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FACULTY NEWS 9-18-20

When we got additional information from Andrea Lehmann about her father, Duane, Ned shared it with Marylou Anderson. After all, Marylou's memory of having met Duane, with a school friend of hers, out in New Mexico in the late '60s, had provided one of the major mysteries about Duane we addressed in his memorial. Andrea helped clear that up—Duane was indeed stationed at an AFB in Albuquerque then. So, Ned passed this info on to Marylou and they exchanged a few emails, and we caught up with Marylou a bit.

Since this has been the Year of the Plague, she has done far less than her usual amount of traveling and visiting with family in recent months. She's able to visit with women friends, and some of her family lives close by. Marylou lives in the Raleigh-Durham area of NC. Son Nick lives in Carrboro (9 miles away) and they manage brunch every Sunday and see each other in between some. She managed a trip to Hilton Head with daughter Cate—who used to live in Larchmont, and I met her when I was trying to find Larz and Marylou, years ago. Cate and her husband Gregg live in CT now, and have a house in Hilton Head. Their younger daughter, Olivia, is a senior now at Duke; Olivia's older sister is living at  home with her parents. Having Olivia around has been a treat for Marylou, they'll be sad when it comes to its end.

Fergie's long-term partner, Bill, found someone new, George, about 18 years after Fergie died; they live in NYC, have been married since it became legal, Marylou is still close to them, and occasionally goes up there to dog-sit when they travel. Not this year, though! She does not need to go to New York for canine companionship, she has her own dog, Pinto, whose walks constitute a large part of her outdoor activity these days.

Marylou is really proud of her grandkids. She offered this summary: "My very bright grand daughters have all graduated with honors or above, one has her PhD in Creative Writing/Poetry; one is getting a Master's in Art in Education, and another is about to go back to school to get a degree in Physical therapy. Olivia at Duke will graduate with some kind of honors too. Only 2 other grandkids are still in college, one is in grad school in Chicago, and another is planning to go to grad school next fall."

She gave us an update on Larz. He's not doing so well, he has been in an assisted living community in Dallas (where their daughter Carey lives) for several years, suffering from dementia. He's living in the "memory care unit," which specializes in residents with memory loss. He enjoys rolling around the halls in his wheelchair, which he uses because he broke a hip in 2019. Recently he was found with a gash in his head (wheelchair accident?) and while they were stitching that up they found he had broken his other hip. So, he no longer walks. He has had to stay in quarantine and no one can visit him, neither Carey nor the live-in helper who had been caring for him. They tried "Face Chats" a few times (before the quarantine) but with his mental state, he quickly stops paying attention to the computer, so that's not been much use. She has not been able to visit him since last Christmas, due to the virus, and really doesn't know how he's doing at present. Marylou reminded us that she and Larz were divorced in 2007, but he's still part of her family. It's difficult.

Marylou is also very worried about the election. She's for Biden, she finds armed Trump supporters roaming the streets scary (duh) and has both sent money to several Democratic Senate candidates and looked to volunteer (within plague-imposed limits) for Biden in her home state, NC, which looks like it could be a key swing state.

For those of us who don't think we're "old" yet, hear this from Marylou. "I tell people that I like animals more than I like most people. One woman I don't know really well said, "well it doesn't seem that way".   I do act pleasant to people, but if necessary, I'll let them have it!  Being old you can get away with things that younger people can't!" So, there's something we can all look forward to….


 

FACULTY NEWS 12-3-19

Ned received an update from Marylou Anderson, which reads as follows:

Good to hear from you.   I'm still chugging along.  I seem to be busy all the time.  My biggest news is that I got a "new" dog a month ago.  He's 2 years old, very cute, and sweet, but a little naughty.  Chews anything he can get his mitts on to bits!

My son Nick and I will spend Christmas in Dallas.  And Nick's daughter Sydney - who is in Chicago getting her masters at the Art Institute of Chicago will be there too.  While there we will celebrate Larz's 85th birthday.

Hope you are doing well. Love, Marylou


 

FACULTY NEWS 7-8-16

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Jim and Peggy Wright were in Boston in early May and Ned and Jim got together for lunch. They were en route to Maine for the summer, stopped in Jamaica Plain to take care of a couple of grandkids for a week while Peggy's daughter and son-in-law attended an out-of-town conference. Jim was going on ahead up to Maine to open up the house. The Rabbi is still vigorously active, though slowed down a bit by arthritic hips; he stopped to stretch every block or two, but doesn't want to even think about having the joints replaced. He also wears sunglasses whenever he's outdoors, not to dodge the paparazzi but because cataract surgery a few years ago left his eyes ultra-sensitive to UV rays.  Back home in NC, life goes on, Peggy has now retired and has experimented a bit with new ways to keep busy, hasn't yet found just the right thing but probably will. Jim continues to sing, plays the trumpet in a community orchestra, teaches philosophy courses to adults in the Duke Lifelong Learning Institute (which he enjoys a lot!) and is on an IRB for the Duke medical school. He groused that Duke had dropped him from one of the two review boards he was on (suddenly discovered a rule that forbids multiple memberships) and that the museum in Searsport where he is a docent in the summers is also cutting back, as budgets everywhere seem to be shrinking. We lunched at an Italian bistro in Back Bay and reminisced about Darrow; I was working on the memorial for John Spencer, he recounted again how Diana's father had tried to get him fired back in 1961. Jim and Peggy stopped in Connecticut to see Becky and her husband en route up to Boston. Daughter Debbie and ex-wife Sarah are still out in Ohio, and Anne, her husband Pete and their  kids are still out in Bellingham, Washington, so Becky is the only child he's seen recently. The invitation to visit them in Searsport remains open.  I snapped this not-so-great photo of the Rabbi at Copley Square with my phone  -- at least it shows he was there!

 

 

 


 

FACULTY NEWS 4-1-16

Book Review

The Quebec Affair

By Robert Penbrooke

(Charles D. Brodhead, Jr.)

 

This marks a new departure for our class web site—a venture into literary criticism.Description: C:\Users\Ned\Desktop\scan0001.jpg

Some months ago, I heard from Charles Brodhead, Jr.—Darrow '53, although he finished up at Andover before following his father to Princeton—that he had published a novel, his first, I believe,beginning a new career late in life and writing under the pseudonym of Robert Penbrooke. Sensing a new late-in-life career possibility for myself, I offered to review his book for this medium (with its audienceof, what, 40 people), if he'd send me a free "review" copy. He agreed, and I recently finished reading it, and here, as promised, is the review.

