1948

Joan Sittner Sherwood recently celebrated her 89th birthday. She has been busy getting her 51-year-old Mid-century modern church on the Washington State Historical Building Registry and bringing the church history up to date since 1995. Gari Paticopoulos is expecting her first great-grandchild this spring. Gari’s grandson and his wife live in Shanghai, and she visits them once a year. Viola Abrams Petterson of Coburg Village, Rexford, N.Y., had her first great-grandchild, a girl, recently. Betty Brignull of Valatie, N.Y., keeps a low profile and has been slowing down, but enjoys keeping up with classmates through class notes. Adrienne Iorio Caruso of Saratoga Springs still drives and enjoys traveling to nearby states with her friends. Lucille St. Priest is recovering from a major illness; she and her husband remain in their home in Forestburgh, N.Y. Wanda Tomasik Methe lives with family in Cohoes, N.Y. Eleanor Holbig Alland has lived at Ávila Retirement Community for 11 years now. She’s still active, drives her own car and does volunteer work.

Class notes councilor: Eleanor Holbig Alland, [email protected]

1949

A note from your class councilor: Three members of our class have passed away: Al Beninati, May 2015; Marie Fernandes Lowenstein, May 2015; and Ellen Fay Harmon, September 2015. Ellen attended our past three reunions and was a very active, creative member of our reunion committee. She will be sorely missed by the remaining members. Jake Schuhle and wife Betsy Franks Schuhle attended the wedding of their great-granddaughter, Jocelyn, in southern Maryland last spring. Jocelyn and her husband are seniors at Cedarville College in Ohio. It looks like Jocelyn is following in the footsteps of Betsy, who also got married before graduating! Jake and Betsy celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary in September. Betsy pointed out that Harry O’Meara and wife Carol Scutt Meara, who retired to Jensen Beach, Fla., also married in September, just before their senior year began.

On July 4, Bonnie Totten Adkins and husband Lee enjoyed a family reunion of 22 members. Lee’s family surprised him with a celebration at the family cottage on Lake Champlain on Labor Day weekend. Their grandson, Joe, was home for Christmas following a two-month tour of Europe with the Orkesta Mendoza. Ursula Neuhaus Schiff lives in a retirement community in Sarasota, Fla., and is in generally good health. Her two sons are based in California and visit her a couple of times a year. One, David, has retired from the wireless-communication field and is now trying his hand at substitute teaching. Richard Foster, also living in Sarasota, is a member of a choral group. He played a piano duet with the choral director in a recent production of The Follies.

Jerry Reisner and wife Estelle live in Meadville, Pa., and say, “It is a gift to still be around.” Estelle still works two or three times a week. This past year they decided that having 10 family members and two dogs around was too much for them, so they downsized to two children and 1 dog. Jean Pulver Hague is still counseling families about educational options. She has seven grandchildren and as of last June, one great-granddaughter. Two grandchildren will be graduating from college in May – one from Claremont McKenna in California and one from the University of Connecticut. Jean’s brother, George Pulver, whom many of her classmates knew, passed away in August. He was a judge in Catskill, N.Y.; his ceremonies were wonderful. Jean and her family are so very proud of the legacy he left in the community. “Freddy” Laemmerzahl Miller recently visited her son in San Francisco, where she enjoyed lunch with Bob and Diana Kittredge’s son, David. Freddy still lives in Stillwater, Okla.

Bob Kittredge and wife Diana had a very busy 2015: Their two granddaughters were married in California; Bob and Diana’s grown children threw them a surprise 60th wedding anniversary party in July; and, in August, they celebrated Diana’s 90th birthday at the Hunan Chinese Restaurant in Fresno, Calif., with 70 friends and family members. Bob continued cheerleading as a member of the Senior Dog Squad at the Fresno State football games this past fall. His and Diana’s first great-granddaughter, Eva Grace, was born in November. Gloria Maistelman Herkowitz’s grandson married in December; he is doing a medical residency in Philadelphia and his wife is a dental student at the University of Pennsylvania. Sadly, Gloria reported her husband passed away in September.

