class notes

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1960s

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1961

Charlotte Smiley Read
gig4smile@aol.com

Class members gathered in NYC in October to meet with Class of ’61 Professor Denise Smith. The luncheon meeting at the Williams Club brought together Jacki Jung, Pam White Leighton, Ana Karp Gray and guest, Joan Horowitz Behr, Linda Brafman Berke, Phyllis Steinberg Marchand, Barbara McIlveen Baldwin, Suellen Jacobs Schaffzin, Debbie Selkowitz Neuner, Skidmore’s annual-fund director Erin Martinovich, and Denise’s assistant Inga Shalmiyeva ’08. The professor shared details of her recent sabbatical and noted how the professorship has helped her update her research agenda. That research has garnered a $1 million, two-year grant to investigate the role of fitness on physiological recovery from firefighting. Joan Behr spent several days with Linda Brafman Berke in Philadelphia, “doing” the art museums and historic sites.

For 18 years Beth van Weyk Minear and husband Larry lived on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, raising sons Michael and William. She’s now on Cape Cod, a “glorious place to live.” Beth is a professional rug weaver, although gardening and environmental issues often upstage the weaving. Larry retired from Tufts after a career in humanitarian research.

Linda Collier Kennerson travels as much as possible, most recently to southern India. She enjoys playing as much golf as ever, with longtime friends. She also works part-time for a small women’s clothing store in Wellesley, MA, called Irresistables. Best of all is her family, which includes six grandchildren, three sons, and two daughters-in-law.

Peyton Evans Budinger divides her time between Key West, FL, and NYC’s Greenwich Village. Life is great in both places, she says. Peyton is involved in the Key West Literary Seminar and the Studios of Key West art center. She enjoys painting, reading, ceramics, swimming, and riding her bike around Key West, a town of “great weather, beautiful architecture, and wonderful people.” She sees Thea Karasch Flaum ’60 there frequently.

In August Zelda Jacobson Schwartz completed her ninth half-marathon in Virginia Beach. Thanks to the many Skidmore classmates who contributed to her endeavor, she raised $6,000 for the Children’s Tumor Foundation to honor Jerye-Ann Seder Robbins, whose daughter has neurofibromatosis. Zelda is enjoying the retirement zone—running and training, taking courses, and reading a ton. She took a terrific river cruise from Paris to Normandy in May. Her granddaughters and grandson, ages 18 months to 11 years, live nearby. She is spending more time at the Maine house near Ogunquit Beach and welcomes visitors.

Retired in 2000, Polly Albrecht Mazur finds herself quite busy painting children’s furniture for a local market. Husband Allan is a professor at Syracuse University. They have two married daughters, one on each coast. Polly says they spend a lot of time traveling the globe and worrying about the world.

Bobbie McIlveen Baldwin and husband David returned from a cruise on the Danube River, visiting Hungary, Austria, Germany, and the Czech Republic. They were able to play golf three times and enjoyed the tours and the boat. The couple is spending the winter in Vero Beach. In October Bobbie saw Peggy Jo Kienast, who left Skidmore during our freshman year and had quintuplets. The grandmother of three, two in Paris and one in NYC, Bobbie enjoyed traveling to Saratoga for a Skidmore trustee meeting in October and says, “It’s always a thrill to return.”

While in northern Michigan this summer, I spent time with Mary Campbell Paddon and got to meet Angela, a beautiful baby girl adopted by Mary’s daughter Christine and husband Jeremy. I look forward to watching Angela grow up as she visits Grandma Mary.

Last year I enjoyed a visit in Michigan from Margot Folsom O’Neal and husband Jim. Since May, she has been fighting breast cancer that spread to her liver. They found a “hot shot” doctor at Cedar-Sinai Hospital in Beverly Hills, CA, who performed surgery to cure this type of cancer. Margot looks forward to getting through more chemo and having all this behind her. Meanwhile, she and Jim spent a week in the mountains with their younger son and family. At 7,000 feet, the air was fresh and clean; they sailed, canoed, swam, and hiked.

Heather Brodhead is head librarian at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California and says, “It’s the perfect job at a gem of a museum.”

Our thoughts are with Sandy Weisman Sheppard, whose husband, Jack, died suddenly in October. Linda Brafman Berke attended the memorial service held at Sandy’s home in Manchester, VT. Sandy continues to be surrounded by family and friends at her Florida residence, where she is spending the winter.