Frances Pratt Caswell
Paying for college has always been a challenge, but today the challenge is greater than ever. We continue to offer financial aid to Class of 1951 descendants. There were two recipients for the 2018-2019 year. Alexander Thacker is a senior majoring in computer science. He is from Brunswick and is the grandson of the late Vance Norton.
The other recipient, Benjamin Quimby, wrote, “I worked at Neenah Paper in Vermont in the summer of 2018 doing an internship under engineers there. I took on real-world engineering problems and worked with others to try to come up with practical solutions in the most effective and efficient way possible. I am hoping to use this experience to help open the door for me to even greater opportunities to learn and grow in the coming years.” Benjamin is a junior and the grandson of the late Dodd Roberts ’55G.
Elwood “Woody” Beach, president of the Senior Alumni, reminds us that Senior Alumni dedicates its fundraising focus on helping Maine’s non-traditional students, helping students in categories that traditional student scholarships do not address. Contributing to this fund is a good way for us to express our appreciation for the benefits a U of M degree afforded us. Woody, Penny Guptill Higgins, and Joan Wiswell Beach attended the annual UMaine luncheon at The Highlands in Topsham in the fall of 2018.
Malcolm Chadbourne has published his first fiction book, Greta and Caps: Unlikely Friends.
It is available on Amazon. This is the story of a teenage boy who delivers the local paper to a middle-aged Swedish immigrant. They form an unlikely friendship as he teaches her about avoiding telephone scams and playing the lottery, and she teaches him about monarch migrations and pileated woodpeckers. Malcolm is retired from a career with Mass Mutual Life Insurance and lives in Suffield, CT.
Shirley Ann Smith Stewart died on July 23, 2018. Shirley and her husband, Ronald ’49, ’72G settled in Portland, ME, and raised four children. She was employed in the financial office of the University of Southern Maine. They retired to Wilton, and later moved to Bath to be near their daughter Nancy. In Bath, Shirley was a member of the Neighborhood United Church of Christ and enjoyed working with the Good Samaritan Program. She was an avid knitter, painter, and gardener. She is survived by four children, fourteen grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.