1950s – 1960s

1950

Bob and Thelma Cole Perkins continue to keep in shape by walking several times a week on a high school cork track. Bob participated in the Green Mountain Senior Games swim meet, but he has retired as GMSG secretary. He continues his duties as membership chair for the Rutland Historical Society, as editor of the Killington section of the Green Mountain Club newsletter, and as president of the Rutland-area Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Madaleen Jacobs Ellis died May 4, 2007. For more than forty years, she lived in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, where she was a founder, long-time director, and chairperson of the board of the Newtown Public Library. She also was an active member of the Newtown Square Presbyterian Church; the Historical Society; the Fire Auxiliary; the Echo Valley Community Association, the Villagers, and the Women’s Club of Newtown Square. Madaleen was predeceased by her husband, Charles, and he is survived by daughter Kathleen, sons Stephen and John, and four grandchildren.

Send your news to—
Hedi Ballantyne
candh@sover.net

1951

Ruth McCay wrote to let us know about an interesting coincidence that happened in Virginia Beach, Virginia, last October. Ruth saw a car with a UVM license plate; she tracked down the owner, R. Grant Allen ’61. They chatted and ended up having their own mini-reunion, including Ruth’s husband, Alister, and Grant’s wife, Amity. What is happening with the rest of you? Let me know.

Send your news to—
Joan Coffman Sabens
jsabens@aol.com

1952

Chris Oliveto Davis wrote that she and her husband, Dick, had a great time at our reunion last June, and they used the occasion to travel to Quebec City and St Anne de Beaupre Cathedral. They also celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary in October by traveling to the Canadian Rockies. Janet Silsby Dunham and husband Wallace are very glad that they attended our reunion. They enjoyed making the acquaintance of some classmates that they hadn’t known, and they encourage everyone to attend our 60th in 2012. Janet also wrote that she convinced Nancy Gardner Whalen and her husband, Joseph, to attend our next reunion. My role as class secretary caught the attention of Lynn Baier ’64, who is a member of our book group at Rossmoor. Finally, last October, my husband and I went on a cruise to celebrate his successful knee replacement. We appreciated Barbara Hardie Densmore’s encouragement at reunion after her own surgery. Please send me your news.

Send your news to—
Helene Shapiro Hemmendinger
helhemm@comcast.net

1953

The season of holiday cards is over, and I bask in warm memories of friends I don’t see often enough and friends with whom I keep in touch only through December greeting cards. Fortunately, there looms a good opportunity to get back together at our upcoming reunion. Will you be there? Sadly, the deaths of our dedicated class president Frank Leary and his wife, Arloa Dean Leary, put a damper on our outlook, but I am told that Robert Woodworth is carrying on with the help of Jean Millis Gilpin as co-chairs of the planning committee. (See your Green and Gold Newsletter for additional names.) Jean and her husband, Bob Gilpin, have just moved close to UVM, once again. They would like to hear from UVM friends as they adjust to their new environs in Shelburne.   Al Purcell and R. Allan Paul, gift co-chairs for our class, remind us that it is time to donate to our beloved alma mater. Let’s keep up our generous reputation by doing as well as, or even better than, our donations from years past. Remember, we will be celebrating our 55th this year!

Send your news to—
Nancy Hoyt Burnett
nanhiker@aol.com

1954

Phyllis Bricker has just published a novella, Girl Cane and Other Short Stories. She and her husband live in Santa Ana, California, and they have four children and two grandchildren. Nancy Bobbeau let us know that last October several classmates gathered at the vacation home of Sally Hickcock Bockus in Ludlow, Vermont. “Remember When?” was the topic of the three-day visit. Martha Marvin Kelley, Cynthia Stafford MacDonald, Louise Ewart Long, Gretchen Ganow Kuyk, Marilyn Giles Hartt, Jean Spear Barker, and Nancy Buckheim Beauchamp came together to catch up and remember UVM. They hope to do it again. Mary Wright Keegan died last March after a long illness. She was a retired teacher, and she is survived by her husband, James Keegan ’53. Finally, I wanted you all to know that  I moved from the shadow of Suicide Six in Pomfret, Vermont to a new address in Woodstock. I am still a local historian/writer. I can see the house where my husband and I lived forty-four years ago before I moved to Pomfret. It is filled with personal history!

