. Daughter of Elsie Garrigus Miller ’20. Niece of Howard Garrigus ’21. ’48 Harriet Walters Sullivan, 12/21/14. ’50 Paul Adolph, 11/12/14. ’50 Mark Jander, 1/15/15. Father of Owen Jander ’81. Brother of Sylvia Jander ’47 and Owen H. Jander ’47. ’50 Lois Bauder Lutes, 1/28/13. Sister of Mary Bauder Legard ’54. ’50 Robert White, 1/25/15. Father of Robert F. White ’73. Brother of Betty White Mengel ’58. ’51 Jane Morrill Geraghty, 6/14/14. Sister of Richard Morrill ’45 and Dexter Morrill ’56. ’52 John Cannon, 11/5/14. Brother of Patricia Cannon Sprague ’51. Uncle of James Sprague ’79. ’52 Gayle Muir Dempsey, 11/7/14. Sister of David Muir ’49. ’52 Sara Guthrie, 8/16/14. Sister of Kate Guthrie Bergen ’56. ’52 Ramona Chapin Haldimann, 2014. ’52 Mary Scott, 11/24/14. ’52 Ian Walker, Jr., 1/9/15. Son of Frances Peckham Walker ’22 and Ian M. Walker ’22.

Brother of Coll Walker ’63. Nephew of Raymond Peckham (1918) and Bernard Peckham ’22. Cousin of Elinor Peckham Gavin ’45, Albert Peckham ’47, Norman Peckham ’48, Janice Peckham Chace ’49, Nina Peckham Young ’51, Gordon Peckham ’53, and Rachel Peckham Elder ’53. Grandfather of Ian S. Merrill ’11. ’52 Sheila Schechtman Weinberg, 1/1/15. Sister of Rebecca Schechtman Maisel ’56. ’53 Nancy Holton Calhoun, 1/10/15. Mother of Kristin Bolton ’84. Sister of Mary Holton Soderberg ’40 and Robert Holton ’53. ’53 Charles Gold, 1/7/15. ’53 Mary Gregory Ratchford, 9/20/14. Sister of Anne Gregory Belden ’49. ’55 Anthony Ayre, 12/10/14. ’55 Frank Duncan, 5/18/14. ’55 Nancy Gass Markel, 12/4/14. ’55 Robert Pyper, 12/19/14. Son of Gordon F. Pyper ’28. Brother of Lois Pyper Finney ’39, Carolyn Pyper Buker ’43, Gordon R. Pyper ’42, Ann Pyper Shedd ’51, and Joanna Pyper ’66. Uncle of Kent Buker ’69. Nephew of Warren Pyper ’25. Granduncle of Martin Pyper Shedd ’07. ’57 John Cooper, 1/10/15. ’58 Janice Meissner Murray, 8/25/14. Aunt of Eric Weissner ’88. ’58 Suzanne Beaudry Kelly Whaling, 9/27/13.

Mother of Collins Baker ’85. ’58 Edward White, 9/26/14. ’60 Barry Dantzscher, 4/8/13. ’60 Judith Appley Grutter, 12/16/14. Daughter of Lawrence Appley ’23. Sister of Ann Appley ’51. ’60 Geoffrey Nelson, 12/13/14. ’61 Paul Derounian, 7/27/14. ’62 Martha Betsy Rand, 10/28/14. Grandmother of Schuyler Lee ’90. Sister of Patricia Pickens

Emery ’51. Niece of Mary Zwemer Brittain ’25. ’63 John Van Hazinga, 10/11/14. Brother of Cynthia Van Hazinga ’61. Cousin of Jennifer Cousar Costa ’87. ’65 Walter Banks, 12/27/14. ’65 Dorothea Evergates, 7/2/14. Sister of Theodore Evergates ’58. ’65 George Fitch, 12/30/14. ’68 David Spaulding, 11/27/14. Son of James Spaulding ’39. Nephew of Marion Spaulding Livernoise ’35, Edith Spaulding Smolen ’37, Ruth Spaulding Brassor ’41, and Howard Spaulding ’42. Cousin of Howard Buffum ’22, Stuart Jillson ’30, Louis May ’32, J. Howard Buffum ’44, Carroll Rich ’45, Gail Livernoise Noland ’60, James Smolen ’67, Joanne Smolen Freeman ’70, and Nancy Smolen Chase ’71.

