1978 Class Notes for 2019
Green CLASS OF 1978
After a bit of a hiatus, Maria and I are very happy to report that many of our classmates wrote in and shared their news with us. This may have been prompted by all the fun we had reconnecting at our 40th reunion last June. I just hope that there is enough room in the journal to publish it all!
I’ll start with Theresa Barker Fachini. After 31 years with Bank of America, she happily joined the ranks of the retired in 2016 and claims not to miss the practice of law one bit! She and her husband, John, moved from Boston to Branford, CT to be closer to his family. They are only about two hours from NYC and Boston, and have plenty of room for visitors! Theresa Fachini and Theresa Van Vliet sent news from Helen Adams Muka. Helen had been living in New England, but recently has returned to Maryland. She expressed an interest in reconnecting with her Trinity classmates. I am sorry to say that she has been widowed. Ann-Lise Boistard Doordan is retired, and after 40 years in Northern VA, has moved near the beach in Lewes, DE. Her children, Eric and Leah, visit as often as they can. She still goes to France every summer to visit family, and keeps busy with cooking, baking and quilting. She currently is considering substitute teaching at the local elementary school.
Karen Coles checked in to say that she hasn’t received any alumnae information from Trinity for quite a while and, had she known about it, would have loved to attend our 40th reunion. Sorry to have missed you, Karen, and now that we have your updated contact information, we will see to it that never happens again! Barbara Cumiskey Duncan continues to work for Kensington Park Senior Living and doesn’t plan on retiring until 2038, just in time for our 60th reunion! Three of her five children are married and she has two beautiful grandchildren. In addition to work and family, Barbara is currently completing her master’s degree at GWU in Landscape Design/Sustainable Landscapes. She also managed to squeeze in a trip to Morocco to visit another one of her sons who is a Peace Corps volunteer. Barbara confided that, while the thought of a reunion sometimes makes her a little nervous, the Great Green Class of 1978 always proves her wrong and that she never fails to end up wishing that she had more time to catch up with this wonderful group of women!
Irene Finch Albritton is retired and enjoys having the luxury of time. She delights in visiting with family and friends on the Outer Banks, spending time with her three grandsons, and working as a volunteer with Reading Partners. She takes nothing in her life for granted and tries to stay focused on the important things and to appreciate every moment. Chris Frapwell is still in Dayton, OH and continues to operate Frapwell Marketing and Events, LLC. She was sorry to have missed our reunion but was grounded due to knee surgery. She travels whenever she can and hopes to get back to Paris this year. Life is good!
Grace McLaren Gagliardo relocated to Marco Island, FL from DC a few years ago. She started a program called “Insight.” It is a retreat for women who want to explore meaningful soul issues. She has held one in Marco Island, FL and one in PA and plans to do several more soon. Through her work with Insight, she has reconnected with Nancy McCann Vericker and mentioned that they speak every week. Grace also gave a nod to her four grown children and five grandchildren! Betsy Griffith retired in 2016 but has not slowed down. She has been busy writing fiction including two novel and ten short stories, two of which have been published! She enjoys being an aunt to 20, a great-aunt to five and a step-grandma. A self-described “travelling fool,” she has made trips to Austria, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Italy, and Zimbabwe and in 2019 she will be heading to China, France and Spain. What a great life!
Sadly, Susan Hardy Nolan lost her brother Randy in 2016. While she still enjoys her career as a financial planner and stockbroker with the Royal Bank of Canada, she craves more time for family vacations and traveling south to visit her relatives. Susanne and Paul made trips in 2016 to the Canadian Maritimes, 2017 to France, and 2018 to the Canadian Mountains.
