Regina Schlank Pyle
617.267.0393
reginapyle@me.com

 

 

 

 

 

Judith Hammond Blatchford
My family and I continue in good health allowing Park and me to continue traveling a few times a year.  Most recently we had a beautiful trip to Greenland and the arctic areas of eastern Canada followed by two weeks in Tuscany, a nice contrast in extraordinary history and art appreciation.” With great sadness I learned recently that Sandra Warren Owens’ husband, Bruce, passed away on September 20th after a heroic struggle.  You may possibly hear more from her.

 

 

Susan Shinnick Hossfeld

 

 

Carl and I are beginning to travel again after a recent knee replacement, with two trips out west in the winter of 2018.  One trip is with the International Rotary Ski group and one with the children and grandchildren to Snowmass, Colorado. After the Rotary Ski Trip we plan to continue our travels to Santa Fe.  In the Summer we are taking an Elbe River Cruise which leaves from Berlin and ends in Prague with stops along the way in Meissen, Dresden and Wittenberg. Before the trip we plan to extend our visit to Luebeck and extra time in Berlin.  Sometime in the near future, we hope to go to New Orleans which is on our bucket list.  Carl and I both enjoy catching up on everyone’s news!

 

 

Rusty Papst Hougland

 

 

Last January and February Bill and I enjoyed a great ocean front condo on Amelia Island, Florida. During the summer we welcomed children and grandchildren to our old farm house in Connecticut.

 

 

Penny Misirian Mardoian

 

 

This summer I hosted the Blatchford’s, Bollman’s, Hecksher’s and Hossfeld’s at my South Bristol, ME home for 3 days. The weather was fabulous. We visited a local boat builder, a historic ice house, the Pemaquid Lighthouse peninsula and the Coastal Botanic Gardens in Boothbay.

 

Phoebe Adams Marshall

 

I’m still playing tennis, singing in Masterworks Chorale and our church choir.  Am also on the Vestry at church.  Hope all is well with you.

 

 

Barbie Reeves McGee

 

 

This past year has been has been a year of loss for me. Last December my brother who was my only sibling passed away at age 63. Then in June of 2017, we lost our Afghan Hound suddenly. The worst loss was that of my husband of 46 years in July. Larry had health issues for the past two years but his passing was not expected. I try to keep busy including teaching two days a week but it has been a struggle for me. I have had a lot of support which I am grateful for.  A new chapter of my life begins. Hope all is well with you.

 

Martha Atkinson Meadows

 

I taught my last class at Hood last spring and am still adjusting to less planned days.  My grand-daughter, Corryn, has transferred to Hood-a third generation Hoodlum!  I traveled to Normandy, France on a Hood alum tour with my two daughters.

 

Linda MacDonough Morrow

 

George and I spent a week in Crested Butte, CO to attend his son’s wedding.  What an honor that George was Mac’s Best Man!  With the extra time in the mountains, we enjoyed 4 days of hiking when the aspens were at their most spectacular sunshine color in September.  Wedding day was the only one without sun…..but photos of the bridesmaids walking under white umbrellas in the SNOW were unique and the views of snow-capped mountains on Sunday’s hike were only possible due to the wedding day precipitation.  The bride rolled with it and never lost her cool–showed off her cowboy boots under her wedding gown as her acknowledgement to function over fashion.

 

Beth Davis Pauley

 

Lou and I just returned from a riverboat cruise up the Rhine River. We are season ticket holders for Drexel Women’s basketball games. We attended the Navy vs Tulane game at the Academy. In two weeks we go to Virginia Tech for a football game. Ulia, my granddaughter, will graduate from Virginia Wesleyan in May; Rachel, my granddaughter, is looking at colleges for next year as is Lou’s grandson, John. Life is good.

 

Joan Terpak Plitt

 

I am retired from the newspaper I worked for, but I still have several businesses going. I have been an antique dealer and also a Mary Kay consultant for the past 30 years. Presently, I attend numerous classes at the York campus of Penn State University. These are OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) classes that cover a broad range of subjects. I highly recommend them if our classmates live in an area where they are offered. As part of our June visit to Myrtle Beach (SC), we met Phoebe Adams Marshall and Al near Charleston and they were gracious enough to show us around some of the islands and areas where they previously lived. We had a great time and try to get together with them every summer.  We are great-grandparents to Jacob who will be 2 in December.

 

Barbara Arthur Pretzsch

 

I still line dance, and attend several exercise groups and a crochet group.  We have added a dog to our menagerie.  Evie belonged to the owner of a house we bought to renovate who couldn’t take her with her.

 

Sandy Owens

 

Here is my sad news. My husband of 35 years, Bruce, passed away on September 20^th at Emory Hospital in Decatur, Georgia. He had suffered from lung and heart issues for several years. I’m still getting my life back together with the help of family and friends near and far.

 

Regina Schlank Pyle

 

Having sold my home in France last winter, I delighted in spending the summer in Boston.  At the end of September, I left on a 7 day road trip with my pal, Monica, and her large dog Francesca, an Italian Spinone, in the back seat.  Destination Phoenix, where Monica was born and now moving back to escape Boston’s cold winters.  2,690 miles were travelled in the most direct route because sightseeing with Francesca was not an option but we gained an appreciation for the vastness of the country, the thousands of trucks that transport our everyday needs and the friendliness of those we met along the way.

 

Elizabeth Decker Rogers

 

Great trip to see a close friend in Chattanooga during Oct. What a happening city! Great public art, nice galleries, museum, fine repurposing of old buildings, worth the effort & lovely old house of all sizes. Warm weather so leaves were still green. Plan a trip to India in Dec with son Matt, his wife Deepa, whose family is originally from India but now live in Australia, my 2 grands & Deepa’s family. Keeping my fingers crossed that no medical issues pop up. Thanksgiving will be with family, not sure where yet.

