Class Notes

Sara Hodge Geuder ’55, Lynn Mulford Calhoun ’55, Ellen Winthrop Jennings ’55, and Caroline Simon Humphrey ’55.

CLASS OF 1954 Anna Hubbard Bellenger shares that 2020 “was the year I had (or would have had!) a one-person show at The Chester County Art Association. The show opened Thursday night, March 11, and closed Saturday afternoon! Also in 2020 the DAR gave me a framed certificate and pin honoring me with its Women in the Arts Recognition Award, which I was the first to receive. I sewed 200 cloth book covers with handles for my children’s book Sky High, which will be coming out this fall. I was also juried into the 154 th International American Watercolor show in New York, held in April 2021. So I’m still painting! George and I moved two years ago to a retirement cottage at Jenner’s Pond, and the timing was right as food, mail, and books were brought to our door during the pandemic, and I’ve forgotten how to cook! Our three children, Baily Bellenger Cypress ’78, George Bellenger III ’79, and James Bellenger ’83 are all doing well, as are their children. Life is good, aside from arthritis!”

CLASS OF 1955 Sara Hodge Geuder met her classmates Lynn Mulford Calhoun, Ellen Winthrop Jennings, and Caroline Simon Humphrey for lunch in May, taking advantage of Lynn’s visit from her home in Idaho to celebrate her brother John’s 90th birthday.

Sara also shared that her daugheter, Emily Geuder Blair ’87, married Mark Blair this summer, and Jeff Lippincott ’65 attended the wedding.

Jeff Lippincott ‘65, Emily Geuder Blair ’87 and Sara Hodge Geuder ’55 together at Emily’s wedding to Mark Blair.

Anna Bellenger ’54 will have her children’s book Sky High published this fall.

Nominate an Alum for a WFS award!

The Wilmington Friends School Alumni Association recognizes alumni annually for their outstanding achievements and service to the school and community. These individuals exemplify the best qualities of a Friends School graduate, including honesty, integrity, fairness, a commitment to serve others, and a commitment to equality and social justice. For more information or to submit a nomination, please contact Tina DiSabatino, Assistant Director of Development, at tdisabatino@wilmingtonfriends.org or 302.576.2981.

will spend July, August and September at my cottage in Brooksville, ME. Let me know if you are heading my way, please.”

CLASS OF 1958 Peter Gehret shares this pandemic silver lining: “I’m a model railroader so I’ve had plenty of tasks during the pandemic. However, I’ve also watched many truly terrible TV movies. Fortunately, due to the miracle of streaming, I was able, last fall, to watch my grandnephew Peter Erskine ’21 kick the winning field goal as Friends beat Tower Hill, 10-7. That, as the credit card advertisement states, was priceless!”

Andy Hess writes that “Lidia and I have survived the pandemic since returning from Poland on one of the last flights in early March 2020, by being housebound except for medical appointments. We have made good use of Amazon and Instacart, which have met essentially all of our needs over

the past 14 months. We hope to be able to return to Poland this summer. I spent a week in the hospital in early May due to bradycardia (for the nonphysicians in the class this is great variation in heart rate, e.g. high 30s to the low 60s). While it can go untreated, if there are no symptoms as was my case, I fully recommend that you consult a good cardiologist. I learned that I had real problems with my ‘electrical heart system.’ Fortunately, these were completely overcome by placement of a pacemaker in my upper chest. This surgery was in fact a piece of cake. And the results are simply amazing. I don’t remember when I had such energy as I have now. My other news is that I became a Professor Emeritus at Vanderbilt in August of last year, after 52 years of service in the Chemistry Department.”

Tom Wingate writes: “I read about the first all-black 400-meter freestyle relay team from Friends winning the bronze medal at the Delaware State High School Swimming Championships [in February]. Well done! In 1955, I had the distinct honor of representing Friends School at the very first Delaware State High School Swimming Championships held at Taylor Pool on the University of Delaware Campus. I was the only entry from Wilmington Friends in the meet; Friends School had no swimming team at that time. I won a bronze medal in the 50-yard freestyle and a silver medal in the 100-yard freestyle. It was quite an honor for me to represent Friends at that meet; it’s something I have never forgotten. I still have those medals today. Good luck to Friends School competitive swimming!”

