CL ASS NOTES
committees. She also works part time for College Guild, a nonprofit that offers free nontraditional correspondence courses to prisoners in the U.S. Her husband, Richard, had quintuple bypass surgery over a year ago, and Beth maintains good health, although she has fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis in her knees. • Sherry Brush Geddes wrote in December, “My partner, Ted, and I are spending the winter at our home in Belize after spending the summer remodeling a home we have in California. In May, we’re going on a trans-canal cruise from Florida to California, will spend some time visiting my daughter and friends, attend Ted’s reunion in Washington, and back to Belize for the summer. We’re healthy and enjoying life. I spend quite a bit of time on political activism. Any classmates interested in visiting Belize should give me a shout.” • Ellen Reiss Barry lost her husband, Paul, in 2014 after an arduous seven-year battle with cancer. She has now returned to acting and works with several theater companies assisting with fundraising, marketing, and fiscal management. Her favorite cause is Theatre Breaking Through Barriers, a company dedicated to providing opportunities to artists with disabilities. Offstage, Ellen’s favorite companions are her daughter and grandchildren. • Five of Carol AtwoodLyon’s dear friends (and classmates) traveled to Durham, N.H., in October to celebrate the life of her husband, the Reverend Fred Atwood-Lyon. “It was very comforting to be surrounded by good friends at a time of deep loss and grief,” shared Carol. Fred and Carol, married 42 years, traveled extensively, sang in church choirs, and captured images — Fred via photography, Carol with oil and watercolor. Prior to their retirements in 2009, the couple served in United Church of Christ parishes in five U.S. states. • Kathy Elsasser Worthington’s husband passed away unexpectedly in July 2016. She has since sold her home and bought one with her son, where she lives with his family. After living in a remote area of South Carolina, she now lives closer to amenities in a suburb of Greenville, S.C. “It’s been wonderful getting to spend more time with my grandson,” said Kathy. She is a freelance copyeditor working mostly on academic papers from foreign students who struggle with the peculiarities of English, as well as doing some book editing. • While attending University of Hawaii after graduating Northfield, Kathy Freeman Tirrell worked in a scuba-diving shop, and later bought her own dive shop. After a number of years, she returned to school to become a registered respiratory
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therapist. Working in hospitals in Maine, Arizona, and California, Kathy earned her B.S. and M.B.A. while working in hospitals. She and her husband adopted a premature baby girl from the hospital where Kathy was working at the time. Her daughter is now 39 years old, and Kathy has two grandsons. Moving back to Hawaii in 1998, the last 12 years of Kathy’s career was as vice president of operations for a large social-services agency. She retired in 2011. Kathy has settled on Orr’s Island, Maine, to be closer to her daughter. “The one thing I know for certain,” she said, “is that the education I received at Northfield made it possible for me to succeed in everything I tried to do.” • Wendy Horton-Leigh wrote, “We sold our weekend home in Great Barrington, Mass., in 2009. We moved there full time when my husband became ill and the recession took my job at Baccarat in Manhattan, where I had been 11 years and loved every minute. I am now living in Pittsfield, Mass. My husband passed last March [2017]. I worked for seven years at a small upscale boutique and am now retired. I have lupus … affecting joints, skin, lungs, and my eyes.” Wendy is busy doing much volunteer work, such as her church’s soup kitchen, the Altar Guild, and the Altar Flower Arrangement Committee. She also belongs to a book club and takes yoga lessons. Catherine Eten put her in touch with a dog breeder in Pennsylvania; Wendy’s sister, Kerry Horton Donovan ’64, drove her there to bring home some beautiful dogs last autumn. • Betsy Wabeke Hayes wrote, “We are spending our retirement winters in Albuquerque, N.M., where a son and daughter-in-law teach at the University of New Mexico, and we can help out with two of our grandchildren. It is fun playing games,
going to recitals, making cookies, and driving. Our other two sons live in Seattle and New York City, so we travel a lot. Planning trips is my favorite diversion from the troubles of the world. Otherwise, back home in Ohio we are dealing with a house full of years of accumulated stuff. One consolation is being able to visit frequently with sophomore roommate Sharon Deevey, who lives only 45 minutes away. We enjoy reliving our youth!” • Sally Walbridge writes that she and her partner, Henry, spent four days in Iceland in October, a stopover en route to Germany to visit her daughter (Alexis Moore O’Connolly ’92), son-in-law, and grandchildren. “We loved the people and the spectacular scenery in Iceland; we’ll definitely go back!” • “I am theoretically retired though I still do pulpit supply preaching,” wrote Gail Ryerson Parsons. “I am also working for a wonderful organization called Seniors Helping Seniors, which is just what it sounds like. We provide transportation, help with meal prep and light housework, companionship, and other needed services. I sing in the church choir when I am not preaching somewhere else. Music is an important part of my life, and I am now president of our Watertown Musicales, which provides scholarships for students graduating from high school and going on to study music, as well as providing an opportunity for local musicians to perform.” In Gail’s spare time, she makes jams, jellies, pickles, and relish — all from local ingredients — and gives them as gifts. • Since her retirement from the USAID Foreign Service several years ago, Pam Thompson Baldwin and her husband, Malcolm, have been running a small rural business on their farm in Lovettsville, Va.
Northfield ’62 friends lent their love and support to Carol Atwood-Lyon ’62 at her late husband Fred’s Celebration of Life in October 2017. From left: Blanche Houseknecht, Cynthia Maurer Barnard, Roz Rockwell Gianutsos, Sally Walbridge, and Emmy Zapata Doherty.