class notes

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1940s

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1941

Mary Phillips Murray
mmurray102@cs.com

Five members thoroughly enjoyed our 65th reunion. The rest of you were sorely missed: the sky wept tears all day Saturday. The parade of classes was cancelled by the rain, and the picnic tent floor was a muddy mess, but spirits were not dampened.

Tomi Kuwayama-Tedesco came from Los Angeles, her second visit since graduation. She was delighted with the new campus. “It warmed my heart that the essential spirit of Skidmore still prevails and the close relationship between students and faculty is still nurtured.” She found Bob Boyers’s class “The News, the Pundits, and the Public” “fascinating and stimulating.” We all attended Sheldon Solomon’s talk on how self-image is formed.

For Grace Moslin Hawthorne, who transferred after freshman year, it was her first reunion and
a happy experience.

For Ruth Mook Kerr and me, both nursing majors, a highlight was the reception in the Dana Science Center atrium to celebrate a permanent tribute to the nursing department (discontinued
in 1985): “Pioneers in Science.” We matched stories with nursing majors from the Class of ’76, whose experience was at University Hospital in NYC; ours, in the comparatively tiny Mary McClellan Hospital, was amazingly similar. What fun going back in time with kindred spirits!
At a reception with President Glotzbach we admired the beautiful scarves worn by the Class of ’46, on which art professor Alfrieda Storm’s rendering of a map of the old campus was silk-screened. What a flood of memories as I reviewed the buildings depicted on the map. Each of us who
attended later received a scarf in the mail.

The tour of the Tang Museum impressed us with its exhibit spaces and classrooms. We are proud
of Eleanor Dillaway Rowland’s painting in the alumni exhibit: Lily Pond, an Adirondack scene. For more about Eleanor’s artwork, see “People & Projects” at left.

Mildred Herridon Webster’s brood of three children and their families spent a week in Vermont
for the burial of husband George in the family’s century-plus–old cemetery. At the service, a granddaughter played “Amazing Grace” on her flute as a most welcome surprise for her grandmother.

Peggy Jouard Gibson’s social life includes driving with daughter-in-law Vicki, teaching beginner piano lessons to an 11-year-old Chinese neighbor, keeping in touch with Mary Cookinham, and doing all those old-fashioned things Baptist churches do. Peggy also made her annual trip to the New York hills (to visit youngest son and family) and spent an afternoon with Phyllis Anderson.
Dree Mayforth Wetzler sent a picture showing off her first “frost job” (in honor of her 86th birthday). On a nostalgic visit to Saratoga a few years ago, she stayed at the historic Adelphi Hotel.

Margaret Orr Ronaldson wonders if she’s our first great-great-grandmother. Her great-grandson became a father in February.

Ruth Kerr has been furnishing a second cottage she and Don built on the grounds of the Adirondack cottage they’ve owned for many years. They plan to revel in calm quiet while the
young people do their thing at the main house.

Peggy O’Neil McNamara was unable to connect with someone from her area to share the ride
to Saratoga for Reunion.

The class extends sincere condolences to Yolanda Campoli Cancilla, whose husband, Vincent,
died in 2005. Vince added his congenial sparkle to several of our reunions.

We also send sympathy to the family of Dorothy Rose Murphy, who died last December. I
remember her as a vibrant person who could get things done.

My granddaughter Sarah was married in February in Costa Rica. The wedding was attended by three of my children and their families, three bridesmaids (all childhood friends), a nephew, and me. It was a heavenly week for us all.