CLASS OF 1962 Robert Lessey shares the following pandemic silver lining: “The level of comfort people have developed with the Zoom platform has enabled me to stay in touch in a meaningful way with members of my family through hosting

a weekly session and the screen has people filling three or four lively rectangles of faces and voices. The time commitment for me has been easy, although not everyone has the same predictable flexibility. A book group that I don’t host, and similarly several other groups, have managed to keep meeting and sharing. Presence at funerals and memorial services over the year was also made possible, some at great distance. I am a latecomer to streaming, but slowly getting into it, and have become a regular viewer and fan of SFJazz. Since moving to a house in North Potomac five years ago, I am four years into a building a butterfly garden, protected against deer, rabbits, and chipmunks, but friendly to birds and pollinators. Regular driving duties slowed, to music lessons, athletic practices and so on with four grandchildren, but the pace is picking up with beach volleyball added recently involving an hour drive to Frederick. Dog sitting when one or another of the families are away makes not having pets a natural result, except in July and August, when I host several dozen resident monarch caterpillars. I will find moments to feel grateful for the richness of life and send best wishes to all of my classmates of WFS ’62.”

Richard Weigel has retired from the History Department at Western Kentucky University, but still teaches in its Lifelong Learning program. He recently completed a co-authored chapter on Peace in the Classical World soon to be published in a major study on Peace by Oxford University Press. He is also writing a play, “Escaping Hell’s Kitchen,” based on family memories of growing up in Manhattan and extensive newspaper research.

CLASS OF 1965 Jeff Lippincott attended the wedding of Emily Geuder Blair ’87. (See photo of first page of Class Notes.)

CLASS OF 1968 Stuart Handloff has been living in Steamboat Springs, CO for nearly 50 years. He writes, “I’ve had a wide variety of occupations and finally settled on Executive Director and Board Chair for the regional professional theatre company, Piknik Theatre (an offshoot of a graduate school project from 2008); a job not nearly as glamorous as it sounds since it’s completely unpaid. Performing arts work was particularly hard hit during the pandemic since no gatherings of any kind were safe or permitted for the last year. Desperate to create something, we devised an audio theatre production which uses only sound to create and develop a story. Feel free to give a listen to this 50-minute comic interpretation of romance in the early settler days of Colorado at www.pikniktheatre.org. Donations are, of course, graciously accepted.”

Dorothy Stilmar Green writes that, “while recognizing the many tragedies that the pandemic has inflicted on countless families, my husband and I have been experiencing a lovely silver lining. Our two granddaughters, who also live in Arlington, have been going to school in our 3rd grade living room and our kindergarten den while their Mom teaches 8th grade math from her old bedroom. It’s such a treat to have them for breakfast, lunch and after school play as well as listening to them as they are being taught and are learning while in class.”

Mary Elizabeth Watson Smith shares that her pandemic silver lining has been her fourth grandchild, Claire, who was born in March 2020, at the height of the pandemic in New Orleans. She writes: “That experience was our introduction to all the twists and turns that unfolded over the next year! Our new arrival and the closing of day care allowed us to spend several

days weekly with our three-year-old granddaughter. We filled our days with many invented activities which have now become welcome traditions, such as ‘Rain Romps,’ in which you don rain gear and explore the neighborhood or park while jumping in every puddle and bring home ‘treasures’ to Mama and Daddy. Kenneth has long struggled with the vision of retirement. At one time, he had a golf handicap of 10, but was forced to give up the sport due to business and family priorities. During the shutdown, he resumed lessons, practice, and even played with the two ten-year-old twin boys next door! A vision of retirement is slowly forming!”

