Sharon Burns Walsh
410-749-0426
sharon.walsh68@gmail.com

Sharon Burns Walsh the Class of ’68 is still out there making its mark on the world, but many are definitely taking life a bit more slowly. For my first time in the class columnist role, I emailed classmates whose maiden names started with the letters A through H, so if you didn’t hear from me, then Hood doesn’t have a correct email for you. Please send that information to Hood, and I’ll be sure to contact you for another column. Several who responded sent thanks to Linda Search Atack for loyally serving as class reporter for the last several years. Linda was one of the first to answer my email and says that she retired from child welfare at the end of July and is enjoying a much needed rest and re-charge. She is now turning her attention to major house repairs due to a water pipe leak that she hopes to complete by January. Then she plans to work part-time with teenagers aging out of foster care. Her three grandsons are now 9, 5 and 2 and so much fun to spoil. Two live in the Chapel Hill area and the youngest in northern Virginia. She has been in touch with former roommates Mary Kay Noren and Amy Rosenberg Cornblatt. Mary Kay and Don have sold their home in Easton, Maryland and are moving to a South Carolina island. They continue to have sailing adventures that “sound like a travelogue.” Amy and Marc moved last fall from Philadelphia to the Boston area which is where Amy grew up. Linda adds that the common theme for the three former roommates seems to be “sorting and editing” the accumulation of all the “stuff” they’ve acquired through the years. Rosemarie Dempsey Curlett reports that she is still working as the County Coordinator at the Amy Lynn Ferris Adult Activity Center in Chestertown, Maryland where she has been for 27 years. After a move five years ago closer to Chestertown, John has plenty of ground for his garden. They have one granddaughter, 21 years old, and two grandsons, who are 8 and 11. She stays in touch with Jane Walters Jasper who lives in upstate New York. Sharyn Duffy says she doesn’t have any kids or even a trophy husband but still has 2 horses. In 2014, her 30-year-old horse that she had for 27 years died, which was a terrible loss for her. His replacement from Wisconsin arrived at the end of September after a search she characterized as an “adventure worthy of a short story.” She is hoping he gets along with her mare who “gets to be a cougar.” She also reports with thankfulness that she has completed six years of treating her multiple myeloma holistically and without chemo. Carol Fogler is hoping to provide information and inspiration to young women when they consider career options. She funded the placement of a copy of Finding Justice in every public high school in Maryland. It’s a history of women lawyers in Maryland since 1642. It was published in association with the Maryland Women’s Bar Association Foundation and the University of Baltimore Foundation. Carol still lives in Columbia, Maryland. Living less than an hour from me (Sharon Burns Walsh) in Selbyville, Delaware, Mary (Rita) Rous Hollada wrote that she and Larry are still working but have reduced their schedule to allow a little more discretionary time. They will be married 50 years in December and will celebrate by spending a month next spring in Scotland. She adds that doesn’t make her feel as old as the fact that her oldest grandson was married in October 2015. Rita and I are planning a Hollada-Walsh mini-reunion before the holidays. Still professionally active, Phyllis Gimbel (Schnitman) was promoted to full professor in June 2015 and published a book on school leadership in October 2013. Her husband is on the Faculty of Harvard School of Dental Medicine and has a private practice in implants in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, where they live. They also have a home and 88 acres in southern Vermont where they spend a lot of time with their children and 5 grandchildren. As usual, our class overachieved—this time it was in sending news. I have included items this time in the order I received them. Because the class columns are limited in length, I regret that I cannot share news sent by Carol Huntington, Beverly Thompson Gardner, Cheryl Bonynge Harker, and Sandy Deemer Harra. You can look forward to hearing all about them– and others– next time. No more empty columns for THIS class, I promise.