Deborah Page Rath
530-891-4975
drath@nhhicks.com

Aldan T. Weinberg is now a Professor Emeritus of Journalism. He is still teaching (one course, the senior seminar) and advising the radio station, but essentially retired from Hood after 30 years. He moved from his home in Braddock Heights of 43 years to Worman’s Mill. His fiancé, Connie Schlee, sold her historic house in Frederick and they are now under the same roof. Moving after all those years was a full-time job in itself. Now he wonders how he ever got anything done when he was working. Grandchildren Claire and Nora moved from Silver Spring to Pittsburgh, where mom got a position with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center as a pediatric cardiologist and assistant professor. Son Rob will continue his law practice in Pennsylvania, while daughter Casey practices law in Rockville. On May 11, 2015, Sue Shorb-Sterling received her Doctor in Ministry degree from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D. C. Then on May 19, she received the gift of double total knee replacements. She is now walking well and is pain free! Currently, she is in her seventh year serving as pastor at Salem United Methodist Church in Brookeville, Maryland. Also, her fourth grandchild was born in January. Her name is Ashley Ellen Sterling. Three weeks later, Ashley was involved in a car crash and rushed to Johns Hopkins PICU with a brain bleed. She came home on her one month birthday. Ashley is now doing everything that she is supposed to being doing for her age and has been released from her doctors. We are very grateful. Debbie Wagner Shawen’s biggest news is birth of her first grandchild Samantha Rose who is a pure joy and lives outside London with her parents, so they are hopping across The Pond whenever they can. Michael and Debbie downsized to condos in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and Sarasota, Florida. They bike, hike, and kayak as often as possible and go out West to their favorite national parks. When in Baltimore they live on their sailboat. Debbie’s work as an Educational Consultant (helping families who need a therapeutic program or LD school) can be done from anywhere – and she loves it. Arlene Russo Bujese is still serving as Curator in Residence at the Southampton Cultural Center, New York, and just completed the 15th Annual Boxart Benefit Auction for East End Hospice (EEH); it is her 13th year as Chairperson of the event. She serves on the Board of Directors of EEH, and is working on securing works of art for the soon to be completed East End Hospice patient residence in Quioge, Long Island, New York. Jacqueline Testa Ciminera is happy to share that her first grandchild, a beautiful girl named Ella, was born in April to her son Bill and his wife Amanda. We’ll be watching facebook for some pictures. Debbie Page Rath wrote, “I hope everyone had a wonderful summer and remained safe throughout the extreme weather conditions. It looks like we’ve made it through another summer of wild fires in California. And if they’re right about El Nino, we may even get some rain and snow this winter. We could really use it. Wishing you and your families the best for the remainder of 2015!”

