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Class Notes 1987 From the Alumni House: William Elston, a registered professional liability underwriter, has joined MarketStance as director of business development. MarketStance provides market information and analytical consulting services for the insurance industry. In this newly created position, Bill is responsible for growing revenues and advancing relationships with new and existing customers. In November 2004, Gary Long was promoted from vice president of operations to vice president and chief operating officer at Virtua Health, a four-hospital system in southern New Jersey. 1986 From James and Lynda Farrell Swartz: Hello to everyone. We hope that you are happy and healthy during these trying times. Our kids keep us running from place to place. Kaylyn is a very social 13-year-old. Jay loves playing ice hockey. Jamie coaches both his travel and scholastic-league teams. Never a dull moment around here! I saw several classmates recently at Gillian Buckley’s 40th birthday dinner. She looks great. Lauren Schaffernoth DeFuria, Donna Mackinshok Aslanian, Ali Bush, and Heather Apgar Murphy ’87 were all there, too. Not much news from them, but Heather did say she was successful in a recent half-marathon race. We see Shawn Higgins Schmitt, who is selling Southern Home Living. At her open house, I saw Lori Palinkas Wynne, Ann-Marie Frew Polakovic, and Tina Yurconic Marinos. Tina is a stay-at-home mother of Christina, 6, and Christopher, 2. Before she and her husband, Doug Marinos ’83, had their children, Tina was an elementary school teacher in Salisbury Township. Doug has a law practice in the Lehigh Valley. Lori Palinkas Wynne and her family are back in Pennsylvania. They recently opened a new restaurant, Bear Rock Café, in the Easton area. We see Penny Keck Kospiah from time to time because our kids go to the same school. She is busy with her two boys, and she just started a business selling Arbonne. We have seen Joan Reinhard at Penn’s Peak in Jim Thorpe, where she runs the gift shop and keeps it stocked with neat things. Joanna Dunn Scheirer is back in the States after spending time in Hong Kong. She and her family live in Bensalem, where Joanna is enjoying being a full-time mom. Lynne Jenkins Davis and her husband, Chris, live in Hopedale, Mass., with their children, Cameron, 8, and Melissa, 5. She and Joanna reported the sad news that Sharon Lucas Montalto died in March from a brain tumor, which she had fought for six years. Sharon and her family lived in Burlington, N.J. Joanna says Sharon’s husband, Tom, and their three sons, Tyler, Marshall, and Blake, are doing as well as they can during this difficult time. From the Alumni House: Kathleen Regan and Timothy Patterson were married June 11 in Duluth, Ga., where they live. Kathleen’s son, Michael, was best man. Kathleen’s sister-in-law, Christine Poll Mitchell ’90, was there, too. 1985 From the Alumni House: Tracy Geary Miller has a story in the upcoming anthology, Fenway Fiction: Tales from the Red Sox Nation. 1984 From the Alumni House: Gerri Vitovitch Hnatin and her husband, Nick, are busy and happy living in New Jersey with their five children, who are involved in sports, music, and scouts. Gerri is going back to school to follow her dream of teaching. 1983 1982 1981 1980 From Molly Donaldson Brown: Sorry I was MIA last edition. I hope to more than make up for my absence with a long column this time. Spring 2005 marked the silver anniversary of our graduation. Some celebrated the milestone with a visit to campus. I have to start off by admiring the dedication of Katherine Eaton and Woody Snyder for traveling the farthest: California and Iowa, respectively. I heard from a couple of you in the weeks before the reunion—many wanted to attend, but their schedules were crowded with other events. Perhaps in 2010? Those from our class at reunion included: Shari Miller Dunstan, Michelle Tillander, Mike Steinberger, Jim Artuso, Katie Farrell McDonald, Nina Richardson Daise, Fran Polito, Tracy Ivins, Chuck Rongione, Sam Skean, Margaret Couch, Jody Vinzant Rennie, Mary Beitler Beatrice and Mike Beatrice, Jane Paluda, Mary Clauser and Steve Granlund. Those with whom I caught up looked great and seemed pretty content in the paths their lives have taken. Fran Polito traveled from Jackson, N.J., where he is an administrative judge. Jane Paluda came from Jericho, Vt. She’s been my e-mail buddy lately as we swap stories about our careers in continuing education. She’s been working at the University of Vermont since 1998, when she and Richard, her partner of 20 years, resettled up north. Jane completed a master’s degree in public administration in 2004, when she earned an award for academic and professional achievement. Pals Anita Richardson Daise, Katie Farrell McDonald and Margi Ancon Hawkins attend Alumni Weekend annually, reunion year or not! (Margi was a student at Moravian when we attended. Her husband is Class of ’78.) They’ve