Class Notes picture in an old year book. Back to the beach trip, we’ve rented a beach house and are looking forward to being there for four days. After that we will drive up the coast to our old haunts in the Manhattan Beach area where I lived for 27 years.
1959 Lyn Hallett Backe’58 GPUS and Harriett Bradshaw Lafer ’58 GPUS teenagers in the 50’s. What a great time! Carol Nagel Lantz wrote in her letter that she recently spent a week in Petoskey. She loves the food, the water and the shopping! She collects frog figures and purchased two more for her collection from a Majolica dealer in Petoskey. Her son Bill visited with Larry and Carol in Grosse Isle earlier this summer. The grandchildren — Kyle 11 and Collin 9 — are adorable. Carol loved it all: phones ringing, jet skiing and the parties. She and Larry play tennis once a week, and also dominoes. Carol’s back into canasta which she remembers playing at her parents’ cottage in Port Huron many years ago. On Labor Day (2013) Larry and Carol went to Los Angeles to visit relatives and friends and will also go to San Francisco. She had a fun luncheon with Sandy and would love to get together with more classmates in the Detroit area. Sandy Lloyd wrote: We do not have much news. I’d like to be traveling to Africa, but the closest we have come is going to the African section of Binder’s Zoo in Battle Creek recently. It really was great, but climbing up and down in the forest with the mosquitoes and oxygen for a mile was a little bit of a stretch! Our friend, Julie, the anthropologist, whose cat we have been sitting, has decided to go back to Pakistan again this year to teach at a different university, so we get the kitty for another year! Julie spent a couple of weeks with us trying to get me organized! She did a lot, but I am seriously challenged when it comes to organization of stuff! I was teaching four courses this summer and we had three weeks of house guests during the seven-week semester. That did take some organization! Sam was also teaching! But that ends next week, and it’s back to school for fall semester! Perhaps after next year, it will be time to retire. The kids (16-75) are just so darn much fun. I’d sure miss them! Last but not least, Lois Dickinson Hutchison: We have a great group of friends here and I enjoy playing tennis and belonging to a book club. We are still busy at our massage and healing clinic near our home. We enjoy our work and people tell us that the healing continues after they leave Sedona. We were planning an end-of-summer vacation in Utah, Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. However my half-sister, at 91, has some health problems and we will be going to the LaJolla, Calif., area after Labor Day to check up on her. FYI, another half-sister, now deceased, attended Liggett for a brief period. I found her
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Pe r sp e c t i v e
GPUS Class Secretary: Robin Duke Harris Russell 2 Flagler Drive Rye, NY 10580-1848 rdhr@mindspring.com It’s been too long since you, reader, have had news from the GPUS Class of 1959 so here’s what was gleaned from the most recent request. Melinda Bryan Earle was busy this winter judging and entering flower shows in Naples, Fla. She traveled to Grosse Pointe and Mackinac Island (first time in 62 years!) and by the time you read this will have been to England and India. She is now shooting the formalized version of shooting clays (FITASC), and was outside Prague, the Czech Republic, in mid-May for the European Championship and north of Madrid midJuly for the Worlds. Melinda is planning on returning for our 55th next May and hopes a lot of our class will come back, especially those of you who missed our 50th. Mary Graves Jordan keeps busy doing “old lady stuff” like sewing for her two granddaughters and knitting. Now that her Army husband has retired and they aren’t moving frequently, she also enjoys the work they have put into their house and garden. “Life is good!” George Haggarty and Thumper, who has made an amazing recovery from a severe breathing problem which saw her in ICU and hospitalized for five weeks, celebrated her 70th birthday in July with their children, grandchildren and three of her siblings and their spouses. Last January saw the marriage of their daughter, Laura, in Austin, Texas, which was attended by alumni Mary Warren ’83, Cathy and Bob Wood ‘59, Peggy and Peter Kross ‘59, Anne Wood ’61 and Bruce Birgbauer ‘60. George enjoys “being in Grosse Pointe with its many fine institutions and is looking forward to the future here, including the emergence of a stronger Detroit.” Susan Lambrecht Siphron takes piano lessons with a concert artist, spends time with four grandchildren, and travels with husband David to Gatesburg, Pa., and to their house in Bridgeport, Calif., which is in the eastern Sierra “and is mountainous and beautiful all year round.“ Her seven children are doing well. Susan invites any of us to visit her on our way to or near Santa Monica. Julianne MacMillan Bockius, our nature photographer, reports no news other than that she is continuing with that hobby. Gordon O’Brien continues with all his interests and hobbies. He and Pat took a trip to Spain in July, enjoying its beauty, culture and charm, visiting Barcelona, Madrid and Toledo. In between he went to Pamplona for the San Fermin festival with its Running of the
From left to right: Mrs. Peter Grossi, Wendy Jennings, Jody Jennings ’61 GPUS and Peter Grossi ’61 GPUS
Bulls, which he participated in – a “fascinating but pretty scary experience.” He also went to two bullfights. Jane Rueger Willis and Bill recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Each summer they spend a week in Hilton Head with their family, including seven grandchildren. While there, she visits with Carolyn Jacobson Cremins – a friend since fourth grade. Susie Ryan Knapp says she has no news to report. She and George spent part of the summer with some of their extended family up in Canada at their summer home, a respite from the hot Florida summer but too “rainy and chilly” for August in Canada. And lastly, and it is so hard to write this. My husband of 49+ years died on August 11 after a courageous battle with AML. George was an extraordinary man who was deeply committed to his church and community and whose life touched many. I have had wonderful support from my family and a multitude of friends, which as many of you who have lost a loved one have undoubtedly experienced, has helped to ease the pain of such a loss. Liggett Class Secretary: We would love to have a Liggett class secretary! Call Savannah Lee @ 313.884.4444, Ext. 415 or email slee@uls.org.
1960
Liggett Class Secretary: Anne Wrigley Molesky 19540 Butternut Southfield, MI 48076-1764 Gwenny Bennett and Jim Gugino: They are so happy in their new home and have made many new friends! We had a great hour-long phone conversation. Their home is 15 years old, 3,000 square feet, with 17-foot ceilings and has a beautiful pool. They are the second owners. The original owners decided to downsize in the same community. It seems as if people stay in the same community and either downsize or move into a larger home. They have four restaurants, a beauty salon and several other stores right there on the property. Their daughter Gretchen is coming to visit in October so they are looking forward to her visit. Bonnie Wilson and Jim Skoryanc: Oldest daughter, Beth, is a graphic designer for a financial consulting firm in Chicago. Krissie