Sara (Sally) Parkhurst Van Why
814-623-1557
sallyvanwhy@gmail.com

Sara ‘Sally’ Parkhurst Van Why I started the last Hood column with a quote about the importance of our college friends. Continuing with that theme, I asked through email for comments. Donna Simmons Maneely wrote that her Hood friendships are still important to her and ongoing 40+ years after graduation. She treasures sharing birthday and Christmas greetings (and a few e-mails too) between close classmates and enjoyable outings several times a year with another dear local Hood friend from the Class of 1968. “Whenever we are lucky enough to be in touch, I feel like a happy girl of age 21 again as all these easygoing uplifting friendships are refreshed. Time has not stopped the Hood bonds of caring and friendship.” Lorraine Sharp Kish shared that a group of her Hood friends try to keep in touch regularly through email and social media. Some even snail mail birthday and Christmas cards to each other. They are always in each other’s thoughts. Ann Jones just had an hour long phone conversation with Patricia Funari Bevacqua. Ann is so grateful for their friendship and even though they don’t see each other very often, they love to connect. They shared special memories of dad and daughter weekends. My roommate, Katherine Nixdorff Wilson, loves seeing folks at the reunions some 40 years after we all started together in 1969, sending birthday cards to each other through our 30ties, 40ties, 50ies and now 60ties, plus seeing class mates when they attend other events such as when a whole bus load who came from Frederick to support Marcia Coyle DiBiagio for a Hood book signing in DC. She also has monthly lunches with Marcia, occasional lunches with Deborah Christ Zourdos when she is not down south playing golf, and encounters with Charlie on the train from Baltimore to DC. All of this means the connections are still there and very meaningful. Charlotte Miller Ponticelli says her Hood friendships and memories of those friendships have been a constant source of joy in her life. What she loved about Hood was the ability to move among various groups and really enjoy the patchwork of friends who might unexpectedly emerge from one day to the next. She is so glad she has had the chance to attend every single one of our class reunions! She says it’s true we tend to have a pretty small turn-out, but at every single reunion, there’s that old patchwork of friends, some we were very close to while at Hood and others we hardly knew at all. All it takes is a couple of us coming together to talk about the “remember whens”. The years melt away, the friendships endure… and somehow there we are, in microcosm: The Class of ’73! I, Sally Parkhurst Van Why, am part of a group that have been writing a round robin chain letter since we graduated. Patricia Suydam Ritter says that she believes that some of the friendships that she made at Hood still exist today due to our chain letter. “It’s so easy to let things “slide” – but when you have made a promise to six others to keep the letter moving around so that you’ll get it back with new info within six months – you keep it going. This friendship is so special because we are all the same age and have all been through many different stages of life – both the good and the bad and have been able to share, support and celebrate with each other through them. It’s a privilege and an honor to be part of such a caring group of people.” Anntoinette Lucia sums up all these comments by expressing how she treasures her Hood friendships. “Whether it is through mini-reunions, dinners, letters, birthday cards or email, there is something wonderful about having women in your life who “knew you when.” Nothing compares to sharing a laugh or reminiscing about the old times, some better than others. What is especially wonderful is how our relationships have morphed over the years. We can credit those bonds that formed all those years ago for the loving and supportive friendships we have today.” I also treasure my friendships from our Hood days and new ones that have developed since I started writing this column. If anyone else has friendship stories you would like to share, please send them to me for the next column.

Mary McMunigal Burland
610-733-4009
mburl5@verizon.net

Mindy Laighton Wilcox
619-462-6230
mlwilcox3@gmail.com

Nancy Ludder Koberlein retired in May 2014 as a Family Nurse Practitioner at a rural community health center. Since that time, she and her husband have been doing a lot of traveling. The day after she retired, they left in their motorhome for a two-month trip out west. In November 2014, they took a cruise to Antarctica and this past summer they took another two-month motorhome trip to the Canadian Rockies. They have now become snowbirds, spending the winter months traveling around Florida. They also enjoy visiting their daughter, Alice, who lives in Alexandria, Virginia and works in DC. Catherine Moon McClure sent a wonderful letter to catch up. After graduation, she spent two and a half years in Botswana with the Peace Corps followed by six months of travel through Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Japan before returning home in the fall of 1977. She then taught social studies in Vermont and New Hampshire, then worked as a reading specialist in junior and senior high schools. Her favorite job, principal in a K-3 elementary school in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, followed that. The last 15 years of her career were spent as assistant superintendent in Manchester, NH and then superintendent of schools first in Litchfield, NH and then Bennington, Vermont, where she retired a little over a year ago. Cathy’s daughter, Jennifer, is a registered nurse midwife at a hospital in the Seattle area. Cathy and her second husband, Steve, enjoy hiking, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing. She stays in touch with Elizabeth Ziegler who lives in Plainfield, Vermont, and they plan to travel down to Frederick for our 45th reunion. Mindy Laighton Wilcox and husband Bill flew their small plane from San Diego to Brunswick, Maine to attend an airplane convention this past July. They spent four weeks traveling out and back and stopped to visit Elizabeth Cooper Pizzolato, Alice Paul McGinnis and Carol McVey Burke ’72 along the way. Nancy Loader Calabretta and Anthony visited her Hood roomie Susan Montag Wood and husband Peter in Australia in September 2014. They had many adventures ranging from farm sitting on a real farm to snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. After several weeks of traveling around Australia, they returned to Sydney and spent their last week with Sue and Peter at their condo in Wollongong. Nan retired as Assistant Director of the Medical Library at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in April 2015 after 42 years working as a medical librarian. Her retirement began with a 21 day trip to Greece and Turkey! They were able to spend two weeks with their entire family in the Outer Banks, North Carolina in September and are looking forward to a three week trip to Costa Rica in January 2016. Frances Heck Darrow and Bill have retired and are living in Vienna, Virginia. Bill retired as an engineer for the government about seven years ago and returned to work about three weeks later as a consultant working with the same government people. Fran is working as a preschool teaching assistant three days a week. Fran enjoys her book club, knitting group, and her water aerobics class. They enjoy traveling and spending time at their condo in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Their daughter Beth and her Australian husband Rob live in Wilmington, North Carolina with sons Ian and Tristan. Rob is an assistant professor at UNC-Wilmington, and Beth is preparing for her PhD dissertation. Fran’s son Tom is in his 11th year teaching high school history in Manassas, Virginia and is working on his second master’s degree. He and his fiancé, who is a psychologist for the Army will be married in May. Mindy and I hope you are enjoying our columns, but we need some help. We have discovered that many of the email addresses that we receive from the college are incorrect so we are asking you to make sure Hood has your current email address so we can contact you for your news. We hope to see many of you at our 45th reunion on June 10-12, 2016.

