Volume Twenty Eight, Number 4
April 2014
Photos by Louise Hughes PHILADELPHIA FLOWER SHOW: When this extravaganza is in town, can Spring be far behind? Enjoying the preview, from left: Betty Webb, Sophie Donaghy and Devie Andrews.
Rutgers Alum Welcomes ‘Hey’ to Villa 85
repeal of the unlamented 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Hey joined the U.S. Army in 1943 and, after basic training, served with distinction until V-J Day as Latrine By a Rutgers Alum Orderly (Second Class) in the Officers’ Quarters at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and Fort Hood, Texas. He received See pages 4 and 5 for picture of author; more new residents the Reasonably Good Conduct Medal. Subsequently Hey attended four community colleges Hamlet Heywood Yorick (“Hey”) was born December in Upper Minnesota where he experienced “academic 25, 1924, in an ice-fishing shack on Lake Woesmee in and behavioral difficulties.” As a desperate last resort, he Upper Minnesota. He was home schooled by his mother, transferred to a small, unchallenging local college in cenNellie Yorick (née Bly). tral New Jersey called Princeton and graduated with high As a very young child he traveled a great deal (usually honors. at night and in a black van) to Canada with his father After Princeton he launched his 40-year career with and uncle. They would pick up heavy cardboard boxes Monsanto, rising through the ranks to become Senior labeled “shampoo” and “mouthwash” and deliver them Associate Assistant Vice President responsible for the to several basement clubs around Lake Woesmee. These maintenance of all Executive rest rooms. trips ended suddenly in 1933, coincidentally with the His three wives, Blanche, Rosalind and Imelda, all Rutgers Alum continued on page 5
Letter to the Editor
Hospitality and Club tables, Which is which and when?
DEAR EDITOR: I want to congratulate the House Committee for their choice of the painting now hanging over the Hostess Stand in the Mansion. Quite large (30 by 72 inches), depicting a sunny day in Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, the painting by Larry Francis is proving a delight for residents and visitors. The artist shares this scene with us through skillful use of light and shade, depth of space in the park, and meticulous detail of the figures. One can become a part of the adult conversation on the left, hear the music of the cello nearby, or participate in the fun with the children and their balloons. There is much activity throughout the scene with bright colors to attract our eyes. Mr. Francis, a Philadelphia native, is well known for his paintings of the city’s streets. He is represented by the Gross McCleaf Gallery.
You can always eat alone if you want (as many do), but if you would like to meet and dine with fellow residents, and don’t always feel like organizing a group for that purpose, the Hospitality Table is available two evenings a month and the Club Table every weekday evening. For the benefit of newcomers and anyone who has found the various previous notices bewildering: The Hospitality Table meets on two Wednesdays each month, in the Green Room. There is a sign-up sheet on the bulletin board, and it is hosted by the resident (or residents) named on the sheet. The host chooses the dinner time (posted) for that particular week. Last-minute reservations can be accommodated, depending on space available, and notification to the host when cancellations are necessary is appreciated. Beyond these formalities, the atmosphere is casual and festive. OR: Walk right in, sit right down, there is a table in the Grill Room waiting for you! The newly inaugurated Club Table in the Grill Room gives you the opportunity to dine and sit with people you may not have met yet. The round table is located in the left corner of the Grill Room, seats six to eight and is open Monday through Friday evenings starting at 6:00. If you would like to join others, we urge you to be there on time. Two resident hosts are the greeters. If you would like to assist with hosting please talk to Mary Schnabel. She will be delighted to add you to the substitute list. At the moment, we have an ample number of greeters; however, there are times when this may not be true and she will need your help.
— Jane Garrison, co-chairman of the Art Show Committee CORRECTION: Two photo credits were omitted from the March issue of the BN. The pictures of Grounds Director Mark Hritz on Page 1 and Chef John on Page 4 were both taken by Ann Louise Strong.
