Reunion weekend 2014 provided beautiful weather, comfortable accommodations, easy conversation, and a great selection of choices in the dining hall. It was my first reunion and an experience I shall look forward to in another five years. The following made to their way to Frederick for either on campus functions or connecting with a small group off-site: Vicki (Raeburn) Benton, Margery (Berringer) Schuran, Virginia (Keane) Bukovac, Linda (Shurko) Bulvanoski, Ann (Williams) DeMers, Alison (Knotts) Durham, Nancy (Melroy) Faustine, Elizabeth (Guertler) Godfrey, Guy Gray, Magaly (Mauras) Green, Lucia Homick, Carolyn (Schoemer) Huyghe, Sandra (Bell) McDonnell, Elizabeth Rittenhouse, Louise ((Hicks) Smith, Billie Weise, Sue Whaley, Wilma (DeFazio) Wilt, Lashley (Micas) Wolf, and yours truly. Rich Wilt (Wilma Defazio’s husband) and Doug Leland were good sports for attending!
Vicki (Raeburn)Benton shared Leigh is keeping busy with his job as site manager for Middletown Carting, his job as representative in the County Legislature, and his part time work in a local jewelry store. Vicki gets to enjoy playing ‘Meme’ for the summer and hopes to be back at tutoring in the fall. Son, Chris, is still COO for Beachside Physical Therapy. He also is busy with the LPGA as one of the lead therapists on the tour! Chris’ wife, Jessica, is off for the summer, but will return to the Brevard school district as an OT in August. Camden (9) will enter 4th grade and Jace (7) will be in 2nd this fall. Son, PJ, is still the Crime Scene Detective for the New Windsor Police Department. Having an 8-4 job is great; however, he is on call 24/7. PJ’s wife, Lisa, is doing well with her jewelry business (www.lisawicker.com) and has added a botanical line (www.Arbonne.com) to her repertoire. Marty (8) will be a 4th grader next year and Ryan will be a 2nd grader!
Sue Mulvey regrettably could not attend reunion with a very busy summer, visits from cousins, and a number of family birthdays. Sue’s family has a rustic farmhouse in Conway, MA so they had lots of fun getting together. Sue (Mulvey) will be visiting Mara Downes McGrail on the Cape in August. (She transferred from Hood to UNH in ’72.) Mara will have a small get-together with her UNH friends including, Georgia Chavent. Georgia also transferred from Hood to UNH. Not sure if it was the same year. In October, Mara will fly East again and they will visit Chris Hill Lydecker ’73 in North Conway, NH. Chris and her husband Ken own the Riverside Inn B&B in Intervale, NH. www.riverside-inn-bed-breakfast.com. It’s a beautiful time to be in New England!
Janis (Wilson) Polastre wrote that during the first two weeks of June ’14, she and her husband took Janis’ 89 year old mom to visit old friends in France and will be making side trips to Andorra, Barcelona and Costa Brava. When mom is still game, why not? You continue to globe trot! Hard to keep up with your whereabouts and those of Peggy Bull Larsen!
Peggy (Bull) Larsen wrote that travels would preclude her from attending the reunion this year. Last summer travels took Peggy and a childhood friend to London and Wales. A highlight was taking a train out to Newbury to visit Highclere Castle, the filming location for Downtown Abbey. Peggy’s husband, Michael, is retiring from his position at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, MD after 30 years of service. He’s planning to transition to a part-time position with a company in a related field and they’re both looking forward to him having more hours at home. Peggy continues to enjoy her position at Goucher College very much and plans to hang in there for a while.
Deb Kohler wrote that she too had a full calendar for summer 2014. Deb will be taking a cruise from England to Iceland and back through the fjords of Norway with her mother and sister. It’s Deb’s sister’s 50th birthday celebration. Hiking into a volcano on Iceland and seeing what it’s like to have 22 hours of light a day will be firsts. Deb’s husband, Ed, continues to do his road racing. They also had the opportunity to race on the track at the Brickyard in Indianapolis this summer…the event that trumped reunion! It was the first time that famous track has been open to this type of event. There were 750 vintage cars there from Indy cars, to pre WWII racecars, midgets, and the big bore engine vehicles from the 50s and 60s. In November they are going back to Daytona. Indy was the first time they took the new pick up truck camper to the track and it made it much more fun for Deb. They even experienced the “unique subculture of WalMart parking lot campers.” There is even an app for that too! Who knew? Last summer they explored Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons & Rocky Mountains NPs. Deb is looking forward to the 50th. Feet to the fire Deb! We’re holding you to it…race or no race!