Karin Ninesling Infuso
910-400-5137
kinfuso@aol.com

Nancy Schneider Alder volunteers at a local hospital, church, and nursing home and sees her five grandchildren as often as possible. Her daughter recently was married on the beach with perfect weather. For Marj Menchey Bernstein, the highlight of the summer was an Alaskan cruise with her partner and his family. After the cruise, they took the “breathtaking” Rocky Mountaineer train across Canada. Marj will travel to Naples, Florida in January for a Hood event and will attend Andrea Chapdelaine’s inauguration as Hood’s president. Ada Karen Blair and her husband, a long-time Minnesota Twins fan, visited Minneapolis, Minnesota, seeing the new Twins Stadium was on her husband’s “bucket list”. Kari was busy selling a house in NC and will close this fall. Kari lives 30 minutes from Karin Ninesling Infuso and enjoys seeing Karin’s daughter and grandson. Marianne Clark Cordyack reported on the reunion of her Hood friends Joanna (Dody) Corey Crutchley, Marianne Fisher O’Meara, Veronica George Freiberger, and Susan Pendell Johnson at Carolyn Johnson Houze’s home in Cody, Wyoming. The group started meeting in 1996 and planned to meet every five years. But the reunions, filled with talking, shopping, eating, and sightseeing, became an annual event in 2012. This year’s reunion included Yellowstone National Park, since Lynn’s house is only 53 miles east of the park. Vickie Smith Diaz loves retirement and spends 5-6 months in Florida enjoying outdoor activities and shell collecting. She will return to Maryland for the holidays, host Thanksgiving for her daughter and her boyfriend, and travel to NYC. Lauren Frankel still runs her consulting firm working largely with non-profit agencies. She is active in Planned Parenthood of Pasadena and completed three years as board chair. Her daughter Elizabeth is married and lives in Minneapolis which allows Lauren to explore the Twin Cities. Lauren was sorry to miss our reunion, but she was visiting Martha Herbert Bounoure and her husband in Nimes, France. They also spent a few days in Barcelona, Spain. Myra Holsinger visited Elaine Hubert and her husband in South Burlington, Vermont and enjoyed the view of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains. Denise Howard Mason reports that she is still working full-time but also travels with her sister Donna-Sue Howard, Hood ’74. In July, they spent 3 weeks in the Black Hills and the Badlands. Denise visited Pine Ridge Reservation and met with several descendants of Chief Red Cloud. Denise received veterans’ recognition at Mount Rushmore with a female Army veteran who served in Iraq. Denise hiked around Devil’s Tower and participated in a dinosaur dig. Her sister made a significant find and is recorded as the finder. Karin Ninesling Infuso and her family took a trip to southern California that included Los Angeles, a short cruise to Mexico, and the Pacific Surfliner train to San Diego. They visited a college friend of her husband, whom he had not seen in 46 years. They planned to visit Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone NP, and Grand Teton NP but cancelled the trip because their first grandchild arrived six weeks early. After two worrisome weeks, mother and baby boy are fine. Margaret Muncie traveled to New Mexico with her husband to visit friends from his college days at Miami University in Ohio. They will take a trip to Amsterdam and a tulip time river cruise next April. Peggy fondly remembers our reunion; when she looks at the photo book we gave her, she is reminded that she had “great classmates at Hood”. Pamela Nesbit and her husband continue their anti-bullying program at a school in Wisconsin. She is inspired by the students and states the work, is “life changing”. In May, Marianne Fisher O’Meara also became a grandmother to a baby boy and loves the grandparent experience. Anne Parkin Pierpont mentioned our reunion and is amazed that none of us ever “really age”. After 26 years, she still works at Stuart Day School in New Jersey where she runs the after-school, summer, and auxiliary programs. Her husband’s health has declined, and Anne works hard to balance his needs with her own. Anne’s daughter is a free-lance film producer. Anne thanks the classmates who attended the reunion with special thanks to Marj Menchey Bernstein for hosting a lovely reception and to Mary “Sam” Ryan Reeves and Marj who are “the glue that keeps us together”. In July, Sam Reeves became a grandmother to a baby girl. She attended a Hood gathering in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, hosted by Linda Allan and saw Ellen Sands Smith there. Ellen Sacks and her husband visited Sam at her beach house in South Bethany Beach, Delaware. Thank you to the classmates who sent information for this column.