Stepbrother of Robert Helbig ’58 and Susan Helbig Maddern ’60. Uncle of Elizabeth Maddern-DeHoyos ’82, Linda Maddern Leduc ’85, and Thomas Maddern ’88. Greatnephew of Francis Buffum (1903) and Blanche Sprague Buffum (1905). ’71 Allyson Davis Ledoux, 10/10/14. Daughter of Philip Davis ’44. ’72 Ann M. McCarte, 9/17/14. Sister of Elizabeth McCarte ’73. ’73 Shelley Clark Fardelmann, 10/8/14. Sister of Mary Fardelmann Olson ’75 and James Fardelmann ’78. Aunt of Chelsea Fardelmann ’10 and Haley Fardelmann ’12. ’74 Sally Butcher Ansley, 11/29/14. Daughter of Elizabeth Day ’48. Sister of Suzanne Butcher ’71 and Peter Butcher ’80. ’78 Scott Dalitzky, 9/1/14. ’81 Constance Wynne, 12/31/14. ’82 Sherrie Inness, 8/11/14. ’88 Christopher Wren, 10/1/14. Brother of Celia Wren ’85. ’89 Frans Bogardus, 12/11/14. ’02 William Marston, 1/10/15.

Deaths—Former Faculty and Staff Michael Atamaniuk, retired staff, 9/1/14.

Robert Brassor, retired staff, 1/15/15. Former

spouse of Ruth Spaulding Brassor ’41.

Leon Casineau, retired staff, 6/8/13.

Charles Compton, former faculty, 12/14/14.

Richard E. Cunningham, friend of NMH, 3/1/15.

Father of Kevin Cunningham ’74, Karen Cunningham Van Adzin ’75, Richard A. Cunningham ’76, Colleen Cunningham Johns ’78, Jane Cunningham ’80, and Gregory Cunningham ’84.

Joseph Curry, former faculty, 12/12/14.

Sarah Curtis, former faculty, 9/11/14. Niece of Ethel Kerr Gilbert (1909) and Lapha Kerr Gilbert (1913). Cousin of Linda Gilbert ’67.

Vernon Gillett, former staff, 12/20/14. Father of Drew Gillett ’68, Dean Gillett ’70, and Sherry Gillett Heldt ’71. Grandfather of Sarah Gillett ’98 and Rayna Heldt ’02.

Linda Hook, former staff, 11/13/14.

David Losius, staff, 9/6/14.

Robert Muttart, former faculty, 11/24/14.

Elizabeth Newton, former faculty, 12/30/14.

Mary Seymour, former faculty, 1/15/15. Mother of Gabriel Milici ’07. Sister of Abigail Seymour ’85.

Esther Winslow, former staff, 1/2/15.

spring 2015 I class notes I 93

in memoriam

BY NOELLE ANSON

Sarah M. “Sally” Curtis On Sept. 11, 2014, Northfield Mount Hermon lost a legend: former teacher Sarah M. Curtis, known as Sally, died at the Rutland Regional Medical Center at the age of 92. Her distinguished career in the mathematics department spanned nearly 40 years, first at the Northfield School for Girls and then at NMH. Retiring English teacher Bob Cooley, for whom Curtis was a mentor in the 1970s, said Curtis was part of a tradition of strong female leaders at Northfield.

“Sally called it ‘the latest generation of Northfield teachers’ who, through their work, honored the work of Mira Wilson and Evelyn Hall,” Cooley said.

Sarah Macomber Curtis was born Aug. 15, 1922, in Rutland, Vermont, the daughter of Edward Warren and Irma Lucile (Kerr) Curtis. She graduated from Rutland High School in 1940,

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valedictorian of her class, and continued her education at Middlebury College, earning both a bachelor’s degree in 1944 and a master’s in education in 1947.

During the time she was studying for her master’s, she also worked at Eastman Kodak as a junior engineer, but her first job after finishing her degree was as a math teacher at the Knox School in Cooperstown, New York.

Curtis arrived at Northfield in September 1948 and taught in both the English and mathematics departments. She is most remembered as a much-beloved math teacher, tough but fair, and, above all, compassionate, with a sense of humor. She taught all levels of math up to calculus, which she only began teaching in the early 1980s. She served as head of the math department at Northfield from 1961 through the merger with Mount Hermon in 1972, and in 1977 was appointed an “Independence Master” by then Head of School Jane Robinson. She retired in 1986, returning to Rutland, where she lived for the rest of her life. She was a regular, along with other retired math department colleagues, at reunions and other school events.

Dick Peller, the retiring chair of the math department, called Curtis “one of the brightest people I met at NMH” and said she taught “with rigor and a light heart.” “She managed the merger of the two schools as well as anyone I remember,” he said. “While there were some tense times in the math department between the Mount Hermon and Northfield teachers, Sally was able to rise above it all and help us become one department.”

Peller recalled presenting Curtis with one of the math department’s “official” T-shirts, which say, “NMH Math — the department that counts.” “Sally was delighted with it, and wore it proudly,” he said.

