I can’t begin to think about boxes of memories already packed and in storage and years worth of stuff to go through at the other end. It’s daunting indeed, but it will be fun to weed it all out and simplify. I will report back when it’s all over and we are settled in!”
class notes
Virginia Kirkland Stuart ’63 is happily retired in Saugatuck, Michigan, sailing, doing community theater, and tap dancing. She and Laird also got to spend last winter in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and plan to return again this spring.
Class notes are published twice a year in each issue of The Blue Doors. If you have any updates you would like to share with your classmates, please e-mail them to bluedoors@nightingale.org.
40s Marin Jones Shealy ’46 writes that she keeps in touch with Marjorie Stradella Hodgman ’46, Joyce Waley Morton ’46, DG Bancroft Gowin ’46, and Eleanore Hoepli Didriksen ’46. Cornelia Manierre Baddeley ’47 writes: “Getting old is no fun. My husband, Bill, died in November [2013], and I am in a retirement home in Memphis near our son Will and his wife (who is a nurse).” Brook White Martin ’48 writes: “Entered at seventh grade—the best education I had! Miss Hill, Miss Ball, Madame Stevenson, Miss Wade, and Miss Keyser— all excellent! LOVED class work but wouldn’t go home and learn it! My deepest regret in life!”
50s Janine Jordan ’51 recently retired her kitchen and bath design service, JJ Interiors, Kitchen & Bath Design by Janine, and was awarded emerita status by the National Kitchen & Bath Association in August 2014.
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She is the only certified kitchen designer in North Carolina to hold such status. Janine writes: “I occasionally still tickle the ivories playing improv jazz… I grew up in that era of blues—[I] will be 82 on October 12! Yay! Made it this far in good health!” Marianne Aebli Farmer ’52 writes: “It is hard to believe that 62 years have passed since we were at Nightingale, and I wonder where are my old classmates and how are they doing in our old age. I still play golf although I am terrible, but I like to be out with my friends and I like to spend time with my children and four granddaughters, two of whom are in college and two graduated and employed.”
Patricia Tucker Ewert ’55 reports that she had lunch in New York with Joan Davis Baekeland ’55 and Jean Hope ’55, who was visiting from her home in Rome. Pat writes: “I also had a lovely visit in Tucson with Barbara White Walker ’55 and her husband. On various occasions over the last year, I have seen Mary Hyde Ottaway ’55, Marcia Tuthill Palmer ’56, and Annabel Stearns Stehli ’57, who was given a fun party for her 75th birthday.” Hedvig Lockwood ’56 writes: “My news is simply that I’m now living in Hudson, NY, a few hours drive from Ithaca, where my daughter, Zoe Hare, and her family live, and a few in the other direction from close relatives in southern Massachusetts. Heading north, Keene Valley in
the Adirondacks, my family's ancestral summer digs, is equally accessible, as is NYC, two hours to the south. Thus positioned in lovely, exciting Hudson, I spend my time painting in my studio and taking lots of walks—when I'm not traveling east, west, north, or south to visit family and friends! I'd be delighted to hear from any of my old (!) pals from Nightingale who would like to get in touch with me. If in a 200 mile or so radius, perhaps we could plan a get-together!” Hedvig may be reached at hedviglockwood@ yahoo.com. Patricia Lee Eoyang ’57 writes: “Spending the fall semester in Hong Kong, as my husband teaches a translation seminar for MA students here each year. This allows us to maintain our permanent residence status (we lived in Hong Kong from 1996–2008) and make side trips in the area. We just came back from Singapore (where our older son is based) and Borobudur, Indonesia (an amazing temple in a depressing country); [we] leave at month’s end for New Zealand to attend a niece’s wedding at Hawkes Bay and will travel to Thailand around Thanksgiving to visit friends at Chiang Mai University. We return to the US in mid-December via Kona, Hawaii (where our older son has a home), and will just miss seeing Jill Hyde Scott ’57 by a day, as she flies in the day before we leave. We did visit Jill and Denny in Providence in the spring, and enjoyed catching up. Another classmate I keep in touch with is Dede Bonnett Guessous ’57, who lost her husband recently after a long illness. She is returning to live in the US after spending the last 45+ years in Morocco. The recent protests in Hong Kong were indications of the strong feelings of the local people, but it is very unlikely China will change its stance.”
Annabel Stearns Stehli ’57 writes that her son, Mark Stehli, is assuming leadership of the Georgiana Institute, the nonprofit organization that Annabel founded in 1991. Mark is a trader with Citadel, a hedge fund in New York. Annabel is thrilled to have been invited to be the keynote speaker at a conference on the Berard Method of Auditory Training in London in March. She writes: “The host, Rosalie Seymour, an audiologist/speech pathologist in the UK, says I haven’t been celebrated enough for starting the whole thing.”