Sayre Roney Steere
850-233-0238
sayre1126@gmail.com

Patricia Etzel Parker has completed her two-year stint as a District Director within the Federated Garden Clubs of Maryland. She is an active Master Gardener and Daffodil Judge. She often sees Ellen Kiel. Linda Israel Lamm and husband are enjoying retirement in Bethany Beach, Florida and recently hosted Mary (Sam) Ryan Reeves (’70). The Lamms have traveled to Spain, Columbia, El Salvador and Ecuador. Jill Stanley’s daughter is now an ordained cantor in Deerfield, Illinois. Jill and Adam went on a square-dancing cruise down the panhandle of Alaska – Elizabeth (Betsy) Seele Gotta was one of the callers! Martha Silcox Hankins continues to teach at the Odyssey School for children with dyslexia, while helping her husband with Shiloh Pottery, and raising sheep, alpacas, peacocks and goats. In September Martha Mulford Gray, Nancy Roe Hebdon and Meredith Owen Atkinson attended the memorial service for Linda Stockdale Warren in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. Linda was a part of a mini-reunion group consisting of Marty, Nancy, Sandra Jung Vrem, Nancy vom Eigen Rasmussen, and Linda Walls Bradley (’70). They have ordered a Blazer Brick in her memory. Virginia Monaco Hatfield recently coordinated a five-generational family reunion in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She and her husband enjoy escaping to their vacation home on Lake Tahoe and off to Maui in September. Linda Richards McKnight Hoover married David, an infectious disease doctor in March with Susie Holtzmann Richardson in attendance. Linda and David each have a daughter. Over the summer they traveled to the Congo and Indonesia. Linda and Susie met up again in San Francisco to introduce their grandchildren. After a 46-year career with United Airlines, Deborah Dick Holbert retired on September 29. In addition to managing her husband’s psychiatry office, Kathryn White Lucas is a docent at the University of Missouri’s Museum of Art and Archaeology. She has three children and three granddaughters. Daughter Marya, an attorney, is also a published author of a children’s book dealing with the Chicago Fire. Sarah Jane Snyder Raffety enjoyed her 50th high school reunion, and in October welcomed home all three of her children – together for the first time since 2011. Shahrnaz Safavi Martin checked in from Santa Barbara, California where she and her husband have lived since 2012. Prior to that they were in Vancouver, Houston, New Hampshire, The Netherlands and most recently Zurich, Switzerland. Daughter Mitra runs a Tango School in LA; Melika is a corporate lawyer and mother of Naz’s grandson; son Darius teaches at the American University of Beirut. Susan Oliver Schneider earned her education degree from BU and has taught in Marblehead, Massachusetts for decades – currently 1st grade where she designs STEM projects. From mid-April to Thanksgiving she runs sailing races. Patricia Warren Carlson continues to shepherd doctoral students through their dissertations and teaches a course or two in Educational Leadership at Delaware State University. Her main passion however is golf – plays almost daily, weather permitting, and is helping her six year old granddaughter learn the game. A golfing vacation to Punta Cana in December is planned. Jean Winn Swan’s husband, a retired dentist, volunteers his services to poor villagers in Viet Nam. Jean traveled to Qatar in May as daughter Carolyn (an archaeologist) welcomed baby Hannah. Newly engaged son Matt is a Marine officer. Daughter Kate and family (Josephine, 5 and James, 2) live nearby. Jean has written and illustrated a book which is about to be published. Twin Joan Winn Horman joined Jean at their 50th reunion in Maine. Joanne Ingoldsby Peters spent the summer recovering from foot surgery, but now is back to playing golf. Donna Holst Carr and husband live in Mt. Airy, Maryland. Though retired from teaching, she continues to substitute. Son Ben and wife live in New Jersey; daughter Meredith and husband are in Frederick. Cynthia Kannapel Weiss welcomed granddaughter Amelia (daughter of Charles, sister of Will and cousin of Bree) in July. The whole family joined Cindy and Glenn for a Cape Cod vacation in August. Dave and I, Sayre Roney Steere lived out of suitcases much of the summer. First came a two-week cruise through Northern Europe in June – loved Stockholm and Oslo; in July it was off to Seattle to see our three granddaughters, then drop by Palo Alto, California for a visit with Doris; in August met up with Karol Bedyk Strang in North East, Maryland for our 50th reunion. Finally I must “plug” a book, The Libyan, written by our own Esther Kofod Whitfield. It’s a memoir of her married life in Libya under Ghaddifi’s dictatorship. Her story will captivate you.

