class notes Carol Paradise Decker moved to Santa Fe 15 years ago, when her late husband retired from teaching at the Stamford campus of the University of Connecticut. For five years, she has volunteered at the Pecos National Monument and has written two books about it, both of which can be found on Amazon. Carol enjoys writing, sorting and cataloging the family memoirs and tending to her children and grandchildren, who come to visit. One grandson teaches English in China near the Russian border; another is a guitarist with a heavy metal band, currently on tour. She herself has given up singing and playing the guitar. After a career as a social worker and school librarian, Alice (A.V.) Smith Butler has moved to a retirement community near Chadds Ford, Pa. She has recently been widowed for the second time. She spends her summers at Cape May and stays in touch with Shirley Nicholson Roos. Janet Wagner Morse attended CC for her junior and part of her senior year before graduating from Stanford University. She acted as a supernumerary with the San Francisco Opera and also served as a control at the sleep disorder clinic at Stanford for many years. Janet has been widowed twice and, for the last several years, has lived at Carmel Valley Manor in Carmel Valley, Calif. She has two children and four grandchildren. She and Pat Dole keep in touch. Barbara Witte Kauth earned her library degree at the University of Minnesota and happily worked in public libraries in West Bend, Wis. She served as reference librarian and as acting director, and she participated in children’s reading programs. Since retiring, Barbara has been a busy volunteer. Now a widow, she has four children, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Diana Upjohn Meier, who lives in Monroe, Mich., was a teacher in the early elementary grades. Her two children live in Texas and New Hampshire. She is happy to be a greatgrandmother. The Class of ’48 sends thoughts and sympathy to the family of Barbara Freedman Berg, who died recently.
1949 ——— Correspondents: Jean Sherman Muste, 414 Placitas Rd. #31, Taos, NM 87571, jsmuste@aol.com; Gale Craigie Chidlaw, 3875 Sioux Dr., Apt. 001, Boulder, CO 80303, gale2749@aol.com
As we (Mabel Brennan Fisher and Marjorie Stutz Turner) have completed our five-year term as class co-correspondents, this is our last column. We decided early in our term that to get news we would have to go after it, so for each issue we phoned a group of names from our class list. Those we reached were most gracious and welcoming, even when they thought they had nothing to share, and we thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated our chats. Thank you! Our 65th reunion, May 30-June 1, was a big success. According to the College, the 16 members present represented the largest number ever to return for a 65th – a record! Class of ’49 attendees were Joan (Johnnie) Jossen Bivin, Jean Carter Bradley, Marilyn Viets Davis, Cornelia (Nealy) Wilde Dickinson, Mary (Stech) Stecher Douthit, Jennifer (Jeff) Judge Howes, Carolyn Beattie Garbutt, Frances (Frannie) Brigham Johnson, Julia (Judy) Kuhn Johnson, Ruth Fanjoy King, Mary (Sue) Nankervis Lamont, Joan Lambert McPhee, Jean Sherman Muste, Muriel (Moo) Phipps Smith, Mary Elizabeth (Liz) Stone and Mary Lou (Taffy) Strassburger Treat. The events began Friday with the Sykes Society Luncheon, when Laurie Norton Moffatt ’78, who is museum director of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., spoke on “Reflections on Norman Rockwell and American Art.” That evening, more than 1,000 people enjoyed the traditional and outstanding lobster bake on Tempel Green. Later, President Katherine Bergeron addressed the gathering and, according to Judy Johnson, was “impressive, vibrant, outgoing, well-spoken … I think she’ll be a great president.” Saturday morning brought mimosas on the Green, for those who wanted them, followed by a parade of classes. Our class wore purple berets and purple sashes. (Our class colors are purple and gold, remember?) The Alumni Convocation included class gifts and honors presentations. The Service of Remembrance was held Saturday afternoon in the chapel, where a bagpiper played and two alumnae sang. There were two festive class meals on Saturday, during which our class was joined by three members of the three Reunion classes ahead of ours. Purple and gold balloons decorated the dinner celebration, and a piano player played all our old favorites.
Class of ’50 friends: (L-R) Sylvia Snitkin Frumer, Nancy Puklin Stolper and Anita Manasevit Perlman.
There was plenty of time to visit with classmates in the Hospitality Room of Park residence hall, where our class was housed. We had several perks for being one of the “older” reunion classes: Breakfast was served each morning in the Hospitality Room, so there was no need to walk over to the dining hall, and golf cart-type vehicles provided transportation, so no walking was required at all! Officers elected for the next five years are: President Johnnie Jossen Bivin, Vice President Stech Stecher Douthit, Reunion Chairmen Judy Kuhn Johnson and Jeff Judge Howes, and Correspondent Jean Sherman Muste. Our thanks go to Judy for sharing her Reunion information and notes. We urge you all to support our new correspondent, Jean Sherman Muste. Her job requires input and cooperation from everyone in the class. The Class of ’49 sends sympathy to the family and friends of Connie Raymond Plunkett, who died May 20, and Anne Glazier, who died May 28.
Three friends from the Class of ’50 gathered for breakfast in Old Lyme, Conn., last fall. Nancy Puklin Stolper was in the area for her grandson’s wedding and arranged the reunion with Anita Manasevit Perlman and Sylvia Snitkin Frumer. (See photo on this page.) Jean Mulvaney Willis lives in Keene, N.H. One of her three grown children lives in Keene, another in Brattleboro, Vt., and the third in Miami, Fla. Jean lived in Windham House all of her four years at CC and taught Spanish for 20 years after graduation. She keeps in touch with Joan Burdick Boothman and Grace Lee Oei. The three of them enjoyed a Caribbean cruise together several years ago. Janet Pinney Shea had the pleasure of handing her step-grandson, Robert (Jake) Landry ’13, his diploma at last year’s Commencement ceremony. Sarah (Jane) Wheeler Rutter loves being surrounded by her family in Paducah, Ky. She enjoys playing bridge, doing yoga and attending church. Virginia Hargrove Okell is happy to announce that she is a first-time greatgrandmother. She travels to Richmond, Correspondents: Marilyn Packard Ham, 800 Southerly Road, Apt. 1517, Towson, MD 21286- Va., and Raleigh, N.C., to visit her 8403, wether345@yahoo.com; grandchildren. Her grandson David Mary Bundy Mersereau, 279 Pine Bluff Rd., and his wife, Rina, own a Blue Ridge Ruckersville, VA 22968 cabin near Stanardsville, Va., about 15 Ruth Kaplan welcomed three old minutes from us (Joe and Mary Bundy friends from North Cottage days and Mersereau), and we look forward to beyond: Barbara Biddle Gallagher, seeing Virginia when she’s there. Priscilla Harris Dalrymple and Liz McConoughey Barker still Lois Papa Dudley joined her for a manages, with son Travis, a hotel for mini-reunion. “We have remained in hunters and fishermen in “beautiful close touch all these years, bound Montana, where the air and water are by irreplaceable memories.” Their wonderful.” She spends winters on a get-together featured a cruise among horse farm five miles from Augusta, the Boston Harbor Islands, followed by Mont., with space for their 19 horses dinner, at which “we raised our glasses and mules. in toast to absent friends.” After 20 moves, Kathy Buck Larkin
1950
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