Albine Katial Martin was disappointed to miss our reunion this year for the very first time because she and Brad were traveling in Europe. She is open to attending an informal mid-year reunion if anyone else is game. She works at Johns Hopkins U helping the faculty bring their innovations to market. Her daughters are doing well—Anjalee is in London and works for State Street Global Advisors Limited and Ashley is in New York. Kathy Keefe retired in 2015 and now lives in Roxbury, CT. She keeps herself busy with volunteering in her new hometown. She also enjoys travelling and has made trips to Cuba, France and the Panama Canal – how exciting! Gwendolyn Knighton Williams is counting the days until she retires from the Department of Homeland Security in December, 2019. In 2017 she made her fourth trip to Alaska, this time taking a cruise for seven days. Over the past two years, she has lost 50 pounds! Wow! I bet she looks fantastic!!
After ten years of teaching high school English at Christchurch school, Lexi Lacetti Byers retired to the Lexington, VA area. She and Jeb purchased a 200-year-old former grist mill that they are in the process of restoring. Aside from serving as the general contractor for her rehab project, Lexi is very focused on her family. This past spring, she was left heartbroken by the death of one of her nephews but found some joy in the marriage of another. She is particularly close to her nephew, James (14), who shares her passion for fly fishing and loves to spend time on her trout stream in Lexington, VA and the Rappahannock River in Christchurch, VA. Lexi also frequently visits with her 87-year-old mother who now lives in the same retirement community as Betsy Griffith’s mom! In addition to traveling to CA for her nephew’s wedding, Lexi and Jeb made trips to MA and VT. Oh yes, I can’t forget to mention Lexis’ love for her two-beloved corgis! Lori Leibig sends her greeting from MN. She was sorry to have missed our reunion and expressed her disbelief that we have been gone from Trinity for 40 years. Pretty crazy! Cynthia Lingley is retired and has abandoned MA for the fairer climate of FL. I am happy to report that I ran into her earlier this year. A colleague and I were doing a risk assessment at a bank and she was listed as our contact person! Cindy looks fantastic and it was great to see her. After living in FL for many years, Martha Lord will be relocating to Raleigh, NC this summer where her husband, Manley Fuller, has taken a new job. Martha will continue to work remotely for a marketing and communications consulting firm. Over the past year or so, Martha has begun painting again and is actually enrolled in a course at Florida State. Her daughter, Sarah, lives in New York and works in real estate. Martha makes frequent trips to southern FL to visit her 96-year-old mother. She expressed an interest in reconnecting with her fellow fine arts majors and any classmates living in NC—Jane, Roberta, Lisa.
Pat Madigan is still in Silver Spring, MD and continues to enjoy working at the NIH/National Cancer Institute. She is lucky to have three of her siblings, two of their spouses and many extended family members, including a niece and her husband and their very cute twin daughters, living near her in the DC area. Pat is also the proud great-aunt to two little girls including one on the west coast and one in Minneapolis. She hopes to travel to Chicago in July to attend a nephew’s wedding.
Alida Malkus Stroebel writes, ‘So…being married to a German, my husband and I have been designated Opa and Oma by our eldest daughter Emily Renee and her husband Christopher for their son Julien Andreas, born 3/19/2019. As they live in Tribeca (Manhattan) we will pay our first visit to them in May as they want to become a family on their own and bond, settle in, establish routines, etc. before introducing more family and friends. Megan continues to teach 8th grade math (someone has to do it!) and Steve, being retired from ship building, continues to sail here as often as he can and spends summers in Europe with the international Formula-18 catamaran racing circuit. I am still working (if you can call it that) as an elementary school library technology technician, but am considering retiring in (about?) another year. Congratulations to all!’