Curtis lived on the Northfield campus for many years, first in Mar-

quand and then in West Gould; was class teacher for two Northfield classes, 1952 and 1955; and was a member of the Northfield School Church, St. James Episcopal Church in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and the Congregational Church of Rutland. Her other interests included fishing, singing, and playing the organ; she took up the organ again in the 1980s, after 20 years away from it, and practiced daily on the Sage Chapel organ for a time. She was a member of several professional organizations and the Ladies Oriental Shrine of North America, and served as president of the local branch of the Teachers of Math in New England.

Curtis is survived by her sister, Martha “Pat” Curtis Tucker, and her husband; and a niece, a nephew, a grandniece, and several cousins. A memorial service was held on Sept. 20, 2014, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Rutland.

Memorial contributions may be sent to the church at 85 West St., Rutland, VT 05701; to the Rutland Humane Society, 765 Stevens Rd., Pittsford, VT 05763; or to Northfield Mount Hermon, One Lamplighter Way, Mount Hermon, MA 01354. ♦

David B. Losius On Sept. 6, 2014, David B. Losius, a carpenter at Northfield Mount Hermon for more than 20 years, died unexpectedly at Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield, Massachusetts, after taking ill at home. He was 62 years old.

Losius brought a high level of skill to his carpentry work, and faculty in whose homes he worked appreciated the care he took with both renovations and new construction. “Dave was an artist and a realist,” said NMH’s performing arts chair Sheila Heffernon. “He could figure out a way to make a kitchen or a bathroom look as though it belonged in House Beautiful without spending lavish amounts of money.”

Losius was also known for his humor, kindness, and modesty. “It was always a treat to bump into Dave on campus,” Heffernon said. “His warm

smile and his genuine interest in people meant that having a conversation with him made you feel happier. His positive outlook, combined with his practical nature, made him a bit of a philosopher.”

And when he was on the receiving end of a compliment, Heffernon said, Losius always deflected the praise. “Just doing my job” was one of his favorite phrases.

Losius was born on Sept. 28, 1951 in Greenfield, Massachusetts, the elder son of Veto and Frances (Ryder) Losius. He grew up in the nearby town of Orange, attended local schools, and graduated in 1969 from the Ralph C. Mahar Regional High School, where he was a three-sport athlete. He continued his education for two years at North Adams State College, working in the summers at the Orange Department of Public Works.

After a year working full time at the Orange DPW and another at Hayden

Lumber Co., Losius became a selfemployed general contractor in 1975. He worked in western Massachusetts doing home building and repairs for 18 years prior to his employment with NMH. In 1982, he married Lizabeth Picard; they had two children, Shawn and Robyn.

In 1993, Losius was hired at NMH and spent much of the next decade working on Tim Tyler’s crew, doing both rough and finish carpentry. In 2004, when Tyler retired, Losius took the reins as crew foreman, a position he held until his death.

Aside from work and family, Losius’s interests included hunting, fishing, gardening, music, and outdoor pursuits.

An avid sportsman, he followed numerous New England teams and played in many local softball tournaments. He was a member of the National Rifle Association and the Orange Gun Club.

In an interview with NMH Magazine in 2012, Losius revealed both his mischievous side and his love for his family. “I like to keep people on their toes, keep it light, no matter who I’m talking to,” he said. “Before NMH, I worked for a private contractor and I was on the road a lot, so coming here was probably one of the best moves I ever made. It’s close to home. I got to watch my kids grow up.”

David is survived by his wife, Lizabeth; his daughter, Robyn Houle, and her husband; his son, Shawn; two grandchildren; a brother, Peter; his inlaws, Marty and Diane Picard; and many nieces and nephews.

A graveside service was held on Sept.

10, 2014, at Northfield Farms Cemetery in Northfield, Massachusetts. Memorial contributions may be made to the Northfield Recreation Department, c/o Northfield Town Hall, 69 Main Street, Northfield, MA 01360. ♦

spring 2015 I class notes I 95

PARTING WORDS

Learning to Hope A girl in Somaliland finds her voice.

by FARAH OMER ’15

When I was 11 years old, I received the highest grades in the fifth grade in my school in Somaliland. At the end of the school year, there was a ceremony in which people with the biggest accomplishments were acknowledged, and I was called up to the stage by an official from the ministry of education. I was proud and eager to receive my prize.

The official handed me a package, and in front of my family, friends, and a thousand strangers clapping, I opened it and saw that the prize was a boy’s soccer uniform and a boy’s watch. I felt humiliated, but what hurt more was knowing that my school principal and the ministry officials had assumed a boy would be the best student in the grade.