The book is of the thriller genre, set as its title implies mostly in the province of Quebec in the early 1980s. The protagonist, an outwardly mild-mannered lawyer named John Thurmond, has a secret past: Fresh out of college and in the Army in the '70s, he was recruited by the CIA and sent on a mission to China, where he received nuclear secrets (re fusion energy methods) from a Russian scientist in Beijing who was hoping to defect to the West. John then tried to escape China via Vietnam, planning to join the American evacuation then under way. But his escape route was blocked by the chaos in Cambodia as the Khmer Rouge overran that country. In Phnom Penh he befriended an agent of the French government, Louis Xenon. John, sure he was being tailed by Chinese agents, handed off the nuclear secrets to Louis, and they planned to meet again once each was safely home. Louis eventually escaped unscathed, but John was captured and tortured—not by Chinese but by Russian agents. He narrowly escaped and eventually made it home, only to find the CIA unwilling to talk with him and apparently uninterested in the secrets he had made such a sacrifice to obtain.

All that is told in flashback. As the novel opens, eight years later, John has finally made contact with his CIA handler and is off to meet with him. After getting a lame explanation—bureaucratic dysfunction—for the long delay, John is told that the government, and a Canadian physicist who is apparently a partner of the CIA, does indeed want those negatives. But Louis, now living in retirement in Le Havre, still has them, having never heard from John with the coded message that he was to deliver them. John sends the message, Louis travels to North America with the negatives, John leaves his wife and child behind in the Philadelphia suburbs, and the two of them—and a large cast of other characters—embark a whole new set of adventures. As one might expect, the Russians still desperately want those nuclear secrets, and Louis is followed across the ocean by an unscrupulous Soviet agent who will, dare I say, stop at nothing to prevent the West and NATO from gaining an advantage in the quest for fusion power.

The story then jumps around rapidly from place to place, from a cabin the the White Mountains of New Hampshire, to Montreal and Quebec City, to a farm on the coast of Nova Scotia and a nuclear power plant in the frozen sub-arctic of northern Quebec, with many stops in between and a lot of shuttling back and forth.  Eventually, good (mostly) triumphs over evil, but only after innumerable close calls and suspenseful plot twists as the multiple agencies and actors pursue their objectives and each other like gangs of somewhat deranged cats and mice.

I won't spoil the suspense for those of you who'd like to read it yourself. And I recommend it, though if I'm to be a literary critic, I'd better make some criticisms. The book is a fairly compelling read—one does want to know how it will turn out. But it's not exactly a page turner; it moves rather slowly, and the plot had far too many twists and turns for my taste. Just when I'd sense that it was time for resolution, the story would jog off up another side canyon. There are too many characters, and many of them are essentially cardboard cutouts. Some of the plot lines are trite—damsel in distress, plucky youth escaping danger through wit and grit—and the tragic death of one of the more sympathetic characters is tipped off far in advance (the unalloyed happiness that befell this character does not fit into the bleaker, more cynical world view that undergirds the novel as a whole.) The author's use of images often left me groaning, laughing or both ("The sarcasm in Russian's voice was thicker than sour vichyssoise, but only half as smooth.") Several sub-plots are dead ends—for instance, a number of characters belong to Parti 17, the Quebec separatist movement of the 1980s, and the author implies that it was influenced, if not controlled, by the KGB—but that is not fleshed out, ultimately goes nowhere and adds little but confusion.

On the other hand, the novel has some impressive strengths. The writer's sense of place is powerful; he makes you see and feel the rock-strewn mountain trails of New Hampshire, the windy promontories of Nova Scotia, the Montreal street scene, the insides of a nuclear plant, the bleakness of a sub-arctic blizzard. He seems intimately familiar with the structural details and mechanical quirks of half a dozen different car models and several small aircraft featured in his story. Although brief, the early scenes of chaos as Phnom Penh succumbed to the Khmer Rouge onslaught rang true. One particular passage, about a bird perched in a bush outside a character's window—describing it in detail and identifying it as a pine siskin—reminded me very much of the author's father (a connection many Darrow alumni, but probably few other readers, would "get.")

If you'd like to buy and read the book, you can order if from the publisher's web site, https://www.promontorypress.com/books/79/the-quebec-affair

And if you'd like to correspond with Charlie, you can reach him at: rpenbrooke2@gmail.com.

 


 

FACULTY NEWS 2-18-16

The Sutherlands are still thriving in the Chicago suburbs. Don attended his 65th high school reunion last year, and tutors middle school students on Chicago's West Side (in math). Marie is retired but busy at home. Their kids and grandkids are nearby. Janet runs a PR/marketing business, Sutherland Media, and lobbies for the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, which entails regular trips to Washington. She and her boyfriend moved into a condo only about 20 minutes from Glen Ellyn, which has a pool, and became a weekend resort for Don and Marie in hot summer months. Mark is a developer who builds apartment complexes, and is finishing one in Wicker Park, another Chicago suburb, where he, his wife, Elena and their two daughters will live on the top floor. The girls, Ella and Maya, 7 and 5, are highly skilled at entertaining their grandparents. On a sad note, they lost Don's brother, Bob, to cancer last year, but they are looking forward to the biennial Sutherland family reunion, coming up in August. They are also planning to drive back to Darrow for reunions, this year or next; Ned encouraged them to aim for 2017 and help us celebrate our 55th.

 


 

FACULTY NEWS 9-6-14

Visit with Dick & Sue Nunley, August 27, 2014

Ned was in Seattle on a business trip in August and drove down to Portland one day to see Dick and Sue Nunley. They are now living in a retirement community called Willamette View, which, logically enough, sits on a bluff overlooking the Willamette River. Ned arranged the visit through contact with Dick and Sue’s daughter Felicity, who also lives in the Portland area but wasn’t able to join this gathering. As Felicity puts it, her parents are both healthy and doing well, although the one thing the seem to have trouble with is scheduling things. So it was very nice to have Felicity to make the arrangements.

Ned found them as advertized, quite well and in good cheer (although Sue had fallen, last week, and had a black eye to show for it, but was otherwise unscathed.) They are quite comfortable in their apartment and feel like it’s the right place for them at this stage. We had a nice lunch at their place (catered by the kitchen downstairs), and shared a variety of news and reminiscences. Their visit last summer to Phyllis Howard’s camp in the Adirondacks marked the 42nd consecutive summer they had visited there. They reported having seen Larry von Meter and Stephen Durfee in Portland in recent months, and Dick shared the sad news that Jonathan van Vorst (Darrow ’60) died, of cancer, a couple of weeks ago.

Before Ned headed back to Seattle, a few photos were taken, the best of which appear below. (Mount Rainier is on the way—sort of—between Seattle and Portland, and Ned passed through the National Park on his way down.)

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FACULTY NEWS 9-6-14

Ned heard from Dick Nunley's niece Carolyn, that Dick and Sue are planning a trip east this summer, and sent an e-mail or two to see if they could time it to attend reunions. For some reason Dick did not respond by e-mail but sent a letter, and since Ned had not put his snail-mail address in the e-mail he sent, Dick sent his letter to Darrow to be given to him at Reunions. Which it was.