Send your news to—
Kathryn Dimick Wendling
kwendling@aol.com

1955

Maurey Stern Dukoff and her husband, Joseph, celebrated their grandson Zachary’s Bar Mitzvah. Sharing in the joy was Helene Widder Chusid. Eleanor Levin Trachtenberg wrote, “Living in Dallas I do not need to go to Florida to escape winter. Here we wear cotton clothes year round. Recently, I was in Louisiana, and it was eighty degrees. For insurance, I did bring a coat which stayed in the suitcase.” John Benzie sent greetings from Minnesota. He continues as editor of the Groton Historical Society newsletter, and he said that the UVM Library requested back issues for their collection. He also keeps busy adding to the Groton family records that now exceed 40,000 names. He enjoyed attending the Fall Foliage Festival in his hometown of Groton last October, and he was able to get lots of additional family information. John especially enjoys spending time with his grandchildren, because, not only are they a real joy to have around, but they can also clear snow quickly. John is finishing up his career as a non-profit fundraiser for a Nigerian bank. He is looking forward to seeing classmates at our reunion in 2010. Mary Ann LaFonte Ringquist of Natick, Massachusetts, is a retired professor, who taught in the graduate schools of nursing at Boston University and Boston College. She has three grandchildren living in California. Mary Ann would love to hear from UVM friends via email at mamariska@aol.com. Jay Selcow retired from his medical practice in 2004, but he has remained involved, teaching med students at the University of Connecticut Medical School and working on post-graduate courses for the American Academy of Pediatrics. He continues to play tennis, and he is a member of a book club, a movie review club, and a retirement club that performs public service. Jay spends winters on Tybee Island, Georgia. We report sadly that William Wong of Woodstock, Connecticut, passed away on May 31, 2007. His life journey took him from China to Vermont, and he was very proud to have been a UVM graduate. His obituary and photos of his life can be viewed on You Tube under William Yueijin Wong. Do send us news of yourselves for the next issue. Enjoy the New Year in good health. More anon.

Send your news to—
Daniel Burack
dab@burackinvestments.com

1956

Send your news to—
Jane Stickney
stickneyjane@yahoo.com

1957

As Spring gently arrives here in Vermont, I hope that your own ‘juices’ thaw as well so that you are able to dash off a quick note to let all your classmates know of your whereabouts and activities. Remember our great 50th and our pledge to stay in touch?

Send your news to—
Marilyn Falby Stetson
duostets@vtlink.net

1958

Jack Lamabe, Louisiana State University’s first full-time baseball coach, died recently. Jack made his major league debut with the Boston Red Sox in April 1962. He also played for the St. Louis Cardinals before beginning his coaching career. Our condolences go to his wife, Janet, and their two children, John and Jennifer. As Spring arrives and news about our 50th Reunion increases, I hope you will be packing your bags. Burlington and UVM are waiting for you.

Send your news to—
Joyce McQuilkin Dawson
vtdawson@aol.com

1959

Clyde Lord, M.D., of Atlanta, Georgia, represented UVM at the inauguration of Morehouse College’s tenth president on February 15, 2008. Bill Pray, who owns and operates Wilder & Company, is a remodeling contractor in Kihei, Hawaii. He reported that he has been paddling and racing outrigger canoes for years, and he is still at it five days a week. He wrote, “Any UVM grads intending to visit Maui are hereby invited to join me at the two-year-old Maui Canoe Club in Kihei.” Please feel free to submit any news about yourself or friends in our class. We all enjoy hearing about friends and classmates from bygone years; news about their families, travels, careers, retirements is always welcome. Forward the information to class.notes@uvm.edu or directly to me at email shown below. Talk to us!

Send your news to—
Henry Shaw
hshaw@sc.rr.com

1960

Send your news to—
Paul Heald
Pheald1@cs.com

1961

Margaret Connolly Leeper wrote, “We are still living in Bozeman, Montana, skiing in Big Sky, boating, playing tennis and golf, and swimming in Manasota Key, Florida, in spring. We enjoy traveling when possible, and we explored Turkey and Greece last fall. I still work at the Museum of the Rockies as a docent, giving tours on bats as well as the latest dinosaur findings. It is a hard life!” Penny Fienemann Cox is one of thirteen resident artists at the Brush Art Gallery in Lowell, Massachusetts, where she has a studio for jewelry making. She mainly works in sterling silver, copper, brass, and any other metal that can be pounded, forged, bent, drilled, riveted, or sawed to create her unique designs. Penny reported that Lowell is a wonderfully interesting place to live and work, with its increasing influx of artists and a culturally diverse population. She invites UVM friends to drop in or give her a call at the gallery.