continued the tradition of booking a room in the dorms for the past five years. Shari Miller Dunstan and her husband, Jim Dunstan ’78, live in Bethlehem Township. Shari works as an information consultant at Guardian Life Insurance. When not busy keeping up with her 14-year-old daughter, Kelsey, she teaches Sunday School, chairs committees, and serves on the Board of Elders of her church. Last year, the Dunstan family traveled to England, Scotland, and Wales. Mike and Mary Beitler Beatrice are busy raising two teenagers in Hatfield. At reunion time, daughter Valerie was in the middle of her college search, and their son, Sam, 14, was very involved in sports and scouting. Mary has trained as a tutor through the Norristown Literacy Council and has worked with adults pursuing reading and math skills. Mary’s brother, Bob Beitler, is an assistant corporate controller in West Chester. John “Woody” Snyder would have preferred to sail to the reunion. We’ve read about his exciting hobby in earlier columns as he has won regional and national sailboat races. He also organized the FJUS Eastern Regionals in 2003 and 2004. Woody lives in Ames, Iowa, and works at the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Ames Lab and as an associate professor at Iowa State University. He is also faculty advisor for ISU’s sailing club. It’s tough to edit down all that Michelle Tillander has been up to since Graduation Day. She is coordinator of Zoller Gallery at Penn State as she pursues a doctorate in art education. Michelle has 20-plus years of teaching experience in public education with an emphasis on curriculum development and implementation for artistically gifted children. For old times’ sake, Mike Steinberger joined my husband, Jeff, and me for a walk around North Campus. Mike has been married 17 years to Michelle; with their three sons, they live in West Chester, where Mike is a vice president at First National Bank of Chester County. As if three teenage sons aren’t enough to keep him young, Mike couldn’t resist the recent purchase of a 1969 Chevelle SS; he’s also started running regularly and says he lost 15 pounds in time for the reunion! Last summer, as the boys were working toward the Eagle Scout Award, Mike joined them at the National Scout Jamboree. He serves as a board member for their local scout council and president of the Paoli Battlefield Association (Revolutionary War). He’s also active in local, county, and state Republican politics. Yes, this is the same liberal Democrat Mike we knew in college! From classmates who could not attend the reunion: Robin Favreau Harley in Orwigsburg is in private practice after serving as staff attorney for the Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas for 20 years. She’s been married to her husband, Phil, since 1986. They have two children. Her favorite pastime is golf; she and her son Brendan often play together. Her 14-year-old daughter, Caitlin, shows no interest in golf, she says. Robin often runs into Cal Stoudt ’78 and occasionally sees Bob Koehler ’82. She asks: “ JoAnne Pope ’79, where are you?” Michael Fister and his wife, Barbara, have been married 23 years and live in Catasauqua. They have two teenage daughters, Sarah and Patricia. Mike is a music teacher in the Northampton School District and director of music at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Catasauqua. Rev. Angelo Maraldo wrote from Wilmington, Del. where he is director of development for the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. For eight years before that, he was a pastor in Fort Myers, Fla. He was last on campus in December 2004 attending the Christmas Vespers. Andrew Tanhauser lives in Nazareth and works at Volvo Cindy Greb e-mailed me in April: “From 1980 to 1990, I was very much an activist, trying to make the world a better place.” She admits that burnt her out a bit. “In 1990, I began a new career as a massage therapist. I had my own practice and worked in chiropractic and physical therapy offices.” During the next 10 years, Cindy got married and became a stepmother, lived in a beautiful Bucks County farmhouse and was certified as a body/mind Unergi therapist. By 2000, she was amicably, though sadly, divorced. She went back to school and in 2002 was ordained as an interfaith minister. “I’ve also reconnected with my love of art. I’ve had a few local shows and I’ve been blessed to find people who love my work enough to buy it.” In 2004, she moved to Oakland, Calif., just minutes from a beautiful bayside beach, to pursue graduate studies at the University of Creation Spirituality. “The next time you hear from me, I hope to have my master’s degree, had something wonderful published, and be gainfully employed somewhere in California, New Mexico, or maybe even Hawaii.” It was great to hear from Karen Catz MacDonald ’81 (mother of eight!). Her sons are now 22, 20, 16, 14, and 12; her daughters 10, 7, and 4. She and her husband, Chuck, are still home-schooling their school-age