Obviously, the Nunleys did not make it to Reunions. Dick called it a case of “so-near-yet-so-far.” Though he did not say exactly when the trip is, it appears that the dates are locked in (tickets purchased) and their stops are all pretty remote from anyplace where we might gather to honor them.

Dick and Sue will first go to Portland, ME, to visit his brother and sister-in-law (Carolyn’s parents), whom they haven’t seen for a couple of years. Then they’re going to Phyllis Howard’s camp in the Adirondacks; he said it will be the 42nd or 43rd time they’ve been there. They’ll stay for just a few days. They depend on the kindness of their younger relatives, who can spend only limited time away from jobs, etc., to chauffeur them around.

Re life in general, Dick said that the move into the retirement community “got everything quite mixed up,” but I gather they are adjusting. It’s called Willamette View (http://www.willametteview.org/) and he says it’s quite spectacular, perched on a bluff, in a rich natural habitat, filled with songbirds. The address: Willamette View is 12705 SE River Road, Portland, OR, 97222, and they are in Apartment 317N.

Ned will explore the feasibility of going up to the Howards’ camp and let everyone know the timing and details, if he learns anything useful.

 


 

FACULTY NEWS 4/18/14

Carolyn Cairns, who worked for Ned at CU, and who is Dick's niece, tells him that Dick and Sue Nunley are well and have just moved to an assisted living place in Portland, one which they seem to like very much. They are planning a trip East this summer, according to Carolyn, who also reports that their health is "maintaining."

 



FACULTY NEWS 3/16/14

Here’s Ned’s summary of Jim & Peggy Wright’s holiday newsletter:

As has been their routine, the Wrights split their year between NC and Maine. The photos here are of the Maine coast (no surprise) and the greenhouses at the Biltmore estate in Asheville, a destination they visited. Peggy’s daughter Kathryn, who has lived in Asheville for several years, got a job in Boston with a 6-month probationary period, and rather than move the whole family up there for half a year with no guarantee, she has left the grandkids in Asheville, in Peggy’s care.  Jim remains in Durham (other than in summertime) and commutes to Ashville. This arrangement is scheduled to resolve around the end of February. Jim is teaching three courses at the Lifelong Learning Institute at Duke, still doing IRBs for the Medical School, singing with the Community Chorale and playing trumpet (who knew, back in the day?) with the New Horizons Band. But he feels more at home in Searsport, he says, where he worked again this year as an interpreter at the Penobscot Museum –which he encourages us to “visit” by taking an online virtual tour.  Maine weather was “glorious” this year, especially fall/Indian summer. Peggy & the grandkids were there for a couple of months and planted a vegetable garden that fed Jim bountifully, after they went back to Asheville in August. Jim closed with a paragraph about the sensuous pleasures of the Christmas season—a whiff of balsam fir, simmering butternut squash soup, choirs singing, organs and brass ensembles playing, hand bells ringing, Christmas lights against the snow, hot buttered rum, cranberry wine….too bad he couldn’t enclose those in the letter! He invites us all to visit him in Maine in late summer and share the vegetables!

 


 

FACULTY NEWS 12/23/13

RECENTLY, Ned got an e-mail from a complete stranger in California, Dennis Holmes, who described himself as a hobby genealogist. Holmes had been going through a diary kept by his wife's grandmother when she was a student at Vassar, during World War I. In it he found a pair of folded, yellowed news clippings, reporting that T. Guthrie Speers had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for bravery under fire in France. The clippings were from a Montclair, NJ newspaper. Both the grandmother and Guthrie grew up in Montclair, and Holmes surmised that they had known each other there. Holmes did some internet research, found our memorial for Guthrie, so he scanned the articles and sent them to Ned, thinking we might be interested and/or in touch with the family. Ned is, in fact in touch with Hat Savage, Arthur's widow; Arthur's sister Susan was married to Guthrie's son, TGS Jr. So the family now has a copy of the clippings, and we know a few more details about Guthrie's heroism. (According to the citation, Guthrie, a chaplain with the troops, carried a wounded officer to safety through a barrage of artillery and machine-gun fire.) The story also has a picture of Guthrie in uniform, ca. 1918. If anyone wants a copy of the scanned articles, ask Ned.

 


 

FACULY NEWS 7-25-13

Patrick Evans attended Reunions in 2013. You can see that reunions report here.

Don Beaver attended Reunions in 2011 and 2012.

Jim & Peggy Wrights attended oue 50th Reunion.


 

FACULY NEWS 3-5-13

Marylou Anderson tells Ned that on a drive to Dallas (and then Santa Fe) last Christmas, she saw Larz Anderson. He's doing ok, she reports, but his memory is worse than ever.

FACULTY NEWS 12-12-12

Steve Jones sent this holiday card, with a somewhat cryptic message (reproduced below, since it’s kind of hard to read). Steve, Betty and Will still live in Sandwich, MA, PO Box 1932, 02563, for those of you who’d like to get in touch.


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FACULTY NEWS 10-19-12

Marylou Anderson was prompted by news of Des McCracken (below) to share a memory from her years at Darrow. When Des moved from his apartment in Ann Lee up to Valentine Cottage (this was probably in summer 1960), the movers used a flatbed truck to transport his piano. Des sat on the piano bench and played the piano, on the truck, as it made its journey up the school road.

Marylou is enjoying lovely fall weather in NC and visiting colleges with her granddaughter Sydney, who is a senior in high school. Sydney will be going to college in NC to take advantage of in-state tuition and hopes to major in geology/environmental science. Marylou is often in touch with Ken O'Brien (Class of 1961), who is a cousin of Larz's.




FACULTY NEWS 10-19-12

Des McCracken is recovering from a fall that broke five ribs, last July. Des is now 81, and lives in the enhanced assisted living section at the Village on Laurel Lake, 600 Laurel Street, Lee, MA 01238, telephone #413-243-4747. He is hanging in there and doing OK, considering his age and what he has been through in the last couple of years. For anyone interested in visiting (Des would love it!), Laurel St. is US Route 20, and the Village is a few miles south of Lenox and a few miles north of the exit for Route 20 from the Mass Pike. BTW, the Village never heard of "Des" McCracken; he is "James" to them.


 

FACULTY NEWS  6-28-12

F:\NED'S PHOTOS\Darrow '62\Faculty\Swenson\at 62's40th.jpgSteve Swenson had hoped to come down for the reunion, but life got in the way. That weekend was the Mount Washington Road Race, and Steve and Sally had relatives visiting, and it was just not possible for him to get away for the day.  I spoke with him afterwards and he said he and Sally are both still healthy and very active, mostly riding their bikes. He said they had visited Darrow earlier this year en route home from a trip, but it was over spring break and hardly anyone was around. Steve said their older son, Peter and his wife are expecting their first child (Steve said “a grandson,” if I can believe my notes) this summer, and their younger son, Carl, is getting married in September. He commented that they both waited a long time—both are in their 40s now—but they picked the right people to marry. Steve said he will scope out our class web site for a report on the reunion, and I urged him to send us a recent picture.

