It’s fall in Maine as I write, and you’ll be reading this in February — keep warm!
Our class held its 71st Reunion on September 9 for lunch in Kennebunkport at the Arundel Wharf Restaurant, overlooking the Kennebunk River with its boats. It was a beautiful sunny day with five classmates, some family members, and two from the UMaine Foundation attending. Classmates were: Helen Strong Hamilton, our class president, Exeter, NH, and her son Christopher; J. Warren Noyes and his son Rollin, Madison; Al White, Portland, and Barbara Cavallaro, his driver; Jean Dolloff Kreizinger, Newtown, CT, and her daughter Tracy Johnson, Wallingford, PA; Dee Gardner and Ryan Daly from the Foundation, Portland; and yours truly. At lunch, Dee gave classmates a University of Maine coaster, which we used to set our beverages on. Thanks so much! We ate plenty of seafood: Salmon BLT; Lobster Club; Lobster Rolls; Lobster Stew, Fish Sandwich; Sweet Potato Fries; and Blueberry Pie! We plan to have a 72nd this coming September. Up for it?
The Class of 1953 Scholarship for the academic year 2024-2025 was awarded to Shealyn Ryan, of Buffalo, NY, a senior majoring in anthropology.
This week I was going into the Staples store in Biddeford when I saw a man wearing a UMaine T-shirt. Of course I spoke to him. I said I was the Class of 1953, and he said he was born in 1952, so how old do you think that made me feel! He was the Class of 1974. (I think.) I didn’t even ask his name!
Brig. Gen Ralph Applegate (retired), of Mount Laurel, NJ, does the “standard old man stuff” of golf and work in the garden. He’s 93 and drives a gray used SUV 2022 Ford Escape. (I’m interested in cars.) He retired “roughly” in ’65. His wife, Elizabeth Goodrich Applegate ’55, died a couple of years ago, and in December 2023 he married classmate Joan Stanley Vose, whose husband, Richard Vose, died in 2020. (Dick and Ralph “Rondo” were college roommates and ATO fraternity brothers.) Joan lives in Camden and Ralph in Mount Laurel. They “escape” to Maine when they tire of New Jersey, and vice versa. Joan spent her junior and senior years at UMaine, in elementary education, was an AOII, and had four children. She lost two, and now has two boys, one in Arizona, and one in Portland. She’s quite social, and “happy, healthy, and grateful for all that I have.” Congratulations!
Larry Bailey of Stroudsburg, PA, is something else, his wife, Linda, 81, said when she answered the phone. “He’s unbelievable. Nobody can believe it.” He mows the lawn, rakes the lawn, and drives. Larry was out with the car, and said to call back after 6, so I did. Larry, 93, then got on the phone and told of his children, ages 69, 67, 65, and two grandchildren. He spoke of Steve, his middle child, who spent 28 years working with fish at the New England Aquarium, and now for the past year and a half years at a museum in Miami. Linda has four children, ages 62, 61, 58, 56, eight grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. Larry said they went to a family reunion last year in Monmouth at the Bailey camp on Lake Cochnewagen. As to dinner that Saturday when I called, it was hot dogs, beans, and brown bread, a good old New England Saturday tradition.
Edith Snow Cole, of Land O Lakes, FL, just outside of Tampa, 87 degrees, she said, went for two years to UMaine, in ’49 and ’50, and roomed in West Hall. She said her roommates were Signe Swanholm Gardner, Nancy Moulton Gerry, and the late Eleanor “Beezy” Zehner Hibben. Edith was originally from Sebago and married Sherman Cole ’50 of West Paris, a Phi Mu Delta man with an engineering major. They lived in many places, including California, England, Florida, Texas, Indianna, and Maine. They had three daughters, one of whom she’s living with now. (Sherman died in 2005.) As she said, “I was a lovely housewife.” And she now plays as many card games as she can — bridge twice a week and once a week at the rec center. She misses the foliage, but enjoys eating lunch by the pool and watching the golfers go by.
Signe Swanholm Gardner, originally of Thomaston, now of Rockland, an art major, AOII, at Orono in ’49-’51, left college to marry Don Kelsey, Jr. ’51. She operated a daycare from her home while she commuted to college (Augusta and second year Orono) to get her BS degree in 1972. Signe still paints, is a tailor, belongs to a Bible and lunch group, and “Off the Rocker” lunch group. Mother of four who are “all around,” she mentioned her granddaughter Lauren Delinger, and great-grandson Ocean Kiester, 13, who lives with her. She still drives.
Dr. Charles Cushing, of Fairfield, predental major, originally of Bangor, said he does “as little as possible.” He tries to keep in touch with classmates and admits, “I don’t do anything unless my wife tells me to.” He’s married to Alice; they go to reunions, he’s 92, “is still alive,” and drives.
Dee Draper Weidemeyer, of Clearwater, FL, originally of Cornish, a med tech major, couldn’t answer the phone when I called, her husband Carleton “Woody” said. I later received the following voicemail: “Hi Nancy, Dee Weidemeyer. I was in the shower when you called, but I’m now out, so we can speak again. We’re trying to prepare for a hurricane right now. We’ll talk to you soon.” When I spoke with Dee on October 15th, she said, “We are so glad that we do not live on the beach.” They had a few trees down, the yard was full of stuff but no major damage. She has three daughters that all live in the area, one who is just returning from their small cottage in Harpswell. “I realize now that I am a country girl at heart because where we live is so crowded. It is so full of people that I would love to be back in Maine.”
Lida Maxim Muench, of Spanish Fort, AL, originally of Lewiston, a home ec major, Chi Omega sorority, and my cousin, is now 94. She has lost her husband, Gerry, and two of her six children. She spoke of her son Stephen in Virginia Beach, her daughter Joyce in Tulsa, OK, and Joyce’s daughter Kathy McKenzie at Husson University in Bangor, and Gerry in Perdido Bay, FL, and another daughter also there. Lida has a car but plans to give it up, she said.
Hope all is well with all of you. I’m completing this on my 93rd birthday, October 10th! I can’t believe I’m 93! Happy Birthday to everyone!
I’ll be calling you in 2025 for my next column.