on the security team at Cigna. His work for the FBI found him in Detroit for a number of years, where his four children went to high school, before moving to Hartford, his last office with the bureau. Several years after retiring, he and wife Lorraine moved back to the Detroit area, where their children— Stacey, Steve, Matt, and Emily ’06—are now living. Steve reports that he loves the Midwest and has had a chance to see the BC hockey team. He sends his best to all. • Clearly enjoying retirement and biking for a cause is Bernie Fitzgerald, who took part in the Pan-Mass Challenge; keep peddlin’ for the cause! • One who will probably never retire is Mike Estwanik, whose travel adventures and New York–based events company, Searchlights, keep him on the go around the world. In a recent stop on Maui, he had a message at the Four Seasons Resort from resident massage therapist and registered acupuncturist Paula Brock. Paula has been in the islands for a number of years and is one of the best known therapists in the region. • Patty (Lyons) WCAS’78 and Bernie O’Kane, MEd’72, MA’05, together with many BC friends and relatives, celebrated the marriage of their son Conor ’00, MA’07, to Erin Hoffman, MA/MSW’08, at the Fordham University Chapel in New York. The wedding experience lasted for five days over the July 4 holiday. Conor’s brothers Andy ’03 and Greg ’08 served as best men. • Our sympathy is extended to Annette Hanley, wife of our classmate James Hanley, who passed away in April while on vacation in Ireland. Jim served in Vietnam and for many years worked for the Veterans Administration. He was a lifelong resident of Lawrence.
National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC collaborated with four Native communities to launch an engaging new environmental website. Through video interviews of tribal leaders, the website shows how these communities are responding to contemporary environmental challenges using a combination of modern technology and ancient wisdom. For great storytelling and lots of ideas for teachers, see www. nmai.si.edu/environment. • One final note: I recently tried to contact several classmates whose voices we have not heard in Class Notes for some time. Emails to all came back marked “undeliverable.” Nancy Riley Kriz, Jane McNamara Bieber, and Kathy O’Mara Fanning MEd’76, I have lost any way to contact you. Please email me your current address and, while you are at it, any news or tidings you would like to send. We’d love to hear from you! Until then, best wishes for a beautiful winter season—and keep the news items coming!
Your participation matters.
Your participation matters.
NC 1970
Your participation matters.
1971
Correspondent: James R. Macho jmacho71@bc.edu
Your participation matters.
NC 1971
Correspondent: Melissa Robbins melrob49@sbcglobal.net
1972
Correspondent: Fran Dubrowski dubrowski@aol.com
Correspondent: Lawrence Edgar ledgar72@gmail.com
Our news this quarter contains several innovative ventures; it seems we had a productive summer! Rita Houlihan has been working with BC’s School of Theology and Ministry to initiate a series of lectures and liturgy celebrations of St. Mary of Magdala. On July 19, BC held its fifth such celebration, featuring scripture scholar Sr. Sandra Schneiders; her talk is posted on the “Encore Events” section of the STM website: www. bc.edu/content/bc/schools/stm/edevnts/ CampusEvents.html. Rita highly recommends the talk for all craving a SWC-style lecture. And she invites everyone to next year’s event and luncheon on the same theme. In other news, Rita has been spending much of her retirement visiting her 26 nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews. But amid all that activity, she still found time to write to us. One particularly endearing item in her report: Nancy Durkin Orazem’s daughter Lucy Pelham and her husband, Michael, announced the birth of their first child, Nancy, with reddish eyebrows that remind Rita of our classmate Nancy. The newest Nancy will grow up in the same Melrose house as her namesake. What a wonderful bundle of joy to continue a legacy of love and courage! Congratulations! • Also deserving of congratulations: With Clare Cuddy at the helm of its education department, the Smithsonian
This is my 40th anniversary column. Thanks for reading it for all these years. I did some travel to write this one. I was invited by Bob Egan to attend the Ojai Playwrights Festival. Bob directs plays written by aspiring playwrights in the artist community northwest of LA. He has been the producing artistic director of the Mark Taper Forum in the LA Music Center and has had the same title at the Repertory Theatre in Seattle. • I got a message from Bob’s old friend Francis Gormley, reporting that his son, a former star lacrosse player and coach at the University of Maryland, has become a coach in that sport at Denison University in Ohio. • I made my annual birthday call to Mike Spatola, who’s still the chief fundraiser for BC Law School. Mike continues to progress toward his goal of seeing all five of his daughters graduate from BC. Four of them have done so, while the youngest is a junior. Mike reports that Chris Mansfield, JD’75, has retired as general counsel for Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. At one point in Chris’s career, his was the largest corporate legal department in the United States. Among the attorneys he supervised was his double classmate Tom Fleischer, JD’75. • I made another birthday call, to John Coll, MBA’74, who is still a money manager in Orange County. He was planning to attend his 45th class reunion at Bishop McQuaid www.bc.edu/alumni
High School in Rochester. He and retired investment banker Bill Cherry ’74, MA’75, were also planning to play a round of golf on the course that hosted this year’s PGA championship. • There are no obituaries to report this time, thank God, but I offer my condolences to the family of Art Donovan ’50. Art was an NFL Hall of Fame player who went on to a great career as a guest on late-night TV talk shows.
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NC 1972
Correspondent: Nancy Brouillard McKenzie newton885@bc.edu Please keep in our prayers Donn Pokorny, spouse of Beth Carroll Pokorny. Donn passed away very suddenly in July. • Mario ’72 and Meg Barres Alonso had a wonderful weekend in Washington to celebrate Mike’s graduation with honors from Georgetown Law School. Both are enjoying son Matt’s two sons. For about a year, Meg has been taking harp lessons. • Please consider joining the Ignatian Volunteer Corps in your area. IVC provides many opportunities for men and women to serve others and transform their lives: www.ivcusa.org. I have now added guitar lessons to my IVC work, yoga, and other activities, including writing this column and being a Boston College alumni admissions volunteer. Please send Newton news to distract me from singing and playing guitar at the same time. My family will appreciate this gesture. Take care.
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1973
Correspondent: Patricia DiPillo perseus813@aol.com As I write, the Red Sox are still in first place, and I hope Tebow makes the cut. Tuukka is a guest at a friend’s son’s wedding also, I hear. I had a good summer and a new adventure. I taught a course for Fitchburg State University credit and saw my idol Tom Brady go down during a routine practice but happily is OK. Those were the highlights. The only other news I have is sad but brings back fond memories of the Heights. First, we are rapidly losing Eagles from the nest: Nancy L. Carpenter, MEd’76, of North Adams, on August 2, 2012; June Whalen Casey, of Acton and Peaks Island, ME, on January 1, 2013; and Mary O’Sullivan Ryan, of Norwood, on February 22, 2010, all have left us. On the other hand, I pass along this heartwarming story from Ed Waldron with a message that is both poignant and nostalgic, a constant reminder of the catalogue of history we all share: “It has occurred to me we have moved into a new phase of our lives, in that, for the most part, the generation ahead of us has passed, and our generation is now beginning to ebb. With the early and completely surprising (to those of us not recently in contact with him) passing of Bryan Killian [in February], and with other members of our class noted in alumni notes, a numbing reality has begun to surface. Wonderful memories become all the more cherished as we recall the days of Townhouse C on Upper Campus. Our group of 16 was the first to