1958 Class Notes for 2014-2015

Great news from my questionnaire this year! Overwhelmingly, no one has time to be bored. What was not so successful was my questionnaire format, which seemed to limit responses instead of producing quotable thoughts.

To satisfy your curiosity, however, I will summarize the winners from a few categories. What makes you mad? “Rude drivers” and “forgetting why you entered the room” tied for first place. Mary Barry Wood had the best comeback: “Life is too short to get mad.”

What makes you smile? “Grandkids” were tops, of course, followed by “nature.” My favorite is from Francine Palmison Collins: “Almost everything makes me smile.” Coming as no surprise on the wish list, practically everyone would like to sing like Verna Hook Siford. There were two ambitious souls, however. Pamela Connelly Bartlett-Little wants to play the cello, Martha Marty” Eidenbach Delhagen wants to play the piano and Virginia “Gina” Pleus Bergin MacKenzie would like to be a pilot and a drummer, not at the same time.

Finally, the best thing about being our age drew some delightful responses: “We don’t have to prove anything to anybody,” replied Sarah “Sally” Santen Gleason. “You can make excuses!” said Susan Moore. In the same vein, LynnPfohl Quigley admitted, “You can say what you want and get away with it.” “Having many happy memories,” was shared by Jane Locraft Head and Jean Ganley Caputo-Williams and “deep-sixing” spindly high heels was high on Cathleen Russell’s list.

Heavy-duty hiking shoes were Cathy Russell’s footwear when she, Lynn Quigley and Barbara Glunz-Donovan hiked 90 miles of the Camino trail to the shrine of St. James in Galicia, Spain, last year. It took them eight days. The entire trail takes about 35 days. The pilgrimage started as a religious processional to the shrine more than 1,000 years ago. Seeing the Botafumeiro (an enormous censer) swing from one side of the transept at St. James to the other, almost hitting the high ceiling, was electrifying.

Cathy was also a first-timer on a weeklong windjammer from Camden, ME, around the harbor islands. In addition, she also hiked in the Glacier/Waterton Parks and Canadian Rockies. In the fall she visited Suzanne McGrath Dunnin Minneapolis and was suitably “terrified” going through ScareTown, a small haunted village created in a corn field every year by Sue’s son Matt. It draws scores of visitors every Halloween. In between all these adventures Cathy sings with the Arlington Philharmonic chorale and her church choir.

The travelogue continues with Gina MacKenzie’s “awesome” visit to Machu Picchu, Peru. They now have completed visits to 82 countries. London and Paris were on the agenda with her granddaughters this past June. This October she will open her third one-woman art exhibit at Hilton Head. It will be a mixture of painting and art quilts, her newest skill. Anyone on the island during the month of October is invited to stay with them.

Lynn Quigley had a busy year. In addition to the Spanish trek with Cathy and Barbara, she also flew to China with her daughter to welcome a new granddaughter. She keeps her cool, she admitted, by keeping a stash of York patties in her refrigerator. Mary Frann Somers Heidhues had a French river cruise planned for this last summer, followed in the fall by a quick trip to Cyprus. After spending most of her travel time visiting either North America or Asia, she’s determined to concentrate on Europe, maybe Greece (health and pocketbook willing).

Paris in the spring! Katherine “Kay” O’Leary McQuie was there. Her long-time book group spent a week in Paris, then several days in Avignon with trips though the countryside. She had several excursions planned for the summer, revolving around her stitching classes, plus Kay volunteers at Historic Woodlawn and the League of Women Voters. At her church she trains new and returning lectors and is still on the finance committee. Her leisure activity? That would be water aerobics in the summer.

A Paris pick-me-up trip in April was also on the agenda for Margot Kennedy Walsh,who joined five other widowed Trinity friends for a delightful week. This was preceded in March by the Naples, FL, annual class luncheon where she and Jean Mazurek Kennedy were hosted by Dan and Jane Head.

Touching base from oft-snowy Minneapolis, Sue Dunn reports spending February hiking in sunny Santa Barbara. The fjords of Norway were next, in June. It would take a complete calendar to chart all the travels of Judy Fornili Pauley.This is due to the popularity of the training courses she and her husband conduct on dropout prevention for tribal and Native Americans. They had just returned from MA and also MN, and were scheduled to train at the So. Ute Indian reservation in Ignatio, CO. In the fall they will be at Clemson and Bridgewater State U. in MA.