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.

Patricia Rosner Kearns
kearns.patricia@gmail.com

Deborah Aldrich says she loves to read about our classmates is having a good year. “I’ve just lost some major weight and feel so much better. Walking every day in beautiful Newburyport. Coming up on the five year mark breast cancer free which is great. My daughter just went through a much more difficult bout with it. I added two wonderful kittens, Jethro and Findlay McDoodle, to my cat house.” Gail Witham Pohl writes: In May, we took a wonderful cruise on the Elbe River going from Berlin to Prague, and in July we took a driving trip through some of western U.S. and Canada (over 5000 miles). We’re still involved in square dancing and volunteer work, and I lead a Bible study group. The grandchild count is now 20. We are blessed! Johanna Van Wert Thompson say, turning 70 has been great fun with a family Caribbean cruise, there were 22 of us! Michael and are very active in Bruton Parish and working with the homeless. We even have a therapy dog and Michael takes him to a retirement home as well as a women’s shelter, to interact with the residents. One thing that has come to fruition in this 70th year is a scholarship at Hood which my two sisters, Punkie Van Wert VanAs ’69, and Susie Van Wert Loustaunau ’72, and I have established. The Virginia Munson Hammell ’67 Trading Room was constructed in Rosenstock Hall over the summer and is now open for classroom use. Kristina Campbell Joyce says she is planning to stay in their house in Massachusetts for life if possible, so did some work around the place this summer.
“Our grandchildren Emma (13) and Ryan (11) are growing up fast. Our daughter teacher is in Boston so we see her often. BJ and I traveled to Iceland and Greenland for my art and teaching–Artic Art theme and that was an adventure. BJ is still in the family business for printing and drafting supplies and is happy working as I am too.” Ruth Conger Crespi writes from Rhodes, Greece, “at the end of a great two-week trip here. I return October 1….to the wonderful man in my life, who I dated in New York in 1968. Life can be so unpredictable, especially at 70! … I had a nice visit from Susan Starr Bracken, who was traveling back to North Carolina after a month in the northeast. While she was here we joined Cynthia Newby for lunch. I see my cousin Mary Starr Smith Adams (Class of ’54) from time to time at her home in Newtown, Connecticut. I look forward to visiting Kristin Muller (MS, Class of 2014) this fall at her studio in Dingman’s Ferry, Pennsylvania. (Kristin was a ceramic student of mine at SCSU many years ago.) … My daughter Louisa has been living and working in Tokyo for the past 14 years. Daughter Jodie is a chiropractor in Davidson, North Carolina. She and husband Mike Silver have two children. Son Scott, his wife Becky, and their three children live near me in West Hartford. They are both chemical engineers. Life is good.” Ann Goodhart and husband Jim Delgado just returned from a cruise in the Canadian Arctic and along the coast of Greenland. It was an amazing experience full of dramatic landscapes, cold and ice, warm local people and not much wildlife. Marjorie Mumma Ohman & family have been in their Arlington, Virginia house 37 years now. The only message she has is– I hope all who can, will come back to Hood for our 50th Reunion. The campus never looked lovelier, and there are so many new developments in the college curriculum. Sometimes I half-wish I could go back again and study something new there now. It is always a pleasure to return. Patricia Rosner Kearns Finally, your class reporter has transitioned once again. I spent the winter in Connecticut taking care of my mother who passed away in March at 90. In June, I joined a small local nonprofit as executive director near my home focused on getting homeless families out of shelters and into permanent homes earning a living wage. The kids continue to fly the coup. Oldest son Josh, moved to Sonoma County but still works in DC; youngest son Neil moved to Louisville, Kentucky, and son Max is still in North Georgia. Grandkid count is four, 3 boys and a girl and I don’t get to see them enough!