CLASS OF 1969 Dave Stoddard has retired as a Workplace Safety Training Specialist with the Texas Department of Insurance. He was with TDI from 2008 to 2014 as a safety consultant, and from 2015 until last month as a trainer. He had a short interval with a private-sector safety consulting service in between, and previously spent 21 years in manufacturing plants, at first doing a mix of human resources and safety, and later doing safety and environmental. He writes, “Martha and I will remain in Round Rock for the present.”

CLASS OF 1972 Amy Davis shares that her pandemic silver lining was being able to renovate a dollhouse her father built in 1951. Amy’s older brother Larry built an addition for it designed by her brother and architect, Zachary Davis ’75, and her older sister, Leslie Davis Guccione ’65 was the interior designer. She writes: “This was a fun project and long overdue. It was the perfect time to get it done!”

CLASS OF 1975 Thom Marston writes that his pandemic silver lining was creating a rain garden to support native plants. He

Thom Marston’s rain garden: top, proposed garden site in the Fall of 2019; bottom, completed rain garden in the Spring of 2021.

explains: “My favorite pastime is gardening in Maryland in order to return native plants to the ecosystem and to clean water flowing to the Bay. I completed training as a Watershed Steward, graduating in October 2019. My community proposed installing a garden in an area of our common lands that was not draining correctly and created leaf litter on the street and prevented access to fire suppression equipment. Along came COVID-19 that spring, which allowed me to work from home. I jumped at the request by my community to create a rain garden to support native plants. My neighbors helped me define the stream in the spring, and I solarized weeds in the soil with cardboard and tree chips during the summer. Last fall my neighbors helped me install 304 plants while social distancing. Today we have a flowering garden benefitting bees and butterflies and a few frogs. This project kept me engaged and active outside, allowed me to connect with others at a distance, and it kept me sane when I needed the mental relief.”

Victoria Sann shares that her oldest daughter Terri, age 40, is a financial advisor and member of the administration team at Merrill Lynch and has two children, Brandon, 15, who has numerous reptiles and is planning to attend vet school and Gabbie, 10, who owns a few small mammals, and her greatest asset is drawing and painting by sight. Victoria’s son David, age 38, is a manager for a major warehouse for a plumbing corporation and has three children, Jeremy, 19, and Emily, 18, and Tyler, 6. Her youngest daughter Lauren, age 35, works for Bank of America in their legal department and has one daughter, Madison, 7, who is in 2nd grade and has excelled to 5th grade work. She writes, “I am very proud of all my children and grandchildren. Karen Sann ’67, and myself are well. We both have been growing extra vegetables which we donate to our community center, and we also provide

gardening information on Facebook. I challenge others in the Class of 1975 to consider doing the same if you have any unused land.”

CLASS OF 1976 Christina Papastavros Fay writes that “John and I are looking towards retirement in a few short years. In a twist of fate, two of our four New Orleans-raised children now live in the Wilmington area (and another nearby in Washington), so after 45 years in New Orleans, John and I are buying a small property in Wilmington to spend more time closer to our children and grandchildren. We won’t be full-time Delaware residents just yet, but I’m looking forward to reconnecting with classmates and friends when we are in the area.”

CLASS OF 1980 Tracey Quillen Carney received the national 2021 Casey Excellence for Children Leadership Award, in recognition of her work to end childhood hunger, promote early language development, and identify and respond to childhood trauma.

CLASS OF 1984 Sharon Cohen, founder and CEO of the non-profit organization Figure Skating in Harlem, had a letter to the editor published in The New York Times in April, in which she urged local skating rinks to do more to ensure greater equity and diversity in figure skating.

CLASS OF 1987 Emily Geuder shared the following pandemic silver lining: “I met Mark Blair on January 24, 2020 for a cup of coffee. Shortly after that I left for a three-week trip to Southeast Asia. When I got back in early March, quarantine had just started so within a few weeks I was spending most of my time at his house. Fortunately, my bulldog

got along with his two labradoodles and pit bull. We decided to sell my house in Georgetown in June and then promptly renovated Mark’s entire home in Great Falls, VA. Mark proposed on October 28, 2020 and we’re getting married on June 19, 2021. I’ve never been happier and quarantining with Mark and his three dogs was super fun even with loads of contractors in the house almost every day. Mark’s three kids are icing on the cake. Marco is 25 and lives in Austin, TX. Jack is 24 and is finishing up school and living in Fairfax, VA. Annie will be a sophomore at University of Miami where she is a star soccer player (she started every game as a freshman!). Anyway, 2020 was a great year for me!” (See photo on first page of class notes.)

