Class Notes

NEWS OF 1964
Reunion May 21-22, 2004

From the Alumni House:

Donna Hocker, who had been the business manager of a large Lutheran church, retired to Fayetteville two years ago and volunteers in the bookstore at the Lutheran Seminary in Gettysburg. Donna has three daughters: a doctor, a Lutheran minister, and a dressmaker. Her son is an engineer and fighter pilot for the Navy.

NEWS OF 1963

From Bill Leicht:

“Let the Good Times Roll” was the theme for the 40th reunion of the Class of ’63 in May. A huge downpour washed out the parade on Saturday—so much for the Corvettes driven by John Shigo and Harry ’64 and Genie Dooley—but did not dampen the spirits of the alums. Don Vogel brought the theme banner. John, from Maryland, made arrangements for the Corvettes from his National Corvette Association connections.

A great turnout brought folks from all over the country. Gary Sandercock and his wife, Donna, Marty Garcia and his wife, Eileen, and Don Egli flew in from California. Don Vogel and his wife, JoAnn, came from Cincinnati, and Carol ’64 and I made it in from Arizona.

Dave Cornelius, president-elect of the Moravian Alumni Association’s Board of Directors, came from his new home in North Carolina.

It was great seeing Grove and Ann Stoddard, down from Connecticut, and Chuck and Bonnie Stoltz, who are getting ready for Wimbledon tennis (to watch on TV, of course).

We were thrilled to see Stan (Stosh) and Gwynne Gilbert ’64 again, who both looked terrific.

Ted Meixell, who was able to tear himself away from the Morning Call for a day, was there with his wife, Judy. We missed Paul Reinhard, who Ted said was on assignment.

It was nice seeing Bill Pysher and Tom Grammes. Bob Dietrich and his wife, Stephanie, kept things lively at their table, and Bob said he had tried to coerce Tony Gawronski to return.

Pete ’62 and Judy SantaMaria (who worked on the reunion committee) looked great.

One of the highlights of my weekend was seeing Ken Sepe and Joe Castellano, both Class of ’61. We were roommates in the old OGO House during our sophomore year. I was originally a member of the ’61 class but took a two-year military hiatus.

A lot of OGO alumni attended the OGO meeting, had their picture taken, and welcomed six newly pledged brothers. After several years of expulsion, the OGOs are now, thanks to some very hard-working alumni, ready to grow back on the Moravian campus. A special thanks to Tony “Monk” Morelli ’59 and Pete Chimera ’88 for their alumni leadership.

Though they couldn’t attend the reunion, I had long telephone conversations with Jim Kelyman and Bill Hino. Jim and his wife, Carole, are retired and living in Sebastian, Fla. Bill and JoAnn live a short distance from us here in Scottsdale. Bill is retired but still does part-time work for the Oakland A’s and Arizona Diamondbacks.

I have digital pictures of the reunion that I can e-mail to anyone who would like them.

From the Alumni House:

Donald Vogel celebrated his 40th year with the American Lung Association in June. All Don and JoAnn’s daughters and their families, including seven grandchildren, live in the Cincinnati area.

Winnie Hearn Zeller has returned to the Lehigh Valley after an interesting career in early childhood education. She is running a drop-in program for middle schoolers called Just For Kids at Episcopal Church of the Mediator in Allentown.

NEWS OF 1962

NEWS OF 1961

From Sam Maczko:

Anita Filler Noonan, who teaches seventh grade in Morris Plains, N.J., still finds teaching a rewarding career and is not ready to retire, though her husband, Paul ’60, has been retired from education for three years. Paul works part-time in construction and enjoys hiking the Appalachian Trail. Paul and Anita have two children, both of whom were married in 2000. Their son Scott ’89 is a lawyer. Their daughter Erin graduated from the University of Delaware and is a reading specialist. She also is the mother of a baby boy, who is the Noonans’ first grandchild.

Barry Gaal resides in Bethlehem and is an associate vice president for business services at Lehigh University. Barry still enjoys golf and will join Joe Castellano, Ken Sepe, and me at the Gus Rampone Golf Scholarship Tournament. Joe, Ken, and I attended the OGO fraternity induction ceremony on March 17. Joe continues to be involved in the re-colonization of the fraternity.

Jeff Gannon teaches secondary social studies in the Woodlands, Texas, area.

John Bregman is looking forward to the wedding of his son, Keith ’95, in October.

NEWS OF 1960

From Peter French:

I’ve talked to Bob Russoli on the phone. He and Anita live in Mechanicsburg but are building a place in Naples, Fla., that should be finished by December. He has promised to drive up to Sarasota for golf with Tony Falco and me.

I’ve also been in contact with Joanne Mazur O’Such, who has retired from the College’s Board of Trustees after seven years.

Ted Wilde sent an e-mail saying all’s well in Miami, where he and his wife, Margaret, live. He is a pastor at Prince of Peace Moravian Church.

Dale Taylor in Canada has had a busy life since her Moravian days—living in Nicaragua in the ’60s and raising four children. She spent the ’70s back in Canada, teaching. In the ’80s, Dale returned to school and began a career with Shell Canada Ltd., winding up as a business analyst. Now retired, Dale travels, has done some teaching in Honduras, and rejoices in her five grandchildren. She also spends time in outreach work for the Moravian Church and some contract work for Shell.

Pam Parker Lange writes from Texas about raising two daughters in the ’60s with her husband, Jack, and finishing her degree at Southern Methodist University, where she eventually taught and went to graduate school before enrolling in Rice Institute’s publishing program. After a career with the Dallas public library system, where she wound up as marketing/publicity director, Pam has returned to teaching at SMU. She’s president of the Friends of SMU Libraries and an officer of the Faculty Senate. She saves time for two grandchildren.