Dianne Beebe Barske
907-346-3167
dielbarske@gci.net

Dianne Beebe Barske Our 50th class reunion is coming up this June – June 9 to – June 12! I am turning over most of this class news column to our reunion chair, Ginny Wheeler Jones, and the reunion committee, with hopes that a great many of us will be back on campus for this landmark event. Before I do that, I’m sharing happy news of summer visitors here in Alaska from our class. In June, husband Elliott and I had breakfast with Anna Buhr Cole and her husband Miles, in Anchorage, from their home in Baltimore, their second visit here. Since Anna retired three years ago, she and Miles have become world travelers. In June, we had lunch with Terri Petrillo Connolly and her husband Frank, travelling with another couple from their Connecticut home to Alaska. They took the Inside Passage Cruise along the Alaska coastline, and Terri reports, “It was wonderful. The glaciers are magnificent.” An emailed note came from Josephine (Kandy) Kiefaber-Higinbotam. Kandy and husband Randy are living in Lexington, Virginia where she continues to work as a substitute teacher. She reports that her Hood roommate, Cheryl Carlson Peyton, has recently published a third book in her Alex Trotter mystery series, Murder in Margaritaville. Fun to keep up with classmates? Then please plan to come to our June reunion. Here is our chair, Ginny’s, reunion planning update. Virginia Wheeler Jones Dear ’66 Classmates: Our 50th Class Reunion is fast approaching! How can that be possible? Wasn’t it just our 25th Reunion when we came to campus in our signature YELLOW, displayed in our shirts and memorable balloons?! Our Reunion Committee and the Hood Staff have already been hard at work planning a wonderful weekend of fun from Thursday, June 9th to Sunday, June 12th. We hope everyone has gotten information already from both the college and a personal note from a classmate–all encouraging YOU to come! All of our committee has had the pleasure of being on campus recently, and we can tell you it is both a beautiful and exciting place! Spring was always a lovely time on campus, and this year promises to be especially so as you look at it with eyes filled with 50 years of memories and see the positive changes of the present. Excitement comes with a new president, amazing classroom facilities and new technology, mixed with the excitement you will have of seeing college friends again! We encourage you to come early and stay late! Our initial class gathering on Thursday evening should be great fun to begin our time together, to chat and catch up with each other, spouses and partners. Friday’s “Maryland” dinner, featuring some yummy crab items, was a huge hit in its reunion debut last year! Our Saturday luncheon and special sit-down dinner should both be highlights of our weekend together! Sunday includes our favorite Strawberry Breakfast, complete with ice cream! Our weekend comes to a close with the Chapel Service which will include a memorial piece for our deceased classmates. You will be hearing more details from both the college and our Reunion Committee Chairs in the months to come. Hood will send registration materials in April. Our busy committee members are chairing various aspects of our reunion as follows: Fundraising Chair – Sarah Bruce; Assisting Fundraising – Judy Messina; Commemorative Booklet Chair – Patricia Vozar Bailey; Chapel Service Chair- Susan Worth Fiala. You will be hearing more from each chair with information AND ways to be involved in OUR reunion! We are hoping to exceed an appropriate 66% participation rate in giving toward our class reunion gift, regardless of the amount. We also hope to exceed an appropriate amount of $66,000 as our class 50th reunion gift. Sarah, Fundraising Chair, also reminds everyone to look into “matching gifts”. Pat will be collecting photos and items from our days at Hood for the “Memories” section of our Commemorative Booklet, so look for those special photos among your saved college treasures! Susan is looking for assistance with the Chapel Service led by our class. Please let her know if you would like to help, participate, speak, etc. Remember Shriner Hall is available for your on campus stay. Come and relive some of that fun dorm life again with classmates. Also, the nearby Hampton Inn on Opposumtown Pike is available, as well as other hotels, for your stay. PLEASE come and be part of this very special time! Our 50th Reunion IS a BIG deal…and a great time to reunite with Hood ’66 classmates! I am excited! Looking forward to seeing each of you.

