CLASS NOTES This is an opportunity I will never regret because of all the support, experiences, and new people that I’ve met in my three years here thus far. I really appreciate the support from you, and I would like you to know you are truly changing a life.” If you wish to give money to NMH, you can designate it to the Class of 1955 Scholarship Fund which, as of June 30, has a book value of $382,773. • Janet Bear McTavish was unable to attend reunion—she was at the Minnesota State Quilt Show in Duluth demonstrating a computerized quilting machine. Penny Reynolds Kyker lives in Carmel, Ind., and would like to hear from classmates (email Lisa for her address and phone). • Some news from classmates who responded to Lainey’s invitations but could not come to reunion: Shirley Liu Clayton (Menlo Park, Calif.) is retired and doing some consulting. She has two children and two grandchildren. Patty Evans (Healdsburg, Calif.) is the last living member of her immediate family, but she has enjoyed the company of extended family who live nearby. Kathy White Hitesman (Maple Grove, Minn.) has three children and seven grandchildren. Margie Douglas Hall’s (Kent, Ohio) husband is in an assisted-living home. Their daughter lives nearby. Bertie Dickinson Birdsell (La Quinta, Calif.) has four children, seven grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. All have settled on the West Coast. Gloria Stuart Anderson’s (Augusta, Maine) husband had a carotid artery procedure in June, which prevented them from attending reunion. Gigi Gellin Cane lives in Scarsdale, N.J., and Marjory Harper lives in Topanga, Calif. • Now from the women who did attend reunion: Mary Senter Hart went on an exercise and bridge trip with her daughter to Scandinavia last year, and in February 2016 she will travel on the Mississippi on the American Queen steamboat, where our class mascot, Tommy Jones ’56, plays ragtime. Suzanne Rowan Sachatello is moving to Amelia Island, Fla., where she is a full-time nanny for two grandchildren. She has been involved in genealogical research of her own family from Scotland and her husband’s family from Italy. They went to Italy last year and plan to visit Scotland next year. Phyllis Humphrey Brooks has retired from being a mom of five grown children and 14 grandchildren. Her oldest grandson, Adam Landau, who is half Israeli, graduated from Exeter and decided to join the Israeli Defense Force to qualify for a free education in Israel. He became a tank commander in the Gaza conflict and was discharged at the end of last year. A film was made of his Gaza experience. Denise Shea Backus went back to school to become a clinical social worker and retired three years ago. Her husband of 45 years died recently, and she is learning to be a widow. She has taken Taiji for 22 years, started piano lessons at 70, and goes to an art appreciation class. She
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helps people stay in their homes by driving them to their appointments. Susanna Whitney Grannis is no longer working with children infected by HIV/AIDS, but the program she started in Rwanda and Burundi continues. She is painting and had a show of her mushroom paintings at the River Garden in Brattleboro. She has written books for children, her latest being Bovine Memoir, inspired by her cows. Mernie Heywood Tedrow and Liz Tompkins McGuire spend 10 days together every February at Liz’s home in Ft. Myers, Fla., on the way to St. John, VI, where Mernie and her husband have a tent on Cinnamon Bay. Mernie serves breakfast Thursday mornings in a soup kitchen, where she ran into Barbara Zschiesche Cooley, who works one night a week in an emergency overflow shelter for the homeless. Barbara is moving to a senior co-housing community near Chatham, N.Y., and volunteers as a teacher’s aide at an inner-city elementary school. She is interested in peace, justice, and environmental issues. Elaine Rankin Bailey received an Alumni Citation at Convocation for exceptional reunion volunteering, and says that she and Carroll are being spoiled living at an assisted-living facility in Andover, Mass. She is still on chemo and is doing very well. Margi Linsert Lentz moved from Northfield to Village at Duxbury, Mass. Her daughter Erika Lentz ’97 lives nearby, and daughter Kristina Lentz ’85 lives in Boston. Margi wrote two books: Tasting Bitter: An American Mother and Daughter in China and Maggie’s Story: Between a Rock and a Hard Place. Charlene Chamberlin Roscoe crochets baby blankets for church, bowls twice a week, has raised four children, and has studied and practiced art for 13 years. She and Betty McIntire Chickering have been good friends since first grade at the Northfield Elementary School. Betty retired to The Villages, Fla., from being director of surgery at Berkshire Medical Center. Donna Huckabee Farnham has been taking classes in various subjects at Cape Cod Community College and especially likes the poetry class. She goes to the senior center for exercise classes and to hear excellent speakers on current events. Emily Barry Lovering volunteers at the Gardner Museum. Her son is an international journalist for Reuters. She spent 40 years at
Connie and Don Hiller ’55 in Modica, Sicily
WGBH doing everything from writing and research to answering phones. She no longer boards alpacas, so she is looking for someone to board a pony in her empty stable. Lisa Tuttle Edge and husband Don will tour the English countryside, Wales, and Ireland, where she plans to see some of the places associated with William Butler Years, the subject of her master’s thesis. • Nancy Jones Cicia and her husband, Walt, play in community concert bands in the summer and in the Wakefield Retired Men’s Club Band. She plays flute and he plays clarinet. They are also active in the Wakefield Alliance Against Violence, a volunteer support group educating in schools and dealing with problems arising from domestic abuse, bullying, and teen dating. • Mary Cree Marker lives in the Pacific Northwest looking out at Mt. Hood. Her husband, John, died in January at home with hospice. She has remodeled to move her weaving loom into her home. Her son and his wife live nearby and maintain an extensive garden in her backyard. • Helen Bogle Crawshaw writes, “I had a happy time at our 60th [reunion], with memories to add to all those associated with NMH. When I went to my 50th reunion, I found six seedlings of the Japanese maple outside the old library and brought them home. Two survived being introduced to our backyard and now they are lovely shrubs that remind me of Northfield School for Girls.” • From Don Freeman—We had a splendid 60th reunion in June, honchoed by Svein Arber, who writes: “We had an impressive turnout—38 classmates—equally divided between women and men, almost double the number that came to our 55th—and arrived at MacKinnon Cottage to take part in the festivities, which got under way on Thursday night at a joint cocktail party with the classes of ’50 and ’60. On Friday, after attending various seminars, many of us trekked over to Northfield to view the campus and step inside refurbished Sage Chapel. After dinner we viewed our slideshow, ‘The Way We Were.’ Saturday’s highlights included an exhibit of Arthur Goldberg’s art donations to the school’s Rhodes Arts Center; a brief ceremony in which we remembered our departed classmates, presided over by the Rev. Howard Wood; and a cocktail hour and dinner in Beveridge Hall marked by two video events: the Belmont Stakes and a second slideshow, ‘Fiftieth Reunion Panorama.’ The warm fellowship that prevailed gave rise to numerous calls for a mini-reunion in 2017. We hope to make that happen.” • Margaret and Don Freeman hosted an “Aftermath Party” for classmates at their home in Heath, Mass., on Sunday afternoon of the reunion. • John Cooley recently retired from higher education after 35 years at Western Michigan University, where he was a professor of both English and environmental studies. He continues his involvement in editing Mark Twain’s works—