www.andover.edu/intouch some delicious banana bread. Aneesh Ashutosh stayed home this summer, resting his broken leg and “learning to walk at the ripe age of 18” in preparation for his college matriculation. In September, there was a Young Alumni event in New Haven, well attended by members of our class as well as PA grads from other years. Phoebe Gould, Nolan Crawford, Lane Unsworth, Monica Traniello, Will Reid, and Carter Page all attended. This past fall, most of us began our careers at college—freshman year yet again. Some of us are staying close to Andover, attending schools in the greater Boston area. Others are heading abroad for school: Gui Cavalcanti, Rebecca Somer, and Grace Tully are all in the UK. Our class also has more than 23 people taking gap years, including Alex Westfall, Hyung Joon “Jason” Jin, Stanley Ng, Schuyler Hazard, Miles Neumann, Bianca Bowman, Oliver Chernyk, Jack McGovern, Christopher Russo, John Little, Cem Vardar, Olivia Berkey, Danny Shleifer, Gray Mackall, and Henry Curtis. Nurilys Cintron set off for a Semester at Sea in September. Whether school, a new job, a semester abroad, a sports season, or anything else, all of us started endeavors this year that are markedly not Andover. As we write this, the 2016 senior class members are posting photos of the orientation weekend welcome signs, causing us some minor nostalgia. But surely, by the time we’re all reading it in the magazine, most of us will be pretty well settled into our new homes all over the world. Even after we’ve adapted to new surroundings, we hope that you, like us, still hold Andover close and can look back on it fondly. To finish up, the following lists the class alumni positions. Go to these people with news about #connectedandover, or if you’re feeling blue: class president John Gorton; head class agents Miles Neumann and Marc Sevastopoulo; class secretaries (a.k.a. the people writing these class notes) Devontae Freeland, Tessa Peterson, and Kailash Sundaram; and class co-agents Michael Adams, Elijah Aladin, Calvin Carbone, Abby Czito, Ali Hill, Noah Hornik, Eden Livingston, Rob Needham, Katie Santoro, Jack Shumway, Hayley Silva, Kory Stuer, and Isabel Taylor. Stay classy, ’15. —Tessa, Kailash, and Devontae
FACULTY EMERITI Pat and George Edmonds 28 Samuel Way North Andover MA 01845 978-655-4598 gandped@comcast.net
We are saddened to report the passing of Grace Neilson, wife of George Neilson, at the age of 87 on October 13, 2015, in North Andover. A month before her death, George had written such a positive report for this column that we feel
it appropriate to include it: “As we look to our 30th anniversary of leaving the Academy, Grace and I find it very comforting to be residing in North Andover at Edgewood Retirement Community with so many former colleagues. It was interesting to note that Life Care Services was the founding management company here, as they were the same group I worked with when we tried to gain a retirement venture at the Abbot campus. More important is that retirement policies at Phillips made it possible for colleagues to enjoy the benefits here of such a fine facility. After our 23 years in Naples, Fla., our daughters said we were getting too old to be there and needed to come home. They were right. We now live within a short drive of all of our family, including three great-grandchildren. How lucky can you get? Grace joins in saying hello.” From Newmarket, N.H., Yolande Bayard e-mails, “I am still enjoying my life here in a little house nestled in a wild garden of greenery. I have traveled quite often since my retirement in 1997. My daughter Myrtho and I went to Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, the Canary Islands, and, of course, France. I have been doing tai chi for the past 12 years, and once a week some of my lady friends who live nearby come to take French lessons from me. What is most important, I am still in perfect health.” Missing the earthquake in Nepal last April, Malinda and Harvey Blustain lived for two years in their house in a small village about 60 miles from Kathmandu and only 12 miles from the earthquake epicenter. This particular village is quite near a 1,300-year-old archaeological site called Liglig Kot, an important Nepalese treasure for which the Blustains were working to create a coalition of organizations to develop a balanced plan for Liglig Kot’s preservation and development. They also were teaching English and computer skills to village students and helping with other community projects. In July 2014 they moved to Eugene, Ore., a town Malinda says she values for “its ready-made social network” of many cousins and for “its extensive system of bike paths, the wonderful weather, hiking, horseback riding, and life in general.” Malinda and Harvey volunteer at the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History, where the staff is giving them interesting projects. Furthermore, they have helped to reactivate the Eugene–Kathmandu Sister City Association and have become its chairman and secretary. Although the extensive earthquake damage will likely put their plans for Liglig Kot on hold for some years, the Blustains will be shuttling back to their Nepal village, says Malinda, “looking for another project there, probably relief oriented, to involve ourselves with.” Given all the news Emilio Mozo provided over the phone, it is hard to tell what is most exciting for him—likely his soon-to-come passport to Cuba and his return visit there this winter. He also reported recent trips to Spain to participate
in a celebration of Cuban poetry at the University of Salamanca and to Washington, D.C., to be with a group of Cuban poets for a recording of their works at the Library of Congress. However, he stated that his main creative interest now is painting—works that he has exhibited and calls “primitive style,” in acrylic or charcoal, along with some drawings that include poems. He and wife Mary enjoy their family trips to Toronto for visits with two of their children and their three grandchildren and to New York to visit their other daughter. In Middlebury, Vt., Emilio and Mary have their historic Victorian house up for sale. Chris Gurry ’66 writes about a busy August week in Maine with “lots of golf, beach, and tennis filling up the days.” And there were plenty of players, with all 12 family children and grandchildren present: Erin and Dani from Vermont with their two boys, Robby and Ollie, 6 and 4; Adam ’94 and Laura from Brookline with their two girls, Lila and Nora, 3 and 8 months; Chas ’05 and Emily; and Jon and Sarah. Sarah Gurry is still working at Brooks, and Chris is looking into opportunities in education and elder care. They hosted former student Uche Osuji ’91, who split a week with them in Wells in mid-July along with PA instructors Bill and Nina Scott; and they traveled for 10 days to Westport, County Mayo, Ireland, for the wedding of former student Sean Austin ’96. Also, they stay in touch with former colleagues in the area: Paul Kalkstein ’61, Ed Quattlebaum ’60, and Vic Henningsen ’69. Lunching here in North Andover with Audrey Bensley, we toasted her for her determination and vital spirit in overcoming a number of medical challenges these past years. On the upswing again, she is planning to resume her work in ceramics and to continue watching and rooting for the New England Patriots. Because so many of us emeriti knew David Underwood ’54, we would like to salute him here not only as an exceptional Andover trustee but also as a friend. He cared about the faculty, knew many of us by name, and was genuinely interested in how we contributed our talents to the school. We remember well his Texas drawl and sense of humor and his upbeat friendliness to faculty and students. We appreciate the way David squarely faced several difficult trustee policy decisions with the hope of meeting the best interests of the faculty. After his graduation, he never really left Andover, generously supporting many worthy campus projects, starting with the Underwood Room. [Editor’s note: The Academy has received word that Marion Finbury passed away on Nov. 21, 2015. Please see the In Memoriam section for her obituary.]
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