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Winter 2003 - - - - - - - - - - Alumni affairs
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1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949
’40
’41
Helen Evarts Banks bid farewell to friends of over 50 years in Louisville, KY, when she moved closer to daughter Mary in Rochester, NY. Helen’s new address is 1570 East Avenue #219, Rochester, NY 14610. Jean Summersgill Neiswinter is doing well and enjoys playing bridge with friends. Granddaughter Jeanne has been looking into colleges to attend. My husband, Ken, and I are fortunate to live in a part of Colorado that was unaffected by the wild fires that raged in our state throughout 2002. The fall issue of Scope erroneously listed Eleanor Coleburn Zoller’s maiden name as “Colburn” and her address as “Laurel Harbor, NY.” Eleanor’s correct address is Laurel Hollow. Scope regrets the errors. ’42
Lois Clark McCoy’s life in Santa Barbara, CA, is “sheer chaos!” Besides her work as president of the National Institute for Urban Search and Rescue, Lois’s role as mother to seven grown children and three adopted young adults, and grandmother of 16, makes for plenty of activity. One of her daughters, her husband, and their two young sons are sailing around the world on a 50-foot sloop. Elaine Lorson moved this past August. Her new address is 55 Grasslands Road, Valhalla, NY 10595. It has been suggested that I list my e-mail address in this column. Believe it or not, I don’t have one and don’t intend to. Although my husband has a computer, I am computer illiterate and, quite frankly, want to stay that way! In September our late classmate Antoinetta Scotto Bearden was honored by the Deceased Veterans Committee of Saratoga County at a ceremony in Ballston Spa, NY. Antoinetta, who earned a nursing degree while on a Girl Scout scholarship, was a U.S. Army nurse and second lieutenant who was awarded the European African Medal, Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, and the Victory Medal for meritorious service during World War II. ’43Reunion ’03!
Phyllis White Reinauer will surely be at Reunion. Her granddaughter is a freshman at Keene State in New Hampshire. A professional business writer, Phyllis has also authored novels, poetry, and short stories. She credits Skidmore for giving her an excellent education. Joan Coombs Richard, a Missouri resident for the last 40 years, has relocated to New England to be closer to one of her daughters and two grandchildren. Joan’s new address is Shelburne Bay Community Living, Apt. 305, 185 Pine Haven Shore Road, Shelburne, VT 05482; she can also be reached at 802-846-9255 and jorichard@prodigy.net. She is looking forward to reminiscing with old friends at Reunion. Mary Jane Leahey Wilson traveled to Croatia and Slovenia with a group composed primarily of English citizens. One in particular displayed the characteristic penchant for understatement, referring to Napoleon as “such a nuisance.” Harriet Woodman Ely is “sort of” retired; she spends a lot of time at the library and her church. She sees Bobbie Arnold Groundwater. Harriet welcomes e-mail at hwely@mymailstation.com. Midge Kennedy Gillie and Bob are planning to attend Reunion but “don’t feel old enough to wear purple yet!” Martha Jane Blight Lent sees Midge frequently. She would also like to contact Ruth Mike Shangle and Connie Brand Strauss, both of whom lived in Newman House freshman year. Martha Jane welcomes news of Ruth or Connie at 914-949-2985. Doris Sands Eisner and husband Bud celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary with all six children and their families, a total of 27. Jane Stannard Kelley and husband Bill sold their house in New Jersey and moved into a Florida condo that they are renovating. The Kelleys’ new address is 37 High Point Circle East, #310, Naples, FL 34103. Virginia Rathbun Stuart-Howard doesn’t stay still for long. Over the past year, she visited daughter Ann in Italy; accompanied her sister, Edith, on a jaunt to Mexico; attended the WW II OSS veterans’ reunion in Washington, DC; and flew to England to visit a granddaughter and her husband (who were taking part in the Volvo ocean race around the world). She still operates her Italy Unlimited property rental business. She talks with Janice Hough Field and Marion Posner Glickman often and hopes to see us all at Reunion. Catharine Smith Reid is grateful that “life has taken a much happier turn”: she married James Murphy on May 10. The couple moved to Fort Wayne, IN, but Catharine will continue to winter in Bermuda Dunes, CA. She welcomes e-mail at cathyr510@earthlink. Norma Crosier plans to be at Reunion. She is delighted to have paid off the mortgage on a Manhattan brownstone that she purchased in 1974, particularly given the exorbitant city rents today. The class sends sympathy to Rennie Tornello Griffiths, who is adjusting to life after the loss of John, her husband of 53 years, this past summer. Happily, daughter Lisa and two grandsons keep her life interesting and full. Class sympathy also to Nancy Johnston Walker, whose husband, Henry, died last April, almost two years after they moved to a retirement community together. Nancy is glad they had time to settle in and enjoy that residence prior to his passing and urges couples not to delay such a move. ’44
