NMH Magazine 2011 Fall

Page 62

Ed Snyder ’54, Suzie Craig Hastings ’54, and Dennis Kelly ’54 at Hilton Head Island SC. as our McVeigh Scholarship Fund. Kudos to those callers, who include Jay Crawford, Dave Jansky,

Dave Lloyd, Phil McKean, Curt Ormond, Bob Salisbury, and Ed Sundt. They just wish that

more of us could contribute, as the funds are an important part of NMH’s revenue. I spoke with both Dave Jansky and Dex Jones this past spring to see if I could persuade them to return to the 75thth anniversary party for the Shrewsbury Sailing and Yacht Club in Oceanport NJ. When we were kids, we all sailed small 14' sloops at the club in the late ’40s and early ’50s, and the club was encouraging early members to return for the affair. Unfortunately, Dave and Dex were unable to attend but they should know they missed a wonderful party. Dave mentioned that he had talked with John Ostrom, who lives in Falmouth MA on the Cape. John’s wife passed away a short time ago, but he plans to be at our 60th reunion. I was able to track down Al Wakeman recently. Al moved from FL to Southern Pines NC, and he is still in the real estate business. Al plans to be back at our 60th reunion. Last Feb I received a nice letter from Jim Fannin, who reports that he has left health-care admin and has joined his wife’s historic preservation consulting firm, Fannin–Lehner Preservation Consultants in Concord MA. The firm specializes in gravestone/monument condition assessment and actual conservation of historic monuments. Jim has no plans of retiring, as he is having too much fun. He plans to be at reunion. I had a recent conversation with Toni diStefano Norton, who lives in Boston but was summering at their place in the country in Acton MA with husband John. She is in good health, and John was planning a sailing trip. Cathy Olney Irzyk moved back to her childhood home in Dunstable MA about 60 miles northwest of Boston. Husband Bob was in the military for 26 years, and they moved all over the place, but after he retired they lived outside of San Francisco for 20 years. While in CA, they owned a 42' trawler yacht that they cruised to British Columbia and AK. Cathy roomed with Suzie Craig Hastings while at Northfield and also roomed with her in college at UNH. Cathy promises she will be at our 60th. Bob Salisbury sadly called to inform me of

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Dick Hubbard’s passing. Bob lives on his farm in upstate NY but plans to spend the coming winter in Vero Beach FL, having had his fill of digging out of 75" of snow. It seems about half the population of the little village of Bay Head NJ where I live spends the winter in Vero Beach, and I occasionally get down to visit with old friends, so maybe I’ll see Bob this winter. Thank you all for your generous donations to the Fred McVeigh Scholarship Fund. The current book value as of 12/31/10 was $154,615 and a market value of $165,850; it just keeps growing thanks to all of you. Every year we receive a thankyou note from the recipient of the scholarship. Fred would be very proud.

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NMH

DONALD HILLER 102 Javelin Ct Cary NC 27513-5110 dhiller@nc.rr.com LISA TUTTLE EDGE 1110 Cooperskill Rd Cherry Hill NJ 08034 (11/1–5/31) 180 Main St Chatham MA 02633-2424 (6/1–10/31) etedge@aol.com

DON FREEMAN 23 Avery Brook Rd, PO Box 132 Heath MA 01346-0132 d.freeman4@verizon.net

From Don: Mimi and Rich Rice have been boating in the Bahamas on their 30-foot Gemini catamaran. They saw Sampson Cay in the Exumas, continued to Eleuthera, and returned through the Okeechobee Canal to St Petersburg. Mimi and Rich have started a radio theatre program that does new and classical scripts before a live audience that are recorded by WMNF in Tampa and then played on the air Sun nights at 9. “The nice thing about radio performance,” Rich writes, “is that age doesn’t matter for casting and lines don’t have to be memorized. Great attributes for old folks.” Rich reports that our classmate Bill Svanoe

Ernie Imhoff ’55 is third from the right in the Remembering the Newsboys Band.

was on Oprah Winfrey’s 50th anniversary tribute to the Freedom Riders, which aired 5/4/11. Don Freeman reports that after 59 years he finally got to sing a tenor solo at Sacred Concert, performing the Gloria from the Beethoven Mass in C with the NMH choirs and 3 other alumni soloists. At the concert he was joined by Al Smiley in representing the Class of ’55. Don also is celebrating the birth on 3/1/11 of his first grandson, Paxton Cho Freeman, to son Roger and daughterin-law Mi-Sun. Judy and Ben Lindfors took a 6-week junket through Switzerland, France, and England in the spring of ’11 so Ben could collect more documentation on performances by Ira Aldridge, a 19thcentury black actor whose biography he is writing. Africa World Press recently published Ben’s Early East African Writers and Publishers. Sharon and Dick Fitts entertained Marv Kelley ’60 (brother of our classmate Ray Kelley) for lunch in early ’11. Dick was invited to NMH in May for a luncheon in honor of the scholarship fund that our class initiated and contributed to for our 50th reunion. Al Smiley was there as well, along with at least 100 alums and many scholarship students. Ron Sewell writes that he is still working and helping his marketing communications clients endure the stressful economic times. He and Brenda have moved back to Davidson NC. You can reach him at ronaldnbrenda11@gmail.com. Ernie Imhoff writes with an interesting Baltimore story: “On 7/4/1924, a Chesapeake Bay excursion boat, the Three Rivers, caught fire off Cove Point in MD killing 10 people. The tragedy was especially acute since 5 were teenage members of a popular Baltimore Evening Sun newsboys band whose players delivered the paper, performed music in concerts on land and at sea, promoted the newspaper, and were led once by John Philip Sousa. Amid much civic grief (and politicians), the 5 boys were buried at Loudon Park Cemetery, Baltimore, near the place where the Evening Sun’s H L Mencken would be buried later. For 10 years the Evening Sun paid homage with flowers and then the boys were forgotten. “I wrote a column about the tragedy 70 years later for the Evening Sun, where I worked for 36 years. We decided to keep remembering while we were still around. So at 9 am each July 4 for 16 consecutive years, some ex-Evening Sun reporters and editors come equipped to recall the boys we never knew. We gather at the 5 tombstones, lay flowers at the memorial sculpture of Pan, the Greek God of music with his panpipe, raise and sip a little single malt scotch, and toast the lads, ages 13, 13, 15, 15, and 17. It was reported they delivered the paper on time and played their music well. “Our newspaper itself was killed in 1995, leaving just the sister paper, the morning Sun, so we also mourn the Evening Sun. To be sure, we friends also get to gossip, exchange news, tell a few lies, and on occasion, look silly. One year I made news-


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