Hello all! I am excited to make my first report for the class of 1975. It was great to make contact with a few of you and I look forward to hearing from many more. As for me, Debbie Page Rath, I am living in California about an hour north of Sacramento. I am married and have a son age 24. Since graduation, I have been working in the retirement plan industry on 401(k) and pension plans. Life has been great except for one hurdle. Eight years ago I fell, which left me paralyzed from my hips down. It took some adjusting to be wheelchair bound, but I returned to work and my normal activities within a year. We all deal with what life throws us and I believe I have become a better person because of it.

Debbie Wagner Shawen is an educational consultant and works with families whose son or daughter is struggling with a mental health issue, addiction or a learning disability. She helps them find the appropriate therapeutic program or treatment center. She helps young adults as well, and enjoys traveling around the country visiting all of the programs she recommends. In her spare time, she enjoys Rehoboth Beach, Del., sailing, tai chi and keeping up with her husband Michael and their three grown daughters. Peg Yanarella Hosky and her husband, a veritable bevy of cats, three 20-something children and all their associated friends lead a somewhat riotous life in Washington, D.C. They own a small business and enjoy the freedom to struggle through economic ups and downs with a sense of being the masters of their own fate. She is still a techno-geek with active twitter followers @peghosky and @fedInsider as well as a management blog with 30,000 subscribers.

Aldan T. Weinberg is still a professor of journalism and director of the communications program at Hood. He teaches in the fall and administers the program year-around. His news is mainly about his kids. Both are lawyers practicing in the metro Washington, D.C., both married their college sweethearts, and his son made him “Pop-Pop” when first grandchild Claire was born in January 2011. He and his fiancé Connie Schlee spend January and part of February in Sarasota, Fla., and would be delighted to visit with any Hood alums down there. Their “baby” is a 9-year-old Shih-poo named Punky who loves to travel to Bethany Beach, Del., in the summer. Anna Kluth VonLindenberg is retired and enjoys all of the freedom that gives her. Von and Anna have one son and daughter-in-law, and three young grandchildren who light up their world! They all share a mutual love of the water, and spend a lot of family time boating up and down the East Coast. Anna and her husband are actively planning their retirement years. They have purchased a home on the Delmarva Peninsula and will be transitioning there over the next three-years. Her younger sister Kas Kluth Rohm ’77 and her husband are transitioning there as well.

Susan McKendree (Sue Ellen Mumma) has been living in and around Asheville, N.C., for the past 23 years. About 10 years ago she began a search for spiritual connections that led her twice to India and to a spiritual master Meher Baba. In 2005, she discovered a new passion. She is now a writer and collage artist, making shrines, traveling altars, altered books, cards and other 3-D paper creations. Her poetry has been published in a regional magazine as well as five regional anthologies. She lives on her own (with three companionable cats) in a lovely sanctuary of a home outside of Weaverville, Calif. When not in her studio, she is reading, hiking or walking, tending a year-round organic garden, and volunteering with her spiritual community. Deborah Deasy is still working in journalism covering municipal news in north suburban Pittsburgh for the weekly Pine Creek Journal and The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. She said, “That helps pay the boarding bill for my new horse, a 24-year-old Arabian mare that I shipped last winter from Green Bay, Wis., to Western Pennsylvania.” She has never married or had kids, but has a longtime beau Andy who used to collect her tolls when she commuted to work on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Val Kremer Reeve is still married to Foster Reeve, and they will be celebrating their 20th anniversary soon and share two lovely daughters, ages 18 and 14. She enjoys their local small-town life, is active in the Presbyterian Church, and continues to be a painter and writer of short stories. She has been doing well, except she learned she had breast cancer about six months ago. “It was and continues to be pretty serious, but I feel hopeful and glad for everything nonetheless. I have strong faith and I am truly blessed with a wonderful, loving family and friends,” said Val. When you have time, send me an email with your current contact information and let me know what you think about a Class of 1975 Facebook page. I would love to hear from more of you.

Class Reporter: