class notes

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In Memoriam | People & projects

1970s

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1971

Julia Grosse Brodhag
skiddie71@gmail.com

Serena Roth Bateman
sbateman71@skidmore.edu

In Rochester, NY, Joan Kohout was running for her third 10-year term as a Monroe County Family Court Judge. Her husband retired from Kodak this year, and she reports that he is a great campaign worker.

Barbara Scott (barbara-scott@att.net) teaches first grade and is looking forward to retirement.

Carolyn DeCamp Webber retired seven years ago from the Anne Arundel County (MD) school system. Since then, she has been teaching kindergarten at a small independent school, tallying up a total of 36 years in the classroom. International folk dancing keeps Carolyn and her husband active; this summer they danced their way through Russia.

Joan Westerholm Lekas retired in 2006 after 36 years of teaching. Her career included school-adjustment counseling and coordination of school safety for a system of 50 elementary and 11 secondary schools. Her husband travels as a major-league baseball scout for the Baltimore Orioles.

Constance Paske is an ESL teacher who spent a month in Mexico, studying Spanish at the Instituto Cultural de Oaxaca. She lived with a host family, “just like a real college student.” In addition to improving her language skills, Constance studied Mexican cooking and salsa dancing.

An Inscription of Hope benefit concert is the latest project of Martha Seem Banghart. As coordinator of her Maryland high-school choirs and a newly formed mixed chorale, Marty recently directed a fundraising effort for the Central Asia Institute.

Pamela Nelson retired two years ago as finance services director with the State of Connecticut but remains busy with volunteer work. As a breast cancer survivor (for over 10 years), she commits her time to helping breast-cancer patients. She also enjoys a renewed friendship with Virginia Merchant Dover; they’ve planned a trip to Washington, DC, to celebrate the big 6-0.

A search for broader horizons sends Ann Swan Barten on medical missions to Kenya, Honduras, and Nicaragua. After graduation Ann moved to Minneapolis, MN, where she and her husband raised two boys and two girls. Last year she moved from being staff nurse in the intensive-care unit of a local hospital to working part-time in the recovery room. Ann also plays tennis all over the world, takes canoe trips, hikes in New Hampshire, and visits family and friends on both coasts.

A marketing consultant, Janet Lee Beach is working on a project for UC Medical Center in San Francisco, to launch advanced imaging services at a new radiology department. She also has 30 volunteers working with her to run a job-search nonprofit. Her professor husband joined Janet on a wonderful trip throughout Africa last summer. One son studied at a think tank during the summer, while the other was in Italy.

After announcing the upcoming wedding of our son, Charlon McMath Hibbard offered her time and help. She, her husband, and their twin sons have spent summers sailing in the Traverse City, MI, area. During the winter she is a senior member of the National Ski Patrol in northern Michigan. Charlon has enjoyed a 27-year career with Mary Kay Cosmetics (recently earning her 11th car!). The flexibility of that work allows her to serve on two nonprofit community boards. Her sons have taken over ownership of her husband’s business, where they all work together using remotely controlled underwater vehicles to do inspections and construction.

Speaking of weddings, Marjorie Gilman Baker and her husband had a wonderful time at the wedding of Barbara Boshea Simon’s daughter in June. In August, Barbara and her husband joined Marjorie’s family at her daughter’s wedding. They live not far from each other in New Jersey, and see each other frequently.

“I finally have some big news to share,” bubbles newlywed Jan Murnane. After sparking a relationship on match.com five years ago, Jan and Chuck Kreitler were married on June 28. Chuck’s three grown sons make them a happy family. Jan still works in the benefits department at Yale-New Haven Hospital. She feels lucky to stay in touch with Mahopac, NY, resident Martha Merrick Shanahan and with Carol Seldin, mother of Douglas Seldin ’08, an actor with Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, MA.

Elaine Choy Lee feels blessed to enjoy her pediatric practice; she is now sending young adults “out into the world” after caring for them since infancy. She and her husband combine traveling and training to run marathons. This past fall she ran in the Athens Classic Marathon in Greece. Their sons are in graduate school, studying law and physical therapy.

Hannah Look Geman volunteers at local schools in Providence, RI, after leaving her practice as a pediatric nurse practitioner. Thirty years of marital bliss rewarded her with a son who has been successfully “launched” and lives in California and another who is a student at McGill. An accomplished networker, Hannah sees Bobbi Burdge Rosenquest regularly and had a visit with Nancy Betts this summer in California.

Bobbi Burdge Rosenquestlaments, “It would have been terrific to report I’ve won the Newberry Award for Young Adult fiction, but I’m only halfway finished writing the damn book.” After home-schooling her 12-year-old son last year, Bobbi spent nine hours waiting to get him into a decent NYC school. Though her note doesn’t exude excitement about turning 60, she closes by sending “cheers to all us beautiful women.”

Jaye Scholl Bohlin’s daughter Avis graduated from Harvard and will spend a year in Paris working for an investment bank before going to law school. Sons Charlie and Peter both attend Washington University in St. Louis, where Charlie writes for the newspaper and Peter plays water polo.

Susan Canfield Barber’s son graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2007 and is a software engineer in Cerritos, CA.

Christine Werner took a second honeymoon to Provence, and then continued on to Normandy and Paris with her nephews.

This past summer Mimi Freund Tilton spent time in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where Harvard son Peter had an internship. Son Alex, a Yale grad, is at home in between opportunities after working in NYC for two years.

Struggling to unload the empty nest, Candy Keeler Krop was keeping her cool while putting her Virginia Beach home on the market. For a change of atmosphere, the family will travel to Ukraine and Prague, followed by a visit from her daughter and young grandson.

Alternately staring at a computer screen or the Parthenon, Barbara Tsairis was completing an accreditation project for the Hellenic American University in Athens, where she spends several months a year. Barbara and Judy Willsey continue their work on World Class, launched at our 35th class reunion. Their trip to Ghana in August included running a business-planning seminar for clients, establishing a children’s library, and organizing the wedding of a Ghanaian co-worker.

Our sons and his wife are moving to North Carolina. Our daughter is in Washington, DC, working hard at urban planning. My husband remains employed by Wachovia Bank; fingers crossed. I’m always trying to finish a knitting project, with a mellowed Sonneteers tune clicking along with my needles!