www.andover.edu/intouch 1963 ABBOT
Cynthia F. Kimball 7 Thoreau Road Lexington MA 02420 781-862-6424 cynthiakimball@earthlink.net
Greetings to all! Sharon Seeche Rich writes of the delight she and husband Howard are having as they treasure times with their grandchildren. She says, “We didn’t even go out to Tanglewood this summer. Life has a different kind of music now, and little ones get big so fast that we are holding on to every second.” In mid-September a good number of us gathered in Owls Head, Maine, for a magnificent mini reunion organized with great skill by Iris Vardavoulis Beckwith. Her brother, Ion Vardavoulis, provided good company and help when needed. Not only was the weather great, we all also rejoiced in the chance to spend time with one another. Our gathering began with a beach dinner that included a collective birthday celebration, as well as a repeat of the flash-mob dance that debuted at our 50th Reunion. The next day we enjoyed a tour of the Farnsworth Art Museum and its Wyeth Center, followed by a drive to Camden. We all enjoyed a stop at the Vesper Hill Children’s Chapel and garden, which is lovely beyond what can be described here. The following day featured a fantastic tour of the Cellardoor Winery, with pairings of wine and tapas after the tour. Early the next day, we boarded a ferry for Monhegan Island, where some of us hiked across the island, trekking along Whitehead Cliff. We all appreciated the consistently beautiful flowers grown everywhere, along with delicious cuisine. Ann MacCready Northup and Cindy Sorensen preferred to go out on the water independently. Ann writes, “Cindy and I went out on a ketch out of Rockland. We walked to the dock. So convenient and a lovely two hours on the water.” Without listing all the reunion participants here, I’ll include updates from some of the attendees. Susan Archer Vollmer has had a store related to cooking for a number of years, but the store is to close in June 2016. Suzanne Burton summarized her time after college as follows: “I worked for 27 years [at National Geographic], first for the art editor and then as the sole interior designer. After that I became office manager at a dental office, where I met so many fascinating people from all walks of life. That’s the joy of Washington: foreign-service members, ambassadors, NPR reporters, etc. I retired after 18 years there. Now I’m enjoying painting watercolors and have exhibited in several shows. I’ve reconnected with some of my old friends from the Geographic and had time to visit museums and galleries and spend more time up in Boston and Maine with my sister and brother-inlaw. The best part is not having a schedule, so I feel
I have much more freedom. I love my new life!” Muriel DeStaffany Karr writes, “[Husband] Ron and I spent a week in Rome and then celebrated my 70th birthday in Yorkshire, England, where my ancestry research suggests my mother’s Holmes lineage goes back to the time of the Norman Conquest in the tiny town of Paull Holme!” Muriel belongs to a poetry group. Marie Fox Young enjoys painting, using acrylics. Lucinda Hannon continues with a task she has been working on for two years, that of settling her brother’s estate. Ann MacCready Northup writes, “I work for a company that places international high school students in U.S. high schools and with host families. The students I place attend Hopkinton High School and Groton-Dunstable Regional High School, both in Massachusetts. I contact the students and their host parents at least monthly throughout the school year to ensure that they have a successful experience.” Both Morley Marshall Knoll and Anita Schenck Zednik enjoy traveling with family. Anita wrote me from Belgium, where she went after the mini reunion to visit her son. Cindy Sorensen continues with sailing and her greyhound rescue work. Tish Upton Brown met Iris Vardavoulis Beckwith in Paris late this past fall, sharing the experience of being grandmothers. Muriel DeStaffany Karr, our class poet, wrote four poems that we treasure. In response to requests to include in this column some of the poetry written during our Maine gathering, Muriel chose one poem which is presented here in prose from Rising, Falling on Monhegan Island, Maine: “If we start and end this way—rising sculpted from, and falling back into the muck—primeval compost, let us live this interval alive—soaring, mud between our toes reminding us of whence we came—blessèd earth. A prickly fog descends so quickly—dense. Still the artist stands at the shore, attempting to capture on canvas the what-it-is she sees at low tide, the sea quietly lapping, gulls on the watch.” Thank you, Muriel!
PHILLIPS John C. Kane Jr. 28 Puritan Park Swampscott MA 01907 781-592-4967 Jkane2727@aol.com
As the sands run down (ever so hopefully, those sands) on my 15 years of loyal if undistinguished service as your class secretary, I am again reduced to beginning these notes in the first person. As I write, I am still outside the class necrology, still married, still unemployed, a new grandfather (of Celine, born to son Chris ’99 and daughter-in-law Pascale), proud father to three active wage-earners, and planning to vote for Trudeau in the upcoming election for national leader. And if that sentence doesn’t encourage you to flood my e-mail and snail-mail boxes, shame on you.
The limited news begins with Bill Hartman. He writes, “A summer highlight was getting a ‘four wheeler’ (ATV) with power steering, winch, and cart for our Maine camp. It augments my aging muscles by pulling logs out of the woods, lifting docks from the lake, and hauling rocks to protect the shoreline. More important, it makes me feel 55 years younger!” Bill continues, “Part of my newfound youth has been spent catching up with classmates. I had a delightful visit with Bruce Cleverly and his charming wife, Caroline, at their summer home in Harwich Port, Mass., where wine and lobster rolls were superb. A dinner in Boston with Linda and Ty Shen was a treat—the two retained their high spirits notwithstanding more than six months in temporary quarters as repairs were made to their condo, which suffered water damage last winter. In Freeport, Fred Palmer fulfills both Maine’s slogan, ‘The Way Life Should Be,’ and non sibi; he and his wife, Pat, are devoted to supporting education and giving to the most needy in their community. When passing through Austin, Texas, Harry Schwethelm met me for lunch; he spent time last summer traveling through Italy and Sicily in preparation for an upcoming trip to Ecuador and Peru.” And finally, in conjunction with his class agent role, Bill concludes, “A September visit to Andover was exhilarating and inspiring! Go to Andover.edu and check out the Tang Institute, the Sykes Wellness Center, the makerspace, and more ... including the section of the site labeled ‘donate.’ ” In early November, Tracy Kidder was honored, along with three other Andover and Abbot graduates, with an Andover Alumni Award of Distinction. Dick Clapp and I attended the dinner for the awardees held the evening before the awards were presented, and we were privileged to sit at Tracy’s table. Each recipient speaks briefly during the dinner, and Tracy’s comments were built around the death by suicide of one of our classmates, an Asian boy who was targeted with snideness and ridicule when, in his isolation, he was noticed at all. Tracy ruminated on what role each of us, he included, had played in that death some half century ago. His comments brought back with perfect clarity the aspects of our adolescence at PA that were cruel, even brutal. Afterward, while Tracy was being interviewed by two young Phillipian staffers, I had him sign several copies of his books for my KIPP Academy Lynn teacher colleagues. One of the Andover students asked: “Were you two friends at Andover?” “Not really,” I answered. “Tracy was a much cooler person than I was.” “Or trying to be cool,” I heard softly from my left. Whatever Tracy was “trying to be” as a kid, he certainly has been a remarkable gift to his generation. Among Schoolchildren is but one of several classics from his pen. Four superb KIPP teachers now proudly possess a signed copy. In October, Todd Lueders and his lovely wife, Kathy, conducted a tour of Historic Monterey Andover | Summer 2016
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