The BN is published monthly 10 times a year, October through July. Contributions are welcome, provided they are the contributor’s own work. The deadline for each issue is the 10th of the preceding month. E-mail to Mary Graff at graffs18@gmail.com and mgraff@BeaumontRetirement.com, or hand in at the Front Desk.
— Joan Roberts and Eta Glassman BEAUMONT NEWS The Beaumont News is published by the residents and staff of the Beaumont Retirement Community, 601 N. Ithan Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
In Memoriam Marietta Homeier, March 9, 2014 Shirley Moyer, March 20, 2014 Willard (Bill) Boothby, March 22, 2014
Editor Assistant Editor and Production Manager Graphic Designer Photo Editor Events Manager Proofreader Circulation Manager
Members of the Beaumont Community extend deepest sympathy to their families and friends.
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Mary Graff John Hall TJ Walsh Louise Hughes Kim Norrett Jennie Frankel Barbara O’Brien
New staff doctor saved lives with Air Force in Afghanistan
If America’s goal was to win the hearts and minds of the Afghans, “you can’t do that in a military occupation.” Dr. Chung, 34, was born in South Korea and came to the United States at the age of 6 with his parents, who are both missionaries. He attended Pittsburgh public schools and was such a fine student that he received a tuition-free “full ride” at the University of Pittsburgh. For his medical training, Dr. Chung crossed the state to the Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia. He got a very good medical education, he said, and faced challenges in dealing with diabetes, high blood pressure and other ailments associated with the poor in big cities. On his Temple graduation in 2006, he got married. His wife, Hannah, had a medical career that paralleled his. They both took internal medicine residencies at Hahnemann University Hospital, and after Hahnemann they both entered the Air Force. Both were discharged with the rank of major in 2013. Meanwhile, Dr. Chung’s wife gave birth to a daughter, Sophie, now 5, and two sons, Noah, 3, and Isaac, 11 months. All three are in day care. Dr. Hannah Chung is now working with one other physician in internal medicine at Lafayette Hills. Peter Chung will be working at Beaumont for three hours each Thursday and Friday morning. Explaining his size (6-foot-4 and 220 pounds), unusual for Koreans, he said, “I think it’s from American nutrition.”
By Peter Binzen
Dr. Peter Chung, the newest member of Beaumont’s staff of physicians, spent the previous four years in the U.S. Air Force. He still feels “emotion and stress,” he says, from his six months in Afghanistan assigned to a trauma hospital that was filled with grievously injured soldiers. Some had lost limbs in land mines. Others were near death with multiple gunshot wounds. All were so heavily sedated that Dr. Chung, a natural conversationalist, could not communicate with them. Dr. Peter Chung His job was to stabilize the patients and prepare them for flights to a military hospital in Germany for recuperation. “We saved 99 percent of the people who came through,” he said. At that time the fighting in Afghanistan was slowing down. “I wasn’t sure why we were there,” he said.
An energized reader says thanks (ouch, yawn) to Bob By Ann Wood
When our leader says to take a break and breathe, the “Energize with Exercise” class with Bob Stedeford not only needs to do this, but they are happy because it is the one thing that we all do so well. This is not true of all the other different commands Bob gives us, but he is encouraging and always says just do the best you can. And he seems to think that over time there is improvement that he can see in our class. Oh, we all hope so! Now lots of these exercise moves can be done at home, but it is not quite the same as when you have the leader calling out the numbers and keeping us all happy with his jokes, antics, and even counting sometimes in Spanish to
get our minds off the agony we are going through. And though we all agree that we are definitely energized from the workout, don’t sell the breathing short. It can relax you and even help you get to sleep if you employ it when the clock says you’ve been awake in the night too long. In fact the Tai Chi video instructor went so far as to say he can get through anything breathing. So take a break and breathe. Big breath in, and slowly let it out. Big breath in, and slowly let it out. Thank you, Bob. “Energize with Exercise” takes place at 11 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the Beaumont Room.
