CL ASS NOTES
church before retirement. We have many friends in the area. I’m looking forward to riding my bike all winter.” • Ellen Anthony wrote, “In Northfield tradition, I sing in a 150-voice chorale, Baroque this year.” Ellen works for a robotic toy company making products. She also spends her time serving on worship and racial justice committees at her Unitarian Universalist meeting house, working on a theater piece, designing and sewing what she wears, and going for walks in the woods with her “sweetie” with “gratitude every step.” • Linda Ames Nicolosi shared, “My husband of 39 years, Joe, passed away unexpectedly last March (2017), and I am negotiating the new world of widowhood. One of my missions in retirement is to keep Joe’s legacy alive. He fought for a Judeo-Christian understanding of the human person within his profession — he was a psychologist — and for the classical conception of gender and sexuality. In a world where such traditional views are no longer welcome, it was always a challenge to be heard. On his headstone I had these words written: ‘Warrior for Truth.’ I was his co-author and full partner in all of his writing. If anyone is interested in this topic, see our website, josephnicolosi.com. Our son is continuing his father’s work.” • Penny Ackley and Lynne Mixner now enjoy spending winters at their home in Phoenix and summers on Cape Cod. • Your correspondent, Wendy Swanson Avirgan, thanks all of you who have shared news. I encourage all classmates to be sure that the school and/ or your class secretary have your current email address so that we can more easily stay in touch. As for me, I am thrilled to be singing in a choir again after a two-year hiatus, continue to take piano lessons and can pound out a fair rendition of “Jerusalem,” and still work part time as a paralegal at a small law firm in Stamford, Conn., for all of which I am exceedingly grateful! • From Henri: Robert Kowal has had a busy year buying and selling properties and reacting to air-quality issues in Spokane. He says they are worse than Beijing. He takes great joy in fishing and traveling, but is also very involved with disabled vets in Project Healing Waters. • Dave Stone had a lovely Father’s Day 2017 with his children and grandchildren. He enjoys researching his family’s genealogy. Dave is our contact with the various goings on at NMH, so we know what is happening. • Tim Schiavoni responded to an inquiry as to what he was up to in a very succinct way: “Safe travels.” As a lawyer, he would not have billed by the word. • Tom Robinson-Cox delivered his 42-foot
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NMH Magazine
Newick-designed racer from Gloucester, Mass., to Stuart, Fla. He fished on the way down and had National Geographic-type moments. Now he’s off to the Bahamas. A long way from Shadow Lake. He is involved with Gallery 53 in Gloucester and his art medium is fine art photography. • Matt Couzens won the President’s Award from the Connecticut Hunter & Jumper Association, and he is also busy with his orchards; he planted an herb garden on the top of McCormick Hall at MIT. He spent time in Florida last winter with Tim Schiavoni and Dave Zimmerman and their significant others. • Brad Fitzgerald stays in touch with John Cushing, Beth Zelnick Palubinsky, Stuart Bethune, John Sellar, Bob Wood, Tony Cantore, Bette Payne Drish ’66, and Candace Reed Stern, among others. Very busy! • Christopher Parker writes that he is taking time off to travel to Shandong University in Jinan, China, to visit his son, who is teaching a Western civilization course. Christopher is looking forward to another Boston dinner with a group of us upon his return. • Kathleen Hayward retired from her work as a licensed mental health counselor. She now resides on an island off the coast of Maine and invites any NMH alumni to reach out to her. Contact me to get her email address. • Mark Boeing’s son is to wed in July, and Mark is hoping to get his dad, John Boeing ’39, to the wedding. Mark had a great summer last year going on a Canadian fishing trip with Jon “Flash” Clark, Peter Barber, Tom Lemire, John Stinchfield, and Peter Ticconi. He also hears from Peter Goelz ’66 and Tom McLaughlin. He’s looking forward to our 75th reunion. We’ll all have autonomous vehicles by then. • Tony Cantore works as a policy advisor to a Republican state senator in Albany. He warms my heart as I was one of those once. He did enjoy visiting Nan Waite’s bill-drafting course at the New York Law School to better help him in his role — his latest endeavor in the wonderful world of New York State politics.
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Northfield Mount Hermon Jean Penney Borntraeger Wheeler theinn@ferrylanding.com • Frank Sapienza sapienzafc@cdm.com From Jean: Writing this from the base of my ski mountain, Sugarloaf, where the ski season has begun, and I’ll happily be teaching — mostly children 5-17 years old and adult private lessons — full time for my 13th season. I realize you’ll be reading this in the light of springtime and lengthening days! • We haven’t heard from many of
Four ’66 Wilsonites reunite: Charry Boris, Chris Anderson, Katie Naughton, and Erica Sodergren Weinstock.
you, dear classmates … a reminder that a surprising number of our classmates don’t use social media or receive emails, so this print magazine (an excellent one, in my opinion!) is an important means of staying in touch with those who share a common piece of life history, of special bonds, friends, and experiences. • Elsa Calderón retired from her law career seven years ago but continues to teach Spanish at a local state university as an adjunct. She loves her Wednesdays of taking care of her adorable granddaughter. • Susan Daze Kenny and her husband, Jim, celebrated his retirement with a fabulous river cruise down the Danube from Prague to Budapest, with time in both cities, and had an incredible experience meeting many wonderful people. Sue is the education consultant for her church preschool, she volunteers at her grandchildren’s school in Bristol, Conn., and loves working with the children. She has hope that we all work “to turn things toward the strong and positive.” Three cheers for that hope! • Andrew Wright is in the initial stages of the design and construction of a dormitory for Pine Ridge Girls’ School, Porcupine, Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota (pineridgegirlsschool.com). The plan is for a steel-frame building with compressed-earth block infill. • Frank Lihn is “still retired and living in Chiang Mai (Thailand), but not much longer.” He’ll be headed to Ban Dung in the vast hinterlands of northeast Thailand to help Kuhn Poi raise her two teens and live a quiet life. He plans to still head to the islands to visit friends and scuba dive; he has a friend who opened a dive school in Costa Rica and hopes to head there later this year. • Last summer, Hannah Rikert Morvan and her husband, Ray, welcomed Barbara Tweedle Freedman and her husband, Barry, to their remarkable property, Sweet Retreat (sweetretreatvermont.com), in Northfield, Vt. In addition to seeing the Morvans’ prize team of oxen,