F:\NED'S PHOTOS\Darrow '62\Faculty\Aiken\scan0003.jpgWe have heard from two former teachers who could not make it to the reunion, but sent best wishes.  Bill Aiken was in transit from his home in Blacksburg VA to his summer place on Cape Cod on reunions weekend, but said he had spent a lot of time on our web site, which he described as a “labor of love.”  Bill, who is about 80 now, reports that he’s in pretty good health, with only occasional lapses in balance and memory. He spends half his days picking up food from restaurants for a local food pantry, and half his nights playing “NY style lounge piano” at three or four assisted living facilities, entertaining the residents with songs made famous by Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughn, etc. He also plays tennis a couple of times a week with other guys his age. He describes the amenities of his summer home as “an ocean, a bay, and a tennis court—all that a young man might want.” If you’d like to contact Bill, try writing him a letter—he still practices that ancient art form. His summer address is 85 North Pamet Road, Truro, MA, 02666; his address in Blacksburg is 905 Preston Ave., Blacksburg, VA, 24060.


 

FACULTY NEWS 5-4-12

Steve Swenson called Ned to say he will be attending our reunion.  He and Sally still live in North Conway, NH, in their 1848 farmhouse. They are both fully retired, but quite busy with activities in the community. Steve said he will be attending his own 60th reunion at Exeter this coming weekend! He will be coming by himself ours; the Mount Washington “Run to the Clouds” is that Saturday, and they have friends coming in from Alaska, so Sally will stay at home. But Steve plans to come down Friday night to Williamstown, stay with Sally’s relatives there, and ride his bike over the mountain to Darrow to join us on Saturday. He said he does not run any more—“Running no longer agrees with my body”—but is still very active with cross-country skiing, rowing and biking. He sounded as youthful and energetic as ever, and is looking forward to seeing us again and catching up.

 

 


 

FACULTY NEWS 5-5-12

Ned has recently spoken with or heard from four more former teachers who will not make it to the reunion this time:

 

Wyatt MacGaffey (left), who taught English at Darrow our freshman year, is now an emeritus professor of anthropology at Haverford College. He e-mailed Ned to say that he’ll be on his annual research trip to West Africa in June. He wishes us well and asked to be remembered to Des McCracken (who will be there).

 

Bill Goff (right), who taught Spanish our entire time at Darrow, is still living in Williston, Vermont, where Ned reached him by phone. Bill was emphatic—“I don’t do reunions!” Besides, he will be trout fishing in Glacier National Park in Montana, with his son Peter, in June. Bill admits to being 82 but says he feels much younger and is still incredibly active. Although he still sells antiques, he has been essentially retired for 40 years. He doesn’t own a computer, never uses e-mail, and has never seen our class web site. Ned extracted a promise that if Peter manages to get a picture of Bill out in Montana, he’ll mail me a print.

 

 

Ned also reached former math teacher Steve Jones (left) at his home in Sandwich, MA, out on Cape Cod. Steve said they are pretty tied down and he doesn’t expect to be able to make it, but said he and his family did visit the school a couple of years ago and it was a very pleasant experience. Steve asked after several former colleagues, including Bill Aiken. Steve and Bill got to be good friends at Darrow, and Steve and Betty were at Bill and Jane’s wedding. We have lost touch with Bill; Ned suggested to Steve that he might search for him around Truro, out there on the Cape, where Bill lived for many years. Steve will do that, and if he finds him, urge Bill to get back in touch.

 

Patrick Evans (right) e-mailed Ned from Malaucene to say that he and Maggy have already made other plans for this summer, so he will miss the chance to reconnect with his Latin III class, but he will “mark in summer 2013” for a return visit to Darrow. Next summer will be 52 years since he last set foot there, “although it’s as though it was yesterday.” Perhaps if/when they do come here some of us will be around to greet them.

 

 

 

Ned is still trying to reach Steve Swenson, our former math teacher, who still lives in North Conway, NH. We last saw Steve at our 40th. Howdy Davis found a phone number, and when Ned called the answering machine confirmed that it still is Steve and Sally’s number. We left a message and will keep you posted.

 

 

 


FACULTY NEWS 5-1-12

Marylou Anderson writes:

Having stood in line in the rain and cold on Sunday afternoon for 2+ hours, I was able to get tickets for Sydney and myself to attend this [President Obama] event . The place was packed (has 18, 010 seats) and what energy. Such fun. I think I've already told you that I'll be in Utah on reunion date, but would have played ball if there!

(If you are behind the curve on Larz and Marylou Anderson, read the entry below)


FACULTY NEWS 4-9-12

Ned files this report:


C:\Users\Ned\Desktop\scan0001.jpgA few weeks ago, I asked Geoff Miller at Darrow to help me track down some former teachers with whom we’ve lost contact.  Geoff’s search came up with an address for Larz and Marylou Anderson in Larchmont, NY, two towns over from Pelham, where I live. So I drove over there and rang the bell.  I didn’t find Larz or Marylou, but almost as good, I found their daughter Cate (right), who, with her husband Gregg  Jarrett, has lived there for 14 years or so. Cate works as a realtor in Larchmont.


Cate and I were delighted to meet each other, and she told me how to contact her parents. Larz and Marylou are no longer married. He’s in Dallas, where the family lived for many years while he was teaching. He has recently moved into an assisted living facility; he’s lost most of his short-term memory. For a while, Cate was handling his mail—which is how the Larchmont address got into the database Geoff mined for us. Cate  gave me an e-mail and phone number for Larz, said his long-term memory is intact and that he often answers e-mails. I’ve sent him an e-mail (no reply yet), and may phone.


Marylou is living in North Carolina. I sent an e-mail to Marylou, and got a rapid reply, and we have exchanged several messages since then, gradually catching up.  Some of the highlights:


When they left Darrow in 1960, they moved to Philadelphia, and Larz got an master’s in education from Penn. They lived in Ambler, PA for four years, while Larz taught at Germantown Academy, which had just gone co-ed and moved to a new campus. Their eldest child, Larz F. (Fergie) was born at Darrow in 1959. During their four years at Germantown, Cate, Nick and Carey came along. They then moved to Albuquerque, NM, and Larz taught at Albuquerque Academy, a boys’ day school. After five years there, they moved to Dallas; Larz taught at St. Mark’s, another day school for boys, grades 1-12, and Marylou worked there middle school secretary for six years. She then went to Hockaday School, a girls’ day and boarding school, as assistant to the head of boarding. Their sons went to St. Mark’s, their daughters to Hockaday. Marylou worked at Hockaday for 17 years, Larz at St. Mark’s for 27.