CLASS OF 1988 Julia Fogg, is a professor of religion at California Lutheran University, where she has taught for 18 years. In January 2020, she chaired the inaugural faculty senate at the university. She writes: “It has been a rough ride guiding faculty through the pandemic, higher education budget crises, trauma from shootings and fires, and welcoming a new university president. Last spring, in the midst of everything, Baker-Brazos Press published my first book on immigration and biblical justice: Finding Jesus at the Border: Opening Our Hearts to the Stories of Our Immigrant Neighbors. I have been giving Zoom talks and lectures rather than doing the inperson book tour I had planned. In the fall of 2021, I look forward to starting the book tour, if any Friends alums are interested in hosting a book discussion on immigration!” More information can be found on her website, https:// julialambertfogg.godaddysites.com.

Karen McKinstry writes, “I have lived in D.C. for nearly 20 years and work in the art and artifact collection at the

House of Representatives. My husband of 10 years, Erik, is at the Smithsonian and we have a 5-year-old named Winnie. I still spend time in Wilmington with my mom and we take beach vacations on the Jersey shore. I’m looking forward to seeing more family and friends this year as it becomes safer to travel.” She also shares her pandemic silver lining: “Planning the summer of 2020 was a challenge with my 4-yearold at home and trying to maintain a full-time work schedule. Day camps in D.C. were not opening so on a whim I checked in with WFS and got her a slot for two weeks. We were able to spend time with my mom as well as have a fun activity for Winnie. She liked it so much that I signed her up for a few weeks this summer too. My mom is thrilled to have company again and I feel confident in Winnie’s camp experiences at Friends.”

Willow Pearson shares this pandemic silver lining: “2020 began, on January 25th, with the untimely death of my beloved brother Scott Pearson ’87. It was the worst of years. Then on June 30th, life’s silver lining of 2020 emerged; after two years together, Daniel Trimbach and I became engaged. We will be married in 2022! I found my one and only; it’s never too late for love.”

CLASS OF 1994 Anne Brownlee participated in the ringing of the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on May 6, 2021, representing her employer Teach for America, to mark Teacher Appreciation Week.

CLASS OF 1996 Jared Love shared that “after years of ‘Big City’ living” he and his wife and two daughters, ages 8 and 5, recently moved back to Lewes, DE. He writes, “I’ll commute to NYC a couple times a week (still with NBCUniversal) and

beach living will be an adjustment, but we’re really excited to be back in DE. Please give me a shout if you’re in the area, I would love to catch up!”

CLASS OF 1999 Nathaniel Carota was a part of two Academy Award-nominated films for best picture in 2020. He was the production accountant and post-production accountant on Nomadland as well as the post-production accountant on The Trial of the Chicago 7. He was also the post-production accountant on Never Rarely Sometimes Always, which he notes was also very well received last year.

Eden Wales Freedman has been named Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa, and will assume the position in July 2021. She previously served as Vice Provost for Faculties and Academic Affairs at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota and Associate Professor of English at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

CLASS OF 2000 Meredith Jones and Keith Law were married in January in a micro-wedding at the Hotel DuPont in Wilmington, with their three daughters (Kendall ’24, Felicity ’31, and Verity ’35) filling out the wedding party. Meredith will be promoted to Associate Professor and granted tenure in the Department of Psychology at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ in September 2021. She also continues to enjoy her role as the Middle and Upper School Consulting Psychologist at Friends, and loved seeing all of her classmates who attended the 20th reunion on Zoom in October.

Julia Fogg ’88 published her first book last spring, titled Finding Jesus at the Border: Opening Our Hearts to the Stories of Our Immigrant Neighbors.

Meredith Jones ’00 and Keith Law with daughters Kendall ’24, Felicity ’31, and Verity ’35.