In the interest of consolidating and simplifying their life, Mary Mallen Badowski and Adam, recently sold their house in Arlington, VA and have started the search for a new home somewhere in Loudon County. While deciding on their next move, they are living in Mary’s house in Purcellville, VA which they also eventually hope to sell. Mary and Adam have enjoyed trips to Assateague/Chincoteague Islands, MD, Stowe, VT and a visit to the famous Von Trappe Family Lodge, and Landcaster, PA where they enjoy time experiencing life among the Amish. Mary also made a couple of trips to Ipswich, MA to visit with her sister, Anne, and her mother. Mary’s greatest love is spending time with the lights of her life, her grandchildren, twins Johnny and Angelo (16) and Talia (14). In the near future, she and Adam hope to adopt a German Shepherd New Skete puppy. Nancy McCann Vericker and her son, JP, published a book entitled Unchained: Our Family’s Addiction Mess Is Our Message which dealt with JP’s substance abuse journey. It is a wonderful book and has received a lot of positive publicity. Congratulations, Nancy and JP, on having the courage to share your story in hopes that others may benefit from your experience. When she is not promoting her book, Nancy continues her service as a youth minister for the weekly high school religion program at her parish. She also works with Grace McLaren Gagliardo’s retreat ministry, Insights. Nancy was very happy to report the she and Joe celebrated their 35th anniversary this past November and that their daughters, Lizzie (33), Molly (26), and Gracie (18) are all thriving. Come September, Nancy and Joe will become empty-nesters when Grace heads off to college.
Molly Messner Lane and her husband are retired and have downsized and are now living in a condo in Atlanta. They love the freedom it gives them to pack up and hit the road whenever they want. Her son George recently returned to Atlanta to manage corporate communications and technology for Home Depot and her son, Jeff, is midway through his emergency medicine residency in Rochester, NY. Molly is staying busy with family, tennis, and volunteering at a domestic violence agency, her high school, and major sporting events in Atlanta. After 22 years, Jane Muldoon-Smith and Peter have sold their family home in Cary, NC and are building something new not too far from the old one. While they are waiting to complete construction, they are living like newlyweds in an apartment only without the view of the Washington Monument they enjoyed in 1983! Jane is happy to report that her children couldn’t be better. Her daughter Jessica lives in Alexandria, VA with her husband, Sean, and their children, Piper (3) and Fletcher (1). Her daughter Rachel lives in Raleigh, NC with her husband Patrick and their children Charlie (2) and Theo (six months). Life is good with the grands! Joanna, her youngest daughter, will graduate from Campbell Law School in May 2019 and get married in September, after the bar exam but before the results! Jane’s son, Aidan, is a student at NC State and will graduate the same weekend Joanna graduates from law school. Jane continues to enjoy her job as a Montessori pre-school teacher but her true love is performing with Peter and occasionally with their daughter, Joanna, in their duo, City Folk. Sheila Murdock Phelan is still in CT and continues to work in publishing as the Director of Operations for DK Publishing, a division of Penguin Random House that is based in London. She travels occasionally to London and usually skips over to Dublin for a visit with friends before or after. She is still in touch with many of her Dubliner pals and was honored to attend an event at the Library of Congress when one of her Irish musician friends was awarded a NEW National Heritage Fellowship. Her son Kevin (31) graduated from Northeastern U and is now working as a senior data analyst for medical startup. Kevin’s father, Jerry Phelan, passed away in 2010 which was an awful time for everyone. Sheila’s parents also have passed away and, since then, her sister Sarah has been living with Sheila and her partner, David Lappin. During the past 20 years, Sheila’s interest and engagement in politics has picked up and she is quite proud to report that she is still a cat lady and loves her three cats!
Roberta Phippen Collier lives in New Bern, NC that was hit so hard by Hurricane Florence in September 2018. Although a tree fell on her house, she did not experience the horrific flooding that caused her neighbors so much damage. Both Bert and Jeb have hung up their suits in favor of jobs that require more comfortable clothing. Bert works at a pediatric dental office and Jeb is an estimator for a local contractor. A couple of more years and they will join the ranks of the blissfully retired. Paula Pucillo Schenkel and David have sold their family home to their oldest son and his wife and their two children, Lilly (3) and David III (1). In November, they moved into an addition that they built onto the home. It was a fun, stressful and busy time for everyone but they are happy with the results and thrilled to be able stay close to their grandchildren. Paula’s daughter, Chrissie, lives in the home with her brother and works as nanny to his children as well as maintaining her bar tending job three nights a week. Her youngest son, Drew, is employed as an electrician and is going to school to get his journeyman’s certificate. Paula and Dave enjoy their winters in St. Maarten and their travels, most recently to Spain and Portugal. In 2019 they are looking forward to a river cruise from Bucharest to Budapest followed by a few days in London and the birth of their third grandchild!
