Albany Capital District
October. Club president Susan Geary ’99 organized a spectacular afternoon at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall for a performance by the Albany Symphony Orchestra and four soloists who dazzled the spellbound audience with great moments from grand opera. Perfect seats accompanied perfect acoustics for a perfect afternoon. Encore!
Boston
October.Club president Amy O’Leary ’92 conducted a lively group on the second annual Skidmore Duck Tour of Boston. The group learned little-known facts and interesting highlights about the city as they toured the back streets of Boston and splashed down in the Charles River on an authentic, renovated WW II amphibious landing vehicle.
Cape Cod
November. The Cape Cod alumni club has been revived, thanks to Margie Bishop Maynard ’57, Mary Avery Gessner ’58, Ruth Schleicher Kroon ’47, Sidney Wright Coursen ’58, and Agnes Compton Stierwald ’38, among others. Close to forty alumni, with graduation years ranging from 1927 to 2000, gathered at the Old Yarmouth Inn for a delicious lunch and even more enjoyable conversation. The energy was high, as was the demand for the group to get together on a regular basis. A springtime event is next on the calendar. Please contact Margie at maynard@gis.net if you would like to get involved with the club.
New York City
September. Nancy Fisher ’66 worked with club co-presidents Maria Klink ’97 and Peter Wan ’95 to coordinate an evening at the Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. More than seventy-five alumni and friends toured the moving exhibition of twentieth-century Jewish life. Immediately following the tour, the group gathered in a large open room overlooking the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island for a discussion and reception.
October. Maria Klink hit the right chord for a group of alumni and friends with a special evening with the renowned Festival Chamber Music Society. Following the program, which included works by Beethoven, Reynolds, and Mendelssohn, the group raised their glasses at a champagne reception.
November. There was a lot of hoopla at the Thoroughbreds’ first basketball game of the season, a match against the NYU Violets. Among the alumni cheerleaders, Spencer Goldin ’93 was the high scorer, for organizing the group of fifty alumni and their families to come out in support of the Thoroughbreds. Skidmore was defeated by a narrow margin of 69-64, but that did not dampen the enthusiasm of the energetic crowd.
San Francisco
November. Co-presidents Jo Leach Lewis ’57 and Michele Forte ’90, with help from Verna Dick Stassevitch ’48 and Ian Varley ’97, foraged for food and beverages and ferried over to Angel Island for a picnic in the park. There, under sunny skies, area alumni gathered at a reserved picnic site and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon. Entertainment was provided by Bandersnatcher recordings—with former Bander Varley on hand to bring the music to life. After a brief Skidmore update from Vinny Catalano ’83, who had just returned from a weekend on campus, people hiked, biked, and toured the island by tram.
Sarasota
November. Alumni applauded club co-presidents Jean Rowe Tourt ’50 and Sibyl Ringquist Connolly ’50 at the annual luncheon and lecture at the Bird Key Yacht Club. They worked with treasurer Ann Trainer Williams ’53 to bring the group together for a delightful lunch highlighted by a very interesting talk on the Florida West Coast Symphony by the symphony’s Trevor Cramer.
Schenectady
November. English professor Victor Cahn received rave reviews for his fast-paced, humorous reading and interpretation of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. Club co-presidents Nancy Coull Erdoes ’66 and Diana Clark Crookes ’69 were delighted when Cahn started the evening with some impromptu piano playing—illustrating the multiple talents of a Skidmore professor.
Worcester
November. Nancy Tessein Stine ’64 opened her home to prospective students, their parents, and area high school guidance counselors for the annual Worcester admissions reception. A few local alumni helped out with food, beverages, and mingling, and together they set a fine example of the hospitality and warmth of Skidmore alumni.
Take me out to the . . . art museum! It’s not often that people are faced with a dilemma of such magnitude on a Sunday afternoon: love of art vs. love of baseball. But that’s exactly what some fifty Westchester and Fairfield area alumni pondered as they entered the Neuberger Museum in Purchase, N.Y., last October. Although the World Series was raging between the Mets and Yankees, the loyal alumni had come out to tour a collection of twentieth-century art and hear Skidmore president Jamienne S. Studley herald the opening of the college’s Tang Museum. And when it became clear that everyone would be home in time to catch that evening’s ballgame, the crowd relaxed and enjoyed the afternoon free of conflict. Attendees were treated to docent-guided tours of Westchester County’s premier modern-art museum, with its Roy R. Neuberger Collection of works by modern American masters Georgia O’Keefe, Jackson Pollack, Edward Hopper, and Milton Avery. Alumni and their guests also viewed works by sculptor Barbara Segal, whose fluid renderings in marble seem to defy perception, and photographer Lewis Watts, whose evocative images capture the African-American cultural landscape.
Following the tours, guests were greeted by Westchester club
president Sandra Berk Jacoby ’66 and Fairfield club co-presidents
Holly Lorenzo ’81 and Claire Simonelli ’74. Then
Studley offered an insider’s view of the Tang and its
relevance to Skidmore’s legacy of progressive, interdisciplinary
liberal arts education. She cited Dayton Director Charles
Stainback’s vision of the Tang as “a museum about
ideas rather than the objects themselves.” For example, the
museum’s opening exhibit, SOS: Scenes of Sounds, explored
such concepts as “the relationship between music and
physics.” And Studley described an upcoming faculty exhibit
on mapping that incorporates genetic, geographic, and historical
maps—including several documents donated by alumni.
Westchester’s Jacoby felt that Studley’s presence “in such an intimate setting made the event especially wonderful.” Fairfield’s Simonelli said, “I think it was a great idea to combine the two clubs so we can get to know more active grads in the area.” But before scheduling the next such event, Lorenzo quipped, “we probably ought to avoid anything this close to Yankee Stadium during a subway series!” —MM |