Ann Sulich Raser recently visited her hometown, Endicott, N.Y., after a hiatus of 20 years. She resides in Los Angeles and is very pleased that her three grandchildren have relocated there from Atlanta. Bob Kloepfel celebrated his 90th birthday; his buddy Jack Kirby, who lives in Florida, is doing fine. Joe Zanchelli and wife Joyce are looking forward to their youngest grandson’s college graduation in May. The Class of 1949 reunion committee and spouses met for lunch in Albany for a “keep-in-touch” get-together in the fall. Those in attendance were: Bonnie Adkins and husband Lee; Joe and Joyce Zanchelli; Dick Zeller; and Loida VeraCruz, assistant director of Alumni Programs. Ellen Fay Harmon was sorely missed. Only 32 contacts are on Joe’s Class of ’49 email list. If you would like to be on the list, contact your class councilor.

Class notes councilor: Joe Zanchelli, [email protected]

1950

Earlene (Ken) Thomson Sorensen passed away in April. Irwin Baumel, age 91, and Elise DeSeve, age 86, are in good health. They spent two days in Budapest, Hungary, and enjoyed a UNIWORLD riverboat cruise to Amsterdam. They plan to go on another European tour. Susan, daughter of Audrey Koch Feathers and husband “Dick,” is director of the Eric R. Neisser Public Interest Program at Rutgers Newark Law School. Audrey and Dick taught at Rutgers University College for over three decades. Susan created the first public/pro bono interest program at Brooklyn Law College. She previously taught at Yale and Stanford law schools, and was assistant dean at the University of Pennsylvania Law School for nine years.

Ken George created his 26th annual program of secular and traditional Christmas music and story, which was performed at a New Scotland, N.Y.-area Methodist church. Lila Lee Harrington recently flew to Arizona to visit her daughter, Leslie. Highlights included a day in Sedona with lunch at the Enchantment Inn, and a baseball game at the Cubs Club. Lila has enjoyed day trips to Vermont, Canada, and Maine with her friend Madge, and recently drove to Oneonta, N.Y., to visit Maggie Hosking Winne and a grandniece. Lila stayed busy with the sale of her Copeland Pond Cottage, the “end of an era” and family get-togethers at the cottage. She totaled her car in an accident last October, but no one was injured. She chose not to replace her car, as there are multiple ways of getting around the Prestwick Chase community in Saratoga Springs. She stays active with newspaper writing, Bingo, aerobics three times a week, poetry club, and Book Chat, to name a few. She also joined a Bible-study group at the Grace Fellowship Church.

In September, Marjorie Lyons flew from her home in Florida to Indianapolis to visit her daughter, Gail Harpold, and son-in-law, Marty. She traveled with them to Kankakee, Ill., for Marjorie’s great-granddaughter’s third birthday celebration, and to visit her other great-granddaughter, year-old Quinn. Marjorie continues to teach memoir-writing at a weekly session in Pompano. Five of the participants have completed and published their books. Marjorie’s company, Telling Your Story, has completed editing and publishing the eighth book of memoirs for a client. “I thought I was finished with this work, but they still call me and I say yes,” she says. Marjorie produced a play at her church, All Saints Episcopal in Fort Lauderdale, for the 10th year. The play, En Avant! An Evening with Tennessee Williams, was written and performed by William Shuman and won the 2013 NYC International Fringe Festival Solo Performance Award and received rave reviews from critics.

Malcolm Slakter and his wife, Nancy, are still enjoying life one day at a time. Since Malcolm’s traveling days are over, they keep in touch with children and grandchildren with Facetime and texting. They visited with their younger son and two grandchildren last June. Malcolm is continually amazed that he is still alive and delighted that many classmates are, too. He and Nancy wish everyone good health, happiness, and an “aloha” from Hawaii.

Harold “Sparky” Vaughn’s 13th great-grandchild, Maxwell, was born in December. Sparky’s grandson was recently married at his daughter’s home in Shelburne, Vt. Sparky continues to develop an anti-human trafficking project in Thailand and Laos, which requires raising about $400,000 to finance it. He recently spent two months in Florence, Italy, with a group of D.C.-area Rotarians for a Capital Cities Exchange with Rotary Appia Antica. He attends monthly chamber music concerts at the Cosmos Club.

Class notes councilor: Harold Vaughn, [email protected]