’45
Jan Sharp Adkins and husband Bill enjoyed a lovely fall trip to Davidson College in North Carolina, to visit their granddaughter, who is a sophomore there. They made stops in Williamsburg and Easton, where son Hugh and his wife Merle live. Jan has spoken to Marilyn Maier Feinburg, who, with the help of her daughters, is faring well after the death of her husband, Mike. After 20 years in her Siesta Key beach house, Jean Kalter Maguire is enjoying new digs in an older neighborhood of Sarasota, FL. She is glad not to be concerned with storm evacuations now that she lives on the mainland. Jean spent two weeks last July in southern England with her eldest daughter, visiting castles and gardens. A special treat while there was staying at a working Devon farm with three friends for several days. Bernie Barclay Straitiff is mourning the June death of her roommate Jane Barnard Chambers and her husband’s passing a month later. A granddaughter’s California wedding provided a much needed happy occasion. Marjorie Hill Laughton and husband Jim took a cruise from Boston to Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Quebec City, and Bar Harbor. During the trip, Marjorie encountered two Skidmoreans—one from’40 and another from ’48—who recognized her class ring. Joan Hamilton Damon and Nancy Stall Howard enjoy long talks about once a month. Nancy’s son, Whitney, was Joan’s Navy doctor when she lived in Newport. Bettie Spoerl Eckerson’s husband celebrated his 80th birthday in August. Thirty-four family members attended the festivities, held at Sebago Lake in Maine. Bill had written his family history and memoirs and presented copies to all the adult family members. Jean Garvin Slate had a wonderful adventure last year when she took a Discovery Flight, during which the pilot turned over the controls to Jean, allowing her to fly the aircraft. The experience was so exciting that Jean plans to “win the lottery and take flying lessons.” She is recuperating nicely from knee replacement surgery. Phyllis Sperans Halpern and husband Parker didn’t spend summer in Wellesley, MA, as planned, due to Parker’s fractured vertebrae. He is recovering “slowly and painfully,” notes Phyllis. She sits on the board of several arts groups and stays in touch with Marilyn Feinburg and Skidmore roommate Carlyn Fisher. Phyllis’s first grandchild, Lindsay, is a college freshman. ’46
Corky Casey Kilbourn tried retiring but couldn’t handle it, so she works five hours a day at her son’s one-hour photo and camera repair shop. Corky has 18 grandchildren and two great-grands, both 4 years old. Her favorite pastime is sewing baby quilts and bibs, and she frequents craft shows with her daughter in Michigan. She travels to London annually to see another daughter, who lives on a 90-foot barge on the Thames River. Janice Chiquoine Beacham writes that Nonny Starrett Bolmer is the only Skidmorean she sees frequently, but she “enjoys reading about everyone else.” Happy and husband Frank are retired and living full-time in Palm Desert, CA. Their children are scattered in California, Connecticut, and Texas. Peg Eaton Koerner and a local friend enjoyed a riverboat cruise in Belgium and the Netherlands. The trip ended in Amsterdam, where Peg visited the famous Floriade, a garden/flower show held once every 10 years. She notes, “It was a treat for a gal who doesn’t want to move from her home because she doesn’t want to give up her garden.” Peg’s eldest granddaughter was married in October; her next oldest grandchild is 13. A hospital volunteer for over 30 years, Peg also enjoys playing bridge. Marjorie Garton Monski and Bill, her husband of 25 years, have nine children—all of whom are doing well in the business world. They have 24 grandchildren and three great-grands. Midge’s son, Paul, and his wife have 14 children ranging from newborn to 25. Paul is a preacher at a church in Germany and ministers to the 60,000 U.S. servicemen stationed in the area. Bill recently had a quadruple bypass. Until they can play golf again, the Monskis keep busy with games, TV, and occasional visits to Midge’s eldest daughter, Martha, who lives in Winter Haven, an hour and a half from Midge’s Lady Lake residence. Midge and Bill continue to work with the less fortunate, which they find “sometimes exhausting but always extremely rewarding.” Constance Clarke Greene sold her large East Hampton home in 1999, after the death of husband Phil. Connie now has a waterside condo in Connecticut, a residence in New Haven (close to her children and grandchildren), and digs in Manhattan. She and Audrey Adamson Benson, who lives in Darien, CT, get together