JANUARY 2004

 

Ken Nye was featured last year in "Port City Life" a very good magazine about life and events in the greater Portland, Maine area. As many of you may remember, Ken was always interested in toy soldiers, and he and his brother, Bill, had quite a large collection. About 15 years ago, Ken rekindled the interest and began making the soldiers himself. One thing led to another, and when Ken and Ann began selling the soldiers for charity at their church’s Christmas fair, Ken met a youngster, Sawyer Hopps, 11, who was interested in learning how to make the soldiers too. Since that time, Sawyer has been coming to the Nye’s house a couple times a month as Ken passes on this "lost art" to him. It’s a wonderful article, and I’m hoping to get it posted in its entirety on the "In the Meantime" page.

Bob Burch and his wife Jane have now settled in Tucson. Bob was CEO of a company in Pittsburg for the past three years, while Jane was developing her counseling practice in Tucson. After three years of commuting and fighting the Pennsylvania weather, they sold the company, and bought a new place in Tucson up in the foothills. When he's not trying to shoehorn two houses worth of stuff into one, Bob serves on a couple of Boards of Directors and polishes his tennis game. Bob and Jane’s new address is 7542 North Whisper Canyon Place, Tucson, AZ 85718. Phone is (520) 529-4232. They invite those traveling through the area to give them a call.

Steve Walsh and wife Sue (the former Sue Bode, class of ’61) are moving full time to Amelia Island in mid-M arch. Their new address is 32 Ocean Club Drive, Amelia Island Plantation, FL 32034 and the phone no. is 904-277-0055. Steve will be continuing in the investment management business down there while trying to lower his golf scores under 90.

Moving around seems to be the trend these days. Locke Bogart has left California and moved to Florida, where he is back in the engineering business working with fusion energy initiatives. He reports that Florida is full of retired New Yorkers, so he feels somewhat at home. Locke says that he still enjoys "puttering" the most. As he puts it, "At least with a yard and a stack of hardwood, one has a product after a day’s work." Well said. Locke’s new address is 7982 Chaucer Dr. Weeki Wachee, FL 34607

Carolyn (Grieco) Hill has moved to 34 Valley View Dr. Binghamton, NY 13905. As it turns out, her daughter Catherine moved from Binghamton to Miami, so Carolyn is renting her house! She will also still be receiving mail at PO Box 226, Chenango Bridge, NY 13745.

Jim Hands is now in Tennessee and continuing his career in cooking/restaurants as a food broker in the Knoxville-Ashville area. His new address is 1412 Newbury Lane
 Maryville, TN  37803. Jim said he has been in touch regularly with Clem Lagala and that Clem is intending to retire in Florida sometime this year.

Anne (Hill) Connolly and her husband have moved and are settled in their new home in Arvada, Colorado. You can reach her at 8364 Xenon St. Arvada, CO 80005.

Beth Porter has also moved. She is still living in England of course, and her new address is: Flat 1 Shernfold Park, Frant near Tunbridge Wells, East Sussex TN3 9DL, UK. Beth has published a novel and is working on the rewrite. She also reports that her brother, Steve, (Class of ’61) is running for congress in Pennsylvania. Keep an eye on those elections results.

Among those not moving, and very glad that this is the case, is Liz (Lewis) Usborne. Although the California wildfires came very close, their home fortunately  was spared. Liz says that except for a lot of ash and soot, they were pretty much untouched, unlike so many others in the area.

(Photo courtesy of Locke Bogart)

Dan Gildesgame lives in White Plains and teaches math in the Bronx. (Talk about being on the front lines.) Daughter Juliana is a junior at Oberlin and son Ezra, an accomplished guitarist and computer whiz, is a junior at the alternative school in Scarsdale. Dan says the high school he teaches at is one of the "themed" schools in the city, with the focus on law and economics. He reports that it sometimes "tests his mettle" but overall is a good experience.

Fred Chambers is still teaching and will soon be starting his 40^th year in the "ed biz." He and wife Eileen celebrated the birth of their first grandchild, Abigail, last Mother’s Day. Fred’s kids are all doing very well. Daughter Melissa (and granddaughter) only live about an hour away. Son Mark is in his third year at Providence Baptist, and daughter Sarah is at college in Geneseo, part of the SUNY system.

While traveling around the west this summer, I found myself in Kalispel, Montana, and had the pleasure of spending a day with Lorraine (Price) Muth and her husband Bob. Lorraine is a nurse and Bob teaches 6^th grade. They are both very active, Lorraine with golf, and Bob doing lots of hiking in nearby Glacier National Park. She is also playing ‘cajun accordion, and certainly has an active life. She sent me a message not too long ago chronicling her adventures in Jacksonville when her purse was stolen and she was basically stranded with no ID and no cash. A harrowing adventure, to say the least, but thanks to help from AAA and the local police everything got put right within a day.