Emma and Mayra Rios-Benitez then students at Trinity and now
Mayra Rios Benitez sent much news about herself and her sister Maggie (Emma) Rios Benitez who were our classmates but only during freshman year. In 1983, Mayra moved to NYC to work in advertising. While there, she met and married her husband Ruben, a Marine who was born in Brooklyn to Puerto Rican parents. When Ruben retired from the Marines, they moved from NY to PA but still keep a studio apartment in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Mayra frequently travels to Puerto Rico for visits. Maggie is retired from teaching elementary school science. She taught in NYC from 1991 to 1996 when she returned to Puerto Rico. While living in NYC, she had two children. Her son, Jose, is a physician in Puerto Rico and her daughter, Christina, is working on her doctorate in Neuroscience at the U of Michigan. Although Mayra and Ruben have no children of their own, she considers herself a second mother to Maggie’s children! Maggie’s first husband passed away in 2006 and she now lives in Trujillo Alto with her second husband, Alirio, a Columbian. Mayra has such good memories of her time at Trinity and took Ruben for a visit to the college where they took a picture of themselves in front of Kirby Hall!
Barbara Rooney Barzelatto still lives in NJ and is enjoying life with her two grandchildren, Edo (2) and Kate (1). So good to hear from you Barbara! Margarita San Feliz Wu checked in to remind us all that our years at Trinity were a precious gift filled with lovely memories! Couldn’t have said it better myself! Edith Schulz Salamone is retired and lives near her four sisters in Germantown, MD. She and her husband, Harry, have been married for 34 years and are the proud parents of two adult children, Michael and Jenny, the pride and joy of their lives, and have a beloved terrier named Shelby. Edith has many fond memories of our Trinity days!
After thirty years, Penny Thompson-Kriesch retired from her job as the U of Maryland/USDA Director of Center Plant Health and Biosecurity and returned to teaching inner-city students which she finds exhilarating and exhausting. This past year has been quite difficult for Penny. In October, she lost her sister Bonita, also an alumna, to breast cancer and on Christmas Eve, her mother passed away from the grief of losing her daughter. In addition to her own daughter, Erin, Penny has become the honorary mother to Bonita’s three children and has inherited three young grandchildren. Penny currently is contemplating her next move and is considering working on her doctorate or opening a school. Best of luck to her!
Theresa Van Vliet kindly did not rub in the fact that she is enjoying a tropical climate while Maria has been dying in the frozen tundra! Theresa continues to work as an attorney and occasionally travels to New York on business where she gets a taste of Maria’s Wisconsin winters. Theresa and Dale are enjoying life and spend an inordinate amount of time golfing with friends and hanging with Sammy, their diabetic golden retriever service dog and the world’s best fella! They are planning a trip to Maui to visit Dale’s elderly father and Theresa is looking forward to spring break with some of our classmates at Eva Keating’s place in Naples. All I can say is sunscreen!
Lisa Wood Gregorie’s husband, Dennis retired four years ago allowing them to travel more. They love being able to visit their three sons and their families who all live in different parts of the county. In particular they love being able to spend time with their two wonderful grandchildren, Hadley and Leo. After ten years, Lisa still loves living in NC, where she says the weather if perfect!
Susan Rivers writes that after leaving the Wall Street Journal, she moved into corporate communications and for the last 15 years have headed communications for a few financial firms, serving most recently as Chief Communications Officer for a $1.2 billion community development nonprofit in Boston. She’s at the point where she’s had enough, both of corporate life and New England. Susan doesn’t need to work and is eager to travel and pursue photography more purposefully. She’ll be moving to Richmond, VA, to be near her sons and grandchildren and spend time with her husband (with whom she has been married 40+ years) who has lymphoma. This summer she’ll be going on a bucket-list trip: An old friend from her days at Newsday and Susan are touring the Serengeti to see the great migrations and spending a few days exploring historic Zanzibar.