children. Two years ago, they became small-business owners by purchasing an independent pharmacy near Lehigh University. Their three oldest sons work there, too. The MacDonalds live in Bethlehem. What is home life like with eight children? According to Karen, “At any given moment, a visitor to my house will be entertained by drums, piano, keyboard, a variety of guitars, violin, or, most recently, saxophone. You might also hear Japanese being spoken or lines being rehearsed for a play.” My former roommate Julie LaBarre Webster sends greetings from Pittsburgh, where she continues to do social work for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Home Care. She and her husband, Geoff, enjoy watching their children, Tristan and Erin, grow. Julie, Geoff, and Tristan are working on their second-degree black belts in tae kwon do. Thanks to classmate Roberta Titus Edgar, I got the heads up that Russ Rentler would be performing at last spring’s Mayfair festival. Russ lives in Emmaus with his wife and two sons, 15 and 19. Russ described his performance as “the usual array of stringed instruments and songs about love, life and compost piles.” Russ went to med school after Moravian and was able to continue with his passion for music at the same time. He played at festivals, bookstores, open mikes, and churches as he practiced internal medicine. Three years ago, Russ closed his medical practice to pursue his lifelong passion for music. Still, he’s involved in short-term medical missions to Haiti, which he’s been doing for 10 years. Russ shared with us that he “recently returned to the Roman Catholic Church after 30 years” and credits that as having “had a profound and positive effect on my life.” Check out his website at www.russrentler.com and see if his schedule takes him to a location near you. You won’t be disappointed! Back to Berta: She got together with Susan Mantegari Hill in June as their families gathered for a party to celebrate the high school graduation of Amanda, Frank and Roberta’s daughter. Amanda is a member of the Class of 2009 at Lebanon Valley College. Nancy Lorenzo Baeder and husband, Keith ’79, and their three children make their home in Dublin, Ohio, where Nancy is a free-lance writer. Keith is vice president of marketing for MiracleGro, part of Scotts-Miracle Gro Co. The Baeders keep in touch with Mike and Brenda Merrill Jacobsen, John Matthes, Kevin McCabe, and John Otis. Kathy Hoderman Patterson wrote from Charlotte, N.C., where she lives with her husband, John, and their three children. She says they spend a lot of their time driving to and from and watching their kids’ sporting events. They have lived in North Carolina for 20 years now and try to get out as much as possible to enjoy its beaches and mountains. Kathy plays in several tennis leagues and volunteers for church and school activities. Terry Sonn Smollinger is a programming analyst at Roche Molecular Systems. She and her husband, Fred, moved back to Bethlehem in 1994. In 1998, their two sons were born just after she and Fred started Moravian’s M.B.A. program. Later that year, Terry was diagnosed with cancer, but we celebrate with her the fact that in December 2004, she was given a clean scan. The Smollinger identical twins, Max and Robert, are now in first grade. “We’ve had our ups and downs,” Terry writes, “but we made it through with our sense of humor intact and counting our blessings.” Married classmates Tim and Linda Allocco Mas write from Mendham, N.J. Linda is a homemaker and mom to their three children: Ashley, 19, an Ivy-Leaguer at Dartmouth College; Courtney, a cheerleader, gymnast, and high school senior; and Bradley, a soccer-playing high school sophomore. Tim continues to be a New York Giants fan (sorry, Jeff wanted me to add that) in spite of last year’s season. (Go Eagles!) He works in purchasing at Alliance Capital Management Co. Eileen Bleiler Koller checks in from York, where she is supervisor/owner of Koller Funeral Home and Cremation Center. After graduation, she was a teacher for a few years but went back to school to become a licensed funeral director. Eileen writes that she is dong well in her career, “but now divorced and open to dating!” She’s the proud mother of 15-year-old Jessica, who won a national figure-skating title in August 2004 and, as of this writing, was headed for the summer finals again in 2005. We might be watching her in the next Olympics! Jeff and I had the pleasure of the spending a Sunday afternoon in June at the beautiful home of Jeff Rohach ’81 and his wife, Jane. They live in Bethlehem Township, not far from Lehigh University. Geoff credits his wife for all the fabulous landscaping around their house, but we give him credit for the wonderful salad he made that afternoon. It was no surprise to learn that the younger of their two daughters was named the class clown for third grade last year. She inherited her parents’ great sense of humor! |
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