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1940s

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1946

Miriam Blechman Grimes
Miriam2166@aol.com

Ann McWhinney Watson’s 80th birthday celebration lasted almost two months. In February children Bob, Chrissie, Jeff, and Candace surprised her with a party; family members came from far-flung places, including her grandchildren from Juneau, AK. In April Mac’s three sisters and a brother took her to the Broadmoor resort hotel for the weekend.

Constance Abbott Koeniger rejoices in the birth of a great-granddaughter, daughter of grandson Nathan, in Littleton, CO, last spring.

Gladys Benfield Watkinson and Bill were finally granted approval to develop 103 acres, so they will be surrounded by much activity for the next two years. They plan to build a home right in the middle 12 acres, which they own.

Eleanor Boaz Cowen went to Cleveland, OH, to attend a lecture established to honor her late husband, Lindsey, who was dean at Case Western Reserve Law School from 1972 to 1982. She enjoyed seeing old friends and Lindsey’s former colleagues. She celebrated her 80th birthday in April and followed it up in May with a two-week river cruise that started in Amsterdam and ended in Vienna.

In Bethlehem, PA, Vivian Manperl Fishbone enjoys living in the Moravian Village retirement community. A visiting artist at Lafayette College, she exhibits locally.

Lois Sevigny Hollenbeck’s daughter Katherine wrote on behalf of her mother, saying she has had a series of health challenges over the past two years. Lois’s husband, Martin, died in 2000. Lois enjoys time with her five grandchildren, reading, and hearing from Skidmore friends.

Joan Simon Barr is editor in chief of Voices, an in-house magazine for the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, CA, where she is also an architectural guide and supporting docent. She and husband Richard continue to travel. They have two sons and five great-grandchildren.

Floridians Faith Hope Barnard and husband David broke the monotony of all that sun by entertaining northern visitors over the winter. They changed the pace by attending the New Orleans jazz festival in April.

Connie Wallace Caldwell’s two grandsons are 19; one is a sophomore at Hiram College. She noted, as we all do, that “yesterday they were just ready for grade school.” She and Dave are well. Dave, 94, was a featured guest on a “Life After Ninety” panel for first-year medical students at Case Western Reserve University. She says it was a great experience, with attentive and responsive students and sometimes hilarious panelists.

Constance Seeley Andrews’s Orlando home and Cocoa Beach condo are still “recovering” from last year’s hurricanes. Connie reflected that Skidmore roommate Dorothy Steinert Seufert, who died in 2001, “added a lot to her life.”

Jan Hamilton Muyskens and Lucy MacPherson Proctor (whose death was noted in the spring Scope), were sophomore-year roommates, along with Annie Robinson Wickenhaver. Neither Annie nor Lucy graduated, but the trio had kept in touch; they held a weekend mini-reunion at Jan’s home 10 years ago. Jan had lunch with Dick and Lucy in Massachusetts in 2003.

Constance Koeriger welcomed a great-granddaughter, Lauren, on January 19. She is the daughter of grandson Nathan and his wife Michelle, who reside in Littleton, CO.

Our condolences go to Mary Wolfe DiRenza, whose daughter Betsy, 43, died in March. Betsy was a skilled craftsperson, and the family treasures the many gifts she made for them over the years.

We also send our sympathy to Janet Peters Gardiner and Richard, who lost their oldest son, Douglas, to a heart attack at age 53 last October. His wife and children keep in touch with them.

We note with sorrow the death of Priscilla Smith Osborne’s husband, Earl, in April. A retired engineer, he volunteered for the Executive Service Corps in Indonesia and Colombia.

We also send condolences to Mary Gandsey Coffin, whose sister Ellen Gandsey Cornwall ’42 died in January.

My eldest son, Rob, invited me to be his “date” at a business conference in Istanbul, Turkey. Usually I would be too cheap to spend the money, but when one’s son invites one, one goes! (His wife doesn’t like to travel.) In February I went to Cuba as part of an ecumenical mission to the Jewish community there; we brought medical and other relief supplies. During spring break I took my 16-year-old granddaughter on a self-arranged trip to London.