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1963

Deborah Frankel Reese
bybynj@aol.com

Connie Talcott Smith sent news from classmates she spoke to during our fund-raising drive. Jackie Fernald Montgomery’s firm, Jackson Hole Realty, has become a Sotheby’s International Realty affiliate. Connie caught her on the phone, showing property at Teton Village. Jackie’s son Geoffrey studies marine science at Eckerd College in Florida. Connie wore a Skidmore shirt to her yoga class, prompting a double-take by the instructor, Kerry Cavanagh ’74. Connie also learned that Charlotte Cram Elsberry attended a national convention in New Orleans in June with her professional nursing colleagues in midwifery.

Ruth Adler Ruder’s husband, Phillip, won the Nevada Governor’s Award for excellence in the arts this year, in the category of violin performance. They went to the awards ceremony in Las Vegas. Ruth, still involved with drought-tolerant landscaping, completed her first-ever Power Point presentation, incorporating her digital photography. She is using the presentation to apply for a grant for a volunteer organization.

Laura Young and husband Tom returned from joint residencies at the VCCA in Virginia, an artist colony started by Bill Smart in the ’70s. “We had a great time hanging out with other artists, writers, and composers, and it was an extremely productive time for me in the studio,” Laura notes. In July she taught a one-week painting workshop at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico.

Mary Harris Wieneke left California and moved to Seattle in July to join a private group practice in clinical psychology. After 16 years living in the Bay area, it was a “huge move.” She can be reached at weinekem@aol.com.

Jan Silverman Rifkin finally tracked down Judy Shear Morgenstern, her roommate both freshman and senior year. Judy and her husband, a dentist, still live in New Jersey and own a llama farm.

Artist and jewelry designer Willa Zens Marten is simplifying her life. She sold her home in Point Arena and moved back to Mill Valley, CA. She plans to spend half the year in Marin County and the other half in Captain Cook, HI. “And yes,” she adds, “you are all invited!” She can be reached via e-mail at will@mcn.com. She also has a Website: www.halekeawe.com.

I ran into Judy Pettingell at an art show I was in this past spring. She was in the midst of wrapping up her teaching career—“a somewhat emotional time” that included hiring her replacement, final grading, and submitting 450 report cards. Although she has not yet addressed what she will do next to earn money, Judy knows “it will all work out and be great.”

Joyce DiBona had a great trip to Australia and New Zealand, including a press trip with Connex Rail, which manages commuter rail in Boston and is expanding to Sydney, Melbourne, and Auckland. “Long way to go but absolutely worth it,” she says.

Karen Levin Coburn and husband Steve enjoyed a trip to Greece this summer. Steve is retired, but not Karen, who will go back to her university duties in September. Her acclaimed book, Letting Go: A Parent’s Guide to Understanding the College Years, is now in its third printing and has sold more than 250,000 copies. She is often quoted in the national and international media.

When I spoke with Ruth Livingston Gottlieb in early July, she and husband Larry were preparing for a trip to China, Japan, and Hong Kong. She was fretting over how to make her suitcase weigh only 40 pounds, which is all China allows in. Ruthie’s four-year-old granddaughter in Los Angeles recently told her, “Grandma, you need a manicure!”

Carolyn Caesar Ingraham is spending her golden years being mom to the youngest kid in the class. Daughter Lora, whom she adopted from an orphanage in Nanchang, China, is now in first grade. Earlier this year, when the cicadas were buzzing around their Princeton, NJ, home, Carolyn told Lora about their 17-year hibernation. “When I told her they will reappear when she is 24 years old, she asked, ‘Then, will you be 100?’ To which I replied, ‘Almost!’” The Ingrahams returned to China in April for a visit to Lor’s orphanage. “It has been three years since she left, but she took us into a large room with 12 bunk beds and showed us where she had slept.”

Connie Talcott Smith caught Charlene Tropeano Dorman at home in Menlo Park, CA, recovering from a lung infection that required surgery. Connie writes, “Charlene is counting her blessings that her physician husband, John Dorman, and the medical staff at Stanford pulled her through this one. Char’s faith must have a lot to do with her recovery.” The Dormans’ son Todd is director of worship at All Angels church on NYC’s Upper West Side, and daughter Bianca is studying for a master’s of divinity at the University of Vancouver. Daughter Lydia started law studies this fall with a scholarship from the new Ave Maria Law School in Ann Arbor, MI. Charlene and John celebrated 40 years of marriage in August.

Ginny Nyvall Durfee visits former roommate Ginny Payne Morse at her nursing home every day. Ronnie Zolondek Bramesco came up from NYC to watch the Tony Awards with them.

Susan Rose Clark enjoyed a brief but memorable reunion in Charleston, SC, earlier this year with Ronnie Bramesco, Kathy Terwilliger, and Sandy Wilbert Fleischman. “It was so comfortable to share our disappointments, successes, and growth.”

Deborah Milton Cohen’s husband, a colonel in the Army Medical Corps, returned safely from Iraq in late February. After trips to Washington, DC, and Cancun, the couple attended the marriage of the third of their five sons. Deborah stays busy volunteering and taking water aerobics classes. She encourages classmates in the San Antonio, TX, area to look her up.

Susan Blum Littman Loukedis is still practicing law. Daughter Lisa Littman Milberg ’87 and husband Paul welcomed a son in May 2003.

Margaret Weill Wolf is listed in Who’s Who for Teachers 2004.

Susan Hand Shetterly has authored a number of children’s books—most recently Shelterwood (published by Tilbury House), which she says is about “using the woods well.” My cousins and I recently took my aunt’s ashes back to Maine. Susan and my aunt and uncle were close friends for many years; in fact, Susan wrote a marvelous article on my uncle in the July issue of Down East magazine. Although she was educated elsewhere (Skidmore and Harvard), Susan says that Maine “is where I learned to live. My whole world and whole sensibility [are] rural and small-town Maine.”

I have been battling arthritis, which started when I joined Curves last winter and hit me really hard this summer, causing much pain and hobbling about. But at this point if what afflicts you is not fatal, you have to be grateful! The summer here at Weathertop was busy with steady painting in my studio, three art shows, lots of company, vegetable and perennial gardens, and time with my grandchildren.

Remember to check out the Class of 1963 newsletter, Mail on E ’63, online at www.skidmore.edu/alumni/alumniaffairs/classes/1963/1963.html.