There is a Somali proverb that says a woman’s place is either her home or her grave, and those are the values with which I was taught. I didn’t understand why I had to work 10 times as hard as my male counterparts to be seen as capable. Or why there were no women in Parliament. Or why, because I was a girl, my voice was considered a sin and I was considered half a person with half a brain.

I forced myself to blend in, convinced that I didn’t have the power to change my world. When your

ambitions are crushed, it’s easy and safe to be cynical and apathetic about the injustices you encounter at school or at the market. No matter how much you want to take action, there is that voice in your head reminding you how many times you were called stupid or bossy because you said your opinions out loud. You come to the inevitable conclusion that change is impossible. That is what I did for a long time.

Then I met Nimo, a 14-year-old girl who lives in my country’s largest orphanage center. My friends and I used to go there three times a week to tutor kids in math and basic English and to show them some love in their difficult lives. Nimo had almost been a victim of human organ trafficking; her parents had died in the war in Somalia, and the rest of her family abandoned her. She came to my class with a beautiful smile and a desire to learn. Here she was, 14 years old, willing to sit in classes with 5-year-olds because she valued learning how to add double digits and how to write her name more than she cared about being cool.

One day Nimo did not come to class, so I went looking for her. I found her in the kitchen cutting vegetables.

I asked her why she hadn’t come to class, and she said, “Teacher, today I can’t escape, but maybe next week.”

She wasn’t just saying that to get me off her back. She genuinely believed that tomorrow she would be able to convince her supervisors to let her come to class.

That was the day I started to believe in change. I thought that if Nimo can hope — a girl who had faced some of the most horrifying experiences known to humanity — then so could I. It isn’t as easy as it sounds. Being a believer in hope and change is a lifetime commitment, a choice you make every day. It means you give up the comfort of conforming to societal norms for the greatness of standing by your convictions.

I don’t have it down yet. I am thousands of miles away from my family and friends, and many afternoons when I am tired, busy, and homesick, I wish I were home drinking excellent Ethiopian coffee. Some mornings I wake up terrified that today will be the day I prove to be not good enough, or smart enough, or strong enough to sit in these remarkable NMH classrooms. I am scared that I will not be a good role model for girls like Nimo. I am scared I will disappoint everyone who puts their faith in me. I am scared that I won’t be able to escape the box that society has put me in.

But I also refuse to give up. I cannot afford to. My education is greater than me; it has a bigger purpose. It will help prove that women in my country can succeed outside of the household. It can help begin to end gender discrimination. It is a symbol of hope for Nimo and for many girls just like her around the globe. [NMH]

Postgraduate and TYP student Farah Omer shared a longer version of this essay at an all-school meeting in October 2014.

Read the original at http://tinyurl.com/learningtohope.

96 I NMH Magazine

PHOTOS: JEFF WOODWARD, GALE ZUCKER

GIVING BACK

Across Generations Dorothy Osborn ’45 and Roberta Taggart ’07 It’s been 70 years since Dorothy “Dee” Osborn ’45 attended the Northfield School for Girls, but time hasn’t dampened her enthusiasm. “I grew up in a tiny town with no high school, so going to Northfield was incredibly exciting for me — it represented a window to a larger world and the daydream of bigger things to come.”

One of the first things Osborn did at Northfield was change her nickname — “Dotty” — which she hated. “I was 5' 8" at age 12,” she says. “‘Dotty’ sounded diminutive and that wasn’t me.” As “Dee,” she threw herself into her classes, and field hockey and choir. “The school was so invigorating — the students, the sports, the camaraderie — and the education was terrific.”

Osborn went on to Wellesley and a career in finance. When the time came for her granddaughter Roberta to choose a high school, she waited, and hoped. “I didn’t push Northfield.

She chose it all by herself. But I was thrilled.”

Taggart agrees that her grandmother didn’t make a hard sell for NMH; she simply pointed out the opportunities the school had given her. “I knew attending Northfield had been a pivotal experience in my grandmother’s life, so I thought it would be good for me,” Taggart says. At NMH, Taggart rowed, played ice hockey, and sang in the Concert Choir.

She graduated from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and now works for RBC Capital Markets in New York.

Both granddaughter and grandmother support NMH enthusiastically, Taggart through the Alumni Council’s Young Alumni Committee and the school’s New York area club, and Osborn through regular contributions. “In my mind, it’s a form of tithing — honoring the education I received,” Osborn says. Taggart echoes this sentiment. “I think many people underestimate the benefits they derived from attending NMH. I gained so much from my time there, and remaining active as an alumna is my way of providing opportunities for the next generation of students.”

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