In 1997, with the kids grown up and out on their own, Larz and Marylou moved to Fearington Village,  outside Pittsboro, NC, where she still is. They travelled a lot; she reports she’s been in 49 of the 50 states (lacking only Minnesota), and to the Caribbean, Bahamas, Tahiti, Australia & New Zealand, Costa Rica, Mexico, Canada and a bunch of European countries.  They also got to Brazil (Rio) several times when Cate was living there, between graduation from Duke and getting her MBA at UT Austin.
The main focus of Larz and Marylou’s life, of course, is their family. Fergie passed away 20 years ago; he had graduated from Princeton, become a financial analyst, and after college asked people to call him “Larz.” We shared a moment of sadness realizing that he’d be 53 now. Cate and Gregg live in Larchmont, as noted above, and they have two daughters, Grace (now 16) and Olivia (13). Grace is a sophomore at Mamaroneck HS, interested in fashion design, sews as a hobby. Olivia is in 7th grade in Larchmont, stars in school musicals and “has her eye on Broadway,” says her grandmother.


Nick lives in Carrboro, NC, not far from Marylou (both towns are south of Chapel Hill). He has a daughter, Sydney (17).  Carey and her husband, Mark have three kids, Ashley (23), Carina (12) and Cullen (10). They live in Dallas, where they are the family’s point people for monitoring Larz’s care. Ashley graduated Magna Cum Laude from Trinity University in San Antonio, and is currently working on an MFA in poetry from UC Irvine, although she is living in Dallas, just moved into a loft apartment there. She shares life with a dog named BL, who, Marylou says, weighs as much (90 pounds) as his owner! Carina is in 6th grade, dances ballet and plays the violin.  Cullen is in 4th grade and plays soccer, baseball and lacrosse. Marylou adds that all the girls play musical instruments, sing and enjoy various types of athletic activities.
F:\NED'S PHOTOS\Darrow '62\Faculty\Anderson\JPEGs\ML4.jpgMarylou (here with Sydney and Ashley) vividly remembers her Darrow years, where as a young faculty wife, she helped Larz ride herd over a rambunctious group of freshmen in Valentine Cottage in 1958-9. (A very young wife; she muses that, at 20, she was just a year and a half older than Smith Robertson, the senior in our dorm.)  She recalls Frank Phillips (whose brother was a schoolmate of hers back in the Philadelphia area), Carl Braun, Scott Leake.  Marylou, Larz and Ashley visited Darrow about 10 years ago, and she said it brought back many fond memories.


In June, Marylou and Sydney will be in Kanab, Utah, volunteering at the Best Friends  animal sanctuary (see http://www.bestfriends.org/index.htm) and visiting Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. That means she won’t be at our reunion, but she is planning to visit New York in July, and perhaps we can get together then.


It is great to be back in touch, after a hiatus of close to 20 years, and perhaps with e-mail now, we can stay connected. I’ve added Marylou to the Darrow ’62 faculty e-mail list, so she’ll be plugged in, and our exchanges so far suggest we still have lots to talk about. I’ll keep you posted. If anyone else would like to correspond with Marylou, let me know, and I’ll give you the contact details.


Marylou sent us a whole bunch more photos, which I’ve appended in photo-album style. I’ve also thrown in one for nostalgia’s sake, of Dave Benson tending baby Fergie in 1959.

 

PHOTO ALBUM: CATCHING UP WITH THE ANDERSONS


F:\NED'S PHOTOS\Darrow '62\Faculty\Anderson\JPEGs\Carey1.jpg

 

Carina, Marylou, Carey, Ashley, BL and Sydney, in Dallas. 

 

 

F:\NED'S PHOTOS\Darrow '62\Faculty\Anderson\JPEGs\ML3.jpg

 

ML, Olivia, Bill [Fergie’s partner], Ashley & Cate, NYC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

F:\NED'S PHOTOS\Darrow '62\Faculty\Anderson\JPEGs\Nick1.jpg

 

Nick, Carina & Cullen in Dallas.

 

F:\NED'S PHOTOS\Darrow '62\Faculty\Anderson\JPEGs\Larz1.jpg

 

 

 

Larz, Cullen, Carina and ML, in Dallas.

 

 

 

 

Sydney with Barney, Marylou’s Boston terrier, on Barney’s lucky 13th birthday. Below, Dave Benson with baby Fergie in front of Valentine Cottage, 1959.

 

 


F:\NED'S PHOTOS\Darrow '62\Classmates\Benson\With Baby Fergie Anderson, 1960.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


FACULTY NEWS 3-4-12

Ned’s Report on His Visit With Des McCracken, February 2, 2011

I drove up to Lee, Mass. to visit Des in the enhanced assisted living facility where he has been for the past couple of months.  Carl Braun, Bob Lang and I tried several times to coordinate a group visit, but those plans fell through, so I finally just went there by myself.  Des really appreciated the visit, and I strongly encourage others  to make the triC:\Users\Ned\Desktop\2012-02-29 14h11\DSCF0491.JPGp. (The details of where to find him appear below.)

Des is basically doing OK, in the context of, OK for someone who is recovering from a stroke and needs to be in an enhanced assisted living facility. He is walking, steadily though slowly and with a walker, and speaking pretty well, although his voice is quite hushed and his words are not always clear. His mind and memory seem sharp.

When I arrived, Des was reading a post card from Harry Savage ’59, sent from Paris (where Harry, Helen and their son were visiting their daughter, who’s spending part of her junior year at Hamilton there, studying French). Quite naturally Harry was thinking of his old French teacher, and sent Des a card depicting the Louvre.

Des knew me right away, and we immediately started trading Darrow stories. I brought along a laptop and we were able to set it up in the dining area, and I showed Des some of the recent pages of the Class of ’62 web site. As we went through the page with photos of classmates who are coming to the reunion, Des recognized most of us, and reacted with pithy statements of recognition, like “hockey player” (Lang, Davis, Gorday, Rosenberg), “Pittsfield” (Cavallo), “Boston Globe” (Phillips), “Phone booth” (Manchester), or my favorite, “I almost broke my hand!” (Perina).   I must’ve looked a little bit puzzled at that, so Des offered a more detailed explanation: Anson was snoozing or otherwise not paying attention in French III one day (quite likely, more than one day), but this one day, Des felt outraged, “How dare you not pay attention in my class!” He slammed his hand down on a desk, to startle Anson, and says he nearly broke his hand. He was still laughing about it, 50 years later.

The facility itself is very nice. It’s quite new, sits across the road from Laurel Lake, between Lee and Lenox, on Route 20. The staff I encountered were all very friendly and helpful. Des seems quite happy with the way he is cared for there (whereas he told me he was upset enough at the shabby care he received in the rehab facility he was in previously that he considered suing them). His main complaints about his current situation seem to be that he doesn’t have an alarm clock (the sun wakes him up), he can’t get a good classical music station on his radio (he is making do with a CD player and a dozen or so CDs), and the only hockey games he can pick up on the radio are from Boston. He didn’t complain about the food, and though I joined him for lunch and the entrée I had was pretty awful, Des gets all his food pureed (he has lost most of his teeth, which also affects his speech). At this meal, at least, he had a very healthy appetite.  If those are his worst complaints, he is doing pretty well. They treat him nicely there, although they all call him “James.” (He says he is used to it, it’s his name, after all.)

