Here we are, Class of 1953! It’s October 2021 as I write. I have no real problems. Leaves are falling, but I have lawn guys. Winter’s coming, I have a new generator. Food’s no problem, I have seven offspring. So relax (if you can), sit back, and enjoy reading what I, and others, have written. Is it springtime where you are?
We had a wonderful 68th class reunion August 25 in Kennebunkport at the Nonantum Hotel Resort on the Kennebunk River with 21 people attending (nine classmates and 12 relatives — including wives, children, a granddaughter, two brothers-in-law and a brother). Classmates were: Dick Searles, Roman White, Peggy Given White, Jean Dolloff Kreisinger, Charles Cushing, Warren Noyes, Meredith Monk Dellasandro, Helen Strong Hamilton, president; and Nancy Schott Plaisted, class correspondent. Hope to see you at our 69th next year at the university in Orono (and our 70th)!
Also, we voted, for the Class of 1953, to move $500 from the Class Fund to the Alumni Association. We miss you, Carol Prentiss Mower, our faithful treasurer since the class began; we’ll try and leave it vacant. No one can replace you, in my estimation. (Carol died Nov. 22, 2019.) The class has also given scholarship money to 21 recipients since 2000-2001, the latest of whom are seniors, for the academic year 2021-2022: Nicole Ashe, studying management, of Williamstown, VT; and Marlys Rietdyk, studying botany, of Augusta. Congratulations!
At the reunion, where Dee Gardner ’89 of the UMaine Foundation spoke, and Pat Cummings, also of the Foundation, stopped by, I read the following email from classmate Zeke Mavodones, of Poughkeepsie, NY: “Now here is my message to those brave souls who can make the 68th Reunion. One thing I note is that these gatherings take place in proximity to Labor Day weekend and that may affect the attendance — well, food for thought. Now my memory comments: That first week we gathered one evening with the entire ‘53 class in the Memorial Gym which was set up for a welcoming dinner and greeting. President Hauck welcomed us to the university and its hallowed traditions. He especially noted that we should practice the Maine Hello during our four years and continue on with it. Next we were greeted by the Campus Mayor, Don Spear, who made us laugh with stories of happy University of Maine traditions and events to come for us. He finally closed by saying that ‘College was a four-year loaf made out of the old man’s dough.’
“Next speaker was the dean of the university, who reminded us of the serious nature of our being there to make ourselves into better people representing the university when we graduate and go out into the world. Then he noted that we should look at who was seated next to each of us on our left and right sides … because statistics show that one of us would not be there to graduate in four years … being a student at Maine was a serious life-changing event. He then wished us well and we all stood and sang the “Maine Stein Song” for the first time as a class. Then back to our respective ‘elegant’ dorms.