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At sea and in the air, new Baldwin couple has been there
and math puzzles, and singing. Among the couple’s happiest memories is the cruise they took around the Mediterranean in 2011 with their children, spouses and all nine grandchildren. What was special, they say, is that the cousins—coming from Pennsylvania, Delaware, Florida and Texas—had a chance to become acquainted.
By Betsy Stull
Norman J. Greene Jr. graduated from the Avon Old Farms School in 1943, served in the Army Air Corps training program for two years and graduated in 1949 from Bucknell, where he majored in commerce and finance. He began his career as a salesman, first with 3M and then with the Original Sight Exchange. He became the proprietor of Main Line Sporting Goods, which featured mostly guns and ammunition for local hunters and shooters, and also other sports equipment. UnNorman J. Greene, Jr. fortunately, theft of the rifles from the store and competition from large wholesale chains caused the store’s demise. Norman and his wife, Joan, whom he married in 1954, became active in the Main Line Power Squadron. They took courses which they put to use with several power boats. He also served as a Lieutenant in the Power Squadron. Norman enjoyed flying his single-engine Comanche and later a twin Baron, and became multi-engine instrument rated, as did Joan. He is a life member of the National Rifle Association, Mayflower Society and Florida Sons of the American Revolution. Joan graduated from the Baldwin School and the University of Pennsylvania. Her main career, she says, was as a housewife and rearing five children. She served as PTA president and was active in the Girl Scouts (oh, those mint cookies smelled good!) Always active in the Daughters of the American Revolution, she was Regent Joan Greene during the Bicentennial and later Florida State Recording Secretary. Having learned the importance of Robert’s Rules of Order, she encouraged their use at many meetings. While living in Florida for 30 years and summering in North Carolina for 10 years, Joan says, her golf scores improved wonderfully! Joan enjoys needlepoint, logic
Former New Yorker welcomed to Austin By Jean Homeier
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A New Yorker through and through, Bernice Banner was born in Brooklyn and moved to Jericho, Long Island, years later when her two sons were ready for school. Her husband, Harold, commuted to his pharmacy in Manhattan, where his customers included a variety of luminaries such as Marlene Dietrich, Pat Nixon, and Groucho Marx! Bernice worked in Manhattan, first for an insurance broker and then for Lehman Brothers, which she left after six happy years to rear her two boys. Both Banner sons went to the University of Pennsylvania and the elder, Richard, now an anesthesiologist, remained in the Philadelphia area. Once retired, Bernice and Harold joined his family here, but unfortunately, Harold died a year after they had moved to Oaks. Bernice stayed on for six years until, thanks to the recommendation of a daughter-in-law, she found Beaumont. In January she moved into Austin and she is, of course, still coping with the often bewildering process of settling. When I asked Bernice about her interests, she told me she likes to read and that she and her husband traveled to Europe twice a year, partly in connection with the pharmaceutical business and Bernice Banner partly for pleasure. Then she smiled and said she has chiefly devoted her life to her family: Richard here in Wayne; Robert, who is an attorney in New York; three granddaughters, the oldest of whom will be off to Tufts in the fall, and her two daughters-in-law, whom she says she dearly loves as well. Bernice has high praise for the warmth and kindness of both staff and residents at Beaumont. She says she looks forward to continuing to meet new people and hopes to become involved in any way she can be helpful. New residents continued on page 5
Princeton Nassoons bring ‘Notables’ star back to Beaumont By Roland Morris
Princeton University’s renowned Nassoons sang in concert in the Beaumont Room for residents and guests last month, introduced by Beaumont’s Bob Morgan, a former Nassoon of Princeton’s Class of 1966. They sang everything from a spiritual to Tigertown Blues, for an extremely appreciative full Beaumont House. The Nassoons are composed of 15 superbly talented vocalists, 10 of whom appeared here. They are self-administered without professional concert masters other than undergraduate leaders from their own corps. Prominent this year has been tenor Alfred R. Hebner. Alfred is a Princeton sophomore, Class of 2016, who graduated from our neighbor, the Haverford School. He was a member of the “Notables,” the Haverford School singing group which frequently appears at Beaumont, as it did several weeks ago. Alfred personally sang four successive years at Beaumont as a member of the “Notables” before matriculating at Princeton. The Nassoons present, not only from coast to coast Nassoons continued on page 8 New residents continued from page 4
New villa resident has been many places, done many things
By Ann Louise Strong Our new resident at 33 Pond Lane is multi-talented, particularly in the arts. She has also lived and worked in many countries in the Far East and Europe, as well as in Washington and Philadelphia. Louise Carter attended the Columbia School for Girls in Rochester, N.Y.; was a member of the Vassar College class of 1949, and earned a Master of Fine Arts at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Louise Carter Shortly after, while she was with her family in Washington, they introduced her to John Addison Cobb Bucknell, a Foreign Service officer as had been his father. Soon she and John married and her peripatetic life began.
