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September brought a group of Abbot ’63 alumnae together in Camden, Maine, for a mini reunion. Front, from left: Ann Harris Furgerson, Iris Vardavoulis Beckwith, and Muriel DeStaffany Karr. Middle row: Cynthia Kimball, Danica Miller Eskind, Ann MacCready Northup, Suzanne Burton, and Anita Schenck Zednik. Back row: Anita Miller White, Lucinda Hannon, Morley Marshall Knoll, Helen Watson Collison, Betsy Cadbury, Cindy Sorensen, Tish Upton Brown, Marie Fox Young, and Susan Archer Vollmer.
dream but a daily nightly manic mind clinging / To remembered love for the hug of another.” Always happy to hear from creative minds. As we age, we do not necessarily become less active, as Duncan Bremer reminds me: “I am enjoying having five of seven grandchildren within 25 minutes’ drive; working at overcoming codependence, which has greatly diminished my marriage; searching for elk out every morning from my back deck (I have a cow tag); participating in two small, intense, Christian men’s groups; working out enough to keep me skiing and mountain biking; praying for my sister-in-law with cancer, my sister recovering from alcoholism, and my youngest grandson, born at 1 lb., 13 oz.; investing in my son’s businesses; mostly enjoying my legal work in real estate, estate planning, and business startups; and reading the Bible, mysteries, and political science. I fondly remember music at Andover, especially in the Chapel: Haydn’s ‘The Heavens are Telling’ to Dr. Banta’s powerful Bach on the organ to Dave Austin’s solo cello.”
1962 ABBOT
Kathrin Krakauer 240 Columbia Drive Bomoseen VT 05732 802-273-2548 kkrakauer@shoreham.net
In fall 2015 we had a wonderful weekend visit with Caroline Thomas and her husband, Robert Benes. Curiously, Caroline and I spent much time talking about our mothers and came to realize that, even at age 71, their impact on our daily lives remains significant. It is early January now, and the lake in front of my house is not yet completely frozen. I fear climate change is clearly evident in Vermont. Otherwise, life here is quite idyllic, with brisk air to breathe, little vehicular traffic to slow us on the
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Andover | Summer 2016
roads, entertaining wild bird comings and goings at the feeders, and piles of books to keep me occupied beside the fire. Please send news to keep us all up to date with your lives. Also, a reminder that the Abbot Archives Project is still looking for pieces of history from our time at school. They have little information from our class. If you are cleaning out for a move or just a good sweep, be aware that your kids have no interest in your old stuff, but the Archives would love to have it. Contact Paige Roberts at 978-749-4069 or abbotarchives@andover.edu for details. PHILLIPS Vic Obninsky 1101 Navarro St. Santa Rosa CA 95401 707-230-2271 707-843-5784 (fax) vpobninsky@gmail.com
[Editor’s note: The Academy was saddened to learn that Vic Obninsky passed away March 16, 2016, after the submission of these notes. We are grateful for his long service as class secretary. Please see his obituary in the In Memoriam section.] My duties as your scribe have doubled with our annual reunions, and I have not spent much time randomly seeking conversations with old friends and classmates. This picks up with Christmas cards, but, sadly, fewer people are sending them these days, relying instead on the computer system of sending a picture without much verbiage. One person who is still writing beautiful Christmas cards is Priscilla Grew, Ed Grew’s wife. I had the privilege of spending some time chatting with her at our 50th Reunion. Priscilla has just retired as the director of the University of Nebraska State Museum, after serving for a number of years as vice chancellor for research at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. Ed has received a number of lifetime awards as a geologist. I have been
fascinated to follow his career and travels to places where I will never go, such as Antarctica, the Altai Mountains, and many other remote places. Last year Ed received a medal from the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. This was followed up by a special issue of The Canadian Mineralogist magazine, dedicated to Ed’s career and featuring on its cover the recently discovered mineral edgrewite, named in his honor. The Grews have been married for 40 years, with Eddie based at the University of Maine at Orono and Priscilla mainly at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. I have been frightened of long-distance relationships, but perhaps I should take a second look. My random finger hit the Southern California button on the dial and George Budd was on the other end of the line. The last time I had heard from or about George he was establishing the Disneyland operation in Paris. In any event, George returned to the United States around the year 2000 and moved to California. His parents lived in Florida, but he convinced them to move to the Golden State; Mr. Budd lived more than 100 years and Mrs. Budd well into her 90s. George has pretty much occupied himself with private investments and is glued to his computer. He did visit Bill Chickering briefly in Cambodia last spring and was able to have dinner with Chick, wife Benedicte, and their two children. He also raved about the beauties of Angkor Wat temples. Once again, this is something I would have loved to see. The strong rumor is that Bill has moved back to New York City. I hope that we can get together sometime, because Bill is one of the fellows with whom I kept in contact over the years. I almost forgot to mention that Nick Knueppel and wife Caroline spent Dec. 29 with us, drinking, eating, and watching California beat Air Force in the Armed Forces bowl. Believe it or not, this was a big deal for all of us. Too often my articles close with reporting the passing of one of our classmates. I am sad to say that Tim Beck has joined our other brothers in repose. I did not know Tim well, but he seemed a quiet, pleasant person, and I remember that he lettered in track. It is too bad that the day students were not more integrated into the class of boarding students. This would be hard to do when you have a running home life locally. I want to get this article in to our faithful editors at the alumni office, because I am once again late. Before I leave you and begin to think about the coming baseball season, I want to suggest again that you send me an e-mail and get daily blurbs from your classmates. They are often very interesting. You can communicate with folks with the press of a button as well. The other suggestion is that you plan to attend our mini reunions, which occur in between our official PA reunions. They are unbelievably low-key and lots of fun. The next one will probably be over Veterans Day weekend somewhere near Andover, with a trip to the school to watch the Andover-Exeter game, where we hopefully will eat red meat.