class notes
Thank you! I am doing my best to get all your news published before our 30th reunion weekend, May 28–31. I have attended several of the planning meetings, and the weekend is sure to be memorable and meaningful. • Nancy Shea informs us that, after teaching middle-school Spanish for 20 years in Virginia, she and her husband of 28 years have moved to New Smyrna, FL. She now teaches K–5. Both of Nancy’s daughters are in college—at UCLA and the University of Mary Washington. Nancy is pursuing her interest in oil painting and has been in several area shows. • Robin Murdoch-Meggers and her husband, Tom Meggers, live in Manchester, CT. Robin is an attorney/partner at Marte, Plepler, Falkenstein, Meggers & Paul, and Tom has been with Pfizer Inc since his on-campus interview in 1979. They have two sons: Peter (22), a graduate of Gettysburg, and Patrick (18), who is off to the Coast Guard Academy, where he will play football and run track. • Peter and Wendy Jones Kuda reside in Chelmsford with their three children: PJ (18), Kimberly (16), and Matthew (11). After 16 years at Hewlett-Packard, Wendy is pursuing her master’s in education and teaching seventh-grade mathematics in Andover. She also enjoys spending time at home with her family. Wendy maintains contact with her BC roommates Lori Gagne Pendleton, in Old Lyme, CT, and Rosemary Rossi in San Francisco. • Mary Jane Plante Bentley has a master’s in public health from UMass and is currently in her last year of a Ph.D. program at UMass Medical School in Worcester. She and her husband live in Holden and are raising three children: Bill, Chris, and Megan. She is looking forward to our 30th—she says the 25th was a blast! • Mary Baker lives in Albany, NY, and works as a family counselor. • Stephen Cidlevich is director of constituent affairs at the Department of Mental Health in Boston. The Cidlevichs have two grown children: Tracy and Stephen. • Sadie Aznavoorian-Cheshire lives in Shrewsbury and is employed as a biology lab instructor at Olin College in Needham. • Mitchell Stern has been a math teacher at the Concord (MA) Middle School for the past 23 years, teaching eighth-grade math. Mitchell is also camp director of Camp Frank A. Day in East Brookfield. Mitchell and wife Fortunee have a daughter, Samara (19), who is a sophomore at Bridgewater State College. • After graduation Maureen Fenton Ryan worked at the Massachusetts State House for Sen. Martin Reilly (D-Springfield), and met her husband, Tim Ryan. The Ryans now have five children: a daughter and four
sons. Tim is an attorney at Ryan & Downey in Springfield, and Maureen is a real estate agent for Coldwell Banker in Longmeadow. • Tricia Dolan Wellenbach lives in Bryn Mawr, PA, with husband Andy and two sons: Mathew (21), a student at Williams College, and Jeffrey (18), at Bucknell. Tricia is a management consultant in healthcare and to nonprofits. She also serves as a trustee of Abington Memorial Hospital. • Deborah Foss Cox has lived in Greece, NY, for the past 20 years. She has two children, Kristin (23) and Steven (15). She has worked in engineering and supervision at Corning Inc., Eastman Kodak, Heidleberg Digital, and NexPress. She has come full circle and is now employed in Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group. • Vesna Manse has two children: Sasha (21) at Mount Holyoke and Sam (16) at Hingham High. Vesna is pursuing her interest in art. She also enjoys reconnecting with her roots in Croatia, where she was born. • Keep the information flowing and remember that your best friends are old friends!
1980 Correspondent: Michele Nadeem nadeem007@aol.com Sunrise Harbor 1040 Seminole Drive, Unit 1151 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304 Happy spring, BC Class of 1980! I am pleased to report that some of our classmates have taken up my challenge in our last column and have reported how they are moving forward toward our next decade, proving that they are still young Eagles at heart! • Thomas Alton moved nearly six years ago from New York City to Philadelphia, where he enjoys the cultural offerings and excellent venues for dining. You may remember Thomas as the “pitch pipe” of the University Choir that sang at Sunday Mass at St. Ignatius, or as a member of C. Alexander Peloquin’s University Chorale. Thomas’s days of singing continue: He reports he has managed to maintain his “vigor” and is thus “young at heart” as he has joined two choral groups in Philadelphia: the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia and the choir at St. Mark’s Church. He also stays young by retaining youthful habits such as bikeriding; while at BC, his rides were along Beacon St. from Cleveland Circle to Kenmore Square, and now they are through Fairmount Park along the Schuylkill River. • As history was made for our nation on November 4, classmate 21 class notes
Deb Ruggiero was making history in Rhode Island, being elected state representative serving Jamestown and Middletown, defeating a 28-year incumbent, 54 percent to 46 percent! And don’t think that Eagle power didn’t make an assist on Deb’s campaigning! Her friend from BC days, Ellen McNamara Swirsky, came from Connecticut to attend a meet and greet in Jamestown. Ellen and husband Brian have two children attending Boston College! • Classmate Tom McElroy continues to be a strong part of Boston College posthumously through a scholarship in his memory—now the leading athletic memorial scholarship at BC. You can help raise funds for the scholarship, awarded annually, by participating in the Tom McElroy Golf Classic, either as a golfer or as a dinner attendee. For information, e-mail Tom’s father, Tom McElroy ’52, at rags31@aol.com, or go to BCeagles.com and scroll down to Friends of BC Athletics. Click on Tom McElroy Golf Classic to learn about the scholarship/golf classic and to access a registration form. Incidentally, our classmate Joe Carter was in last year’s golf classic winning foursome. • I encourage all the Class of 1980 to network with our alumni during this tenuous economy and time of skyrocketing unemployment. We Eagles need to help the rest of our flock when possible. • I’m looking forward to hearing from you.
1981 Correspondent: Alison Mitchell McKee amckee81@aol.com 1128 Brandon Road Virginia Beach, VA 23451; 757-428-0861 In 2008 Kathy Aicher joined Burt Wolf Productions as producer of Season 9 of Wolf’s syndicated travel show, Travels & Traditions, which airs on more than 300 PBS stations nationwide. The new season features a series of European river cruises, and the shows are shot entirely on location in Holland, Belgium, Germany, and France. The new episodes began airing in January, so check your local PBS stations for airdates. Kathy lives in Clarendon, VT, near Killington, and between productions, is busy renovating her 200-year-old farmhouse. When working, she’s usually in Brooklyn. She says she loves company and would love to hear from former roommates and classmates. She sends her regards to her Hillsides buddies as well as her fellow ski team members! • In January, the Associated Press named Brian Murphy as chief of bureau in the cooperative’s