Catherine Beyer Meredith
410-252-1947
alto1cat@aol.com

Catching up with some of the reunion no-shows brought in news from classmates around the country and beyond. Nancy Diefenbach Pearce assures us that she is alive and well and still living in Ocean Pines, Maryland—11 years now. But in early October, she was writing from the South Pacific where she and Lew were on a 28-day cruise from San Francisco to Hawaii, French Polynesia, American Samoa, New Zealand and Australia. “Since the 45th reunion we have been on two African safaris (South Africa in 2010 and Namibia in 2013), visited Egypt (Cairo and down the Nile in 2010) and done some other cruising,” Nancy wrote. “In between I had a partial mastectomy for Stage 2 breast cancer, along with chemotherapy and radiation. I didn’t suffer any horrible side effects from the various treatments and only cut back a bit on my volunteer activities. I send best wishes for good health and happiness to all of our classmates.” Beverly Jones Gibson reported that son Barry now has two sons, Carter, 6 and Zach, 2 1/2, and that daughter Courtney is slowly recovering from her automobile accident that had kept Bev in Richmond almost three weeks last spring, causing her to miss the reunion. “I’m still hawking properties with Long & Foster in Crofton, Maryland,” Bev wrote. “Anyone looking to buy/sell/rent near Washington/Baltimore/Annapolis, give me a call or text. There are still some great buys out there.” Marion (Meg) Griffis Hadley has lived in the smallest state capitol—Montpelier, Vermont—since 1970. During those 45 years, she raised three great sons who are all engineers: one a software engineer, another a mechanical engineer and the third a geological engineer. Meg, retired from a long career as a high school history teacher, and her husband, retired from the federal government, enjoy traveling to faraway places. HannahJane Hurlburt did attend the reunion but wrote to report on classmate Sandy Hickman Lee who couldn’t join our festivities due to family wedding in Colorado. While there, she had dinner with Carol Matthews Smith, of Boulder, for a mini reunion of their own. Sandy splits her time between homes in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, and Sun Valley Idaho, depending on the season and musical and family events. Additionally, since retirement, she has taken up teaching knitting on the Crystal Cruise Line. In that capacity, she and husband Pete have traveled to Singapore, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Italy, England, Canada and the northeast U.S.A. Joan Joice Taylor and husband Rufus also enjoy a mountain retreat in Idaho, where they frequently go to escape the summer heat in their hometown of Henderson, Nevada, and in winter to enjoy riding snow machines. Joan gave up skiing after hip and knee replacements, but she still loves swimming and walking for exercise. This summer, son Charles and his family and son-in-law Ken and youngest grandson Luke joined the Taylors in Idaho, but daughter Cathy, a career military officer, was in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division. Kathryn Kahn Rusk wrote, “so sorry I didn’t make it to the reunion! The Sunday before, I was diagnosed with double pneumonia and I hadn’t even had a cold for five years!” Now recovered in Kirkland, Washington, Kathy is within driving distance of her three children and seven wonderful grandchildren, ages 6 to 16. She works four or five days a month as a nutritional consultant, a health coach and quality control for health facilities. “I love working on my time,” she wrote. “I’ll be going to France this month, to Italy in April, to my children’s homes and to the next reunion!” Susan Nau Steidl attended Hood for just her freshman year with Maureen “Mimi” Flynn as her roommate and then transferred to the University of Florida to study nursing. After graduating in 1965 with a B.S. in nursing, “I returned to my hometown of Cincinnati, where I married my childhood sweetheart Jerry. There, I practiced intensive-care nursing and taught ER nursing at a local hospital. From Cincinnati, we moved to Mansfield, Ohio, where we lived for seven years. Finally we moved to Orlando, where I worked with a large hospital system for 35 years and retired from administration in 2013. Jerry is a minister, and we have three terrific children—two daughters and a son—and five grandchildren. We now live in The Villages, Florida, and I still do special project work for the hospital in Orlando to keep a few brain cells active!

