Baker, Al ’50 and Mary-Ann Efird Higgins ’51, Bill ’44 and Mary Lighthall Compton ’44, Lou “Sky King” Turner, Walt Congdon, and Gar Allen. Kudos to the NMH staff for making this event wonderful in spite of challenging weather conditions.
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SUE SAUNDERS CHANDLER 3/50 Walsh Street South Yarra Victoria, 3141 Australia susanchandler1@mac.com
Please save the dates for our 50th reunion—6/7–10/2012 in your planning diaries. From the outline of plans provided earlier this year by our reunion chair Cindy Kidder, the weekend promises to be enjoyable and stimulating. Thurs will be the lobster dinner. Fri is Alumni College, with a host of seminars and other various class activities. Sat is the Alumni Convocation and a class dinner that night. Sun is church. There will be a Northfield ’62 luncheon and trips to the Northfield campus, plus plenty of time for informal gatherings. By now, you should have received full details of the weekend from the reunion committee and also a questionnaire for the reunion yearbook. Please return the questionnaires as soon as possible. I look forward to seeing many of you at our reunion. In other news, Vicki Koo Hitchins reports that Diane Kenney and her sister Linda Kenney Miller were on NPR Morning Edition’s Story Corps in Feb. Diane and Linda were in Montgomery AL talking about their grandfather, John A. Kenney, best known as Booker T. Washington’s personal physician. Vicki looks forward to attending the 50th reunion. She was 1 of 10 of our classmates who went to Wellesley. Vicki graduated from Wellesley in ’67, having taken off a year to go to Taiwan, so she will also have a 45th college reunion in 6/12. Kathe Dennison Chipman sang at Sacred Concert in May. She reports: “The day was perfect and afterward we got to visit restored Sage Chapel, which was lovely. It was a treat for the alto section to have our math teacher Sally Curtis and the new algebra and geometry teacher singing.”
Nancy Rolfs Scott also enjoyed being back on campus and singing in the alumni choir for Sacred Concert. She writes: “Sheila Heffernon is an amazing conductor and brought out the best in all of us. The student orchestra is concert quality, and the smaller singing groups within the large chorus are amazingly talented. The whole Sacred Concert experience brought back a flood of memories and truly reinforced what a unique school NMH is. The Auditorium feels just the same. What a thrill to sing in that huge space. (Memories of that stage as I was 1 of the ‘3 little girls from school’ in our senior-year production of the Mikado.) As an added treat, the Northfield chapel was open. It has been lovingly refurbished—more memories. “The Hermon campus is alive and lively—students from all over the world sharing and discovering. There is still a sense of connectedness to the campus, despite the changes in dress code, choice of courses of study, and food. You can hardly imagine the choices in the dining hall for meals— everything from salad bars to make-your-own deli sandwiches to steamed mussels for lunch. (I still miss Anadama bread and coffee ice cream with homemade butterscotch sauce.)” After 49 years Pamela Thompson Baldwin and Abigail Finch met by chance in their local library. Pamela writes: “Being more an Amazon buyer than a library borrower, I visit our smalltown (Lovettsville VA) library only occasionally, but had spoken several times there with the friendly librarian before I finally learned her name one day this spring. ‘Tabby Finch!’ I exclaimed as recognition dawned. ‘Is your real name Abigail? Did you go to Northfield?’ Yes to both questions. ‘We were in the same class and the same dorm,’ I exclaimed. Looking bewildered, she asked, ‘But who are you?’ After I told her, we quickly caught up on (yikes!) 49 years. Learning that she’s also a musician who plays with several area ensembles, I’ve since had the opportunity to see and hear her play zither and accordion with an Irish band and to hear recordings of her great bluegrass and Latin performances as well. I’m now working hard to convince her to join me next spring for our 50th. Marty, Sandy, Louise, Marnie, other East Hall folks—please help me.”
Classmates from ’62 once again participated in Sacred Concert with past and present faculty singers: Nancy Rolfs Scott, Sarah Curtis (retired faculty), Ladd Jeffers (bass soloist), Rosey Atkinson (current faculty), and Kathe Dennison Chipman. serve as FL state chair, as well as a national finance cochair, for Governor Tim Pawlenty’s campaign for the Republican nomination for president. Phil is continuing his long career in FL (and national) politics and education leadership “serving as Jeb Bush’s gubernatorial campaign state chairman in ’94 and ’98 and a cochair in ’02. He has been engaged in private equity for the past 30 years and is based in Orlando. Until 1/07, he served 6 years as chair of the FL state board of education, a 7-person board appointed by Governor Jeb Bush with constitutional responsibility for FL’s public educational system with over 4 million students.” Phil was appointed twice by President George W. Bush to the Senate-confirmable position as vice chair of the National Board of Education Sciences. In ’08, Phil served as Senator John McCain’s FL chair and national cochair. Phil remains in “continuing communication with Dave Stocking and Jean Meyer Martin. The latter has been a friend since the 2nd grade. Dave still writes beautifully and is still a hopeless romantic in love with his first and only lovely wife Cynthia.” He anticipates attending our 50th. On that note, this will be my last call for notes from the class before we gather in 6/12 for, gasp, our 50th reunion. You can send me email or use the new NMH community website (community@ nmhschool.org—check it out). We don’t know if you don’t tell.
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E. SCOTT CALVERT 8714 Second Ave Silver Spring MD 20910-2733 scalvert@his.com
Abigail “Tabby” Finch ’62 (left) and Pamela Thompson Baldwin ’62 (right) recently discovered their Northfield connection at their local library in VA.
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From the revered land of the still working, Brent Bowers reports: “ I continue my journalistic career by editing the latest blockbuster book by Kurt Eichenwald (as I did for his 2 previous, The Informant, made into a movie last year, and Conspiracy of Fools about the Enron debacle, also under contract to be made into a movie).” Not to be outdone, from the land of perpetual politics and never-ending primaries, a press release crossed my desk reporting that Phil Handy will
Bill Fitch ’62 and wife Linda drove up from CT for the NMH lobster bake in Harpswell, ME, last Aug.