Des McCrackenThere were some unusual moments in our conversation, perhaps after-effects of the stroke, perhaps a sign of Des’s age, or perhaps just a mystical side of Des that he had not revealed to us before. About a minute after I arrived, Des told me he had seen me on his ceiling. I asked what he meant, and he said he’d seen my name written on his ceiling, when he was lying in bed, a day or so earlier. He mentioned that he’d also seen his father’s name and John D. Rockefeller’s name written on his ceiling; his father, of course, was the pastor at Riverside Church in Manhattan for many years, and Rockefeller, I believe, was instrumental in establishing that church. Des also said he saw Ron Emery’s name on his ceiling, and that Ron had died a second time, but under a different name, in the room next to his. Perhaps I seemed a bit skeptical, so Des assured me that he knew these visions must seem like delusions to me, but that he’d really seen them, and the phenomenon was quite vivid to him, even though he was not sure what these visions meant.  We got to talking about his father, and he mentioned that his mother had died young, in her 50s, and that a while later, his father had remarried—I think Des said the marriage was performed by the captain of a cruise ship the couple were on at the time. And then his father died—I’m not sure how much later—but he died, quite suddenly and unexpectedly, on the date of his wedding anniversary with Des’s mother. Des seemed to feel that there was cosmic meaning in that timing.

During the conversation, the subject of how old we’re all getting, and birthdays, came up, and when I mentioned that my brother will be 65 next month, Des mentioned that his birthday is coming up in a month or so, too. He will be 81 on April 5. HINT: Des would be delighted to receive birthday cards from any of you who can manage to send one. (See address below.) If you can manage a visit, so much the better. If you’re inclined to bring or send a gift, a classical CD or two, or maybe an alarm clock, would most likely be well received. I hope several of you can stop in and see Des in coming weeks.

At this point it seems unlikely that Des will be out and living on his own again in time for our reunion in June, but perhaps he could get a day pass to come over for a few hours, if we (our class) could arrange transportation. Let’s work on that.

Meanwhile, he can be found at: The Village of Laurel lake, 600 Laurel Street, Lee, MA, 01238. The phone is 413-243-4747. Des is in Room 20-A. If you call to inquire, remember that they know him as “James.”

For anyone who plans to go there, the place is easy to get to; it’s only a mile or so from the Lee exit off the mass Pike (Exit 2, about 7 miles from the NY state line). That exit puts you on US 20, which you just follow (west) through the town of Lee; Laurel Street is Route 20, and as you go by the lake, you can’t miss the Village, which is right on the highway. If you’re coming from Darrow, you can follow Route 20 all the way, although there may be easier routes for those who know the area.

If you do visit, let us know and we’ll post further progress reports.


 

FACULTY NEWS 9-12-11

Received by Ned from Jim Wright: "I am back in Durham after a wonderful summer in Maine where I worked as an “interpreter” at the Penobscot Marine Museum there in Searsport where we live. Peggy is still there, now having retired, and I am starting my Duke classes tomorrow. I have 20 enrolled in my Philosophy of Religion course. Amazing! But next year, I hope to stay in Maine until the museum closes in October ( at the end)."


 

FACULTY NEWS 12-16-09

 

 

This holiday card, an imaginatively envisioned “beach tree,” arrived from Stephen, Betty and Will Jones, suggesting that a year has passed in more or less normal fashion up in Massachusetts.

 

 

 


 

FACULTY NEWS 10-13-09

Ned received the following recently from Jim Wright:

Hi Ned. Nothing really new here. I spent the summer in Searsport, the first few weeks in cold, rain, and fog, painting, cleaning, furnishing our mobile home. Peggy came up with her grandchildren at the end of June and stayed until the first weekend in August. Much of that was bad weather too; hard to entertain two small in that sustained time. I spent the rest of the summer preparing to teach my philosophy course to retirees here, and stayed until the end of September. The weather was great then. Unfortunately, I didn't do much sailing, but the place is in good shape for resting and recreating now. Hope you and Sharon are well and will visit us up there sometime! Jim


 

FACULTY NEWS 02-10-09

Jim and Peggy Wright sent out a card at Christmas time. It’s minus their usual family photo, and the nautical theme and blue skies aren’t exactly Christmasy. But this card is their way of announcing and celebrating their purchase of a summer house in Maine, what Jim calls “our old age indulgence.” After years of spending two weeks in Searsport, they now own a mobile home on its own land near the town library. Jim will be up there from May through September, and Peggy will join him when school gets out in June.

Jim invites all of us (not at the same time!) who may want to visit Maine, or are just passing through Searsport, between Memorial Day and labor Day, to come stay. The place needs some fixing up, which Jim will start doing this spring. They have three bedrooms and two full baths. He says, “Y’all come. I mean it. You can enjoy Maine, and I’ll put you to work.”

Meanwhile, back in NC, Peggy is still teaching in Middle School. Her daughter Katie and their two grandchildren, Kiernan and Ramsey, live in Asheville, close enough for Thanksgiving and Christmas visits. Jim’s three daughters are still in the same places and doing mostly the same things. Debby visited them in January. Bekkie and Joe are still running. Anne has started a group practice in adolescent and children’s therapy in Bellingham, WA. Anne and Pete and their two kids, Ben and Nate, spent a week with the grandparents in Searsport last summer. Jim continues his varied activities, singing, tutoring, golfing, swimming, working for the Duke Health System, and leading classes at Duke’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Most recently he led a class on the search for the meaning of life in western philosophy. That sounds like what he was trying to get us to discuss in sophomore religion class 50 years ago. Maybe the meaning of life is, it’s a circular path? And we’re like the mule plodding around, turning the grindstone….

If you plan to be in Maine this summer, let the Rabbi know and plan to stop in Searsport.


 

FACULTY NEWS 01-12-09

Don and Marie Sutherland are grandparents now for the first time. Their son Mark and his wife Elena welcomed daughter Ella Marie in September. Don & Marie also celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2008 with a trip down the St. Lawrence River from Montreal to Boston, with stops at Quebec City, Charlotte's Town, PEI, Sidney and Halifax, NS, and Bar Harbor, ME. They took side trips, enjoyed wildllife, biked in Acadia NP, and Don took a six-mile kayaking trip. They celebrated July 4th in Boston. Mark, Elena and the baby spent a Christmas vacation in Jamaica. Daughter Janet came back to the Chicago area from Columbus, Ohio in 2007, to take a position at the Sun-Times, but she was "downsized" in January and is now working for Westwood One. Mark is in the real estate business and struggling with that side of the recession. Janet bought a condo in one of Mark's company's buildings, six blocks from the lake and eight blocks from the Obama residence. Don retired (for the second time) from the federal government in June of 2007, and still works as a volunteer at St. Gregory's Episcopal School; Marie has retired from her volunteer position in the school's development office to enjoy being a grandmother and babysitter. Don joked that they were thinking about sleeping through the long Chicago winter (or two or three), hoping to wake up in a better economy.


