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1952

Joan Pohlman O’Rourke
togamama@aol.com

Betty Johnson Booth and husband Bill are delighted to have a grandson who is a sophomore at Skidmore and on the varsity ice hockey team. They hope to attend some of his games. She wishes former class secretary Dori Harbach Patten the best on her move to the West Coast and says Dori did a wonderful job keeping the class connected.

Cyclist Beatrice Kee has changed her focus from touring to racing. Last year she participated in the Connecticut Senior Games and qualified for the National Senior Games in California. Due to some health challenges, Bea was not able to train intensively for the national events, which included two road races and two time trials. One of eight competitors in her age group of 75–79, she was “just hoping not to come in last.” Despite a fall, she came in fifth place in the 20K race and fourth in the 30K.

Two of Flo Shoemaker Taylor’s three “kids” had major surgeries this past year; happily both had successful outcomes. Being a medical family (Flo is an RN and her husband is an MD), the Taylors were able to care for them postoperatively and experience “great bonding time.” Flo enjoyed an Alaska cruise this past summer with friends and her daughter and took another quick trip to attend her grandniece’s wedding.

Maryette Leibert Beers is enjoying her 15th year of retired life. She has a papillon puppy named Bon Jour, who is fun and amusing.

Marcia Hilfrank Forrest and husband George are still working. He runs Hamp­ton Airfield, and Marcia works for the visiting nurses. She has had to learn a highly complicated computer program to document patient visits. “I’m in the wrong generation to do this gracefully!” she says. “Retirement looks tempting for the first time.”

Naples, FL, resident Janet Gregory Frazer was glad to learn that Dori Harbarch Patten has moved to the West Coast to be near daughter Ann. Janet stays in touch with Peggy McConnell Hinrichs of Vero Beach, Sallie Walstrum Bailey of Mesa, AZ, and Peggy Frisbie Chamberlain of Marlboro, MA. Janet says, “It seems as we get older our longtime friends become even more important and precious.” She is also grateful for the lack of serious hurricane activity in Florida in 2009.

Jean Adams Shaw Little is well and active with volunteer work. She talks often with Mary Lyons Harberg, who she says “never stops moving” with her traveling, grandchildren, and community work in Houston, TX.

Caroline Tracy’s husband, James, died March 10, 2009. We send condolences to Caroline and her family.
David Kelly, who lost his wife at Christmas in 2005, says they both loved Skid­more. David graduated from Saratoga High School and still loves the city.

Carolyn Wood Halleck lives by the sea in Lewes, DE. She celebrated her 80th birthday with her seven children and six grandchildren this past summer. She volunteers as a driver for the senior citizens center and cares for local feral cat colonies. In between, she does lots of knitting. “Life is like a roll of toilet paper: the closer you get to the end the faster it goes,” she quips.

Class prexy Dawn Rylander Spitz spent two months traveling to escape the California heat this past summer.

Dot Brown Aguais and family have lived in Cardiff by the Sea, CA, since 1987. In England her oldest son, Scott, works for the Royal Bank of Scotland. Daughter Lynne is director of marketing at a Georgia hospital. Younger son Rob installs sound in theaters and finished a major project for the former mayor of Tijuana, Mexico. Dot’s husband, Bob, retired in 2000 from the engineering firm Science Applications International Corp. Dot knits and says she “keeps everyone happy.”

Jean Wilcox Price left Skidmore for Den­ver, CO, at the end of her junior year to marry; she finished her degree at the University of Denver the following year. She has many great memories of her Skid­more days. “I adored the people I met and the classes I took there,” she says. “It was a perfect school for me.”

In October Barbara Underhill Collyer was inducted into the Skidmore Athletics Hall of Fame, in recognition of her contribution to the college’s crew program.

Ruth Friedman Hoberman’s husband, Bernie, whom she married 57 years ago, had a malignant growth in his neck but is doing fine. Ruth had a melanoma removed from her leg but needed no further treatment. All six grandchildren “are just fabulous and give us nothing but pleasure,” she says.

Marion Bolton Northrup was in Saratoga this past summer to visit her grandson and was pleased to get accommodations at the Surrey Williamson Inn. We spent the day together, starting with pie and coffee at the Saratoga Diner, and after walking almost the length of Broadway, we settled on a bakery for a light dinner and more catching up. Marion spent her last day checking out local activities, including a concert in Congress Park. She later traveled to Scotland for her grandson’s wedding and took a side trip to Ireland.

Peggy McConnell Hinrichs and husband John took grandkids John, 13, and Christy, 11, to Rome, Florence, and Ven­ice, Italy, with a company that specializes in multigenerational travel. There were other kids the same ages on the tour, and everyone had a blast. Over the summer Peggy and John attended a Hinrichs fam­ily reunion in Eagles Mare, PA, where John’s family has lived for five generations. Peggy keeps in touch with Jan Gregory Frazer, who is ill with liver cancer but retains an upbeat attitude.

Jackie Pinover Mulrow attended the graduation of granddaughter Monica Littlefield ’09. She says the ceremony was lovely, the speakers were great, and the graduates all looked “as happy as larks.”

Dori Harbach Patten is now settled in her own apartment in a senior living complex in Pullman, WA, close to her daughter’s home. They spend time together frequently.

This past fall Elsie Lievens Weiser helped out at a farm stand owned by son Harry, who has apple orchards. Elsie’s father was also an apple farmer. She says she is well and busy.

Ann Burchards Botjer still gets out on the ballroom floor, volunteers at a soup kitchen, and is having a ball getting her weekly “pooch fix” by exercising guide dogs in training. Grandson Dave, a sophomore at Houghton College, is spending a semester in Tanzania. He’s a great photographer, and Ann can’t wait to see his pictures.

Cindy Hartwig Gyorgy is spending the winter at her Readfield, ME, home to help out son Dean and his family, who have returned to the area while he attends graduate school. Cindy is delighted to have three grandchildren nearby. She will keep her apartment in Oneida.

I joined Randy Moore Foster on a trip to Maine to visit Cindy Gyorgy this past fall. She has painted her house in Norwegian colors—green with red trim, perfect for the wooded setting. We had a great time catching up and enjoyed eating lobster and clams. En route back to Saratoga, we drove through the mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont and en­joyed the colorful leaves. The next morning Randy and I met Barb Underhill Collyer at Palamountain Hall for breakfast. In town for her induction into the Skidmore Athletics Hall of Fame, Barb was on crutches due to a recently broken hip; she was driven to campus by her stepdaughter. She is anxious to be able to ride her horse very soon.

Patsy Smith Simpkin’s daughter Susan informed me that her mother passed away on September 17. An English literature major who left Skidmore after junior year, Patsy worked during college to pay her own expenses and to support her mother and sister. During junior year, she and another student were traveling by car to New Jersey for the holiday break, and while attempting to fix a flat tire, they were struck by a drunk driver. The other student lost a leg. Although told she would never walk again, Patsy willed herself to do just that but lived with terrible pain and arthritis for the rest of her life. “After the accident, and yearlong rehabilitation, Mom finished her degree at the University of Colorado at Boulder, perhaps to get some distance from the difficult experience,” Susan says. “But I know she treasured her days at Skidmore and loved the learning and independence she found there.” Despite her physical challenges, Patsy was an active fundraiser in Mill Valley, CA, for Easter Seals, Children’s Brain Disease Foundation, and local Little League, and as a Red Cross driver in San Francisco.

I am having a great time as class secretary; thanks for staying in touch.