Dear ’66 alumni! As I write this in October, Marge and I have returned from a week in Traverse City, MI, where the fall color is more like that of New England than that in Northwest Ohio. While there, I received feedback from four of our fellow alumni. Given that this is a relatively small number I’ll catch you up on Marge and me. Marge (Rider ’66) is a UMaine alumna by matrimony rather than matriculation. She secured an MA (BGSU ’94) while working full time as a medical technologist and putting up with me. Her art forms have progressed from hand-thrown pottery to enamel on copper to watercolors used to produce encaustic (I didn’t know either. Google it.). The woman has more artistic capability in her left little finger than I have in my entire ugly body and never ceases to amaze me.
Three days ago, I had the laser prep in my left eye for cornea transplant the end of this month. I’ve been reading mostly with my right eye lately, so hopes are that this will improve. On an upbeat note, early this month I was recognized as having the Spirt of Bowling Green Parks and Rec Foundation for weekly volunteering in Wintergarden Preserve, a multiple use park of over 100 acres within the BG city limits. I was completely surprised by this honor.
On to other alumni. Paul Ringwood reports that after 21 years of flying in the Navy as a pilot, an officer, and a combat veteran, he flew for FEDEX for 17 years. His years in the Navy relocated him to San Diego, where he is mostly retired, but still has a real estate and mortgage business.
My fraternity brother Enoch Bell let us know that he remarried five years after his first wife passed away and that the two of them are missionaries and work with Marshallese immigrants in Utah. I believe I remember that Enoch gave me my first and only motorcycle ride on College Ave. on his bike.
John Lee now lives in the forested northwest corner of Connecticut, which he shares with bears, foxes, fisher cats, and mountain lions. He is a retired high school administrator and coach and has only returned to Orono for the two silver and gold athletic presentations for former letter winners.
Bob Kittredge attended the Reunion last fall and was saddened that there were not more ‘66ers there. Otherwise, he was impressed with the new engineering building and the other additions to campus since his last visit. He had a chance to get in a round of golf with Sarge Means at Penobscot Valley Country Club.
That’s it for this time. Feel free to send updates from your lives whenever you think of it.