Thank you, Richard Dillenbeck, for calling and bringing us up to date on your life. Richard grew up in New Jersey until age 12 when his family moved permanently to Maine in 1947, attending a two-room schoolhouse in China, ME, then nearby Erskine Academy before heading to the Orono campus. He started working on the campus radio station covering basketball games and then worked for WGUY radio starting junior year and WABI-TV doing mostly play-by-play sports announcing as well as disk-jockey. Next was US Army Counterintelligence Corps for four years witnessing the building of the Berlin Wall and enjoying travel in Europe. After discharge in Stuttgart, he headed to Ethiopia where he worked for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa while visiting his former roommate Pascal Woldemariam and his wife in Addis Ababa. Upon return to the US, Richard taught high school in Belfast, ME for a short time before becoming a worldwide mobile staff member of the American National Red Cross. He spent 35 years with assignments all over the world where US Forces served, mostly in Germany but also Vietnam and Korea, and several Army and Navy bases in the US. He has visited some 50 countries. At some point, Richard completed his MA at Boston University. He has two children, grands, and great grands, all in Maine. For the past 30 years, he has lived in Augusta, GA, where he retired, and for 24 years has been an active graduate student of German at Augusta University. He spends every summer on China Lake in his cabin-in-the-woods, where he spent his youth. Richard has shared his email for anyone who would like to be in touch: rvdillenbeck@knology.net.
In August Robert Gray shared this news:
“I started my career teaching math and science and coaching football in Reading, MA. The following year at Clark AFB in the PI. Then on to Misawa AFB in Japan, then back to NJ. I met my wife, an Ohio girl, who became our church organist for 50 years. We loved to travel and have been to both Asia and Europe. Driven across the country three times — love the Canadian Rockies and the Alaskan inland waterway. We visited L.L. Bean and the university in the mid-’80s and found many changes, lovely. I retired with 65 credits beyond a master’s degree earned at 10 different graduate colleges; teachers are always going to school. One of the blessings in our lives is family. We have two children who have gifted us with five grandchildren. It is family who we have moved to California to be with. Can’t beat the weather. Presently among that group is a medical researcher; a wine maker, a special ed teacher, a consultant, and a financial advisor. Wow, it keeps us going. Going isn’t like it used to be; growing old ain’t for sissies, it’s still a gift in many ways, even becoming a Calif liberal Mainiac.”
Dottie Richards Marshall sent an email after the summer issue of the MAINE Alumni Magazine came out. She said that no matter how many years it’s been since she lived in Maine, she’ll always have her love of Maine. A picture of Rockport Harbor is her desktop photo. Dottie reported that she had a delightful weeklong family vacation at The Boulders in Holderness, NH, with 18 family members. They’ve been going there for about 30 years with some years missed during the pandemic. It sounds like a wonderful tradition!
My husband, Robert, and I were so very pleased to have as overnight guests in September Elva Brackett Alden and her daughter, Susan, who visited us following a very special event they attended in Belgrade Lakes for Ellie Small Williams’ 90th birthday. Elva and I encouraged Ellie to share her celebration with our class. Here’s what she wrote:
“September 21st was quite a day when family and friends gathered to celebrate my 90th birthday — Eleanor “Ellie” Small Williams — by the lake at the Belgrade Center for All Seasons. My son Scott ’90 escorted me into the gathering with daughter Karen close by. I was overwhelmed seeing my family, including sister, Nancy Small Russell ’60, James Russell ’59, Kate Russell Hill ’88, and wonderful family and friends from near and far. Next, I spotted my closest and dearest Delta Zeta sisters — Janet Griffin Maxcy with Dave Maxcy; Joyce Lyon Fuller and Chris Fuller, and Elva Brackett Alden. The room was decorated in Delta Zeta colors of Pepto pink and Granny Smith apple green. There were pictures, tea lights, and lovely flowers on each table. It was so festive with a slide show and music from the 1940s and 1950s, wonderful conversation, and delicious lunch and cake. What a happy, happy day!”
I did not know that Janet Logan Nolan had passed away until I was looking at the list of deaths at the back of the summer alumni magazine. She died on March 29, 2024. What a shock! I was able to pull up her obituary in the Portland Press Herald. Jan attended Edward Little High School and then the University of Maine, where she joined Chi Omega and was active in her class. She graduated with a B.A. in English and a secondary teaching certificate. She and John “Bud” Nolan met during their sophomore year and married in November 1957. Both were very active as alumni and set up a family scholarship fund. (John died in October of 2022.)
Another classmate and for the Chi O’s, another sister, Nancy McGouldrick Green, passed away in July. Her son, Jay Guthy, sent this email to me:
“Nancy passed away on July 30, 2024, at the age of 88. She was married to her husband, Ralph Green, as they just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. After college, Mom started her career in special education and completed her career as a real estate agent for almost 20 years. Mom raised three children and was the dearest person you could meet, just as she was in college. She never changed and was adored by all.”
Our class president, Jiggs Cecchini, forwarded to me a really nice letter from President/CEO Jeffery Mills ’82 of the UMaine Foundation thanking us for our donation for the Class of 1957 Scholarship. The amount was for $1,783 and went to Kent Raymond, a senior with a wildlife ecology major and a political science minor. He is the grandchild of Sandra Noyes Warner, one of our classmates. Kent wrote Jiggs a very nice letter in which he thanked our class “for believing in my potential and providing me with this incredible opportunity to further my education. This scholarship will be very helpful and will have a big impact on my success at the University of Maine.” I think it’s special when our class scholarships can benefit our descendants.
If you haven’t seen your name in our column, please share your news. Your classmates will enjoy hearing about you, and it will help your class secretary a lot. My sincere thanks to those of you who have been contacting me.