Highlight of the year for Sally Gleason was a Christmas vacation in Costa Rica with all the grandchildren. Sally also enjoyed a trip to Normandy and the Loire Valley. Sally, Marty, Nancy, Jean and many others mentioned the Trinity luncheon in Naples, FL, this past March and what a delightful reunion it was, urging everyone to think about joining them next year. The biggest fan of the annual Naples luncheon is Joan Wargo Schroder, who said she looks forward all year to her month and a half in Naples with classmates. “You won’t find nicer, more generous people anywhere,” Joan declared. She mentioned Nancy Welch Ryan who collected (with Trinity friends’ assistance) 51 baby strollers for a nearby American Indian reservation, and who makes beautiful jewelry with proceeds going to the Boston Charities Food Kitchen.

Marjorie “Mimi” Argo Buss and Dickwere in Naples, too, visiting Jean Volpe Rotondi and Roger, and thoroughly enjoyed the Trinity luncheon. Mimi and Dick started off their year with an “Ancient Mysteries” cruise to Central and So. America, visiting historic sites along the way. Amy Flanagan Burgoyne experienced a “neat” trip to Cuba where she met many new friends. Another traveler is Barbara Durand Zimmerman, visiting Disney World with her grandkids. Barbara is a water skier on the lake where she owns a cottage, and includes mahjong, lots of bridge and bowling in her busy routine, her mantra being “exercise is the thing to do to keep going.”

Janet Curran McDermott says she belongs to the I’ll-call-you-at-3am-when-I’ll-remember-what-I-started-to-tell-you Club, but I like her wishful thinking to, “keep the wisdom I have now, but recapture the energy of my youth.” What she especially treasures are the smiles and quick hugs from her grandchildren, especially the teenagers. Another nugget of wisdom came from Barbara Schlaich Masciale: “…old age is like a bank account. You withdraw happiness from the memories you’ve put in….We are still depositing.” They enjoy the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, sports at Marist College and adult education classes. Their big news: downsizing to a condo one half mile from their home. Some more food for thought: when the last of their six girls married, her husband said, “Now we don’t have to worry about them anymore.” Barbara replied, “Umm, not really, now we have twice as many.”

“Give me a book or newspaper anytime,” Jeanne Curtis Dickson wrote, suggesting the Internet has a nefarious scheme to change things just when she finally masters some of it. They have returned permanently to Ocean Pines, where she sings in the church choir and another fun chorus. Guess who likes to watch basketball on TV? Ann Titterton Keen.She also finds joy in a good joke, eating out and a sunny day. My favorite correspondent is always Sheila Kallan Keegan. Her dry wit can’t be the product of the rainy NW coast, but here’s a sample: “Other than we sold our Seattle house in September and are back on the Hood Canal and rural living, not much is new (well, a new Toyota Highlander that does everything except bake bread and, who knows, it might do that, too)…lots of walking and hauling compost, even in the rain.” She didn’t want to brag and I won’t mention it much, but there is a granddaughter, an engineering/architecture major, graduating from Stanford, who won two out of two available prizes.

On to TX and Judy McAdams Cullen, who sent a picture to the Alumnae Office of her husband, Tom, and their two newest great-grandchildren. Is that a record? She created a mental picture I enjoy. She’s describing traveling around TX following grandkids in sports tournaments, “the younger ones are always chasing, hitting or kicking some type of ball. And the others? Somebody’s graduating from some level or job hunting.”

Sue Moore took the train to Philly to see Jersey Boys. Frankie Valli is her boy! When Terri Kelly Griffin came to town to visit her daughter, Sue came into town for a nice visit. Another Sue, Sue Cherry Foote, is also a grandparent traveling around for graduations and recitals. For her it’s MA, where her dancing granddaughter hopes to open a dance studio someday. Sue has a mailbox assignment: to locate and get repaired any deteriorating posts, etc. in her PA community. She is not a Facebook advocate nor in favor of online banking, and, I suspect, has a lot of followers.

And a voice I haven’t heard in a while, Eleanor “Ellie” Moynahan Bagley, reports that she, too, likes hydrangeas, counts her blessings and especially enjoyed seeing Jane HeadSara “Tycie” Shea and Helen “Lynn” Shea for lunch in FL. Our stalwart email resource, Jane Head, says nothing much makes her mad but everything makes her smile, including little children. She has visited every state. The nicest part of her response was reading that there was no one “neatest thing that happened this year…Too many to count!”