Chris Jeffrey writes that all is well here. It is the same with little changes aside from growing older. JJ & Chris celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in December. How time flies. Her husband is well. Health is a little precarious, as he was in the hospital for a few days at the end of February for pneumonia. Sean and his wife Heather live 10 minutes away so we get to see them and the grandsons often. Alex, her youngest, turned 31 in February. He is engaged to be married in September.
Cindy Flood Almand writes “Loved seeing everyone at Reunion last year. Only wish there had been more time to visit with folks individually. My oldest Son, Andrew, is a real estate lawyer working for a firm in DC, and he and his wife and 2 young daughters live next door. I love having them so close. Baby boy is due this summer. It’s going to be busy! Daughter, Clare, is in LA pursuing her writing career while working/writing for a TV production company. She was published in The NY Times and LA Times this past year which was a great accomplishment. Youngest son, Brady, is finishing up his third year at Army West Point. Time is flying by…for us at least. He continues to swim for WP, and Jim and I have made many road trips over the past few years to see him swim. Jim has been retired now for several years, and I continue with a part-time admin job for a small trade association. We are looking forward to a trip to Rome and Sicily this coming September.”
Class Scribe, Maria Zehren, standing in a snowbank by her mailbox waiting to hear
from her classmates
Last, but by no means least, Maria Zehren, your poor suffering scribe responsible for rounding up everybody’s news, continues to work with her husband Donald, at their fund development consulting business assisting non-profit organizations involved in capital campaigns. Although it is hard work, she derives a lot of satisfaction driving around Green Bay and seeing all the projects that have been completed as a result of her efforts. In addition to her consulting, Maria also oversees the care of her 95-year-old father and acts as the legal guardian for her disabled brother, Zachary. Aside from her work and family responsibilities, Maria also is active in the community and serves on several non-profit boards including acting as the Chairman of the Green Bay and De Pere Antiquarian Society Annual Antique Show and Sale. She is looking forward to connecting with Susanne Nolan on the Gulf Coast when she travels there to attend the Mobile Flower Show and Ocean Springs Art Festival this spring.
In wrapping up our class notes, I would like to say a special thank you to our following classmates who, did not send any news but did take the time to check-in and update their contact information: Mary Beth Cerjan Falk, Barbara Crowley-White, Kim Frazier, Eva Keating McKendrick, Eileen Preskenis McGuire, Gemma Puglisi, and Susan Rivers. Just hearing from you made Maria’s and my day!
As for myself, I must admit that as a class scribe, I barely made the deadline for sending my news to Maria! Like everyone who was able to attend, I had a wonderful time at our 40th reunion. While I was on campus, I enjoyed sitting in on a few sessions, learning more about what Trinity is doing for its students, and how happy they are to be there. I am still counting the years until I can retire and join that club. I did change jobs, though, after 17 years working in operations for a community bank, and have spent the past three years working for NEACH (New England Automated Clearing House), Regional Payments Association. It has been a great opportunity for me to grow, as my position requires travel, public speaking, providing education for our member banks, and conducting audits and risk assessments. The learning never ends. I was recently on a conference call in which Mary Feddis’ sister, Nessa Feddis (’80) was a participant – small world. Our twin daughters are doing well. Maura is a high school English teacher at a Catholic school in Austin, and Caitlin is a private equity lawyer in Boston, so we see her fairly often, and really enjoy when Maura is able to visit.
So, there you have it! Everyone’s news! It was fantastic to hear from each one of you, especially those of you that we haven’t heard from recently. I hope that you enjoyed reading our classmates latest news as much as Maria and I did. Don’t forget to get your responses in next year when Maria comes knocking!
Kathy Dysart Shea Maria Zehren
Kds0109@gmail.com mzehren1978@yahoo.com