Send your news to—
Carol Adams Gater
cpadams02@snet.net

1962

Andrew Ojanen and John Holmes are two of eleven trustees of the Chester Academy in Chester, Vermont. The trustees grant scholarships to Green Mountain students. Andrew has been working on the Civil War Expo in Chester, including re-enactors, President and Mrs. Lincoln, and cannon fire.

Send your news to—
Patricia Hoskiewicz Allen
traileka@aol.com

1963

We will soon be celebrating our 45th Reunion. How many of you thought about attending the last reunion yet were unable to attend because of your schedule? Many of us are now retired and therefore have more flexibility in organizing our time. Why not begin planning now to return to campus for our special class celebration? In the near future, you may be hearing from a classmate who will encourage you to attend Reunion and to pledge a donation to UVM. Please consider both as UVM has been a most important experience in our lives. I understand that there have been many additions to campus during the past five years so that many of us who did attend our 40th will be pleasantly surprised at the ease of accommodations right on campus near Reunion events. Also very important, too, please send me news of your whereabouts as soon as possible, so I can share it with your classmates in the next issue. Please note that I have a new email address. Shirley Mumford Ferguson and I enjoyed our own reunion at her lovely home in Franklin, N.Y. We realized that we had not seen each other in fifteen years; the last time was at a UVM Reunion. Yet our friendship is as strong as ever and our conversations and stories thoroughly enjoyable. Julie Hersey Chapman and her husband, Bill, enjoyed this year’s early eastern ski season, and they look forward to seeing everyone at our Reunion. Fred. W. Willis is looking forward to his 45th Reunion and reuniting with his good friends from Sigma Phi. A diabetic, dialysis survivor and double amputee, Fred reports that he feels twenty years younger thanks to the love and support of his wife, Margaret Rose, their four children, and six grandchildren. He and his wife reside in the Audubon Signature Sanctuary Community of Evergreen in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Fred expresses his sympathy to the family of his Catamount basketball teammate, Harry Zingg, who was an inspiring leader as well as an exceptional basketball player. That’s all the news from our class for this issue. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Send your news to—
Toni Citarella Mullins
tonicmullins@verizon.net

1964

As I write this column, there is at least a foot of snow on the ground and it appears to be sleeting now. I hope that by the time the Vermont Quarterly spring issue is published, this early and hard winter will be a thing of the past. Neil Yeston wrote about some Tau Epsilon Phi and Phi Sigma Delta rivalry that continues despite the forty-four years since graduation. He said that he and Steve Ratner from Tau Epsilon Phi “challenged and summarily defeated Phi Sigma Delta Fern Hill’s golfing elite, Micky Steinberg and Howard Gorney.” This took place at the Orchards Country Club in South Hadley, Massachusetts. They noted that “the substantial monetary wager was forgiven by the Tau Epsilon Phis in lieu of bragging rights.” As per my suggestion, Neil will encourage a group to attend our 45th Reunion in June 2009. About a dozen friends get together every summer, including Mirsky, Finkel, Perlow, Ratner, Rosenberg, Zicherman, Rhein, Robinson, Lipkins, Rudolph, Feldman, Steinberg, Gorney, and Sachs. They have stayed close through the years. Neil spent seventeen years at Boston Medical Center before moving to the University of Connecticut and Hartford Hospital to run the critical care division, and serve as vice president for graduate medical education, as well as assistant dean. He now lives in Glastonbury with his two sons, one of whom is a sophomore at George Washington University, and the other, a sophomore at Suffield Academy. He says, “life is good,” and he wishes you all the same. I also heard from Hal Frost, who resigned in 2007 from his research faculty position in the department of physics at UVM. He had served on a part-time, volunteer basis for two years making research contributions in the fields of theoretical acoustics and magnetic resonance imaging for promoting safer or more effective medical imaging for diagnosis of injury and illness. He did this as a way of honoring his father, Harold M. Frost, M.D., who died in 2004 after a long and fruitful career in orthopedics. Hal continues to work, via e-mail, with UVM Physics Professor Emeritus Wesley Nyborg. They are researching possible use of ultrasonics in medicine as a more effective and safe diagnostic tool for physicians to use in clinics and hospitals. Hal is using his UVM PhD dissertation from 1974, done with his advisor Professor Nyborg. Hal’s development of new, but still untested, theory in MRI was aimed partially at the next generation of MRI machines with the hopes of catching cancers at earlier stages. Hal is now retired from the University of California as a former researcher at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He lives in Sheffield, Vermont, with his wife Beverly Roy ’66. Hal had a successful juried retrospective solo exhibition last March at the Catamount Arts Center in Saint Johnsbury, Vermont. The exhibit consisted of oils, acrylics and drawings executed in Arizona, New Mexico, and Vermont. I hope this interesting news motivates more of you to share. Happy Spring!