often to reminisce about “the old days.” Topsfield, MA, resident Ronnie Gregg Kimball has been retired from the shoe business for six years. She has summered in Plymouth, MA, for almost 50 years and maintained a Hilton Head time-share for the last 20 years. Ronnie’s six kids, 15 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren all live within 70 miles of her. Vivian Manperl Fishbone is a visiting artist at Lafayette College in Easton, PA—a job she finds very stimulating and productive. Vi’s latest challenge is digital painting, producing some very large pieces on canvas. Elizabeth McAllister Brown and husband Charlie celebrated their 50th anniversary in August with their entire clan at the family cottage in Surf City, NJ. They are still in their home in Minneapolis, MN, but are giving serious thought to moving and scaling down. Betty enjoys golf and bridge, a book club, volunteer work, and time with grandchildren. Daughter Judy lives in Minneapolis; daughters Debbie and Sally reside in Seattle, WA; and son Rob makes his home in San Francisco. Jan Hamilton Muyskens returned to Saratoga on a beautiful September day for a memory trip. “The town looked beautiful, with its trendy shops and sidewalk cafés,” she writes. She was delighted that Congress Park and many of the old campus buildings on Circular Street and Union Avenue have been recognized as architectural gems. Always busy, Jan helped organize the annual fall festival in her hometown of Salisbury, CT; took a course for seniors; and updated a family history with a collection of war stories from her late husband, Bill, and his two brothers. Constance Seely Andrews has retired from Rollins College after teaching theater and music for 18 years. In addition to their Orlando home, Connie and her husband have an oceanfront condo at Cocoa Beach, FL, where they spend three days a week. Connie is a Stephan Minister (a volunteer, helping in times of need) of the Episcopal Church. Her three children are located in California and Florida; one is an engineer, another is a pediatrician, and daughter Carole is a busy mother. Joy Miller Brown’s recollections of our 55th reunion include lunch under the tent, during which Skidmore President Jamie Studley sat beside her. “She is relaxed, friendly, easy to talk to, and easy to like,” Joy reports. She also notes that “Skidmore looked great, and I was a bit teary when we sang our alma mater.” Bobby Blair Eggleston and Forrest were honored for 35 years of service as medical missionaries at Christian Medical College in Ludhiana, India, where a new library was inaugurated as the Eggleston Library of Surgery. Unable to travel to India for the event, the Egglestons sent a message for a plaque in the library. They selected a passage from an 1875 book entitled How to Make a Living by Forrest’s grandfather, Dr. George Cary Eggleston: “Life brings duties with it, as well as privileges, and everyone owes the world a debt, which he must pay if he would be truly and perfectly honest.” I did my first Elderhostel in October and hope to do more, as well as take some more extensive trips while my health is good and the spirit holds out. I am a generation behind many of you who have great-grandchildren—my eldest grandchild recently had her bat mitzvah. ’47
On Cape Cod, Cilla Wheeler Vickery and I (sometimes joined by Barbara Sidd Behan) continued our summer 2002 quest for the perfect lobster roll. Bobby Pierce Taylor emerged from Cape Cod waters long enough to take a cruise on Lake George. On the way back, she and Bill stopped in Saratoga for a nostalgic look at Wilmarth, where she and I had shared a small room under the eaves. Bobby and Bill followed the Hudson River south to Hyde Park, the Vanderbilt Mansion and FDR’s home and library, crossing over to West Point before returning home. Beverly “Nikki” Nicholson Adams made a quick dash to the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut, but otherwise concentrated her efforts on “travels in and about Maine.” In Vermont, Joanne Noble Olmsted spent six weeks on Caspian Lake with children and grandchildren coming and going. Judy Gellert Berkley and husband left Vermont and headed for France. After strolling around Paris, they flew south to a small medieval town in the wine country, “a 15-minute drive to the Mediterranean. It was still off-season, so we had the beaches and restaurants pretty much to ourselves.” An indoor solarium garden accounts for Judy’s love of Vermont in winter (except when she’s visiting cousins on Jupiter Island and Key Largo). Joan Houghton Wynne and Bill celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in August with a big family reunion on Block Island. Janie Geibel Morton headed to Saratoga in August, introducing her granddaughter, age 9, to Skidmore. My own son, en route to Lake Placid with his girls, ages 7 and 9, stopped by Skidmore’s campus hoping for a glimpse of the ’47 piano, which was safely locked up for the weekend. Jean Dauer says she’s