 

Helen Hill Rountree

 

I am retiring at year end, long since stopped taking wilderness trips. I’m selling the apartment Asa and I shared for nineteen deeply happy years; renovating a pied a terre in the same building, including a to-the-studs demolition of the 1928 (!) bathroom. In August, I bought a wee Cape on .12 acres in my home town. We call it Grafton Manor; my 2002 Subaru, Bentley, graces its very short driveway. It is walking distance to my family’s place, where I will continue to battle fruitlessly the five entrenched invasive vines. I will also do some writing, mostly on race, in my view, our nation’s greatest sin and one too many of us continue obdurate about. If I can, I will work with little boys who are struggling to read.

 

To my pleased surprise, this year my book was republished after 35 (!) years. It demonstrated that, theory to the contrary, capital flowed from productive sectors to financial centers. Sound familiar? It’s now one in a set on economic history for libraries around the world. (My younger colleagues were more impressed that this doddering old woman had a letter published in Rolling Stone.) I have been very lucky, had extraordinary, unimagined, professional opportunities, worked with men and women of intellect, wit, and grace. Google lists 298,000 citations for my name; if you put it in quotes, it plummets to 1,200. Much more appropriate.

 

To me, political issues are too real for real people for me not to be ever-active.  The most intense and most fun, in 2007, I collected an email group of 800 women from all over the country to work for the election of Barack Obama. On NY Primary Day, February, 2008, I stood in intermittent rain for twelve hours for a last chance to affect people’s votes. It nearly did me in. You take your joy where you can find it. You have to. With all, I grieve for what will be lost if Homo sap. doesn’t swiftly reverse his heedless race to self-immolation. Who will there be to thrill to Shakespeare, Leonardo, Bernini, the great acts of kindness and courage of people throughout history who struggled to make the world better?

 

My grandson is 6’3”, thin as a rail, a history buff, and terrifyingly knowledgeable about professional sports. My two daughters are good women, journalists, one managing editor of a global finance weekly, the other an investigative reporter and producer with This American Life. My brother, CA, 62, who has Down Syndrome, thrives, to the happy amazement of his cardiologist. He will share his Star Wars obsession with anyone willing to sit still. Hearing the Bee Gee’s Saturday Night Fever music, he is instantly on his feet, John Travolta to a T. It’s a good life.

 

Barbara Kirby Stewart

 

Paul and I are still enjoying life in our special part of Maine.  We did, we think, our last cross country road trip last summer to Sonoma for grandson Zachary graduation from Sonoma State Univ.; and the to San Diego for granddaughter Meghan’s high school graduation.  Along the way I crossed a few more things off my bucket list – Devil’s Tower, the Huntington Library, Kings Canyon and Sequoia NP. Back in Maine continued on with volunteer activities, quilting, rug hooking, gardening, tai chi and more walking now than hiking.  I still celebrate birthdays with Janet Zwinck Morrison who summers in Milbridge.

 

Elizabeth Kovacs Washburn

 

Sadly Guil’s stepmother (gorgeous blonde) died recently (in her 90’s). We got a new dog. (Our Josie had died in Jan.) New dog a sweet Papillon/Cavalier mix, a “pavilion” named Ginger.

 

Jody Merritt Watson

 

We are escaping with our son and family to Quebec for the Thanksgiving weekend, since they don’t celebrate at the same time we do.

 

Pamela Roberts Welham

 

In June, Betsy George Ohnegian and I stayed with Janet McDougall in her newly renovated apartment (beautifully done!)  for a mini-55th reunion in New York City.  Betsy and Janet had planned a wonderful few days for us along with ample time to talk and reminisce.  We saw “Come From Away” and loved it all- the staging, songs, and message about a small town in Canada that welcomed stranded travelers after the 9/11 attack.  We went to an evening concert in Central Park at the Naumberg Bandshell- the weather was perfect and the music wonderful!  A long walk in Central Park to the Conservatory Garden was followed by a delicious lunch at the cafe run by the church where Janet sings in several concerts during the year. My special request was to visit the MoMA.  The exhibits and lunch didn’t disappoint.  We probably had the best four days of weather in NYC of the summer which added to making this a memorable trip. Hard to believe that we all met as freshman living in Shriner Hall in the fall of 1958- 59 years ago.

 

Sally Zimmerman

 

In September I was back in Germany for the whole month, adding up to a total of four months or a third of the calendar year October to October 2016 – 2017.  This time I worked with two Unitarian congregations — Hamburg and Luebeck — in a variety of ministerial roles that included giving an hour-long lecture in German in a 12th century building in Luebeck on the subject of  R.W. Emerson’s Transcendentalism.  Thank the professor-goddess Mary Elizabeth Osborn, Hood English teacher in 1958++, for teaching us how to write a good narrative. For the lecture in Luebeck, my source was Emerson’s journals which I find much more interesting and less ponderous than his essays.  Dear Miss Osborn, you’ll never know how much I’ve grown to appreciate your wisdom!  In Luebeck, I was out of my comfort zone with the German while quite secure with the organization of my comments.  Since coming home in early October, I’ve resumed work with the University of South Florida OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) as a volunteer in multiple roles, including teaching and Board member. Lately I’m learning that it takes no effort to overcommit ones self, and no effort to gain back the five pounds that I somehow lost in Germany from climbing stairs and walking everywhere while eating unlimited amounts of great bread and delicious cheese.