Barbara Maly Fish
919-688-9125
barb2fish@yahoo.com

Returning from Hilton Head, SC, Ann McMillan Shuman was stranded in Charleston for two days during the historic rainstorm in September. ”If you have to be stranded somewhere, Charleston is a great place,” she says. She saw Karen Kuechenmeister Lehrhaupt in early August at their 55th high school reunion in Pittsburgh and again in Hilton Head in late September. Christina Santangelo Blenke and husband Henry love to travel and try to go to a new place each year. This year’s destination was Sicily. The Blenkes have five grandchildren who visit often. “Cape Cod has continued to be a perfect retirement spot,” Chris says. “Our days are filled with lots of outdoor fun, kayaking, tennis, biking, and there are a slew of other retirees to play with here.” In March, the Blenkes get away from the cold in Marco Island, Florida. Chris reconnected with Pamela Wallace Johnson through the Hood magazine and now they get together in Florida and in Massachusetts each year. Susan Sterner recently moved to Flagstaff, Arizona and is now much happier and livelier since she got a pacemaker. She was able to go to Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan in April. “It was truly fascinating,” she says. Elizabeth Speed Rich is a retired RN from the Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville; husband Tom is a retired Veterans Administration social worker. Betsy keeps her hand in health care by volunteering at the Kalispell Regional Medical Center. She and Tom moved to Flathead County, MT from Tennessee in 2002 in order to enjoy the benefits of living near a national park. They are the parents of Joseph, who works in international finance at HSBC in New York, and James, an actor, comedian, and writer who lives with his wife Maura in Los Angeles. Tom and Betsy look forward to celebrating their 50th anniversary in November. Betsy says, “The older I get, the more I realize how blessed I have been my whole life. Hood College is certainly a part of that!” Carol (Kelly) Ebert Henderson is enjoying this “passage.” The three Henderson kids have produced five adorable grandchildren, ages 6-11. Kelly volunteers as an historic tour guide at Cairnwood and at the Cathedral in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania. She is a member of Questers, teaches two French conversation classes, belongs to two book groups, and practices yoga. In July 2016, they will celebrate their 50th anniversary. Kelly says, “I look back on our reunion with affection for all of you and appreciation to Hood for giving us such a good time that weekend and for a quality education.” Janet Riley Colburn is recovering from a bad auto accident “half a continent from home” and from breast cancer. She is mostly OK now. Bright lights in her life include her five grandchildren, two boys and three girls. Barbara Haun Morris wrote just as she was about to leave for New Hampshire and Vermont to enjoy the fall foliage. She enjoys living in Williamsburg, Virginia and has now visited or lived in all 50 states. All signs of breast cancer are gone, so she feels great and is back to golf and swimming, plus being lots slimmer. Jo Ann Risser Moroz’s husband Pete retired from consulting for Moly-Cop in Chile in April, but they still need him, and October found them back in Santiago. Pete and JoAnn enjoy living in Las Vegas, where their children and three grandchildren live. The oldest two grands are in college, youngest is a sophomore in high school. Daughter Debbie teaches high school and junior college math; daughter-in law-Chary is a special-ed teacher; and son Drew is a computer programmer. JoAnn and Pete volunteer at a local food bank where she does demonstrations and nutrition classes, while he oversees the food distribution. JoAnn had a good visit with Marylou Herrmann Foley in August when Marylou came to Las Vegas for a convention. Judith Coombs Creighton is in the process of downsizing and selling their house. She finds that it is far easier to get rid of her own stuff than the treasures handed down from her mother. Soon she will enjoy a mini-reunion with Eloise Varney Rauth and Susan Sterner. Judi’s son Alex is an orthopedic surgeon at the University of North Carolina. Occasionally, she spots him on TV when he rushes to care for an injured player. Diane McKay Nuner is walking pain free after a hip replacement in February. The Nuner’s celebrated their 50th anniversary on a cruise to Alaska. She and Jim love the sunny Southwest and their home in Deming, NM, but next summer, they plan to make a long RV trip to Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Michigan, and South Dakota. At the end of that trip, they will have visited 48 of the 50 states.