slowed down a bit after a long bout of ill health, and her writing these days is limited to stories for her 20 grandchildren. She also enjoys gardening. Jane Ray Merrick’s husband, George, called from Hilton Head to report on her battle with progressive nuclear palsy, known as PSP (from which my husband also suffers). Jane would love to hear from old friends. Barbara Fitch Beckett and husband George are now year-round Cape Cod residents at 2215 Heatherwood, Yarmouthport, MA 02675; 508-362-7299. In September, Fitchie joined Cilla Wheeler Vickery, Barbara Sidd Behan, and me at Eldred’s Auction House for a Skidmore club event. Nancy Nickum Damtoft and Don have moved to a retirement community at 7 River Woods Drive, G202, Exeter, NH 03833; 603-772-7297. Sally Sutton Mead upgraded facilities at her summer cottage on a lake north of Toronto to better accommodate 17 grandchildren—including three sets of twins, ages 1, 3, and 7. Lea Hart McLean summered in the Adirondacks, where she enjoyed playing bridge and golf and socializing with Jane Gould Allen. In September Dottie Dutton Donahue had lunch with Margery Buckley Hodgman. Marge was unable to join us for Reunion and would love to hear from old friends. Margery Sumergrade Meyer is proud to have helped make an American dream come true for two of her English as a Second Language students, who arrived from Bulgaria five years ago after winning a lottery for a green card. They now have good jobs, own a home in a nice community, and have applied for citizenship. Isabelle Rising Smith attended a WW II reunion in October at Fort Benning, GA, accompanied by her sister and daughter. Gloria Biren Luria, summering in Lenox, MA, “spent a delightful day driving to Skidmore to visit the Tang Museum, a wonderful place and a great asset to art majors.” On a sad note, the class extends sympathy to Sally Sutton Mead on the April 6 death of son Weston, and to Georgene Mulliner Klim and husband K.K. on the death of their daughter, Christy, from colon cancer in July. Our thoughts are also with Jeanne Sherman Neideck, whose brother died unexpectedly in September, as they were about to leave for Europe. ’48Reunion ’03!
Dotsie Slosson Erskine visited Tibby in July; they traveled on together to Hanover, NH, to see Gil Rich Ferguson’s “wonderful smiling face.” Dotsie and Tibby then called on Nancy D’Wolf at her summer home near Plymouth, NH, where they were joined by Barbara Belz Reeves for two days of “laughter, memories, reunion plans, refreshments, and local trips.” June Baker Bremer visited Judy Weis Warren and husband Bill in Boca Grande, FL, last winter. In 2001 she also toured Kenya and took a Rhine River cruise with her daughter and son-in-law. June was delighted to have son Chip, his wife, and their 10-year-old daughter home from Korea last Christmas. Jean Stewart Brandt and husband Frank drove from California to Minnesota for a family reunion in September. On the return home they saw Mount Rushmore, bison in Custer State Park, and Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. Virginia Joseph Saba was designated a Living Legend of the American Academy of Nursing this fall. The award recognizes “contributions that have defined the nursing profession in some fundamental way.” Virginia was one of four to receive this award for her work in nursing informatics and home health-care classification systems. Jean Clay King is on the mend after undergoing emergency surgery in July while staying at their Rhode Island summer retreat. Sally Cheney Buell and husband Art cruised the Maritonas and then up the St. Lawrence River to Quebec. Suzanne Stone Finney and her husband toured London last summer with a special entourage of their children and grandchildren. Suzanne stays in shape by going to the YWCA daily. She claims that “half of the town of Mountain Lakes, NJ, attended Skidmore and loved it as much as I did.” Joan Theobald Mitchell and husband cruised from NYC to Halifax, then continued up the St. Lawrence to Quebec. Joan plans on attending Reunion, as does her sister, Carol Theobald Schafer ’53, who will be celebrating her 50th. Mary Jane Swick and husband Bob had a wonderful one-day minireunion with Barbara Bettleheim Routh and husband John last winter in Port St. Lucie, FL. The Swicks were there to play golf at the PGA Sheraton Resort. Jean Figarsky Reiner recently discovered that she lives across the street from Babette Weil Soffer in Lake Worth, FL. She stays in touch with Louise Samuels Schindler and Leila Goldstein Garlock. Last summer Evelyn Burns Stewart and husband traveled to Texas three times for their grandson—to see his art exhibition, to attend his graduation from Texas Tech, and to attend his wedding. They also saw granddaughter Cortney graduate from Brown University and went to a family reunion in Williamsburg, VA. I am sorry to report the death of Pat Roach Maley’s son from pancreatic cancer this past June. ’49
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