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Michigan State School Board Association, Hackley Art Museum and numerous other community activities. Karel Knudsen Wilkins, ’60, 865 Stonybrook Lane, Lansdale, PA 19446, spends her retirement volunteering for her church and the Red Cross. She also plays the flute in a local symphony. She has traveled throughout Asia and Europe, and holds a master’s degree in psychology from Michigan State University. She and her husband, Donald, have two children and two grandchildren. Jack Wood, ’60, 911 Tim Tam Circle, Naperville, IL 60540, is a vice president for business development for Softbite Solutions and Peters & Associates. He serves on two professional organization boards, and has traveled to all 50 states and Europe. Jack holds an M.B.A. from the University of Iowa. He and his wife, Bonnie, have two daughters and four grandchildren. Nancy Robinson Woodruff, ’60, 1501 West Main St., Mosinee, WI 54455, is involved in church mission projects and Couples on Wheels, a recumbent tandem bicycling group. She has traveled to England and Wales twice, and to Trinidad and Tobago for church missions work. She and her husband, Nelson, have two sons and two grandsons. Ronald and Janet Wilson Woody, both ’60, 3013 Club Hill Dr., Garland, TX 75043 have been married for 41 years. Ronald is retired from the Army Dental Corps, and serves as professor/director of graduate prosthodontics at Baylor College of Dentistry. He is active in numerous professional organizations, and is past president of the American College of Prosthodontists. Ronald holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Athens, Greece. The Woodys have traveled throughout North and Central America, Europe and Asia. They have three sons and three granddaughters. Eldon Wyly, ’60, 221175 Hillcrest, Clinton Township, MI 48036, is an active member of St. Peter’s Church, and has made pilgrimages to several holy sites in Europe. Christine Kramer Yuill, ’60, 158 Riverside Rd., Marquette, MI 49855, works as a tutor with dyslexic children and adults. She and her husband, Robert, enjoy outdoor activities, and are members of the Marquette Choral Society, the North Country Trail Club and the local Presbyterian church. The Yuills are the parents of two children.
61 Bruce Berndt, ’61, co-authored an article with Robert Rankin in the AugustSeptember 2000 issue of the American Mathematical Monthly entitled “The Books Studied by Ramanujan in India.” The article is a continuation of research on the Indian mathematician that Berndt has conducted since 1974. Bruce and his wife, Helen Nott Berndt, ’62, live in Urbana, IL.
62 Dorothy Jerome Boatman, ’62, retired in 1997 after 30 years of teaching for the Department of Defense in overseas elementary schools on Air Force bases. She married Hjalmar Nielsen in October 1997. She would love to hear from classmates and can be reached at Musvitvej 9, 3390 Hundested, Denmark.
65 Mary Ellen Watts Allan, ’65, 1 Old Fuller Mill Rd., Marietta, GA 30067, has been married to Christopher Allan, ’62, for 35 years and has two sons. Mary Ellen is a board member for the Alliance Francaise D’Atlanta and has been fortunate enough to travel a lot, including almost four weeks in France this past year. Elizabeth Rutter Baer, ’65, 6056 Madeira Dr., Lansing, MI 48917, is a certified financial planner. James Batzer, ’65, 1435 Princeton, Manistee, MI 49660, is a circuit judge in the 19th Judicial Circuit (Manistee and Benzie Counties). The recipient of a J.D. degree from Wayne State University, James spent five years as the assistant attorney general for the State of Michigan and was elected to circuit court in 1985. He is a member of the Michigan Judges Association, and is past chair and member of the State Bar Committee on Criminal Jury Instructions. He is married to Deborah, and has three daughters and one stepson, his youngest daughter and stepson both attending Albion College. Royce Beers, ’65, 2122 S. Lake Leelanau, Lake Leelanau, MI 49653, is employed as an oral surgeon and enjoys spending time with his wife, Margie. Connie Sweet Branson, ’65, 3338 W. Delhi Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48103, is retired from 30 years as a school counselor and is married to a wonderful Texan, David Branson. As a result, Connie gained a stepdaughter and now has a son-in-law and a year-old granddaughter. Sharon Larner Brouwer, ’65, 4433 Timberlane Dr., Kalamazoo, MI 49008, is a volunteer