Judy Ohr
And a good time was had by all. What a marvelous class celebration in Boothbay Harbor in September. A big thank you to co-chairs Ian MacKinnon ’70G and Shirlene Heath Gosline ’73G along with their committee Anne Wescott Dodd ’82 C.A.S., ’94 Ed.D., Ann Lynch MacKinnon, Meg Thompson Villarreal, Pete Berry, and Ellen Shibles. On the first afternoon, Nancy Rich Marbury and husband, Luke, opened their cottage to us for a wine and cheese and lots of reconnecting. Nancy said it was her joy to host us. Nancy is retired from private school administration, and Luke is now relaxing after a long career in banking law.
On the second day, Ian arranged for a tour of the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, which were not only lovely but also fascinating to see the variety of flowers and plants living and growing in harmony in the Maine climate. That evening we enjoyed a delicious dinner at the dining hall of Spruce Point Inn. The highlight of the evening was a slide briefing on the proposed new engineering building on campus. Andy McGarry, class president, did the introductions as well as presentation of gifts to the committee. Andy’s new digs are in Hilton Head Island, SC, after many years in Florida.
Nice chatting with Paul Talbot and wife, Anne. Paul retired after 30 years as city manager in five cities in Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. During his spare time he skis and plays tennis. The Talbots live in Brunswick. Bill and Esther Jordan Gorman ’63G split their time between Seal Harbor, ME, and Florida. I knew that they had had interesting careers in science so probed a bit. Bill said the two of them developed a counter current fractionator, which was used as a precursor to DNA. The Smithsonian believes this was the start of genetic engineering and has a fractionator in its permanent display. Pretty impressive!
Caught up with Marcia Sayward Blake, who’s still calling Freeport home, but playing golf wherever there is a course. In her spare time she’s watching her older grandson play soccer at Unity College and the younger guy is an athlete in high school. Pete and Gail McLain Berry downsized when they sold their home in Maine and moved into a smaller cottage. To relax they followed up the sale with a cruise down the Danube River. I spent most of the reunion with Larry Schiner, wife, Barbara (who took the photos on our web page), and Etta Libby Davenport. Afterwards they drove up to Orono for some of the Senior Alumni activities as well as the football game.
Jane Wilson Sturgis ’97G taught a class last fall on Great Expectations by Charles Dickens as a member of Lewiston-Auburn Senior College. She was also re-elected to serve on the Gray-New Gloucester School Board for three more years.
Bill and Jane Libby Littlefield ’60 enjoyed a summer visit to the Chautauqua Institution, Mayville, NY, hearing talks by Bill Moyer, Bill McKibben, the lady who founded the “Me Too,” movement, and other speakers on the current and future trends in our world. Early this year they received word that their nurse practitioner daughter, Kim Su, had been selected for early promotion to major in the army reserve.
I had lunch with Mary Irving Fantucchio at her place in Arlington, VA. She plans to move to a senior apartment in Maine as soon as there is an opening. We enjoyed a salad right under her Harry Greaver watercolor. You’ll recall Mary had been the editor of the school newspaper, which is why I want to share this information. The library has digitized 140 years of The Maine Campus newspapers. To access them go to digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/maine campus/.
There are photos from the reunion on the class webpage. UMaineAlumni.com Class Notes Class Pages 1961. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the photo album. Also, if you want to be added to my class email list, please drop me a message. When I have news or photos, I’ll contact you.