1984 Class Notes for 2015
Mary Kirwin Formeller completed her first year out of the classroom and is happy in her new role. She is helping young adults with various disabilities get jobs and transition out of high school. Her daughter, Kate, finished her freshman year at JMU, did very well, and absolutely loves it. Kate, her roommates, Mary and her husband John headed to Ocean City, MD where they rented Ellen Hudson’s gorgeous beachfront condo.
Glorianne Garvin writes that after graduating from UVM her son Patrick started his first job as a nurse in the surgical intensive care unit at Albany Med last July. Her daughter, Ellen, is now an executive recruiter in Manhattan and just moved to Brooklyn. Her husband Xavier is a five year lung cancer survivor. They planned to sail on their vacation.
Francine Donohue Harrington has been living in Herndon, VA for 15 years and has been a preschool teacher for seven years. Her husband Patrick works in Georgetown at Havit Advertising. Her oldest Griffin graduated from JMU and is working for Discovery. Her daughter Katie attends JMU. Her son Liam attends Herndon High School. She is in contact with Mary Gutowski Schlitzer ’83 and Kim Griffin during Christmas time exchanging cards. She travels back to Holyoke, MA to see her mom as well.
Mary Barton became a superintendent with Department of Education in July 2014 after working for almost 30 years and moving up the ranks as a teacher, assistant principal, principal and then in a role supporting principal practice and evaluating schools. Specifically, she is the superintendent of Community School District 27 in Queens and oversees 48 schools ranging from elementary, middle, K-8 and a 6-12. She is very busy with the responsibility of all of the schools and working with the central offices and all of its initiatives.
Mary heard from one of her old roommates Lisa Guiliano Kazmier. Lisa and her husband Dave of 30 years are living in Florida with their two children. Lisa works part time as an accountant and Lisa’s daughter graduated from college and her son will be started college last fall.
Betty Mullins Killian and her husband Michael are the proud parents of daughter Meghan who graduated Magna Cum Laude from Loyola University in Baltimore last May with a BBA in Finance. Meghan is working as a financial analyst in Boston. Her son Matthew is doing well.
Liz Schroder met up last summer in Falmouth, MA with Nancy Hannigan McCabe ’85, Deirdre Carroll Soraci ’85, and Theresa Redmond ’85. Liz will have three children in college. Quinn and Elizabeth are both at BC as a senior and freshman, respectively. She got to catch up with Linda McCullough O’Leary when she was up in Chestnut Hill due to her closeness to BC. Her oldest daughter Megan is at Miami University, OH. Megan is friends with Ann Barrett Connor’s daughter Catherine. Her youngest two, Bridget and Molly are at Wilton High School and they keep Liz and her husband Mike busy with a lot a field hockey and lacrosse games. Last year ago Liz had her first real surgery – a total knee replacement. Recovery was going well and she hopes to be back skiing this winter.
Liz recently caught up with Honorine Wallack ‛85. She lives in Utica and is busy managing her clients and her family. She also spoke with Marie Rexer-Monde and Kathleen O’Neal Eidson who are keeping busy with their families and bump into one another in Atlanta. Liz got together with Shauna Teelin and Joanne Donovan Caputo when she was last in Syracuse visiting family. Joanne’s daughter Catie was planning to get married and she and her husband Chip are excited.
Kathleen Dwyer Cail and her family are living in Cincinnati, OH. Their oldest child Ben went to Skidmore College. Her daughter Grace will be entered her junior year of high school. In November of 2013 she and Grace visited Orlando and had a nice visit with Karen Komosa LeCroy. This past year she and her family took trips to Maine; Paris, France; Munich, Germany; Salzburg, Austria; Istanbul, Turkey; New York City, Massachusetts (where her family lives) and San Diego. In 2014, she joined the boards of two organizations, Positive Exposure, and Starfire. Since 2013, she has been in charge of the ReelABILITIES Film Festival in Cincinnati. It is a film festival which promotes the lives, stories, and art of people who experience disabilities. It was the festival’s third year and was very successful. Marlee Matlin, Danny Woodburn, Kurt Yaeger, Michigan Supreme Court Justice Richard Bernstein, and Attorney and ADA architect Arlene Mayerson attended. She encourages us all to consider looking around your neighborhoods and communities and get to know people who experience disability and their many gifts, invite them into your groups and help build social and employment connections for them.
Ellen Sonosky Carey writes that she is doing well in Stamford, CT and enjoying her job focusing on UX and usability at Gartner. She has been at Gartner for nine years – the longest she’s ever worked anywhere. At this writing, Ellen was headed off for a week of golf school on the Cape and just enjoying the great summer after the terrible winter we had. She gets down to DC often to visit her sisters Mary and Colleen and her brother Paul. Everybody is doing well.
As for me (Elissa) I’m now going on my fourth year with Cherry Bekaert LLP, an accounting firm, in audit in the Tysons Corner, VA office. I love the company and my co-workers. We volunteered as an office with the 2015 World Police and Fire Games which was held this past year in Fairfax, VA. It was a great experience meeting athletes all over the world in the police and fire industry. My husband Mark and I headed to Hilton Head, SC last September for our annual trip and to visit my in-laws in Bluffton.
Elissa F. Woodall
Eaf17@verizon.net