class notes

1920s | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s

UWW | In Memoriam | People & projects

1950s

1950 | 1951 | 1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959

1953

Pat Holmes Buehler was married to Dr. Norman Blankenship in February 2007. They winter in Florida and summer in Illinois.

Now retired from her career as an infection-control practitioner, Jo Doris Freedman devotes her time to keeping up with three grown children and six grandchildren, doing lots of volunteer work, and coping with a big house and gardens.

Barbara Fee Dickason and John enjoyed mini-reunions with Mikey McClement O’Connor in Albuquerque, NM (Mikey’s husband died in 2006), and in September with Bill and Pat Lanpher Compton, who visited the Dickasons at their Florida home.

Anne Stark LeMieux’s husband, Dave, penned news for them. They moved to Los Altos, CA, from Illinois in 1975 and to Roseville, CA, in 1998. Married 54 years, they have three daughters, one son, and seven grandchildren (one graduated from Tufts in 2007, and another is a sophomore at Bowdoin). Travel is limited by Ann’s lack of mobility, but they can enjoy short trips—to Lake Tahoe, just one and a half hours away, and San Francisco, two hours away.

Ann Shaaber Campney reports that she, Carol Theobald, and Dorothy Garbarino Walka gathered on Cape Cod last fall at Joan Dymond Barnett’s house for a mini-reunion that also included a luncheon at Cindy Madsen Hanson’s home nearby. They all agreed that wrinkles don’t show in person as much as in snapshots.

Jodo Kleinmaier Tornes’s youngest son was married this past fall in Stinson Beach, CA. He and his wife write for the West Marin Citizen.

Betsy Singer Gluck is working hard on our 55th reunion and hoping to see many on campus in May.

Yvonne Mandell Bartman and daughter Lori Bartman ’76 attended the Venice biennial in October. They also checked out the towns of Verona, Padua, Vicenza, and Revenna, where they caught up with Lori’s sister, Elizabeth, whom classmates may remember was a 3-month old attending graduation with mom Yvonne.

Audrey Kresel Levine spends her winters in Key Biscayne, FL, and heads for Connecticut as the weather improves. Sis enjoys retirement life with her hubby and says their kids are scattered on the East and West Coasts.

Helen Briwa says she is still “dogging it” since she saw us all at our 50th.

Carole Pistler Martin and Bill have gallivanted all over the world, including a trip to Brazil (which took them to the widest waterfalls in the world), Chicago for a high-school graduation (the graduate now attends Colorado College), the Grand Tetons, Nashville, and San Diego at a condo near the Boardwalk with all 11 of the family at Christmas.

I’m proud of my roommate, Ann Trainer Williams, who was honored with a 20-year award from Hospice. She was planning a trip to Australia and New Zealand in January, spending the time with friends as husband John finds travel hard.

I received a postcard announcing an art show at which Betty Hill Johnson was a featured artist. We haven’t had our annual lunch date due to conflicts and Maine weather.

Lyn “Snuffy” Keith Chevli wrote of a wonderful four days with Gabe Fuchs and Gerda Fuchs Rypins, who drove down to Laguna Beach to visit her. One highlight was watching Gerda make finger rings out of dollar bills! Gabe reported on that same visit, plus another when she and Gerda checked out the environs that Dorothy Foster Napoli enjoys on Vachon Island off the coast of Washington. Gabe keeps painting, Snuffy continues writing and sculpting with bones, and Gerda is still working as a part-time preschool teacher.

Lois Follett Labriola’s physician husband, Gerald, has retired from medical practice and followed a dream of writing mystery books after several nonfiction works didn’t go far. This was revealed in a newspaper article sent to me by my daughter Beth Bogart Ayer ’79, from the Thames River Times published in New London, CT. In the article, Lois suggests that his characters are so finely drawn that “we should really have them over to dinner.” His latest book is The Strange Death of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Mary Jo Marcy Rines and husband Mel hit the headlines in the Boothbay Register in Maine, location of their summer home. The first article listed a significant gift from the Rineses to build an extension to the Southport Library. The second article reported the couple’s winning of the Hubbard Family Award for service to philanthropy at the University of New Hampshire, Mel’s alma mater. Besides chairing the largest endowment campaign in the school’s history, the Rineses have supported a state-of-the-art program in high-tech business. They have also established an art exhibition fund for the university’s gallery.

Pat Grove Williams attended the funeral for Jeanne Saulnier on Cape Cod, and she and Craig had a good chat with Jeanne’s husband, Rene. Jeanne had been hospitalized for several years, and Rene had made arrangements for his life to come, so no big decisions were required. Lots of travel was on the agenda for the Williamses this year, including a Tauck Tour with roommate Bobbie Fee Dickanson and John, and the Grand Canyon, Bryce, and Zion Parks. Their widowed daughter-in-law was remarried in their home in Connecticut. In August, Swiss Air took them to Switzerland on an “Untour”; with an apartment in the town of Kandersteg for two weeks, they lapped up grand scenery by boat, bus, and lift.

There is sad news too: Two classmates reported the death of husbands after very long illnesses. Pat Gorman Ewers’s Bert died in December, and Jo Doris Freedman’s Fred passed away recently. Also, Carol Theobald Schafer lost her sister Barbara Theobald ’56.