Class Notes

NEWS OF 1948 - Reunion May 30-31

From Jean Baxter McCracken:

Many thanks to Kitty Heller Saugen Erickson for sending me her Christmas letter for the column.

Kitty and her husband celebrated their 13th wedding anniversary in Yuma, Ariz., at the beginning of the year. Sadly, her husband passed away on March 31, after a long bout with cancer and is buried in a military cemetery in Washington State. Kitty enjoys theater, concerts, hiking, and biking. July 14-15 of last year, she participated in the National Senior Olympics in Baton Rouge, La., where she won 1 gold and 2 silver medals in bicycle racing. Congratulations!!

Charley and I have been participating in building trips in Central America, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico for the past eleven years. We spend a week or two building churches, community buildings, clinics and whatever is needed. It's getting harder to do the block work, mixing concrete, etc., so we may not go again, but it has been interesting working and living with the natives of those countries. It was a great learning opportunity to experience other cultures.

Correction: Reported in the last column was a 75th anniversary party for Lorraine Egizio Jackson. In fact, it was for a birthday. Sorry, Lorraine.

NEWS OF 1947

From George Kirkpatrick:

After attending Lewis School of Aeronautics and several Air Corps schools, Robert (Don) Powell served with a troop carrier unit that participated in battles in Italy, France, and Germany. Don's C-47 plane later was converted into a glider pickup, which air-lifted the wounded from behind enemy lines.

After graduating from Moravian, Don was employed in the emergency department of Bethlehem Steel Corp. and retired as chief estimator from the Johnstown plant in 1984.

NEWS OF 1946

From Ada Zellner Flower:

We again have some sad news:

Ann Rosenau Smythe and Bill lost their eldest daughter, Ann Louise, to cancer in the fall of 2001. She is survived by her husband, a college-age daughter, and a 7-year old son. Ann says: "Though we mourn because Ann Louise can no longer be with us, we are thankful for the ways she enriched our lives and the lives of many others through her teaching, church work, and friendships." In December, Ann and Bill cruised from Valparaiso, Chile, to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Ann is a volunteer and president of the trustees of their library district. Bill continues to assist with services at St. Paul's in Fort Collins and is active in the local homeowners association.

Mary Titlow Harrison's husband, Jack, "a remarkable guy and a much-loved internist," died in November 2000, also of cancer. Mary is an elder in her Presbyterian church. She gets to Seattle frequently to visit her daughter Amy, a Presbyterian minister, and her young family. Mary's son John works at the Northwest Power Planning Council in Portland, Ore. His sons are college students. The eldest, Johnny, spent this academic year in Spain.

Phyllis Clark spent lots of time in 2001 overseeing cosmetic repairs to her 60-year-old home and is pleased with the result. Besides her continued activities at the Athenaeum, she volunteers in the library of a cancer unit at Strong Memorial Hospital, Rochester, N.Y.

Marian Emig Hoffman sent a picture of our class (maybe from our first reunion). We are all very conservatively dressed, wearing hats and hose with seams up the back!

B. J. Sullivan Ramsdell and Bob have traveled to Europe during the last 11 summers but stayed home this year.

Frank and I enjoyed a tour of Great Britain in August and September of 2001. We were there on 9-11. The Brits were very solicitous of us Americans at the time. The 9-11 events continue to haunt us here on Long Island.

NEWS OF 1945

From Jane Smith Ebelhare:

Eleanor Beidelman Kline helped judge the Christmas decorations in their subdivision this year. (This has become quite a competitive activity there, with substantial prize money awarded.) In March, she plans a weeklong stay in Weslaco, Texas, very close to the Mexican border. She hopes to see some new and interesting country there.

Alice Joyce Yeager's Christmas letter was a mine of information about children and grandchildren. Alice was pleased to have had a letter published in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune about Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Awareness Day—a subject that has not received a lot of coverage. One of her paintings was displayed in a show of art by her fellow condo residents. Despite serious eye problems and surgeries, her husband, Robert, was able to do his December lip-sync performance of Luciano Pavarotti doing the big aria from Puccini's Turandot.

Lois Moser Harke and her husband, Al, traveled to Harrisburg and had a wonderful Christmas with family. She still sings with several senior choruses, despite the fact that "our voices seem to get thinner and squeakier by the week." However, they sometimes sing for "other old people who don't seem to mind," she says. They planned to go to Waconia, Minn., to help a friend celebrate his 85th birthday in April and then to Ephraim, Wisc., one weekend in May. Their granddaughter Rachel graduated from high school in June in Bethlehem, so that was next on the schedule.

Andy and I have had an exciting, exhausting winter helping implement a series of major hunter, jumper, and dressage horse shows here in Florida, with 4,000 horses stabled on the grounds. We started in mid-January and went through the first week in April. Though it is great to see old friends, we're looking forward to getting back to peaceful Colorado!

NEWS OF 1944

From Jane Shirer:

Irene Lambert Eisenhart passed away in April 2001. She had retired as chairman of her high school's mathematics department and then, with the help of her husband and two daughters, overcome a stroke, cancer radiation treatments and chemotherapy, and a triple bypass operation. She was our top student, and we will remember her vitality and enthusiasm.

