1968

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

Most of the news in this column was sent to me last fall.  Unfortunately, length limits prevented me from including it in the late winter column. My apologies to those who had to wait to see their news appear. Cheryl Bonynge Harker is thrilled that she and husband Dick are expecting a baby boom in the next few years to add to their 34-person combined family including 10 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren. They spend lots of time boating with family and friends when they’re in Island Heights, NJ and go to their condo in PA for the colder weather. In the last year and a half they took two extended cruises, one for 78 days to the Far East and another for 35 days on the Voyage of the Vikings. She keeps up with Lucille VanBaaren and admires her stamina as she continues to work at a cosmetics company. She was hoping to see Ginny Munson Hammell ’67 in Florida this past winter and congratulates her on the Virginia Munson Hammell ’67 Trading Room dedicated at Hood in October 2015. When she wrote, she had just communicated with her little sister Linda Ayers ’70 for the first time in years so may soon have more news to report. Sandy Deemer Harra and husband Ed became retirees in June 2013. She occasionally returns to her former school to sub and likes maintaining a connection with that community.  She loves seeing her former students and visiting with the staff, but she enjoys retirement more.   She and Ed have traveled some, usually somewhere where they can snorkel. The Big Island is a favored destination. When she wrote in October 2015, it was 83 degrees at her home in California and they were hoping El Niño would bring relief from a difficult summer of drought and forest fires. “We feel blessed that our little country town has remained fire safe.” Both of her sons live out of state. Matt is in Portland, Oregon and Nathan is in Fulton, Missouri.  Our condolences to Sandy on the death of her mother Joan Pouchot Deemer ’40, P’68, P’81 in May 2015.  Bev Thompson Gardner and husband Bernie are both enjoying retirement although Bernie continues to do consulting work at the School for the Environment at U MASS, Boston.  They live in Pembroke, MA, for the winter and Eastham, MA, on the Cape in the summer. They are both active at their Unitarian/Universalist church.  Son Alan is an engineer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute; his wife Nora is an artist. Bev has three granddaughters-Ella, 12 years old; Lucy, 9; and Tessa, 5. Her Hood connections at church are Joyce Clarke Hockman ’67 who left before our class arrived, and Meredith Owen Atkinson ’69. She added thanks to Linda Search Atack for the years she served as class columnist. Carol Huntington and husband Al live with four “formerly feral felines” in their 1840s home overlooking the Kennebec River in Bath, ME.  They have been there since 2002, a difficult time for them since four members of Carol’s immediate family died that same year.  Carol still works full time as a social work senior therapist at the local hospital intensive outpatient program and as a hospice social worker in Portland, ME.  She is also an ordained Episcopal Church deacon.  Her career has included both medical social work and parish-based ministry in Boston and northern New Jersey cities. She and Al met 25 year ago when they were both working at a homeless shelter in Hoboken. Carol is a peace activist and toured New England teaching about Palestine which she  visited twice in recent years. She is also a nationally certified nonviolence trainer and has taught courses in seminaries and several schools of social work. In what must be very limited spare time, she is working to reclaim and maintain the formal gardens that were planted by previous owners years ago around their home. Stephanie Negoescu Goble and her husband have been living in San Antonio, TX for over 30 years ever since he retired from the Air Force.  They have 5 children, so she now spends lots of time flying all over the country visiting grandchildren.  Since retiring from teaching high school geometry to the children of wounded warriors at Fort Sam Houston, she invests lots of time in the kitchen preparing all her food from scratch.  She began eating organically several years ago at the urging of her oldest daughter who is a master herbalist.  She is hoping to reconnect with classmates Jane Walters Jasper and Rosemarie Dempsey Curlett.  Finally, from your class columnist, happy 70^th birthday to everyone who has celebrated (or soon will celebrate) that landmark life event this year!