As I start to write the next column of class news for summer, we are nearing April, which is thought to be named for the Latin word aprilis, which means “to open.” After three years of COVID, the possibility of gatherings prompted Nancy Morse Dysart to join class president Ace Conro in reminding you all of the third attempt for a class reunion. We will gather at the Newagen Inn in Boothbay the sixth and seventh of September before we travel on the eighth to Orono for events on the ninth and tenth.
Nancy Small Russell is retired from work at the Thomas Memorial Library in Cape Elizabeth, where she had 35 years of very happy experiences.
Nancy Small Russell is retired from work at the Thomas Memorial Library in Cape Elizabeth, where she had 35 years of very happy experiences.
Fred and Diane Tatlock Pierce spent the winter in Maui, and returned to Las Vegas, where they live, in April. Both stay very busy, involved in their golfing.
On the island of Hawaii Rick Lloyd is president of AACA, the Antique Automobile Club of America, for the “Aloha” region. He just issued his 11th newsletter. One of the vehicles, a British 1965 Daimler Majestic, was sent to a
February meeting in Philadelphia.
A conversation with Donna Fritz Brunstad led to me looking up Jean Bertolini Brown. Donna and her husband, Bill Sweeney, have moved from Portland, OR to Evergreen Woods in North Branford, CT. As they have several children and grandchildren nearby, and in the South, they are “very happy to be back.”
Meanwhile, Jean now resides in Chestertown, MD. Out of college she worked in computer programming for the National Security Agency in DC for eight years. She married and they remained there while her husband finished his law degree. Later she moved to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where she worked for Purdue Chicken, and also for the Navy in Annapolis. She reminded me of a campus memory. When it was 30 degrees below zero outside one winter the girls were allowed to wear slacks to classes, instead of skirts that were a requirement!
Tade Osier Cross has a home in Pemaquid, one she has not been to in three years, and hopes to come this summer. Recently, she got kudos from the UPS man, who stopped as she rescued a dog from the street. He said “God bless you” as she had seen the homeless animal over time. When the owner did not take the dog home from the rescue center, Tade did, and named it Idgie, who joins Black Shade and Ema, her two cats. She is the Betty White of the Class of ’60. Her son came from Florida to be with her, and a daughter lives in Maryland. In Millinocket, I caught up with Avern Danforth. After graduating in chemistry and pulp and paper he worked for two years in New Jersey for DuPont. Coming home to Maine in 1962, he joined Great Northern Paper Company, where he worked for 38 years.
Judy Ward Lessard of Cape Elizabeth was a one-time class correspondent. For the last 30 years she has taught college writing at Saint Joseph’s College in Windham, where she is an eclectic adjunct professor.
Don Billet and his wife, Lynn Ritchie, live on the west side of New York City. In college Don majored in speech, and while at UMO Don and Eliot Rich starred in several Maine Masque Theatre productions. He also worked in summer stock in Kennebunk and in Boothbay Harbor at Fisherman’s Wharf. Hollywood called, and he spent time in California. In New York he has worked with Jason Robards and Steven Sondheim. Along the way of his checkered career he got a degree in law at Joliet College. His wife, Lynn, works in fashion.
As always please send me news, stories of campus memories, and put the fall gathering in your schedule! Stay well,
and spread love.
Gail