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Rutgers Alum continued from page 1 disappeared mysteriously. His three children, Donner, Blixen and Rudolph live and work in the North Dakota Badlands, except for Rudolph, who is often at sea. Hey’s hobbies are watching TV, particularly reruns of “I Love Lucy,” and walking his The author Photo by Louise Hughes dog, Phideaux. Hey was to move into Villa 85 April 1. First off to Japan to an Army base in the city of Oiso. Chinese foreign service people also were stationed there, and Louise taught English to a wide age range of young Chinese. Soon they were transferred to Okinawa, where daughter Charlotte was born and where Louise served as a typist for the U.S. government. Next a short stint in Washington and off to Saigon, with the birth of two more daughters, Sarah and Katherine, and service as hostess for her husband. Then back to Washington. Her fourth daughter, Lucy, was born, followed by a change of continent to a post in Switzerland. Sorrow struck: In 1964, John died while skin diving. Louise then lived in Washington as a single mother for 15 years. She became a photographer, working for such diverse clients as the USIA and the Potomac School. Louise and Edward (Ted) C. Carter, a professor of American History at Catholic University, were married in 1975, and Louise enrolled in a garden design course at George Washington University. That was the start of work as a garden designer and as an author of books on gardening. Ted subsequently accepted a job in Philadelphia as Director of the Library for the American Philosophical Society. This move was accompanied by purchase of an old barn near St. David’s Church, conversion of the barn to a house for the family, and design and creation of a garden for the house. Ted died in 2002. Working with clay to create pots did not start until 1985. It is, however, very much part of Louise’s life today, and she will be working at 33 Pond Lane as soon as settling-in is finished. Then, too, the children and the seven grandchildren will be welcomed here.
Beaumont Fund provides Wellness Coach for staff By Mary Wells, Human Resources Director
Stress. Is it beneficial? Sure, some stress allows us to prioritize, concentrate and produce the adrenaline and energy necessary to meet challenges. However, too much stress can be hazardous to our health and safety. Many dedicated Beaumont employees find themselves too busy to take time out for themselves. Recognizing that our employees are under a lot of stresses from their jobs (getting here in all that snow!) and their personal lives, Beaumont—through the Beaumont Fund—is now providing full-time employees with a Wellness Coach in addition to our Employee Assistance Coordinator. This will be an ongoing program, offered on-campus during work hours, combining biometric testing and counseling. More than 100 employees so far have taken advantage of this jump start toward better health,
Resident reflects on “amazing” staff By Sis Ziesing
When you go to a retirement home you indeed expect that certain services will be provided. I assume that at most places you get transportation to market, doctors’ appointments, entertainment and so forth, but I bet they don’t go the extra mile that Beaumont does. Consider the deliveries of meals to the villas. Neither snow nor rain nor below-zero cold stays these guys from the swift completion of their appointed rounds—and all for a measly buck! When I go to the Mansion for dinner, practically before I’m even seated my favorite glass of wine is put before me, even though I haven’t ordered it yet. How amazing and wonderful they are to remember this! To my pleasure, this past Christmas involved family occupying all of my bedrooms. Afterward, all sheets and towels were sent to our fantastic laundry. Very shortly after that, a family event required these rooms to be occupied again. PANIC—no sheets! Called Housekeeping, which returned the laundry before it was due and, unbelievably, sent a housekeeper to make up all five beds
Photo by Louise Hughes WELLNESS COACH Jeff Wild from Worknet, one of several consultants in Beaumont’s new stress-fighting program for full-time staff, takes a blood sample from Administrative Assistant Jennie Frankel, who reacted calmly. “It was so quick it didn’t hurt,” she explained.
