Kay Sawyer Hannah
88 Seawood Park Road
New Harbor, ME 04554-5003
(207) 677-3003
khannah@tidewater.net
Richard Sturgeon ’66G, who starred in basketball at Old Town High School and UMaine, was inducted into the Maine Sports Legends at its annual Hall of Honors ceremony in June, 2017. Dick began his coaching career with the Black Bear’s freshman team when injury interfered with his team playing, went on to coach at Madison and Cony high schools, followed by 11 years in basketball and 10 years in baseball at the University of Southern Maine. He is also an inductee of the Maine and USM Athletic Halls of Fame. He and his wife, Barbara York Sturgeon, live in Portland.
Sandy Crowe Wooding, who lives in Old Chatham, NY, keeps busy with her Morgan horses, showing in New England and New York during the summer and riding almost daily. She’s in a very active book club and is currently serving as president of a garden club. Her daughter, Heather, lives in Waltham, MA, and works for Med Tech. Her son, Mike, and his wife live in Ashburnham, MA, with their three children.
Fred Varricchio writes that he and his wife continue to divide their year between Venice, FL, and Wakefield, RI, and get away annually from the Florida winter by going to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Again this past year he contributed to the biomedical literature with two more articles. Last year he was honored with “a significant sig award.“ He was interested to read about Sonny Mitchell in our last fall’s class notes, as he roomed with him first semester and wondered what became of him. He asks if anyone knows what pictures he was in. He also wonders if anyone has the group photo from our 1995 Reunion that he/she could share.
Fred and Diane Tatlock Pierce, of Las Vegas, and Ralph Pilsbury ’61, ’64 and wife, Susan, of Land-of-Lakes, FL, had a mini get-together with Sally Wakefield in Dunedin, FL, on Labor Day weekend.
Class president Ace Conro ’63G has directed the UMaine Foundation to proceed with the renaming of our class scholarship fund. The class poll he conducted resulted in a greater than 86 percent approval among those voting to put it in the name of the late Sandie Page, who for many years served as our class secretary and willed $140,000 to our class scholarship fund.
Art reminds us to keep open the second week in September 2020 for our class Reunion, which will be part of the Senior Alumni Reunion on campus. Art has been as busy as ever with his duties as our class president and officiating at indoor track meets for various colleges in New England through the winter, and changing to outdoor meets in the spring.
Our class has received interesting and appreciative thank-you notes from the recipients of the two university scholarships totaling $1,867 that we provided for the 2017-2018 academic year. Both women are seniors and very active on campus. Colleen Lucy writes that she is double majoring in English and exercise science and will pursue a doctorate in English in the fall. She is from Verona Island and the granddaughter of Niles and Ronnie Stather Nelson. The other awardee, Victoria Nolette from Readfield, is majoring in management and accounting, and runs track. She writes that her grandfather, Hollis Letteney, a civil engineering major now deceased, “would be proud to know that his classmates continue to give back to the college of our hearts.”
Gail Rae Carter of Cumberland Center continues to substitute teach at Greeley High and to work at an antique shop in Falmouth. Her son, Mark, lives in Evanston, IL, where her grandson Ethan attends high school. Her granddaughter Anna is a sophomore at Brown U. Gail’s daughter Sarah is an event planner at Tendercrop Farm in Dover, NH. Gail occasionally gets together with Joanne Keith Sullivan for lunch in Portland. Joanne’s interests include downhill skiing at Shawnee Peak and quilting.
I’ve been pleased to hear from Jean Toothaker Chapman. For over 40 years, she lived Allentown, PA, with her husband, Charles. Following her husband’s death 11 years ago, she moved to Charlottesville, VA, in 2013 to be closer to her eldest son, Peter, and family. She usually gets to Maine a couple of times a year and frequently sees classmates Jane Libby Littlefield and Sally Curtis Hartikka. When she turns 80 this year, as most of us will, she is hoping to celebrate the occasion in Maine during the summer with her children and grandchildren.
If any of you visit the Pemaquid Art Gallery on the grounds of Pemaquid Lighthouse Park, you may notice the paintings of yours truly among the 30 local artists that exhibit their art there. I’m only 1/4 mile away so do hope you’ll stop by for a visit and tell me your news in person; otherwise, just contact me. I’m as anxious to share what you have to say as the rest of our classmates are to read it.
Happy 80th birthday to all of you who are celebrating this big occasion about now. Can you believe it! Now you can be proud to be not only a University of Maine graduate, but also an octogenarian. Keep strong!