60s Joan Umpleby Salm ’62 writes: “Guenther’s and my adventure this year is a real estate one...we have both our condo in Westchester and our lovely waterfront home in Shelter Island on the market. We will be moving to the Old Lyme, Connecticut area at some point, but we are currently having a crazy period of limbo. It’s all good and the right thing to do, and we have come to terms with this major change. We are both retired now and have no need to be in a one bedroom condo, which was a perfect perch for my 23 years of commuting to my job in NYC. In Connecticut we will be closer to both daughters in Maine and Cape Cod, and my sister lives in Essex, CT. We will have a big enough house to accommodate family gatherings and have easy access to NYC via Metro North and to Shelter Island via the ferry from New London...it seems like the perfect solution.
Diane Falk ’65 continues to work as a research writer, editor, and educator for scholarly publishing projects, reading and editing PhD dissertations and writing articles for online encyclopedias, including book reviews for the WorldandI.com. Diane writes: “The English teachers at Nightingale really enabled me with writing proficiency and ability.” Diane also works extensively with local, national, and international education and community service projects. Elizabeth Cary Mungall ’66 writes: “After a year of monthly spot checks and waiting, we got back the GPS radio collars that my project had put on African Dama Gazelles living as protected exotics in West Texas. As we decode the collar data, we can finally see how these bucks use their rangeland.”
70s Lisa Purvin Oliner ’72 writes: “While I did not graduate with my class in 1972, I attended Nightingale from third through ninth grade and have many fond memories of the numerous multimodal literacies I learned
there. I do not think it an overstatement to say that without that early exposure to the rich Nightingale curriculum, I would not be where I am today.” Lisa will be speaking in November at the annual convention of the National Council of Teachers of English in Washington, D.C. Belinda Aberbach StevensonAgar ’72 writes: “My oldest son, Elie, and his wife, Stephanie, had their first child—and my first grandchild—Julian Henry Stevenson, born Sept. 23, 2013. Julian just had his first birthday! What a joy.” Sarah Hearn ’74 writes: “This past year has been very busy for me. I continue in my work as a federal public servant, reaching 28 years of service (which entitles me to six weeks of annual leave—woot!) in June of this year. I can’t believe I will be able to retire in fewer than two years. On a more personal front, our second grandchild was born in March, missing sharing a birthday with her Grandpa by one day. I have also been very busy in my “other life,” the theatre, directing three plays and acting in two others between February 2013 and September 2014. In 2012–13, the Ottawa Little Theatre celebrated its 100th season and I was honored to direct the play representing the sixth decade, Come Blow Your Horn by Neil Simon, and I reprised my role as Dotty Ottley in Noises Off, which represented the ninth decade. This summer, I directed the world premiere of The Lights of Shangri-La, a play by local playwright David Whiteman, for TotoToo Theatre, the LGBT theatre company in Ottawa. We had wonderful reviews (“discerning direction”) and highly appreciative audiences. I have also revived my love of embroidery and needlework and am simply waiting for my right hand to recover from surgery before I return to it.” Lori Weiner Lander ’74 was recently awarded the Spirit Award by the Maud Morgan Art Center in Cambridge, MA. The citation that accompanied the award read: “In her art and life, Lori Lander embraces community. Her series of paintings, Rhythms and Rituals: The Work of Women, captures everyday moments in communal gathering places such as markets, rice fields, and festivals around the world, particularly on the Indonesian island of Bali. Lander is also the co-founder of Many Helping Hands, the Cambridge
non-profit behind the Cambridge Martin Luther King Day of Service, which drew 2,300 people for an afternoon of hands-on service last year. Lander believes ’when people come together with others in their communities... there is little that they can’t accomplish.’” Lori writes: “This award has roots in my experience as a student at Nightingale. I first became involved in community service work in Middle School with the Nightingale Social Service Club, led then by Miss Hamilton. I have been deeply involved in community service ever since. I began painting at Nightingale and had wonderful art teachers—including Miss Basilevsky—who taught me how to draw and first introduced me to oil painting. Lastly, our seventh grade teacher, Mrs. Williamson, showed our class a film made by the anthropologist Margaret Mead about her work in Bali, Indonesia. I carried those images with me for years, and finally went to Bali in 1978. I have returned many times since and many of my paintings are of women at work there. My paintings can be seen on my website at lorilander.com.” Lori also adds that her daughter, Jessica Lander, has just published her first book, Driving Backwards, a non-fiction portrait of the small New Hampshire town that was the inspiration for the novel Peyton Place.
Nicole Kohn ’78 had a solo painting show at OCHI Gallery in Ketchum, Idaho. Her work (a sample of which is above) may be seen online at ochigallery.com/nicole-kohn. Christina Wright Lowenstein ’79 is a private educational consultant and the founder of TheWrightTutor.com. She guides families through the college admissions process, advising students on course selection, standardized testing, extracurricular activities, meeting community service requirements, and summer options—always adhering to the philosophy that the best route to college acceptances is for students to pursue what they love. Christina also coaches students through the application process itself. Zoe Weil ’79 writes: “The Institute for Humane Education, where I’m president, is working with a team in New York City to open a preK–12 Solutionary School dedicated to educating students to be engaged and joyful problem-solvers for a better world. The school will be opening in 2016. Meanwhile, I’ll be receiving an honorary doctorate from Valparaiso University at their graduation this spring.”
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