Send your news to—
Susan Barber
suebarber@verizon.net

1965

Sharon Call Buck retired from Liberty Mutual last year, and is staying busier than ever.  She has kept in touch with a number of UVM friends through “mini reunions” since 2002: That year she and Carmen Wessner West, Lyn Wilson Barkman, Sonny Weaver Cassani and their spouses met at Sonny and Dick Cassani’s (’64) in Burlington. In 2003, they met in Hampton, New Hampshire, at Sharon and Sandy Buck’s. Carmen and Tom West hosted in Bend, Oregon, in 2004, and Lyn and Joel Barkman (’63 and ’64) welcomed everyone to Terrace, British Columbia in 2006. Last year: back to Burlington! R. Scott Severance and his wife, Wendy Glass Severance, also got together with old friends from UVM in August at their summer home on Lake George, New York. In attendance at the mini Sigma Nu reunion were Jerry Smith, Bob Morse, Norm Bohn ’64, Dick Lawson ’64, Paul Hurley, Bob Davidson ’64, and Bob Greco. Scott reports that “the stories have become more embellished, the laughs louder and the margaritas more plentiful.” Scott retired after a thirty-six-year career in the medical device industry, and he and Wendy have moved back to Glens Falls, New York. If you’re on Jerome Avenue in The Bronx, look for the Ustin Building, being dedicated in April in honor of Joan Klonsky Ustin, who is chair of the board at Monroe College, which is opening a business school for both undergraduates and MBAs.  Joan was also the driving force behind the creation of a state-of-the-art cancer hospice in Charleston, South Carolina, where she resides.

Send your news to—
Colleen Denny Hertel
colleenhertel@hotmail.com

1966

Once again our class column is too short. We’d all love to hear about what you’ve been doing, so please drop me a note with some news for the next issue. Stuart Freeman, a retired United States Army officer, also retired as vice president of General Reinsurance Corporation. He now lives in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and in New Hampshire. Stu and his wife Peggy (RPI), an RN, have three daughters Heather, Katie, and Andrea. They are planning major travel to Europe, Asia, and Australia. Retirement sounds just fine with them! Carol Jenne Pound who lives in the Phoenix area, is still affilatied with the Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau and is planning retirement to Rocky Point, Mexico, sometime in the future. That sounds like a great plan. Hope you all had a nice winter.

Send your news to—
Kathleen Nunan McGuckin
Class.notes@uvm.edu

1967

Neil Baker published The Quality of Light, a photographic memorial of the twenty summers he spent in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Neil’s book is available and reviewed on Amazon. When not vacationing on the East Coast, Neil  lives in California, where he is president of Baker Technology Associates, providers of automatic plating and wet processing equipment and systems. Tim Hayes, one of the most respected natural horsemanship clinicians in the Northeast, returned to UVM to teach and demonstrate his experience and knowledge of both human and horse psychology. It was a brief introduction to his program outlined on his website, www.hayesis forhorses.com. Tim introduced fourteen members of the UVM department of animal sciences, several of whom are members of UVM’s Dressage and Equestrian teams, to some of the concepts and principals of natural horsemanship, including communicating with body language; horse time vs. human time; and how to establish love, trust, and respect without force or intimidation. Tim said, “I loved UVM. It was great to finally be able to give something that I love back.” Check out more about Tim and his program on his website hayesisforhorses.com.

Send your news to—
Jane Kleinberg Carroll
jane.carroll@cox.net

1968

Send your news to—
Diane Duley Glew
ddgvt@comcast.net

1969

Send your news to—
Mary Moninger-Elia
rere1112@cox.net

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