www.andover.edu/intouch 1963 ABBOT
Cynthia F. Kimball 7 Thoreau Road Lexington MA 02420 781-862-6424 cynthiakimball@earthlink.net
We are lucky to have a PDF containing more detailed remembrances about our dear classmate, Jan Gleason, who passed away just before our 50th Reunion. Here are brief summaries of a few of the wonderful comments it contains. Helen Watson Collison wrote, “Some of us knew that she was facing a huge health challenge, but none of us expected the end would come so quickly. Jan was connected to and concerned for our world. She was aware, informed, a reader of many blogs/columns/ articles, willingly outspoken based on all the data she consumed, and a truly wonderful friend. Jan was funny, irreverent, and, oh, so vital! Her store of Abbot trivia was huge. Jan loved driving (what is the appropriate nautical word?) those big boats. It’s easier to think of her not being physically with us if I think about her being part of the waters of Seattle. Life is precious but so short.” Morley Marshall Knoll wrote, “Jan was one of the 12 of us on 3rd floor Abbey. She and I were the only two who did not have adjoining singles. I was so homesick the first semester at Abbot, and I bonded to Jan. And now 3 of the 12 of us are gone. How I miss each and every one: Ann Sample Bates, Mary Louise ‘Weezie’ Tackett, and Jan.” [Editor’s note: Please see Jan Gleason’s obituary in the In Memoriam section.] Though our reunion was glorious, there wasn’t enough time to explore fully—for example, to take in all the wonderful creative offerings. I asked some people to share what had led them toward creativity. Muriel DeStaffany Karr wrote, “When I began to take myself seriously as a writer, I thought I was going to write children’s stories; what came out unbidden was poetry. A poem in Cosmopolitan earned me $25—still the most I’ve ever earned from a poem…The Gloria Steinem quote ‘Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else,’ really resonates with me. I feel superlatively alive when I write.” Bettina Proske Walker explained, “I have had a lifelong love affair with poetry, a love I probably inherited from my maternal grandmother. I used to love to listen to her as a young child. That probably instilled in my ear a love of the sound of poetry; correspondingly, it predisposed me to an inclination toward poetry. So, I really didn’t choose poetry as a favorite means of self-expression; it actually chose me.” Ann MacCready Northup commented, “My interest in art started in childhood, with my parents’ encouragement. Then Mrs. Powell’s art room at Abbot and Diz Bensley ’43’s classes at PA provided escapes to places of choice and possibility that challenged norms. Those memories stayed with me into the idealist ’60s, when I decided to be an art teacher.”
Said Morley Knoll, “Unlike many artists, my childhood did not include hours spent making doodles and drawings. I was the math lover, known for being logical, analytical, and a project manager. But after my retirement in 1999 from a 25-year career in the left-brained field of information services, a very small inner voice asserted itself. It wanted me to learn how to draw. This began my exploration into the right side of my brain. Over the next several years, immersed in watercolor and drawing classes, I discovered a deep-seated need for visual expression that I never believed I had. I particularly loved drawing with charcoal, and this led me in 2002 to pastels. I am drawn to painting places I’ve visited and landscapes that are dear to me.” Sue Burton contributed, “My love of art began as a child when I would watch my grandmother draw, paint, and work with pastels and ceramics. I was in awe watching while she created from the world around her. She taught me to be very observant, and my parents instilled in me a love of nature while encouraging me to study art. I now paint almost entirely in watercolor, enjoying painting from nature, creating moods from the sky and the sea, or painting from a particular memory.” Finally, from Mimi Dean McBride: “I’ve always loved nature and enjoyed painting. Working as an independent landscape designer, I suddenly realized that if I ever wanted to pursue painting, the time was now (before I lost my eyesight). I love capturing a moment in time and find the process of doing so challenging. With creative endeavors, one never stops learning, and being around other artists is truly stimulating (and fun!).” Freddie Moxon Heller writes, “Just wanted to say that [husband] Dick and I are delighted that Jonell Briggs Safford and her husband, Steve, have now booked on the same river cruise in December, so we can relax and spend some time with wonderful friends I don’t see often enough.” Iris Vardavoulis Beckwith updated us by saying that after her husband, Fred, died she moved back to her old family homestead in Owls Head, Maine. She is building the dream house that she and Fred had planned. Iris is still ballroom dancing, riding her horse, and looking forward to having visitors.
PHILLIPS John C. Kane Jr. Ropes & Gray LLP One International Place Boston MA 02110-2624 617-951-7775 617-951-7050 (fax) Jkane2727@aol.com
Alberto Pico e-mailed after the reunion, “Our home is open to all classmates who visit Puerto Rico. The invitation includes Abbot Academy graduates and partners.” A kind gesture by a kind man (with as kind a spouse), reflecting the positivity generated during those glorious three days in June.
Web Phillips has died. I received a forwarded copy of his obituary, quoted below. Web came to Andover from Upper Montclair, N.J., as a lower, as did Bob Burton, Web’s childhood friend and Andover roommate. Both were excellent students, leaders on the Phillipian, and admitted to Yale. Web was the musician; Bob, the debater. Burton and Phillips: two of the best and brightest in a place of best and bright. From the obituary on ObitsForLife.com: “Webster Belden Phillips…died peacefully at home of heart failure on August 16, 2013, two months shy of his 68th birthday. “Web…began performing professionally as a jazz drummer in seventh grade, and retained his passion for music throughout his life. He attended…Andover [and] enrolled at Yale College. [Note: Per Bob Burton, Web took a year before Yale writing for the Pottstown (Pa.) Mercury. The Yale alumni directory shows him as Class of 1970, with no degree listed.] Over the ensuing 25 years, [he] worked intermittently in journalism, drummed professionally, and traveled extensively. “In his late 40s, he completed his college degree at Montclair State University, learned several languages, and continued to travel. He found his skill in mathematics, when combined with his extensive vocabulary and exceptional memory, provided him with special skills in board games, Scrabble in particular. He competed for the final 20 years of his life on the international professional Scrabble tour, winning several tournaments, and maintained for many years a top-100 world ranking. Mr. Phillips also became a formidable backgammon player and a highly regarded chess player. “During this period he continued to play the drums professionally and was widely admired in the jazz community for his playing talent and his deep knowledge of the history of jazz. He recently served as associate producer of the soon-to-bereleased jazz album Black Elk’s Dream, for which he was involved in developing the recording’s concept, track order, and mixing and mastering. He worked with a number of other jazz musicians on their recording projects and enjoyed being in the studio. Over the years, he served as a mentor to younger jazz musicians and an advocate for the preservation of a vibrant jazz community in NYC. At the time of his death, he was writing a book on drum method that distilled his long experience of playing with big bands in the swing tradition. “Mr. Phillips had many interests that extended beyond music. He read voluminously, wrote poetry, corresponded broadly, and enjoyed his wide circle of friends and family. “Mr. Phillips was named for his maternal grandfather, Dr. Webster Belden…who was an early pioneer in the development and application of x-ray technology. His paternal great-grandfather, Charles G. Phillips, was a former mayor of Montclair and benefactor of many of its charitable organizations. His father, C. Gorham Phillips, was a leading corporate attorney in New York who was deeply involved in the civic affairs of Montclair throughout his life. Andover | Winter 2014
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