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Hope Rogers Metcalf At 92, I managed to make my grandson’s wedding in Rome. Added to that, fourteen of the family stayed on at a wonderful spot in Tuscany for a week. Heaven!
class of ’40 class of ’45
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Nancy Evans Gruner All’s well around Pittsburgh. We are decaying graciously and gradually amid friends in a splendid retirement community here. Radiologist son, Sam, in Oregon with four children, venture capitalist, Harry, in Baltimore with three, and daugther, Alex, visiting the US (after 26 years in Sydney, Australia) to get her masters in Occupational Therapy–we deplore the state of our country and the world. Delight in our books, sports teams, garden, birds, and other gentle activities. Salve. And of course, grandchildren.
class notes Robin Musser Agnew ’77 and her husband, Jamie, received the Raven Award from the Mystery Writers of America in May at the Edgar Banquet in New York City.
Attending the banquet was Pace Cooke Emmons ’77, P’14. The Edgars are given annually to the best mystery books written in a given year, and the Raven Award is given for service to the mystery community outside the realm of creative writing. Past winners include Alfred Hitchcock, President Clinton, Edward Gorey, and Angela Lansbury. The Raven was presented to the Agnews for their mystery bookstore, Aunt Agatha’s, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, now celebrating 22 years in business. The shop sells new and used books and carries almost 30,000 volumes, hosting frequent author events, a book club, and publishes a newsletter. Robin is a reviewer for Mystery Scene Magazine and serves as president of the board of Ann Arbor’s Kerrytown BookFest, an annual event drawing 4,000 people. The Agnews have seen the book business change in 22 years, but are happy to say there are still plenty of passionate readers out there. The business has become more event-driven, so the Agnews, at times, host an author each week.
What has not changed are the passionate conversations people have as they discuss favorite authors, books, questionable endings, great endings, and good writing.
fall
Ordinary Grace,
WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER ATRIA BOOKS 2013. EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL
Kent Krueger’s masterwork is set in 1961 small-town Minnesota, told through the eyes of 13 year old Frank. As a reader, you’re seeing events unfold as he understood them at the time. The writing makes the whole book seem like a remembered dream of childhood, though not always a good dream. What makes this book especially memorable is that while it’s about terrible loss, it’s also about the way people deal with terrible losses. There’s a passage toward the end of the book—you’ll know it when you get to it—that left me sobbing as well as dog-earing the pages so I could go back and read them again. It’s that kind of transcendent moment that, as a reader, you live to discover, and I imagine as a writer, you live to be able to convey. Buy a copy of this book for everyone and anyone who means anything to you. I hate to use the word special, but this book is special. I’ve read it twice and am already looking forward to revisiting it a third time. Whether or not you’re interested in coming of age stories, or 1961 Minnesota, it simply doesn’t matter, as the emotional truth of this novel is timeless.–ROBIN MUSSER AGNEW ’77
Martha Blankarn Halsey Enjoying six months a year now on Maui with husband of 63 years!! Still enjoying golf and gardening in tropics. Daughter Cyndy lives near us in Oceanport, New Jersey. Hurricane Sandy was worst storm of our lives.
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Anne Lydgate Kaiser We’re enjoying life in our cottage in a retirement community in Topsham, Maine. The choral group will give a spring concert this weekend ( June 2014), and we have a superb director who teaches voice at Bowdoin College to inspire and lead us. This summer we’ll hear lectures sponsored by the Maine Maritime Museum. We have a varied schedule!
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Elisabeth McGinty Laigle George and I are about to celebrate our 62nd anniversary. It’s hard to believe, and we are thankful for the great life we’ve shared. We are going on a 17 day cruise from Boston, North to Nova Scotia, and to Quebec City. We’re looking forward to “cool” weather.
class of ’50
Look for the Esto Perpetua lantern icon to see which classes will celebrate Reunion in May 2015
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Sarah Shartle Meacham I’ve just been up to Rangeley–a beautiful large lake in northwest Maine–to visit the children of my classmate Emory Phillips Stein ’51. Both Emory and her husband, Julian Stein, have died, but I find it so touching that their children put me up and give me sustenance and rest each summer. It’s a lovely break from my summers on Cushings Island. Povy LaFarge Bigbee’s ’51 Alumna Award at last May’s Alumnae weekend was a welcome excuse to come and say goodbye to the magnificent Fountains and to see everyone I’ve gotten to know over the years from Chatham classes up and down the years. Doris Beasley Martin ’48, who was a senior my freshman year, was there with her daughter/ trustee Sarah Martin Finn ’74. Also, Lea Cumings Parson ’44, Ashby Cothran, and a host of others from the New Mexico trip. How lucky I am to have this school.
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Ann Kirkpatrick Runnette My husband, John, and I are enjoying summers at our house in Dorset, Vermont, and we are in the retirement community Cypress on Hilton Head in the winter.
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Jane De Hart Had a wonderful visit with Chatham roommate Besty Hulick ’54 when in New York last November, and hope to repeat it this fall after I finally turn in my manuscript, a legal biography of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, into Knopf. Caroline Ramsay Merriam My husband, Duke, and I continue to live in an old house in Georgetown. I still work at my family foundations for decent child labor conditions, against sex trafficking, for free trade, and a whole host of related causes. We spent all of July in the same house by the sea which we rent each year in Brittany. Then, a final 10 days in Maine.We have three living children, seven grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.We devote
much of our time to liberal causes and fighting the intransigent Republicans in Congress. Caroline Young Moore Second grandson graduated from University of Colorado this spring. Took a trip with whole family to Mediterranean Isles this summer to celebrate husband John’s 80th birthday. He’s still a ski instructor! I’m fine—few aches and pains.
class of ’55
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Josephine Noel Dietz It’s hard to believe, but 2014 is the year the Class of 1956 turns 76! The memories of our days at Chatham Hall are still fresh and it was great to go back to the big reunions to see the changes. Nancy Wertz Sandercox Address change as of July 10: 4557 Middleton Park Cir. East Jacksonville, Florida, 32224
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Claire McIlvain I have been very active with the Albemarle County Master Gardeners sponsored by Virginia Tech and the Piedmont Extension Agency. A daylily from Claire I work once a week at the McIlvain’s ’59 garden Master Gardener Help Desk where the public can call in with the horticulture questions regarding plant diseases, varieties, and culture, and bring in plants to get a diagnosis of their pathology. Once a week, I am also a “Garden Ambassador” in the gardens of Monticello, which is very near where I live. I have a wonderful time answering questions about Jefferson, Monticello’s history, the gardens’ history, and the plants in the gardens. The vegetable garden is my favorite as it was Jefferson’s. There is so much to tell about it. I have also had an interesting time recently putting together a genealogy of the Lukens family descendants as I am a direct descendant of Rebecca Lukens, who established Lukens Steel, and who is now recognized as America’s premier woman in industry, being the first American Female CEO of an industrial company. A movie was made
2014
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