 

FACULTY NEWS 12-25-08

J:\Jones.jpgWe got this Christmas card from Steve Jones, featuring his son Will’s 21st-birthday tattoo


 

FACULTY NEWS 11-10-08

Back in April, Ned and Sharon were both in Raleigh, NC, giving talks at NCSU and visiting with an old friend of Ned's from Stanford, Bob Grossfeld, and his wife, Marge. They all got together with Jim and Peggy Wright one evening for dinner. The Wrights were fine, in great form, white haired now but still full of P&V, everyone had an enjoyable evening, and the Grossfelds and Wrights are now networked with each other, as well as with Ned.  


 

FACULTY NEWS 6-10-08

The latest on Ron Emery comes from Laurel Trahan who reports: "I have not been to see Ron lately but a friend, Larry Dudley, from Glens Falls, called to tell me his mother, Elsa, age 98, died Friday, of kidney failure. She was pretty alert to the end, and Larry had seen both of them in the past two weeks. She was living at the same nursing home as Ron, in the next room, in fact. He was very close to her. I'm letting you know in case anyone wants to send a card, etc. as Ron has no family left that I know of and is out there pretty much alone. Unfortunately, I just had surgery and won't be able to drive out there myself for several weeks. But I do intend to visit with him as soon as I am able.

Larry described Ron as being very lucid and with Elsa when she died. Says he looks pretty good in general, watches a lot of TV, [and] seemed to be aware of the news and everything going on."

Ned has been in touch with Howdy Davis who is going to try to visit Ron on the weekend of June 21 - 22.


 

FACULTY NEWS 4-24-08

Bill Aiken responded to a letter Ned sent him a month or two ago. He commented that the number of obituaries on our web site “makes one feel old,.” Speaking for himself, one presumes. Bill is still in Blacksburg, VA, at 905 Preston Ave., 24060. He and Jane moved there about 20 years ago, when she got a job teaching Art History at Virginia Tech. Bill spends a month or two each summer in Truro, on Cape Cod, at the address listed for him a few items down below on this page. He invites us to stop by if we’re up there—says he has an ocean, a bay, and a tennis court—all that a young man might want (speaking of himself and us, one presumes). He reports that since Jane passed away (see obituary on the Links Page), he hasn’t been writing much poetry, but for a while, through a complex turn of events, he was writing poems under the name of Julie Lechevsky. (We googled her, too; see additions to Bill’s entry on the Links Page.) Julie had more success, Bill reports, than he did under his own name, and says “it was most diverting to follow her career.” Bill says he is unlikely to get up to Darrow again, for our 50th or in general, but he says hello to all his former students and wishes us well in our retirements, however we may be spending them.


 

FACULTY NEWS 3-7-08

Rabbi Jim Wright mentioned to Ned that he had planned to make some remarks about Ann Lee (the Shaker leader, not the dormitory) if he had  made it to Reunions last year. Ned asked him to commit it to paper, so we could share it with the class. Here is Jim’s reply (verbatim from his e-mail back to Ned):

All I was going to say to everyone is that none of us would be there were it not for a schizophrenic illiterate scrubwoman who was a refugee from a mental hospital in England who made her way to this country, eventually emerged from the depths of Manhattan to someplace near Albany, where she formed a group of glossalalic lunatics, who kept being booted out of every town in New England for making too much noise (literally!) in their worship, which upset the local establishments; who eventually hooked up with a bunch of millenialists in New Lebanon; who eventually calmed down, once they realized the rapture was not imminent, under people like Whittaker and Meacham and did the Family thing there on the mountainside until they faded from sight for a whole variety of sociological reasons and sold the place to a school. If anybody wants to publish that, they're welcome! What strikes me is how little attention we paid to the Shakers when we were all there. They were absolutely fascinating folks.

I had an opportunity to meet some real live ones at Sabbathday Lake, Maine, where the only surviving community of about half a dozen still exists with the help of a local supportive organization. Sister Mildred Barker, no longer with us, was an expert on Shaker music, and sang me some songs. She appears in the film Martha Wheelock (remember her - Fred's daughter) did on the Shakers which was on PBS a number of years ago.

All for now. Love to all. Jim

(PS from Ned: If anyone can find information on the alleged film by Martha Wheelock about the Shakers, pass it on to Carl; let’s add it to the Links page.)


 

FACULTY NEWS 2-28-08

We have a good lead on Bill Aiken. At reunions last June a member of the Class of ’57 told us Bill was back on Cape Cod. After his wife, who was a professor at Virginia Tech,  passed away, Bill had apparently returned to their earlier home in Truro. A few months ago, Des McCracken used his internet people-finding skills and got the exact address (85 North Pamet Road, Truro, MA  02666), and a phone number (508-349-6865). The good news is, the phone works. The bad news is, the answering machine’s memory was full. So I’ve resorted to an old-fashioned means of communication: I wrote him a letter. Bill may be wintering in a warmer clime, but with any luck he’ll eventually get my note, and perhaps get back in touch. Meanwhile, if any of you are out on The Cape, look him up!



FACULTY NEWS 1-1-08

 

Software: Microsoft OfficeJim and Peggy Wright’s holiday letter provides plentiful news. Jim’s kids (and grandkids) are far-flung: Debby and her husband, Deane, are in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, a Columbus suburb; Bekkie and Joe are in East Hartford, CT; and Anne, Pete, Ben and Nate live in Bellingham, WA. Peggy’s daughter Katie and her children, Ramsey and Kiernan, are now in Asheville, NC, and they visited with J & P in Durham for the holidays. Peggy is teaching sixth-grade math this year, working long days, and when time permits, she renovates their home and refinishes furniture. Jim taught a course at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute called “The Question of God,” which is based on a dialogue between C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud; it was so popular he was asked to repeat it. He sits on a couple of Duke Institutional Review Boards, volunteers in the Standardized Patient Program at the medical school, and does some tutoring and monitoring at a local elementary school. For recreation, he has music: He sings in the Chapel Hill Community Chorus and plays in the New Horizons Band associated with OLLI, for which he plays what he calls a “marginal” trumpet. (Walt Lehman and Joey Laird’s influence? Who knew?) Jim swims daily, and plays golf on Saturdays. He and Peggy spent two weeks in Searsport, Maine this summer, and will be there July 22-August 6 this year. “Y’all come,” he invites. With his music in mind, Jim confides that his band director advises, “The best you can do is always good enough,” to which Jim adds a “preachment” to the rest of us: Play on.


