CLASS NOTES with “Dark Garden,” a four-movement commissioned work with visuals by Chip Elliott’s wife, Wu So Fai, documenting Linda Huey’s 2012 sculpture installation at the Fuller Craft Museum. Hoggers attending the event included Eric Van, Mark Spitzer ’73, Brent Robie, Hank Bonney ’71, Malcolm Rosenwald ’71, and religion professor Henry Gates. • Cheryl Miner Williams: “My husband died eight years ago, and since then I’ve been raising my kids and trying to figure out life alone. My daughter met and married her husband while in the Peace Corps in Vanuatu. I was able to travel there for the wedding and briefly tour New Zealand during the same trip.” She continues to teach first and second graders in a small school in northern Vermont. • Ellyn Spragins writes, “We’ve had a lot of changes in the last year. After my father died last year, John Witty ’70 and I decided to put in motion some things we had been mulling over. So I got a hip replacement and we moved to Malvern, Penn., where one of my sisters lives. After renting a house for six months, we bought one that we will renovate. I am still doing ‘Letters to My Younger Self ’ presentations, but am also moving toward work in interior design and having fun with painting classes.” • Ellen Mudge Johnson retired from government service that took her across the world. She traveled to Prague, Warsaw, and Vienna with her family. “My husband retired also, but elected to get another job until we put our younger daughter, Annaliese, through college. I live close to my Northfield roommate, Laurel Sherman, and we see each other every few months. I keep up with Gwyneth Jones Radloff, too, and Patsy Cole Kumekawa ’73 via Facebook.” • Ginger Perry Bisplinghoff traveled to Zermatt, Switzerland, for two weeks with her husband of 38 years, her daughter Jill, and Jill’s husband. Ginger’s time is divided between her holistic work in New Hampshire and caring for her parents, who are in a nursing home on Cape Cod. • Marilyn Murdock Moonan is happily married to Jim and living near Boston. She has been a nurse at Boston Children’s Hospital for the last 25 years, focusing mostly in transplant, and is currently an education coordinator for surgical programs. She was awarded a global health fellowship and will be traveling to Myanmar over the next year to teach nurses at the children’s hospital in Yangon. • Shirley Suljok Klinger’s husband continues his accounting business. Her son decided to leave the business to work for the state. Her oldest son is working full time, but still has a lot of neurological effects from his severe auto accident in 2013. Shirley volunteers for the Visiting Nurse Association administering flu shots. • Ric Stobaeus tells us that his son, Dr. Nobuki Stobaeus ’04, is practicing veterinary medicine in Tampa, Fla. Daughter Keiko Stobaeus ’07 finished a summer internship teaching at NMH and is preparing to enter a physician’s assistant program. She finished her
74 I NMH Magazine
A (mostly) ’72 mini-reunion in Deerfield, Mass., from left: Hank Bonney ’71, Charlie Bristol, Brent Robie, Nat Herold, Kim Montague, Eric Van, Mal Rosenwald, and Chip Elliott
stint in the Peace Corps in Peru. Daughter Emiko is in her third year at the College of Coastal Georgia. Son Kenji finished at Rabun Gap Nacoochee School in Rabun Gap, Ga. He is attending Berry College on a full scholarship, following Nobuki, Keiko, and several other NMH grads. Akira attended the NMH Summer Abroad Program, working at an orphanage in India. He will be graduating from Rabun Gap Nacoochee School this spring. “I’m busy with house calls and farm calls. My goats, sheep, pigs, and chickens are growing in numbers,” says Ric. • Pamela Brown graduated with a bachelor of science in nursing. Auctioneer, designer, writer, and… nurse? Pam is going to stop there. At least for a while. • Doug Adair wrote, “I retired last year from the Oregon Dept. of Justice after 25 years with the state. With my wife, Elaine, I’m spending more time with our horses, traveling, and puttering. I spent two weeks in New Orleans visiting Arthur Motch and his wife, Maria, and attending Jazz Fest.” • Jane Gelernter says, “My garden is wonderful this year and David is getting a book ready for the fall catalog at Norton.” • Elizabeth Corcoran Murray met Kimberly Marlowe Harnett ’75 for the first time since their Merrill-Keep days in 1971–72. Kimberly presented at the University of Washington bookstore in Seattle on her insightful book, Carolina Israelite, about Harry Golden, “the most influential civil rights leader you never heard of.” Just three weeks later, Elizabeth spoke on A Long Way from Paris, a Kirkus Best Book of 2014 about personal transformation herding goats in the mountains of France. • During a family vacation to Bermuda, Jeff Kessler and wife Laura visited with David Skinner and his wife, Dianne. Jeff and Laura enjoyed a week in the Coachella Valley region of California. In March, Jeff “gave away” his sister Vicki Kessler ’64 at her wedding ceremony in Phoenix. Also helping to marry off Vicki was Jeff’s other sister, Stephanie Kessler ’73, and two of her three children. Laura and Jeff plan to continue to work full time for the foreseeable future and both continue to be involved with several community and regional volunteer boards and commissions. • Channing Harris writes, “Thanks to Chip Elliott for organizing and Nat
Herold for hosting a mini-reunion of the Subterranean Alchemists’ Society and friends. Convening on a beautiful Patriots Day weekend in Deerfield were: Erik Lindgren, Charlie Bristol, Kamila Spitzer, Jane and Brent Robie, Kim Montague, Eric Van, Mark Spitzer ’73, Alida Glancy Birch, Reid Whitlock, and Chip. Other guests were Chip’s wife, Wu, Susan Fenske McDonough ’74, and yours truly. One guess as to who showed up with a complete collection of the Hermonites’ record albums.” • Alida Birch has burned through several careers as a social worker, manufacturing engineer, bodyworker, and even cat breeder. The one that has stuck the longest (for 26 years) is shamanic practitioner. She offers spiritual healing in the shamanic tradition and takes people on vision quests in the Waldo Wilderness. Visiting sacred sites, Peru is next on her horizon. She has co-founded and chairs Siberian Research Inc.—a nonprofit that works for the improved health of the Russian Siberian cat. Alida published her first book: The Co-Creation Handbook: A Shamanic Guide to Manifesting a Better World and a More Joyful Life. • Deidra Dain lives in Winchester, Va., and commutes to Bethesda to manage federal contracts in behavioral health around communications, training and technical assistance, and policy research and support. She enjoys her regular check-ins with peers Sara Robinson, Donna Babbit Reinman, and Ellen Patton. “We reminisce about our NMH experiences—both laugh and bemoan,” says Deidra, “and mostly appreciate the longevity of our 45-year friendships.” Deidra and her partner are creating a PBS documentary about a local Trappist monastery and its community’s stewardship and sustainability initiatives. Watch for it in early 2016! • Skye Dent started teaching at Diablo Valley College in January and continues there for the fall 2015 semester. She was selected for a TV Writers Fund 12-week fellowship, which will have ended by the time this publication comes out. She’s starting another Kickstarter project. And she’s back to selling some journalism articles. The most fun piece involved her interviewing a fellow WGA West colleague, who is a writer-producer on the new Daredevil series and selling it to her alumni