Earrings designed by Sara Titone ’02 to benefit Nemours Children’s Hospital.

Jacqueline Mellow’03 with son Everest.; her book Song of the Forever Rains, the first in a series.

Lindsay Moyer Parker ’03 and Stacy Parker

CLASS OF 2002 Sara Titone writes, “I’d like to share a personal career update. My accessory brand, Daydream Weaver, was asked to design a Give-Back earring for the Nemours Children’s Hospital. For every earring purchase through September, $10 will be donated to their Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders. Gold is the color of Children’s Cancer awareness and that is reflected in the Gold and Natural hoop I designed.”

CLASS OF 2003 Jacqueline Mellow received a publishing deal for her dark romantic fantasy series, and the first book, Song of the Forever Rains, is set to be published in July 2021. She writes that she also “got a new job at a woman-owned advertising agency that I love, and we welcomed our son, Everest, this past March 2021!”

Lindsay Moyer Parker married Stacy Parker on August 11, 2020, in Tahoe, California. She writes: “The pandemic had us change our plans a bit! The original ceremony was supposed to be in Hawaii, but due to the virus and the state being shut down, we had to improvise. We chose Tahoe, where neither one of us had visited (even with my husband being a born and raised So Cal boy) and had an amazing, beautiful ceremony on the lake. Our reception was held later in August back in Orange County with family and friends. I was so lucky to be able to put my dress on twice! 2020 was a crazy year, but it was one of the best of my life. Stacy and I are very happy and loving our newlywed life. We bought our first home together in December and can’t wait to start our family.”

Andriy Pazuniak shares that he and his wife are living in Los Angeles. They had a “pandemic baby” in the summer of 2020, and their son Idris and his brother Tariq “are both doing great.”

Faye Paul Teller writes that she and Arthur, her daughter Eliza (who turned one in April), and their dog Dora moved to Los Angeles in June. Arthur recently took a job as COO at Token- Tax, a cryptocurrency tax start-up, and Faye is still enjoying doing commercial litigation.

Nicole Wample started a job at Martin & Company as a Senior State Filing Analyst on December 1, 2020. Later that month, she finished earning her CPCU (Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter) designation. She lives in Newark, DE with her husband and daughters (Mayble, age 7 and Charlotte, age 6), and they are all doing well.

Caeli Rubens Richter shares that she and classmates Mary Ting Hyatt and Colleen Schell Sutler and their children met in early June when Colleen, who lives in the Washington, D.C. area, visited Caeli and Mary in Boston.

CLASS OF 2006 Taryn Pellicone, co-founder of ondemand chicken soup business Prescription Chicken, was recently named part of Whole Foods Market’s “Women Makers” project in Washington, D.C., and her soups can now be found at over 400 grocery stores, including at Whole Foods in the Mid-Atlantic region and at Sprouts Farmers Markets nationally.

CLASS OF 2008 Victoria Yu writes: “In June 2019, I made my life goal of having my horses in my backyard a reality and bought a small piece of property in Coatesville, PA. I was working in medical devices in sales and marketing traveling the world and quickly climbing the corporate ladder at 30 thinking I had this adulting thing figured out: owned a house, a car, some dogs, and had a good job

when bam! Suddenly on a Sunday morning my body tried to kill me and I had a massive stroke in November 2019. I was rushed to the hospital thinking ‘I have too much work to do to be missing work Monday.’ The next thing I knew I woke up on life support half paralyzed. I have been fighting to regain control of my body since, and it’s a crazy journey! The silver lining is that I’ve been able to retire.”

CLASS OF 2009 Emily David Hershman married Greg Hershman on October 17, 2020 in Wilmington, DE. Emily now serves as Governor Carney’s Communications Advisor, mainly focusing on public education around the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, Emily and Greg have both gotten new jobs, have purchased their first home, Emily started a Master’s in Public Administration at the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware, and they both welcomed their puppy Arthur.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been serving as Governor Carney’s Communications Advisor, focusing on our all-state public awareness and education campaigns, as well as outreach to vulnerable communities around testing, prevention, and the vaccine. It’s been complex, emotional, and constantly changing. But I truly think the silver lining of this pandemic for me is that I have met people through this health crisis that I may never have met before. I have had the opportunity to collaborate with community members across the state from all different backgrounds and have learned so much from them and truly look forward to collaborating with them all far past this pandemic on other issues the state tackles together.”