FACULTY NEWS 12-21

Don and Marie Sutherland sent a Christmas newsletter in response to Ned’s effort to get back in touch with them. It has been a long time, as evidenced by the fact that both of their children are grown up and out on their own. Mark is working in Chicago in the real estate business, building condos, townhouses and high rises and working on major hotel project. Mark was married (bride’s name Elena, she’s Russian, has lived here 15 years, is a radiological technician) in March; the wedding was in the Virgin Islands. Janet works in the advertising department of the Sun-Times, having returned to Chicago after several years in Columbus, Ohio. She has made a “miraculous” recovery from a brain aneurysm that she suffered 3½ years ago, and has set up a local chapter of the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, a support group. Janet rents an apartment in one of Mark’s properties, and the two of them are just 45 minutes from their parents, who are delighted to have the whole family in the same locale again. Don retired from his job with the US Department of Labor at the age of 65, then worked for another 6½ years, four days a week, for the US Environmental Protection Agency. That job ended this year when the Administration cut the funding for Don’s program. Don and Marie keep busy with volunteer work; both are involved with the St. Gregory School, a private K-8 school (Episcopalian) for boys from low-income families. Don is on the board there, tutors, and assists with teaching math and science; Marie works in the development office. Both are also active in a variety of other service and civic organizations. In summers, Sundays are spent at Bangs Lake in Wauconda, where everyone swims and everyone (except Elena) water skis, followed by relaxing dinners at local restaurants. Don and Marie will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in 2008, and are planning a big celebratory family reunion and cruise from Montreal to Boston. Don says they have not been back to Darrow in ages, and may need an excuse. Perhaps our 50th reunion will provide one. Meanwhile, they are still living at 220 Newton Ave., Glen Ellyn, IL, 60137; their e-mail address is drsmps@sbcglobal.net.


Software: Microsoft Office

 

Steve Jones, who taught math our senior year, replied to a letter Ned sent with a note and this Christmas card. Steve wrote, “Your letter meant a great deal to me. Though I only taught at Darrow for a year, the experience was special and I still have many wonderful memories of all that went on while I was there. I am happily living on Cape Cod with my wife Elizabeth (Betty) and my 20 year old son William (Will), who is at Union College. William and I stopped off at Darrow on our way back to Cape Cod from Schenectady. I was touched by how friendly all the people at Darrow were to us. Right now my  life for various reasons is hectic, but after the New Year comes I will try to update you more about what my family is doing.”  Steve didn’t give us an e-mail address, but anyone who’d like to contact him can write c/o P.O. Box 1932, Sandwich, MA 02563.

 

 

 

 

 


 

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This view of the front door of Wickersham is on Nancy Wolf’s Christmas card this year.

 

 

 

 


 

Bill Goff has gotten back in touch; he is retired and living at 96 Marions Way, Williston, VT 05495-9139, “21 miles from where I was born and raised.”  He lost Bev to cancer in 2001, and his kids are out on their own; his son, Peter, got a BA from Hobart, MA from UVM and PhD from Vanderbilt, and is teaching in Burlington, married to an engineering professor at UVM. His daughter, Mindy, a graduate of Hartwick, is living in Columbus, Ohio with a husband and three children. Bill just celebrated his 77th birthday, says doctors have never found anything wrong with him and he feels about 40-50, refuses to be old. He practices the piano three hours daily, spends his time traveling and has a “very fancy” antique shop in Fort Ethan Allen. As of December 1 he is off to the Yucatan to see Mayan ruins with the National Geographic Society. Bill doesn’t own a computer and has no e-mail address, but those who want to contact him can write him at the address above.

From Des McCracken: Thanks for the Former Faculty Notes - though in too many cases it puts a somber note on the adjective.
I attended a Memorial Service for Mike DiMaina on October 27 at the Church of Our Savior in the Valley. He died in Florida at age 89 on September 11.

I don't know if you had your hair cut by Gasper Ingui during your Darrow days, but he died in an automobile accident in Schodack, NY on October 29. He was 72 - and it's alarming to think that I was one of his "regulars" for about 45 years. His Dad used to cut hair on the Darrow campus in Mr. Heyniger's years.

If Bill Aiken has returned to Cape Cod, I may be able to help "find" him. He took me up to Truro one summer, on a weekend which became famous in that I had my first beer! (I'll bet that you have trouble believing that fact!)


 

Former Faculty Status

The school has circulated (to class agents) a list of the addresses and phone numbers they have for former faculty. The good news is, no one from our era is listed as “lost.” It’s not clear yet whether all the addresses they have are still valid. Below is a brief summary of the current status of teachers from our era, based on school info and class of ’62 info.


 

Bill Aiken: Deceased (memorial here)

Larz & Marylou Anderson: Larz is in Dallas, in a nursing home, suffering from memory loss. Marylou, no longer married to Larz, lives in NC and is busy with kids & grandkids. Recently in touch.

Emma Austin: Deceased

Don Beaver: Taught History of Science at Williams, now emeritus. Don attended Reunions in 2011 and 2012.

Richard Bethards: Deceased (memorial here).

Charles & Sue Brodhead: Both deceased (memorial here).

Mike DiMaina: Was living in Florida, a photo appeared in The Peg Board within the past year; school now lists him as deceased.

Horton Durfee: Deceased (memorial here)

Ron Emery: Passed away, June 28, 2011 (memorial here).

Patrick Evans: Retired after a long career with Guinness, living in the South of France with Maggy.  Attended Reunions 2013.

Bill Goff: Lives in Williston, Vermont. He lost his wife to cancer but is doing well with an antique shop and is travelling. Recently in touch.

Lester Henderson: Deceased (memorial here)

C. Lambert & Marian Heyniger: Both deceased (Memorial here). Also see Links Page.

John Joline: John passed away at the age of 84 in March 2010. A memorial is being prepared.

Steve Jones: Lives on Cape Cod in Massachusetts with his wife, Betty. A son (William) attends Union College. Recently in touch.

Lucretia Koepp: Deceased

Walter Lehmann: Deceased. A memorial is planned.

Wyatt MacGaffey: After leaving Darrow, got a PhD in anthropology at UCLA, taught for decades at Haverford College, where he remains, emeritus. Recently in touch.

Harry Mahnken: Deceased, at 91. A memorial is being prepared.

Des McCracken: Deceased (memorial here)

Dick Nunley: Deceased (memorial here)

T. Guthrie Speers: Deceased (memorial here).

John Spencer: Deceased (memorial here)

Don (Deceased, memorial here) & Marie Sutherland. Still in Illinois, she writes, "I am still breathing but would prefer being young again."

Steve Swenson: Retired, living an active life in Vermont. Recently in touch.

Jack & Dottie van Vorst: Both deceased. See photos at past reunions (20th, 35th) and Jon (‘60) is in a photo from our 45th. Memorial is planned.

Fred Wheelock: Deceased (memorial here)

Ed Wilkes: Deceased (memorial here)

Jim Wright: Deceased (memorial here)


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