Lauren Campisi Fulton wrote that she was in Frederick to have dinner at the Tasting Room in Frederick with the former Carolyn (Schoemer) Huyghe, Linda (Shurko) Bulvanoski, Allison (Knotts) Durham, Ann (Williams) DeMers and Sue Whaley over reunion weekend. Like so many, they too questioned why they hadn’t made time to get together in past years! Lauren vacationed at the Outer Banks before Hurricane Arthur blew in and then the very next week she watched weather guru, Jim Cantore, televise right in the middle of her vacation neighborhood! She has been (mostly) happily underemployed over the past 40 years, though currently managing a dental office for her best friend and her dentist husband, who gives lots of paid time off while he adventures around the world.
Kathy (Poloni) Triwahjudi wrote that son, Anthony, is attending the VT jazz camp, but plans to connect in VT with Pam Callis and Patty Lynam fell through. Anthony attended the ice hockey camp at Cornell again before going to VT. They went up to Brossard, Canada outside Montreal for two days for the French experience and thoroughly enjoyed it. Condolences on the recent loss of your mom Kathy.
Louise (Hicks) Smith sent word that her son, Brian, and daughter-in-law, Candice, invited Louise to fly to Australia, — all expenses paid — for a couple of weeks in September, but she had to turn them down since her employer requires employees to mark the schedule book for vacations six months in advance! Seriously? So, she’s hoping to go in ’15! Need anyone to carry your carry on bag? My 2015 is wide open!! Louise joined a family genealogical society three years ago and was asked to help with heraldic illustrations for a book, so this summer she is corresponding with the secretary of the society over the internet and by mail. He lives in Manchester, England and is writing the book about their family history in England, pertaining specifically to the 17th century. Work, keeping up with the house, and feeding nine cats keeps her busy. She has played some golf but has had to place the harp aside for a while. The simple pleasure of a ferry ride to visit a friend in Cape May, NJ in late July holds such appeal.
Guy Gray checked in. Guy believes he and his wife, Marty Mulford ’69, are the first married couple to receive both undergraduate and graduate degrees, class of ’82 from Hood. As for wooden boats, Guy is now working to get a historical boat back to Cambridge, MD. It’s an 83 foot Rescue Boat built for the Army Air Corp during WWII, designed to go out and pick up downed air crews in the North Atlantic and English Chanel. It was made right next to where he currently volunteers in Cambridge, MD. The man who owned it passed away without any heirs, so the estate contacted Guy’s group of restoration enthusiasts to see if there was any interest in getting it back down there from MA. The interest is not the difficult part, however, finding the money to do is. There may be only four or five of these boats remaining in the world. That fact that the boat appeared to be float-worthy was a good sign.
Billie Weise shared she had quite an experience with a back surgery this last Spring that went from bad to worse. She has been on the mend, and rallied more quickly with the support and presence of Ginny (Keane) Bukovac and Margery (Berringer) Schuran. How could she not with those two? They had me in stitches at reunion!
I spotted Lashley (Micas) Wolf at Ron Volpe’s presentation on the Saturday morning of reunion. Lashley is quite the accomplished seamstress, lover of art, involved with galleries (Corcoran for one)/ collecting, and was very involved with the Washington debutante scene. I believe she shared she has three daughters if memory serves me correctly, and truth be told it isn’t always serving me correctly! The standout to me was Lashley’s youngest. You may have seen or experienced her on the mall in D.C. Sporting whatever hair color for the month, ready to create your personalized poem after some fact gathering, stand back to take in her words of insight and wisdom. What a great way to augment her coffers and her day job. Clever to be able to weave poetry from a complete stranger’s story, quickly, and get paid for it. Nicely, nicely done!
Dibby Burnham bailed (feel guilty Dibby?) on the reunion as her son and daughter-in-law were visiting in CT. They went to NYC for an overnight and walked for two days straight…taking in the sights of the Brooklyn Bridge, High Line, Chinatown, Soho, and Noho…Another highlight of their visit was going to New Canaan, CT to check out the Philip Johnson compound of different buildings, each so beautifully designed. The Glass House was magnificent. Yes, Dibby, you will be riding down with Sue Mulvey and me for the 45th!
If you have ideas for upcoming reunions, or the 50th, in particular, let the office of Alumni Affairs know, or shoot me an email. Some suggestions were having separate class dinners allowing for ease of hearing, having a class activity/project (ideas?), setting a date/time for a group photo to capture the majority, and sharing reunion weekend with either our Big Sister Class and/or Little Sister Class. I will add that those who stayed in Shriner said the accommodations were comfortable and very reasonable. I checked out my old room only to find it had been converted to a men’s room!
Thanks for the memories!
Sally (Johnson) Leland
