Sometimes we have to share sad news, but if we are smart, we always pick out the blessings part. Charles Edwin “Ed” Spear, Jr. passed away recently. His adoring wife, Sylvia Niles Spear, also our classmate, wanted us all to know that 59 years of happiness almost salved his last years of struggle. After enhancing his University of Maine B.S. in forestry management, he earned an M.S. in forestry economics, served in the Army, worked as a park ranger, road construction supervisor, and was very active in the community. He was a third degree Master Mason, board president at his church, worked to benefit AIDS patients, elderly, and homeless on many projects, and loved making apple cider and maple syrup. Sylvia is very proud of him!
Thomas R. W. Longstaff, professor of religious studies at Colby College, writes that, “I’ve always been proud to be a graduate of the University of Maine and have, at times, when someone attempted to ‘put down’ education at a state university in comparison to private colleges, commented that ‘if someone chooses the state university, who knows, they might end up as a tenured faculty at a highly rated private college.’” Thomas has been a regular donor to the UMaine Foundation for years, crediting his placement at graduate school at Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago, and Columbia (where he completed his Ph.D.) to his time at the University of Maine. Not bad!
Sadly, two classmates are now “upstairs.” Eldon L. Morrison was lost as he was piloting a Beechcraft Bonanza A36, which went down in a wooded area of Arundel in October. Eldon was founder and chief executive officer of CPM Contractors, a company that did diverse work from pile driving and rail to historic rehab and marine construction across Maine and northern New England. And Diana Mills Moody, an education major who grew up in Auburn and lived most recently in Trinity, FL. She is survived by her husband, Gus ’66, and family. Wish I had more of her story.
And again we should celebrate classmates Phillip and Susan Keene Morse, who donated a significant $10 million toward the university’s new multipurpose arena, furthering the athletic facilities makeover at UMaine. This follows a $1 million gift last year to support the facilities master plan, more for the Morse Field at Alfond Sports Stadium, and their earlier donations of $1 million to upgrade the Morse Field surface and $800,000 to install the high-definition video scoreboard on the field. Celebration is also ongoing for E. James Ferland and his wife, Eileen P. Ferland, for their contributions and support to the new 115,000 square-foot three-story Ferland Engineering Education and Design Center, the largest project of its kind in UMaine history. Engineering skills are desperately needed in the workforce. This facility will support both teaching and research, and is the focal point for campus-wide STEM outreach.
Lynne Greenhalgh of Tri Delta sorority, is now Lynne Stevens, married to George Stevens, and is living in a beach house five minutes from the coast in Owls Head, ME. She wrote: “We have another vacation place at our camp at Cold Stream Pond. I have two wonderful children — Bailey Smith and Heidi MacMillan — and three grandchildren. I also share George’s three families. I left the university for a position at The National Security Agency, where I began my career in information technology. I now have a ministry for incest survivors and have written a book available on Amazon titled Look What God Can Do. God is good!”
Our class also sponsors a scholarship program and would like you to know that two scholarships were awarded for the academic year 2022-2023. They went to Marielle Pelletier, a senior in animal & veterinary science, and to Davon Lammert, a senior studying political science and a grandchild of our Anne Roundy ’67G.
And I, Ginny Bellinger Ollis, am running madly around San Diego, filling in the very long days I used to spend in real estate with very meaningful Rotary projects, projects and purposes in my community of Mission Hills, taking a writing class that I love and which I hope will put me on the bestseller list before I make the best heaven-transient list, and finding that the sunshine and joy every day is only partly from the planet. The biggest part is from the people I know and love. Like my college roommate 59 years ago, the incomparable Judy Joel Tardiff!
As we age there are lots of new challenges, but there are also a lot of clever, fun, generous, and happy things we do and share. Please let us know what yours are. We are a class together forever!