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1953

Life is good for snowbirds Audrey Kresel Levine and husband Bernard, who is recently retired. The couple lives in Key Biscayne, FL, for six months and returns to Woodbridge CT, for the rest of the year.

Judy McEndy Lynch’s husband, Bob, had surgery at the Cleveland Clinic last November. Postoperative problems developed, and they chose Marco Island for his recuperation, where he improved greatly. Their sixth grandchild arrived in late March, giving them five grandsons and a granddaughter.

Norma “Billie” Fisher reports she embarrassed herself on the golf course with Sally Sanderson Cutler, Sylvia Shaw Brandhorst, and Betsy Singer Gluck this past spring. The classmates had a huge amount of fun, “gabbing and giggling” like they did 51 years ago. Sal returned to our alma mater with her granddaughter, to attend the Junior Admissions Workshop in February, and observed that “it’s a well-planned program for high-school juniors and their parents to understand the admissions process.” If her granddaughter opts to attend Skidmore, she would be a third-generation family legacy.

Debbie Phillips and Sal got together for some skiing at Ascutney Mountain Resort in southern Vermont last winter. Debbie also caught up with Betty Howe Shannon at her home in Norfolk, VA, and with Charlotte Lamson Clarke in Naples, FL.

Ann Trainer Williams hosted Sarasota, FL, alumni for a well-attended event featuring Skidmore’s all-male a capella group, the Bandersnatchers, and new prexy Phil Glotzbach and wife Marie. Pat Seymour Forstrom, Ann Houston Conover, and Judy Axford McCoy pitched in to help make the affair a success.

In late February, I received a postcard announcement of a show of MaryJo Marcy Rines’s Contemporary Watercolors at the Weston, MA, library gallery. The painting she entered in the Alumni Art Exhibition during last year’s reunion, Shells and Rocks, was featured on the front of the card; it won the bronze medal at the New England Watercolor Society’s annual members’ juried exhibition.

Since last year’s reunion, California resident Gabrielle Fuchs has enjoyed keeping up with ’53 friends, including Norma Morse Edelman, Dorothy Foster Napoli, Barbara Hyman Shack, Barbara Feder Mindel, and, of course, her twin sister, Gerda Fuchs Rypins. Gerda is substituting about four half-days a week at Berkeley nursery schools. Gabe gardens, paints, and volunteers at her local library.

Barbara Feder Mindel says she is busier now than when she held a 9-to-5 job. She leads creative writing courses at a community college, holds private writing workshops, runs senior workshops, and writes a monthly newspaper column for a local senior facility. In between, she plays tennis, attends community events, and reads. Barbara spent time with Gabe and Gerda Fuchs in Berkeley, CA, last fall while visiting her son, a professor at San Francisco State University, and her new granddaughter.

Norma Morse Edelman’s wedding business is constant and very demanding. She visited son David, his English wife, and two children in Ireland, where David teaches business and economics at the University of Dublin. Besides checking in on the Fuchs twins, she expects to catch up with Nancy Angell DuBois when she goes home to Vermont this summer.

Patsy Lanpher Compton and Bill have been doing domestic travel this year: Bryce and Zion National Parks; Telluride, CO, for skiing; and more skiing at Mammoth in CA. Patsy rollerblades three days a week to keep up thighs for the slopes and includes tennis and paddle tennis in her athletic scheme. Painting house portraits keeps her hand in the art world. She and Bill celebrated 45 years of marriage in May.

College roommates Pat Gove Williams and Barbara Fee Dickason celebrated their 50th wedding anniversaries with a trip to the Canadian Rockies in June. The girls and their husbands trekked through Seattle, Jasper, Bamff, and Lake Louise.

I met up with Betty Hill Johnson during her visit to Maine and took sketchy notes on a paper placemat. While in Florida visiting Barbara Fournier Campus, Betty hooked up with Ann Houston Conover, who winters in Venice, FL, and summers in Brewster, MA; and Pat Seymour Forster, a Sarasota snowbird who lives in Manchester, CT, the rest of the year. One of Betty’s photographs, taken with a new digital camera, was published in the Brunswick Times Record newspaper.

Pat Glass Palmer lives in a retirement community in Maui, HI, with two West Highland white terriers, and gets around in a brand-new red Mini Cooper.

Dataw Island, SC, resident Grace Ackerknecht Harrigan entertained Sally Shirk Kelley and husband, who arrived in their RV. Miki Radimacher Buie and her husband came down from New Bern, NC, to join the mini-reunion. While visiting her sister in Vermont every summer, Gracie spends time with Dorothy Garbarino Walka before heading out to Nantucket to visit her daughter. Gracie also stops in Schenectady to check in with her other children.

After retiring from social work five years ago, Gretchen Rasch Denk plunged into pursuing as many history courses as possible at a local community college, where she enjoys the range of ages among students. Her home is hugely decorated for Halloween and Valentine’s Day, inside and out. She holds an open house on October 31 and sends out about 250 valentines, “just for fun.”
Carol Bradford Kirby is still picking up the pieces from Hurricane Isabel in her hometown of Whitestone, VA. She stays busy with church work, garden club, and bridge. She and husband Jim celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in June.

Dorothy Foster Napoli retired from the University of Cincinnati in January, celebrating at a party attended by 400 friends, colleagues, former students, and family members. In October she will be awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ohio Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. She has received special recognition from the Ohio Senate and General Assembly Rep. William Mallory.

Bette Cohen Horowitz has also retired, from a 20-year career with Student Camp and Trip Advisors. Husband Arthur is selling a family business, so their lives will change dramatically. The couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this year.

Sadly, Ruth McCoy Cleveland called to inform me that Shirley Crosby Clark died.