and more are on board for upcoming dates. Employee feedback has been fantastic. One employee started crying when she thanked us. And thank you, Beaumont Fund donors, for making this possible! for me. Thank you, Darryl and Brock—I love you! Recently I went to Orchestra with two friends and had lunch at the Acorn Club. The usual routine is that you get dropped off and the bus returns at 1:30 p.m. to take you to the Kimmel Center. We received a message during lunch that Rich, our bus driver, couldn’t get back to pick us up because of traffic problems. Off we went after lunch to walk to the Kimmel Center (actually not far) and guess who joined us at the front door of the Acorn Club—Rich! He had come from where he could park the bus to escort us! These are just a few examples of the extra caring that Beaumont provides. No wonder so many second-generation Beaumonters are moving in. They know how much their parents enjoyed it here.
Photo by Louise Hughes
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STAFF PARTY: Celebrating Beaumont Health Services’ stellar performance in recent government ratings found residents waiting on staff. (Full story in March issue.) Here Norma Fabian serves Shigara Singh from Housekeeping (Laundry).
Mike’s Roundup By Mike Bailey, Housekeeping
The sun is shining with the cool wind still blowing, For once we can say that without the snow flurries. Bright rays through the clouds, though, meant miracles were happening, For instance like on February 6th, Lakia Archer had her boy, 7lbs, 3 1/2ounces: Kendall Gifford came just in time to ease the storm. Then Kent in Maintenance saw his second granddaughter: On February 20th at 5:51 Francesca Hall said hello everyone, 7lbs, 21 inches long. The gift of new life is such a blessing on its own. On March 14th an engagement was made: Cherrish Clayton, one of the Dietary Aides, Said yes to Amari Wynder. So they set the date, and on June 21, 2014, at 3 p.m., An outdoor wedding will take place. Now remember . . . “Being silent might be your best answer at times.”
Fitness Director Bob Stedeford’s sons (from left) Bret, Charlie and Cole posed for Dad on St. Patrick’s Day; Francesca Hall slept through her BN debut, and Amari Wynder joined Dietary Aide Cherrish Clayton to announce their engagement.
Photo by Louise Hughes Front Desk’s Lakia Archer brought Kendall Gifford to Beaumont to visit.
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Dressing up, head to foot, for March events
COUNTER-CLOCKWISE: On St. Patrick’s Day, Devie Andrews, photo by Louise Hughes; Mardi Gras, Mary Jane Rhodes, Mary Graff, Marcelle Pick and Sarah DaCosta, photos by Kim Norrett.
Nassoons continued from page 5 in America but in locations as far removed as, recently, Hong Kong and Zurich. Three of the 10 who sang for Beaumont expect to major in music at Princeton. They usually practice four days a week from 10:30 p.m. to midnight when on campus. Bob Morgan, a former Professor of Music at Yale, not only sang for the Nassoons but became known later as the writer of some of their finest songs, one of their best arrangers and president for several years of their alumni association. At the end of the Beaumont program, the ensemble asked Bob, with other Nassoon alumni, to join the group in singing two closing numbers, Perfidia and Old Nassau. Of course, the Princeton alumni stood and saluted Nassau Hall, the seat of the University.
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