CLASS NOTES much of her time on the garden, with the help of two gardeners. • “I have been happily settled in New Orleans for the past three years,” writes Sue Aspinwall Dann. “I retired after 37 years as an RN and came here to be near my daughter, Kelly Dann ’96, and her family. When my puppy and I walk along the amazing Mississippi River levee, I can hardly believe this Connecticut Yankee lives here. Besides being an attentive grandma, I love to travel all over the world. Of course, one of my favorite places to visit is Portland, Ore., where my son, Alex Dann ’99, and his family live. If anyone would like a mini-reunion in New Orleans, please let me know.” • Andrea Margolis Selzer and her husband live in Maryland, near D.C. She is an attorney for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, but hopes to retire next year. Andrea writes; “I am looking forward to retirement, playing lots of golf with my husband, and taking my grandson out on the links! I lost my mother some eight years ago, and my dad moved here to Maryland. He has been having some health issues of late, which also prevented me from attending reunion. But he is 93 and still sharp!” Andrea says she will be at the next reunion, “come hell or high water.” • From Katherine Truax: “I hadn’t attended a reunion in 35 years and was somewhat anxious not having stayed connected with so many classmates. But what a wonderful time it was.” • I would like to thank Carol Ramsey, Carrie Pelzel, and Muffie Michaelson for their time, energy, and money (thanks so much for the hats!) making this reunion such a success. Thanks to Laurie and Neil Kiely for their devotion, to Claire Schmidt Jones, whose idea it was to create a Facebook page, and to everyone who made this reunion such a positive experience. As your class secretary, it has been a delight reading all the notes from classmates, and I look forward to a mini-reunion in the not-too-distant future, as well as our 50th!
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Mount Hermon Neil Kiely neil@marketinginmotion.com
I am writing these notes a little more than a week after returning from a fabulous 45th reunion. The first portion of this column was supposed to appear in the spring 2015 issue but was inadvertently omitted. The second portion will concentrate more on reunion. • I am constantly trying to track down classmates who have been among the missing, and this time it is Donald “Chip” Howes, who actually left Mt. Hermon in early 1970 and graduated from Chatham High School on Cape Cod. He received a degree from UMass, got married, received his M.B.A. from UVA, and got divorced. He was also “awarded a retroactive diploma” from NMH. He worked in the financial services industry in London, New York City, and Boston. In 1984 he moved to London with Cantor Fitzgerald, got married again, and has three sons: one disabled after a brain hemorrhage in 2010, one a “wannabe
72 I NMH Magazine
The class of ’70 ATV Riders, from left: Robert Horne, Mark Carta, Alex Lotocki, Steve Johnson, John Gordon, Jake Duvall, Bruce Berk, Dave Ericson, Eugene “Geno” Ward, Neil Kiely, and Tom McCarty.
rock god” who has signed a recording contract and manages the oldest bookshop in England (Hatchard’s in Piccadilly), and one who teaches English in China with his girlfriend. Chip lived in various parts of the U.K. and was involved in commercial real estate, banking, and executive recruitment. In 2005 he opened a wine business with friends. In 2007 he went off on his own and has been in the wine trading business ever since (modernvintagewines.com). He lives in central London with his wife, Catherine. • Edmund Dehn continues his successful acting career in London. If his schedule permits, he would love to attend our next reunion, “before we all pops our clogs… which is what we say on this side of the pond.” • I had a wonderful lunch last fall with Richard Popper, who was in Providence for 10 days participating in the North American Bridge Championships. He is quite accomplished, serves on the board of the organization, and attends 10-day tournaments at various locations around the country three times a year. • George Lewis spent two weeks in Tokyo, where he attended the TMFIVE Conference, the annual meeting of the five major international trademark offices—Japan, China, Korea, the U.S., and the European Community. • August 2014 marked the fourth MH ’70 mini-reunion, in Pittsburgh, N.H. This “Great North Woods Adventure” included a party boat tour of the lake on which our spectacular cabins sat, a morning hike up a mountain for breakfast, an afternoon of riding ATVs where the Deliverance side of certain classmates surfaced, and an enjoyable kayak trip down a secluded river. We ate (and drank) often, and plans are already being made for our 2016 adventure. Consider joining us! The 2014 attendees included: Gene Ward, Steve Johnson, Mark Carta, Tom McCarty, John Gordon, Bruce Berk, Alex Lotocki-de-Veligost, Jake Duvall (our sommelier), Robert Horne, Dave Ericson, and Neil Kiely. These trips have proven to be extremely popular and are memorialized in beautiful souvenir books compiled by trip organizer Gene Ward. • Jim Brown, living in Burlington, Vt., continues in part-time energy/regulatory industry consulting, is married, and has a daughter who is a high school senior and a son who is a
sophomore at University of Vermont. • If you attended our successful 45th reunion in June, you know what a wonderful time it was. If you didn’t, I can only tell you that you owe it to yourself to start planning now for our 50th in 2020. We had 36 Hoggers in attendance. The Northfield women, who really outdid themselves in planning and execution for this reunion, had 44 attendees—many of whom were returning to the campus for the first time. The school was “blown away” by our attendance numbers. • Through the generosity of three Northfield classmates, every Hermon attendee received an NMH 1970 Nantucket red hat and every Northfield attendee received an identical hat in light blue. • Attending classmates included: Mark Andrew, Tom Baldwin, Carl Bannwart, Rajan Batra, Lincoln Baxter, Bruce Berk, Athan Billias, Richard Brown, Mark Carta, Steve Chaisson, Jim Eckert, Dave Ericson, Jerry Fraser, Doug Freeman, Howie Gilson, Richard Girard, Bob Glover, Cornell Hills, John Hirsch, Robert Holzberg, Steve Johnson, Neil Kiely, Collins Lein, Alex Lotocki-de-Veligost, Richard Lovett, Jan May, Don Melson, Jamie Melton, Jon Rounds, Dale Silver, Trevor Swett, Michael Verrilli, Mark Vokey, Gene Ward, Greg Warner, and John Witty. • Athan Billias and Richard Brown were first-time attendees. It was wonderful to reconnect with them, and they both enjoyed themselves. It was also interesting for them because former faculty member and wrestling coach Hal McCann was on campus to induct the ’64‒’65 undefeated wrestling team into the Athletic Hall of Fame. Athan, Richard, and fellow New England Wrestling Champion Dale Silver (do you remember that night in ’69 when all three won championships at Hermon?) got to re-connect with their former coach. • It was wonderful to catch up with Professor Jamie Melton after too many years. Jerry Fraser won the award for the most interesting mode of transportation. He flew his own plane from Maine to Turners Falls and took a cab to campus. We had others join us from California, Texas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and almost every state north of Virginia. Richard Girard traveled the shortest distance, driving less than