Hey ’66ers! Thanks to all of our classmates for responding to my recent email blast. I will try to fit you all into this
column, but if I run out of space, I’ll keep the remainder on hand for the next issue.
At this writing Marge and I have recently returned from the previously mentioned Portugal excursion. The banks of
the Douro River are steep and made of granite. Reminded me of New England. Great trip and highly recommended.
John Keenan confessed that his last campus visit was in ’87 and suspected that things had changed since then. I
can vouch for there being noticeable changes in my 30 years away. Ellen Toomey reported that her journalism
classmate Mary Ellen Twombly passed away last year. Mary Ellen was a reporter for the Maine Campus, and
covered the strike at the Ounegan Woolen Mill in Old Town. This was the longest labor strike in Maine history. After graduation she went on to be labor reporter for Machinist Weekly and then worked for the state of Maine on
weatherization projects. She also built her own Maine solar home from scratch.
Ron Lanza remembered that he and I took some classes together freshman year. He described himself as “a very quiet guy” but I do remember him and that our fraternity houses were next door neighbors. I also remembered that he took part in UMaine athletics. Carol Smith Jones ’74G lives in Port Townsend, WA and can see the Olympic and Cascade Mountains from her windows. She moved out there to be closer to her two daughters and their families in Washington and Oregon. She keeps in touch with Maine by daily working from home with Maine Fiberarts, a statewide nonprofit arts organization in Topsham, ME. She has renewed her relationship with knitting, has begun hand spinning and hopes to spend the rest of her life as a knitter and spinster. Mark Kinney and his wife, Nancy Pearson Kinney ’65, ’70G, have established a fund in the School of Policy & International Affairs (SPIA) to support students who want to begin projects in their internships. Mark and Nancy invite our classmates to contribute to their fund, which is called the Global Impact Fund.
Linda Talbot Eaton was at Grand Canyon, Bryce, and Zion National Parks with her daughter and two grandchildren in April and espied a man in a UMaine sweatshirt. We’re everywhere! Paul Sullivan and his wife of 56 years, Barbara, are “hanging out” in Sea Island, GA, where they stay active with pickle ball, golf, and walks on the beach. They planned to return to Connecticut in late May to spend the summer. Paul also keeps busy with Boston College Law Deans Advisory Board and the Junior Achievement Dallas Board. Barbara volunteers for Hospice. One grandson recently received a master’s degree from SMU, and his younger brother will soon graduate from UVA.
Neil Ashton retired from banking 20 years ago, but tired of retirement and began working for the State of Maine
fixing unemployment problems for people. In the past year he was also asked to participate in Appeals Hearings
three days a week. Neil has also umpired high school and college baseball for 45 years. Paula Noyes Singer
received the UMaine Alumni Association Career Award in 2017. A year later she wrote The Smith/Noyes Family
History in the Kennebunks. In 2019, she was among 60 preeminent women in international tax attending the
Congress of the International fiscal Association honored by Women of IFA. Charles Batchelder ’69G confessed to not keeping up very well. He spent his years in public education all over Maine, and his wife of 48 years was an
obstetrics nurse. They live in Gardiner but spend five months a year at a camp in Dexter. And we’ll end this with
comments from our president, Emil Swift. He wanted to remind everyone that we thought our cancelled 55th
Reunion in 2021 might be rescheduled for 2022, but COVID has kept that up in the air. Remember that Senior Alumni are invited every year. Our scholarship fund had a good year, ending with a value of $68,914. Our scholarship recipient this past year was Kelsi Day, grandchild of classmate Junita Lawrence Drisko. Kelsi received $1,569 from our fund.