“I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that another silver lining was being able to stay in touch with my closest friends

Sammi Shay received her Master of Social Work degree from Loyola University Chicago in May 2020 with a specialization in healthcare. While at Loyola, she was invited to participate in the school’s HRSA-funded Opioid Workforce Expansion Training Program. She uses this training now as a social worker at a federally qualified health center in Chicago. She and her partner, Quinn Menchetti, recently got engaged and bought a home in Chicago a short walk away from Lake Michigan. She writes, “while it’s no Rehoboth Beach, I am so excited to spend all my warm days at the lakefront!”

Mary Williams Schlauch and her husband Brendan Schlauch welcomed their son Samuel Elwood Schlauch on September 9, 2020. After spending four years working in Democratic politics in Washington D.C., Mary spent the last several years teaching in the Lower School at Friends, where she discovered a true love for Kindergarten and early education. Mary, Brendan, and Sam live in Wilmington with their dog Nellie.

CLASS OF 2015 Travis Aerenson graduated from Colorado College in 2019 with a degree in physics, and is currently in graduate school at the University of Washington pursuing a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences.

CLASS OF 2016 Jodi Lessner graduated magna cum laude and with departmental honors

Tariq and Idris Pazuniak, sons of Andriy Pazuniak ’03.

From left to right: Ronan, son of Colleen Schell Sutler ’03, Reese and Blaire, daughters of Caeli Rubens Richter ’03, Emmeline, Colleen’s daughter, and Armand, son of Mary Ting Hyatt ’03.

Emily David Hershman ’09 and Greg Hershman. (Photo by Haley Richter, Philadelphia, PA)

Ellie Kelsey ’09, Sammi Shay ’09, Perrin Downing ’09, Anna Crosby ’09, Mary Williams Schlauch ’09, and Emily David Hershman ’09, Zooming with their pandemic puppies.

Samuel Elwood Schlauch, son of Mary Williams Schlauch ’09.

from Barnard College of Columbia University in May 2020 with a Bachelor’s degree in political science and history. Since graduation, she has been working for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office as an Investigative Analyst in the Special Victims Bureau’s Human Trafficking Response Unit. She also recently started a book review blog (https://bookhouseblog.substack.com/) where she has been posting reviews on a variety of subjects and genres.

Margeaux Pantano graduated from the University of Delaware with a Master’s of Science in Accounting and a concentration in Management Information Systems. She will be working at Eisner- Amper in their tax division.

CLASS OF 2017 Jordan Perkins will be attending Wilmington University this fall to pursue a Master’s degree in business and finish his career playing basketball for his final year of eligibility.

CLASS OF 2018 Cecilia Ergueta shares that her pandemic silver lining was “a serendipitous

moment I can only thank the pandemic for.” She writes that, “towards the beginning of our friendship in high school, Leah Johnson and I browsed the WFS Book Sale, searching for a book we could read in tandem. Among the rows of worn spines we found two copies of the Estonian bestseller The Man Who Spoke Snakish by Andrus Kivirähk. We didn’t devour the book so much as it devoured us, filling our minds with dark allegory, mystical folklore, and tantalizing insights into Estonian culture, all of which we dissected for hours during after-school walks through the Alapocas Run Park. Like many other high school friendships, college life split us geographically apart. But when the pandemic forced us into different paths, sending me to work in Berlin and Leah to apply for a summer research grant, we seized the opportunity for connection: this summer, I’ll be joining Leah in Estonia, where she will conduct research on local history and storytelling in the place that sparked our imagination years ago. And who knows, maybe we’ll even learn some Snakish!”

Cecilia Ergueta ’18 and Leah Johnson ’18.