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Numerous members of the Class of ’65 sported a distinctive tie-dyed shirt for the occasion of their 50th Reunion. From left are Malcolm Brown, David Ward, and John Jameson.
son, Christopher, came with us, and we had a wonderful family vacation. Christopher starts medical school in August and will be occupied for some years to come, so it was a special treat to have this time together.” Lucretia Bingham wrote, “I have just come back from leading a Connecticut Audubon trip to Peru. It was magical, exhausting, knee-boggling fun. Will be leading another trip in 2017. My first novel, The Talcott House, has been holding its own on Barnes & Noble and Amazon. If anyone wants to buy it, they can go to my website, TheTalcottHouse.com.” Gwyneth Walker’s new opera, Evangeline, premiered in Hammond, La., in March. This work, based on the Longfellow poem, dramatizes the forced exile of the Acadians from Nova Scotia in the 1750s. Many Acadians found their way down to Louisiana, where they became know as “Cajuns.” The lead roles in the Louisiana performance were Cajun descendants. In August, a second round of performances of Evangeline was presented in Grand Pré, Nova Scotia, former home of the exiled Acadians. Mary Travers Munger writes, “While in Florida, [husband] Craig and I went to several open houses. Our house in Canandaigua, N.Y., survived the extended below-zero temperatures without us, so we feel it will be OK to leave it for a longer period next winter. To that end, we bought a little golf condo in Florida.” Laura Stevenson writes, “My book of linked short stories, Liar From Vermont, is coming out in July. Just before that, I’m going to spend two weeks visiting family in England, with a side trip to Spain, at the end of June. Otherwise, I’m just keeping up the garden, babysitting grandchildren, and finishing a murder mystery.”
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Andover | Fall 2015
Head of School John Palfrey welcomed the Class of ’65 to Phelps House for cocktails on Friday evening. From left are Jack McLean ’66, Susan Hackley (wife of Paul Henry), John Palfrey, and Paul Henry ’65.
PHILLIPS Ken Gass 2107 Evening Star Lane Bellingham WA 98229 360-393-2612 (cell) agassk@aol.com
The Peter Schandorff PA ’64 China 50th Reunion Tour was held April 14–29, to universal rave reviews by the following 19 classmates, significant others, and friends in attendance: Nancy and Steve Calderwood, Randy Elkins, Francie and Ken Gass, Maria and Prescott “Buck” Little, Ames Nelson and Maddie Hunter, Alicia and Chuck Rounds, Carolyn and Logan “L.E.” Sawyer, Steve Spare and Sue Taylor, Faye and Dana Waterman, and Earl and Lynn Freeman (friends of L.E.). Peter was discharged home just one week before the tour, after a 134-day, complication-filled hospital stay for spinal fusion surgery, and still faces weeks of rehab. Peter was ever present, however, in the marvelous Chinese guides he selected and in the attention to detail and our comfort throughout the trip. Steve Calderwood, who had to leave two days early to direct a conference back home, summed up the magic of the tour: “It was a wonderful trip, made so great not just by the places we saw, but by the opportunities to get to know each of you and hear about your lives and families since Andover.” Speaking of connections, we managed to download a copy of “Royal Blue” on Spare’s iPad, send it via Bulgarian e-mail to our cruise director, and print it out on our American-owned cruise liner motoring down the Yangtze River. As L.E. Sawyer recalled, “We practiced ‘Royal Blue’ at the stern of our ship on the Yangtze and later that night sang on stage under spotlights in front of about 200 Chinese passengers. As well received as we might have been, there’s no
doubt our spouses stole the show when they followed with a rousing rendition of the hokey pokey! We hope and believe we will continue the extraordinary harmony and good times by getting together again each year. Looks like Tucson this December for Steve Spare’s 70th birthday will be our next opportunity.” A link to highlight pictures and videos is http://1drv.ms/1Bo2dWv. After our last dinner together in Shanghai, we called Peter in St. Louis and sang “Royal Blue,” with Peter joining in. “I feel good,” reported Peter, ever the happy Buddha. By pure guesstimation, approximately half of our class is still going to work. Steve Burbank enjoys the stimulation of teaching and writing as a long-tenured faculty member of the UPenn Law School, yet admits, “It helps that I will be on a year’s sabbatical starting July 1, spending most of the summer and fall on Cape Cod, and the spring in Berkeley, Calif., writing a book with my co-author and avoiding another winter like the last one.” Mike Cathcart, in the drawn-out process of ending his career in construction litigation, has landed the perfect retirement gig as president of the Valley Hunt Club in Pasadena, Calif. He reports, “It’s a 126-year-old family club, the founder of the Tournament of Roses. One of my duties will be to have the family ride with me in a horse-drawn carriage during the Rose Bowl parade.” Mike has contacted Peter Schandorff for insights into spinal fusion surgery, set for Mike in May. Howard Cutler has reported in from Seattle on his full, arts-imbued life in retirement. After 18 years together, he and Ann Senechal married at the end of 2014 in a small church near Andover. While in the area, they visited the Addison Gallery, where Howard was inspired again, as he was as a PA student, by the collection and the fine arts program. Back home he plans to make time for easel painting. Meanwhile, he says, a music-recording project, The Mighty-Fine!, with