Cl ass Not e s
1944 “Ninety years old and still playing the clarinet — perhaps not as rapidly as in 1944,” declares John Barbe. John is retired from a career as a composer.
1945 “Still enjoying life in Oregon with more of my family moving West every year,” writes Gordon W. Thomas. “Now have six grandchildren and one great-grandchild out here with two remaining East. One son and wife in Seattle. Two daughters and spouses remain in Boston area.”
1950 Bert Engelhardt reports that he lives in the Village at Orchard Ridge, a retirement community in Winchester, Va. Bert is in an independent living apartment, and his wife, Claire, is in the community’s skilled nursing facility.
1951 William R. Clark Jr. informs us: “Have just acquired a second aortic valve replacement — 14 years after the first. Am feeling fine.” John F. Foster’s latest book, A Gesture of Words, has garnered favorable reviews on Amazon and the endorsement of Florida’s poet laureate. Thanks in part to these boosts, sales of the book have surged since the book was published in December 2017, John reports. “The book serves as a guide to more than 30 diverse forms of poetry, from the familiar
sonnet and limerick to the more exotic Ya-du of Burma and the Persian Ghazal,” writes John, who is a celebrated poet himself. “The English departments of Loomis Chaffee, Choate, and Emma Willard School possess copies of the book for reference. One of the book’s very favorable reviews on Amazon comes from former LC teacher Jim Rugen ’70.”
action. I was living in England at the time and did not learn of his death until April 3, 1967, when my first child was born. The daffodils were in full bloom, and to this day I remember Rick on my son William’s birthday, the time of the daffodils.”
1954
Middlebury College inducted Fred Beams into its Athletics Hall of Fame in November. Fred was a lacrosse and football standout at Middlebury. A lacrosse All-American in 1966, Fred
1962
Lew Knickerbocker’s latest novel, Show Me a Hero: Love and War During the ’50s, was published recently. According to the book’s back cover, the novel’s central characters are a young soldier and the woman he loves, and the story is set against the backdrop of hotspots of war around the world in the 1950s.
also earned All-New England honors three times during his Middlebury career. When he graduated, he held Middlebury lacrosse records for most career goals and most career assists. In football, Fred led the Panthers in rushing yards in both his junior and senior seasons and earned All-Vermont honors twice. He was named to the Eastern College Athletic Conference All-East College Division football team as a junior. At Loomis, Fred played football, hockey, and lacrosse, including several seasons under longtime coach James “Grim” Wilson. Joining Fred in Middle-
CHAFFEE BOOK CLUB
1955 Patricia Boudreau Fargnoli has written a fifth book of poetry, Hallowed: New and Selected Poems, published by Tupelo Press. An award-winning poet, Patricia was poet laureate of New Hampshire from 2006 to 2009.
1956
The fall gathering of the Chaffee Book Club featured the memoir The Distance Between Us by award-winning author Reyna Grande. Head of School Sheila Culbert facilitated a robust discussion about Grande’s immigrant story. Attendees included: (front) Jenefer Carey Berall ’59; (seated) Betsy Mallory MacDermid ’66, Mims Brooks Butterworth ’36, Evie Smith ’50, Lynn Hayden Wadhams ’61, and Elaine Title Lowengard ’46; and (standing) Anne Schneider McNulty ’72, Head of School and discussion leader Sheila Culbert, Betty Collins ’72, Sarah Spencer Strickland ’74, Priscilla Ransom Marks ’66, Sally Crowther Pearse ’58, Beverley Earle ’68, Kate Butterworth de Valdez ’67, Jane Torrey ’67, Sue Fisher Shepard ’62, and Katie Cox Reynolds ’45.
“We moved to Sun City in Bluffton, S.C., in September [2017],” pens William C. French.
1961 From Lynn Hayden Wadhams: “The excellent yet painful Ken Burns documentary on Vietnam brought back memories of Rick Barnes ’60, who was killed in
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