We need to hear from more of you as we get ready for our 45th reunion in 2005.

NEWS OF 1959
Reunion May 21-22, 2004

From Kathy Werst Detwiler:

Pat Conover Deiner has been caring for her mother-in-law, who had suffered a very serious fall. Pat’s children are visiting family in Bulgaria, and another son is stationed in Okinawa. With our younger son in Iraq, I can relate to all Pat’s wishes for the speedy and safe return of our military. Wayne and I will travel to Germany in November to spend time with our son’s family.

Mary Lesin Machenzie Ayala visited Honolulu in May to celebrate her son’s birthday. We were not able to link up, since our trip took place in early June for our older son’s change of command.

NEWS OF 1958

NEWS OF 1957

From Pearl Stein:

My apologies to Carmella Carrescia, whose name was omitted from the group of friends who regularly hold a mini-reunion to attend the Moravian College Vespers in December. Prior to the trip to Bethlehem, Carmella has been a gracious hostess at her home in Roseto for Karen Johnson Berry and her husband, Harold, and Cornelia Schlotter.

Celebrating Founder’s Day at Moravian gave me the opportunity to remember our first year at Moravian College for Women. Dorothy Ruyak ’54 and Helen Varady Keyser ’55 assisted our gracious hostess, Mrs. Ervin Rokke, at tea, where we enjoyed Moravian sugar cake. A Lovefeast service was held in the chapel on South Campus.

Meridian West Fulton ’56, Beverly Bell ’56, Cornelia Schlotter, and I had the pleasure of being seated at lunch with John Weeren, Moravian archivist, who shared some of his ongoing research with us. Later, Nancy Zeleski Frantz ’53, and I took a tour of the beautiful new academic building.

Though Cornelia and I were the only members from the Class of ’57 attending Founder’s Day, we had the pleasure of greeting Anne Enright ’52, Lois Lutz Geehr ’54, and her husband, Frederic, Shirley Beck Dutt ’54, and Joan Landrock Schlegel ’55.

Cornelia and I have given oral histories of our memories of Moravian College for Women. If you’d like to share your memories of the first year at college, contact the Alumni House.

I would like to devote my next column to the men in our class—if I get some news from them!

NEWS OF 1956

It sometimes seems to Russell Conover ’60 that he never left Moravian. It seems that way to his wife, Janet, too.

“ Whenever he brought me down here,” says Janet, who went to the State University of New York at Brockport, “we’d be walking along and every professor we’d meet would go, ‘Hi, Russ, how ya doin’?’ ” Then one day a faculty member said: “Say, Russ, who put that keg into Comenius’ arms?” And then she knew why everyone seemed to know her husband. “Well,” he says, unabashed, “I was in the first pledge class of Sigma Phi Omega, and we had easy access to him.” A look at the College records shows that the giant bronze statue on the lawn of Comenius Hall was erected in 1960. Conover’s graduation year coincides with the discovery that the sculpture’s encircling arms are just the right size for . . . a keg of beer.

Russ and Janet Conover’s most recent visit to Moravian was in September for his installation in Moravian’s Athletic Hall of Fame as the winner of the 2003 Robert Martin Herbstman Award.

Sportsmanship and teamwork seem as natural as breathing to this genial retired football coach, who spent almost 40 years teaching (“everything from eighth-grade U.S. history to 12th-grade economics”) and coaching at Afton High School in rural New York. But he didn’t start out so sportsmanly or team-spirited. Janet’s first job out of college was teaching physical education and coaching field hockey at Afton High School, but she also was the cheerleading coach. “We clashed,” she says. “Those girls were the ruination of all my football players,” he responds. But someone with sharper eyes than either of them made them joint chaperones for a road game, and that was the beginning of events that led to a 32-year marriage, three sons, and a lifetime of laughter, to judge by their repartee.

Russ’s honor was given, in part, for sending so many students to Moravian. “I always brought kids down, starting in ’61,” he says. “And they were all good students. All of mine graduated. Nobody dropped out,” he finishes proudly. “And they weren’t just from our school,” says Janet, “but from the whole southern tier of New York State,” because Russ was a regional judge and athletics coordinator. “I just told ’em this was the best small school in America,” he says. “But then, I’m prejudiced.”

It didn’t come up at the Hall of Fame banquet, but Russ almost didn’t live to get the Herbstman Award. In his retirement, he helps a neighbor with an orchard to get his crops to a New York City farmer’s market every Tuesday. One of those Tuesdays was September 11, 2001, and his first stop happened to be the World Trade Center plaza, where he parked in the shadow of WTC II, across the street from Hook and Ladder Company No. 10 at just about 9:00 a.m.

“ I happened to look up, and there was fire and stuff coming at me,” he says. “Then I heard a tremendous explosion.” What he remembers most is millions of pieces of office paper floating down and tangles of recording tape all over the windshield and wreathed around the aerial of his truck. Later he realized it was from office answering machines. Russ had backed into his parking space, which he thinks is the only reason he came out alive. A piece of debris whacked him on the arm and broke his wrist, but it didn’t stop him. He jumped into his truck, hopped the curb, and peeled out of there while other vegetable and fruit hawkers were trying to back out and turn around. Because of the chaos and jammed circuits, he couldn’t call home until after noon, and when his friend the farmer heard his voice, “he actually started crying,” Russ says. Not until late afternoon, when the city opened the top tier of the George Washington Bridge, could he start home.

Later in the week, he realized he was still carrying two boxes of apples in his truck. The red ones had been burned. The yellow ones were fine, until he bit into one. It tasted like kerosene. The apples had been marinating in jet fuel. “Being a history teacher, you want to be a part of history,” he says, “but not in that fashion.”

- Judith Green