Kathy Bailer Stephens and her husband, Steve, moved from Texas to Williamsburg, Va., in December. Bud Eisenhart, Irene's husband, and his daughter Beth and her husband planned to visit them at Easter. Kathy and Steve spent time with their son David in Trinidad and later went to Costa Rica with six couples from their Texas bridge club.

Jim and Mary Lou Patton Phillips went on just one trip in 2001: to the Cleveland Clinic, where Jim had heart-valve surgery. It was successful; he was able to play golf all summer. This year Jim and Pat will attend an elderhostel on the Texas coast to study birds, then visit Jim's family in Corpus Christi.

Mary Inscho moved to a continuing care community in Lakeland, Fla., where she has lived since retirement. She volunteers at both the public and church libraries and helped move 11,000 books and 800 videos to the new library of the church.

Lucia Magill Weidknecht loves living in Maine, even with the snow and below-zero temperatures. Her teen-age granddaughter plays basketball, and Lucia and her daughter drive many miles to all the games. How about a green egg for breakfast?! Lucia has three hens that lay two brown and one green egg every day. The odd one is from a fancy breed called Aracana.

Marie Hekimian Alberian took time off from her many volunteer activities to visit her three young grandchildren in Worcester, Mass., after Christmas. She is co-president of her women's club and chairs a district conservation committee. In addition, she is mission chair, chaplain for the women's guild, and choir member at her church. In the summer, she enjoys living at her Ocean Grove house.

Dolph and Miriam Sachs Clachko moved from their home in Teaneck, N.J., to a condominium in the same town. Dolph retired seven years ago from his medical practice, which is being carried on by his son, Marc. He and Miriam spend winters in Florida, travel, and enjoy their two children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

NEWS OF 1943 - Reunion May 30-31

From the Alumni House:

Our sympathies to Mary Jane Schlegel Schofer and her family. Janey's husband, Jay, died January 14. We also extend condolences to June Bright Reese, whose husband, William, died in February.

NEWS OF 1942

NEWS OF 1941

We lost one of our classmates when Violet Kuhn Bushwaller died in February. She was active as president of the garden club and as a member of an antiques organization. She suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for many years and was in Country Meadows Nursing Home when she died. She will be remembered by her many friends for her sunny disposition and upbeat attitude despite her affliction.

I recently had a conversation with Jane Gottlieb Samuels, who is in the Augustan Lutheran Home in Brooklyn.

We have other members moving into retirement facilities. Ruth Cosgrove D'Aleo recently has moved into Luther Crest in Allentown. I made an error recently about her family: Cameron is her great-grandson, not her grandson.

Letty Cliff Shurskis lives at Stone Ridge Campus in Muerstown and stays active in the Lebanon Moravian Church, making sugar cakes.

Bob and Thelma Scheifele Heiberger are now in the personal care section of their Whitehall Saylor Drive facility. Bob recently broke his hip and was hospitalized.

Ruth Overfield Fidorack does a fantastic job as CEO of our 50+ class breakfast each year. She and Mike went on a Baltic cruise last summer but not on their usual Christmas expedition.

I went on three trips last summer and fall. One was to Scandinavia, with gorgeous Norway as the high point. Another was to eastern Canada, where we saw the Anne of Green Gables musical. The last one was to Kenya and Tanzania, where we petted a rhino and red giraffes and were on one of 25 safari vehicles that interrupted the romantic interlude of two lions. (No privacy for the poor things.) We also visited the island where the film Out of Africa was made. We were able to walk among the giraffes and other animals in that area because no predators live there. We also were entertained in a Masai village and saw hippos grazing on the hotel grounds at 3:00 a.m. It was truly the trip of a lifetime.

NEWS OF 1940

From the Alumni House:

We are still looking for a class correspondent. Interested? please contact the Alumni Office at 610 861-1366.

NEWS OF 1939

From Betty Batdorf Hummel:

One of the saddest things about growing older is losing people we've known and cared about for many years.

Annetta Keck Schantz passed away on December 12, 2001, and Muriel Souders Landis on February 24 in her home. I hadn't seen Muriel in a long time, but I remember what a genuinely lovely person she was. Their family and friends have our sincere sympathy.

Alice Snyder Wilson and Bob are happy and busy. Bob has quite a reputation as a fixer-upper, especially for clocks, and is in great demand. (Guard him closely, Alice. Good men like that are hard to find.) In November, their children hosted a 60th-anniversary party for them, with four generations present.

I spoke to Millie Diefenderfer Thompson on the phone recently. I'm going to Florida with Barbara and Allan, and we were trying to arrange a date to get together, but the times just didn't work out. Millie is arranging to spend some time with her two daughters in Switzerland, where she has rented a chalet.

How about some news from the rest of the Class of '39?

NEWS OF 1938 - Reunion May 30-31

NEWS OF 1937

From the Alumni House:

Berte Cohen has been enjoying her recent correspondence with Rita Shafer.

NEWS OF 1936

From the Alumni House:

We extend our sympathies to LaRue Giering Marsteller on the recent loss of her husband, Frank.

NEWS OF 1935