Tony Kilburn has retired from the label printing industry, having previously sold his specialty foods company. (They were responsible for the infamous "Death by Chocolate." Wife Jan is an accomplished watercolor painter and they run a gallery in their barn as well as attend lots of art shows on summer weekends. Tony says he does the framing work and "a lot of lugging."

Gay Mayer reports that he recently ran his first half-marathon. He said it sounded like fun when he signed up for it. He is planning a trip to China this spring, with lots of hiking on the menu, but no civet cat.

Here’s the latest from Joan (Kather) Henry. "Our biggest adventure this past year was that my husband, Bill, was elected President-Elect of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a 135,000 member international organization.   Although Bill will be working, we've managed to squeeze in a few adventures including a photo safari in San Antonio for me and an afternoon's canoe trip in the Achafalaya Basin for both of us. Paddling among the alligators, snakes and other swamp critters will be very different from our paddles off our backyard in the Strait of Juan de Fuca!  Last summer we had a physically challenging adventure when we took a 70-mile, 13-day canoe trip in the Northwest Territories in Canada.  We were over 200 miles from the nearest road - more isolated than we have ever been before.  The scenery was magnificent and the trip was wonderful!"

Carlos Ballantyne didn’t send an update, but here’s a picture of his feet! Taken at a local hot springs near his home in California. As you know, Carlos is a well-known photographer. (Several months ago, he sent me a picture from Death Valley and said that he had "gone digital")

Jim Buckner had a total hip replacement at the end of October 2002.  Wife Marilyn reports that it went very well and in six weeks he was ready to return to work but quite suddenly began experiencing some other problems - problems with double vision and difficulty breathing.   His symptoms worsened and finally he was admitted to the ICU where they eventually came up with a diagnosis of Myasthenia Gravis. He was home for a few days before he went into a myasthenic crisis which resulted in his admission to a Boston hospital where he underwent three weeks of treatment.  He is now in a chemically induced "remission."  While he still has some health challenges, Marilyn puts it this way: "A year ago seemed very dark indeed but we have come a long way!"

Last, but by no means least, I received an email one day, out of the blue, from Bob (Kevin) Malone (Class of ’59). He was trying to contact one of our classmates and looking for the address. He also mentioned that he had a lot of friends in our class, so he’s now "officially" on our mailing list too! After Greeley, Bob spent a couple of years in the Navy and then attended U. of Massachusetts. He has worked for several colleges, including Harvard and MIT, as a financial administrator. His three children are doing well. His wife Nancy recently retired from teaching. (6^th grade science – I like her already.) Bob’s address is: 414 Central St. Holliston, MA 01746 and he would be glad to hear from old friends. His email is on the class email page, too.

On a sadder note, for those of you who did not see the on-line newsletter last year and may not have heard, the lead item was the untimely death of Doug Hoeft in December of 2002. Doug had been in the hospital recovering from surgery to treat a blocked artery and died unexpectedly during the rehabilitation process. RIP, Doug. You can see the complete obituary in the January 2003 issue, on the back issues pages.  Click here.

For those of you getting this on-line, you will find the complete text of several classmates’ inputs as well as other information, including a current address list (pretty soon, I hope.) I also use that page to keep older stuff that is still of interest, as well as any "breaking news." I’ll let you know via email when there have been updates.

Here’s the current list of folks whose whereabouts are unknown. In some cases, the most recent mailing came back with no forwarding address. For most however, it’s classmates for whom we have never had a mailing address. If you have any leads, let me know! Judy Barr, Carol Chafin, Connie (Creamer) Shepherd, Cindy Drury, Bob Ernsdorff, Jackie Gates, Suzanne Gregg, Bill Irwin, Rosemary Keane, Anita Lindholm, John Mackey, Jane Ritter, Lou Rothbard, Virginia Shuckman. (That’s not so bad, actually, considering how much time has gone by.)

I recently updated the class email web page so you can keep in touch electronically with old friends. Please send me any updates. My email address is still flicker16@msn.com

AND FINALLY: I would really like to make the Internet the main method by which folks get this newsletter. It’s a lot faster, makes a better product possible, and is much easier to produce and update. Currently, we have about 75 people on the email list. So, if you are getting this by post, but would be willing to accept it via the Internet, please send me your email address. I promise that I will not use your address for anything else -- no testimonies, heart-warming stories (which I hate, anyway), amusing anecdotes, funny pictures, or chain letters. I will only use it for this newsletter or other class news, like reunion plans. (There are no such current plans of which I am aware.) I am also concerned that I don’t have current addresses for a lot of people. In those cases, I have enclosed a self-addressed postcard, and ask that you return it to me, so I know we still have your correct address. Also, if, for whatever reason, you still want to receive this by regular mail, let me know. It’s no problem to do that – I just want to be sure that people who want the newsletter are actually getting it. I highly recommend the Internet version – I can include lots more pictures, often paste in the entire email updates classmates send, and am generally not limited by space considerations.

As always, your faithful editor remains:

Dave Williams

14801 110^th Ave E.

Puyallup, WA 98374

253-841-7095