caseworker for the American Red Cross and is an active member of the Presbyterian Church. She and her husband, Bob, have three daughters, Jill, Jennifer, ’92, and Emily. Besides traveling to see family, the Brouwers enjoy exploring the United States on their bicycles. Bruce Brown, ’65, 22571 Gill, Farmington Hills, MI 48335, is a teacher at Farmington High School and has been teaching for 35 years. He and his wife, Pam O’Malley, have two children, and two grandchildren. Bruce has enjoyed travels to Europe, Mexico, Central America, and South America. Gail Marquis Charlebois, ’65, 15 Symphony Rd., Peabody, MA 01960-2023, is a reading teacher at Peabody Public Schools. She has been married to her husband, Paul, since 1975, and they have three children. After teaching for two years in South Haven, Gail moved to Anchorage, AK, where she was a reading consultant for four years. Later she taught four years in the Berkshires and then went back to teaching reading in Peabody. Gail is active in the church choir at St. Adelaide’s Church. She holds an M.Ed. from Temple University.
Family ties to Albion go back to 1860 Come 2003, Justinn Steffe will become the fifth generation of her family to graduate from Albion College. Her Albion ties began with two of her great-great-grandparents, Jacob Steffe, Class of 1878, and Frances Godfrey, Class of 1860. The legacy continued through several generations to Justinn’s parents, Jim and Susan Pitzer Steffe, both ’72. Despite the family’s history, Justinn never felt pressured to carry on the Albion legacy; rather, the College itself sold her on the idea. While in high school, Justinn originally thought she would like to attend a large, out-of-state university. “When I told my parents I didn’t want to go to Albion, they said, ‘Well, you have to at least look at it,’” she recalls. “I came here and loved it.” Justinn is a Delta Gamma legacy as well, wearing her great-grandmother Emma’s sorority pin. However, she admits her Albion experience has differed in many ways from those of other family members. Living in Dean Hall, she must cook her own meals but doesn’t have to work for her education as some of her family members have.
Jim Steffe relates that his father, Ralph Steffe, ’36, was at Albion during the Great Depression. “He funded much of his own education with various jobs. One job involved Jacob W. Steffe, 1878 stoking the College’s boiler all night to keep the dormitories warm in the winter. He said he was usually covered in black dust at the end of his shift and always showered in Kresge Gym. After Albion he went to the University of Michigan Medical School, then practiced medicine until he was 82 years old!” The first college athlete in her family, Justinn is playing varsity volleyball and softball. A member of Emma Saxton Steffe, 1901 the Gerstacker Institute for Professional Management, she says she chose not to follow the family tradition of specializing in religious studies (her great-great-grandfather Jacob was an itinerant Methodist minister, and her father, now an engineering professor at Michigan State University, graduated with a religious studies degree from Albion). Floyd F. Steffe, 1915 While forging her own path, Justinn is frequently reminded of her family’s longstanding connections with Albion and the surrounding community. When studying local history as she did in a First-Year Seminar last year, she realized that earlier generations of her family had actually witnessed the Albion events she was learning about. “It’s kind of fun,” she says. Ralph S. Steffe, 1936 —Jake Weber
Building the Albion legacy in your family If you are already part of a historic family involvement with Albion College, or if you’d like to start such a tradition in your family, here are two new benefits that will be of interest: ■ Albion College will waive the $20 application fee for any legacy student who applies for admission. ■ A $1,500 Alumni Grant will be awarded to all incoming students whose family includes at least one Albion alumna/alumnus (sister, brother, father, mother, grandparents). This grant, offered without regard to financial need, is renewable for all four years. To qualify, the student simply needs to indicate his or her family’s alumni status when submitting the application. We welcome campus visits at any time. Please contact the Admissions Office at 800/858-6770, and we will make all arrangements. For more information online, visit: www.albion.edu/admissions/.