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It was a great day for a parade; Jim Fletcher Jr., Dudley Yost, and Alex Pausley, all Class of ’50, crossed the Great Lawn with their classmates.
Andover and Abbot classmates. The service was organized by Dick Bell with the Reverend Beverley Flather Edwards ’50. Caleb Woodhouse and Noelle Blackmer Beatty ’50, George’s wife, read from scripture, and John Lincoln provided music on the piano. Linc, bass player Phil Brooks, and clarinet player Dud Shepard performed as a jazz trio during the course of the reunion, including at the final dinner Saturday evening in one of the Paresky Commons dining rooms. A highlight of the dinner was to be class poet Ralph Blum reading a reunion poem on which he’d been laboring for months. Heeding the call of nature just before he spoke, Ralph, in notably nontraditional attire, headed across the hallway into the ladies’ room, where he surprised at least one occupant. Finding himself trapped inside a stall, Ralph said he had to escape by crawling under its door. Exiting into the hallway, he encountered John Palfrey and hurriedly recited the poem’s invocation to him at close range. Finally back in the dining hall, Ralph proceeded to read his poem, with invocation, to his assembled classmates. As he had done years ago for our 50th Reunion, Bill Drake curated a special class exhibit for our 65th in the Elson Art Center—this time featuring class members’ personal memorabilia as well as creative works. On the gallery walls were four outstanding photographs taken by Bill himself on visits to Havana; photos of Tony Herrey’s real estate projects; collages by Charlie Platt; magazine covers by Fred Burrell; a display of watercolors and other small pieces by Gil Murray, who, sadly, died back on January 9; two small pieces by Ivan Chermayeff, who also designed our 65th Reunion logo; two larger watercolors by me; and articles about Lloyd Aiello and his pioneering work in laser eye surgery for diabetes sufferers.
Coincidentally, on the eve of our reunion, Lloyd was honored with a lifetime achievement award at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. Elsewhere in the gallery were a video about Spencer MacCallum’s discovery and sponsorship of a remarkable Mexican potter, which led to the revival of an ancient ceramic art and for which Spence was honored in May by the Mexican government; a Skip Schaum video; displays of memorabilia from Bill King, Pim Epler, and Skip (including Skip’s new autobiography); and books and articles by George Beatty, Dick Bell, Ralph Blum, George Jacoby, Ed Nowaczek, and John Ottenheimer, as well as a book on the renowned Dutch drawings collected by George Abrams and his late wife, Maida. While most of us would be returning home after the festivities, Charlie Flather had a more adventurous itinerary: he told some of us he would be heading for the North Pole aboard a Russian nuclear icebreaker. Class members who didn’t attend our 65th because of family commitments include Charlie Austin, who wrote, “It’s another year of graduation trips for us, with grandsons graduating from the University of Michigan, Stanford, and Central Washington University, and from Curtis High School in University Place, Washington. We’ll be on the road a lot.” Another reunion absentee, Bill Wright, said he and his wife, Mary, had just recently returned from Anchorage, Alaska, where Mary had been honored along with other former presidents of the Northwest Public Power Association. With a Sunday brunch bringing our 65th Reunion program to a close all too quickly, we exchanged goodbyes and “see you next times,” as we have done at past meetings. As always, we hope to see everyone again on future occasions, but from here on out, we would necessarily be a little less certain.
1951 ABBOT
Connie Hall DeNault 37 Green St. Marblehead MA 01945 781-631-9233 dkdenault@comcast.net
PHILLIPS George S.K. Rider 22 Curiosity Lane Essex CT 06426 860-581-8199 ridercrawford@gmail.com
We mourn the loss of David West, Lloyd Cutting, and Hal Higgins since the last writing. With our 65th Reunion less than a year away, I hope the fond memories of friends and good times gone by will spark a record turnout. John Scheiwe commented about Lloyd Cutting: “Sad news indeed! ‘Cuts’ was a compatriot, as both of us became momentarily lost in anarchy during our PA final semester. ‘The sun takes a reasonable time in setting, but set it does!’ ” Jerry Ward writes, “It was ludicrous to think of myself as a jock on the ’51 lacrosse team, at 5'10" and 142 pounds soaking wet. I waited six decades and have been rowing in a training scull in the Santa Barbara, Calif., harbor twice a week for the past eight months. I have loved every minute on the water.” He sends greetings to our classmates. Nick Thorndike reports all is well. Since retiring, he and wife Joan enjoy spending more time at their place in Dummerston, Vt. Their Andover | Fall 2015
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