FL is beckoning another. Anne Harkins Holmberg Ruthling and her husband have decided to move there in the near future. Although they need to sell their VA house first, Anne is a real estate agent who knows what’s involved. Jean Caputo-Williams, a FL snowbird, said the winter months in FL with so many classmates make every year special for her. And yet another, Jeanne McQuillan Galego, and her husband bought a lovely condo in Jupiter, FL, at 200 Ocean Trail Way with the help of their son, a real estate agent. During their FL stay they had a nice visit with Nancy Raffeto Beaubien and her husband. Virginia “Ginny” Kilroy McKaig and Carter have been FL residents for five years, but recently sold their home in MD and expect to be full-time Naples residents by July. Ginny said there were 22 classmates at the 14thannual luncheon in Naples this year.

The report from Oyster Catcher Rd. in Wilmington, NC, via Catherine “Cay” Herlihy Beyer, is that things are fine. They are all healthy and happy. The Chicago news comes from Sue Black Webb who writes that Trinity instilled in her perseverance in all worthwhile facets of life, gratitude for all she has and a stronger love of her faith. She has delightful three- to four-hour lunches with Joan Donovan Murray when Joan comes to town from their beautiful lake home in Richland, MI. The “million stairs” in their home make Joan wonder how much longer they can stay there. Joan spent a very special time helping her daughter move from Chicago to Phoenix – time well-spent making memories.

To find the “prettiest flowered patio in Old Town Chicago” you need to contact Barbara Glunz-Donovan at The Glunz Tavern, next door to their wine shop. Barbara runs a full-service restaurant serving classic Old World fare in a room dominated by a 19th Century mahogany bar and family memorabilia. Soon she will have a blog up on visiting wine producers, new wines and styles and trends. Anyone interested can contact Barbara.

It is with great sadness that I report the deaths of Ruth “Ruthie” Fedak Stewart and Mary Virginia “Ginny” Maher Falvey recently. Margo Farranto Badran lost her husband, as did Mary Frances “Mary Fran” McGowan AllenNancy Elaine Ward Oliver lost her sister, Mary Ward Siroky ’55. Although Norene Kindstrand Rootare reports a “really great year,” she does wonder how all the widows in our class are doing, because she misses her husband, Hillar, so much. And finally, Barbara “Bobbie” McGeary Marhoefer and Fran Collins attended the May funeral of Jim Oberstar, our late classmate, Jo Garlick’s, husband. He was Congressman from the Iron Range area of MN for 36 years, and graced our 55th Reunion dinner. He spoke about the value of a liberal arts education and how it prepared us for many different futures.

One stellar career we witnessed was that of Cynthia Eagle Russett, our Yale professor who died last winter. One month before her death she addressed the St. Thomas Moore Center at Yale with a speech entitled My Life as a Scholar and BelieverJane Head forwarded it to many of you, but for those of you who haven’t read it, I will close with some of Cynthia’s thoughts.

As a graduate student at Yale, Cynthia was looking for some Catholic support. It seemed to be concentrated on the undergrads, so she joined with others to create their own programs and, eventually, as faculty, have religious education when some married and had children. They shared in-home Masses followed by pot-luck suppers. From that was born an adult discussion group that continues some 40 years later. They jokingly refer to it as the “heresy of the month club,” as no topic was off the table. That encouraged the formation of small groups to read and discuss the readings for the next Sunday.

Cynthia ended the synopsis of her faith journey by saying, “I never believed that faith and reason are incompatible. … In all these years I do not feel I have plumbed the depths of this faith of ours. … So, I want to throw out a challenge. … Never suppose that your childhood religious education was sufficient to make you a mature believer. Deepening your faith is a lifelong process. Read one of the good Catholic journals like Commonweal or America; join a Bible study group; listen carefully to Sunday homilies, … jump at any opportunity to go on a retreat. That lifelong quest will enrich your lives as surely as it has enriched mine.”

Finally, it’s been over two years since Dave and I moved to Heritage Hunt, an “over 55” community in Gainesville, VA. Being able to see the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the vast open sky all around us and bluebells massed along the banks of Bull Run still takes my breath away. Wishing for you, too, joy in life’s simple pleasures.

Kate Malone Geddes