Nancy Schott Plaisted
7 Ledgewater Drive
Kennebunk, ME 04043
(207) 967-1380
nan53@gwi.net
Our 64th Reunion was held August 29 in Freeport at the Harraseeket Inn. I can’t tell you how it went, as this column was due in July. However, I think it’s safe to say we all had a great time and congratulated Helen Strong Hamilton, our class president, on her Block “M” Award.
Believe it or not … our 65th Reunion is next year, September 13, 14, and 15, 2018.
How could that happen—where did the years go? Helen would like classmates to send a photo of yourself when you were a student as well as a present-day one, to be added to the 1953 Memory Book that was put together for our 50th Reunion. (Other people can also be in the photos you send.) Please send them to Helen at 7 Riverwoods Drive, F101, Exeter, NH 03383. Thanks. Any questions? Give Helen a call at (603) 772-6432 or send her an email: helen.hamilton429@gmail.com. Here’s the latest classmate news.
Dr. Jean Dolloff Kreizinger, of Newtown, CT, called and emailed me the following. “I spent most of my academic career teaching at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, CT. Although trained as a geneticist, I also taught several plant-based courses. Currently, I am involved in developing a native plant garden at the science building. I am also the contact person for Western with the Jackson Laboratory faculty in Farmington, CT.
“One of my greatest joys over the last 15 years has been taking my grandchildren on a trip of their choice. I took Hannah and Tiffany to Austria and Italy. I took Owen and his mother to Hawaii and Eli and brother Nathan to Russia. Since I have run out of grandchildren I went to Cuba last year with brother Dana and sister-in-law Sally. No offshore trips this year. I hope I will see many of you in Maine.” Thanks, Jean.
Dave Beppler, of State College, PA, also called and emailed the following. “Dave Beppler’s wife, Marcia, died in May after almost 50 years of a great partnership here and abroad, operating a small business together (livestock production) and nurturing six children, all of whom are doing well.” Dave says he might get to our reunion this summer and then bounce around in Maine for a week thereafter. If anyone has a spare bed let him know. He does know that hosting friends is like fresh fish: They are OK for one day only.”
Dave, we are so sorry to hear about Marcia, who was always smiling and so friendly. Dave also wrote in another email: “I am sending Marcia’s love to each and every one of you.” We wish you well and we hope to see you at our 64th … and 65th onward.
Woody Carville, of Orono, said his Lyme is gone, but his raspberries and blueberries were plentiful. He walks, he mows, he paints, and said whatever he tells me, whatever I can make out of it—if it’s a truth or a lie—he “can’t remember.” This I do know. He’ll be at reunion and he had breakfast at one point with Ron Bishop. Thanks a bunch, Woody. (He wants to live to 100.)
As to Ron Bishop, of Cornelius, NC, and his wife, Lorna, they’ll be downsizing from 3,500-square-foot space to 2,400 at a senior community of some 60 individual homes about a mile away. Also, he pointed out a correction to be made in my last column. Ron went as a “tourist,” not a member, of the Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division. Thanks, Ron. Here it is: Ron had an evening dinner in June with Woody. So, which is it? Ron said he went to Guatemala in February to build (his 10th trip) houses for Habitat for Humanity. Also, for nine years, he has been sponsoring 10 pupils in Nicaragua, working with an organization, “helping kids get their high school education.” However, this year in April, he met them “face-to-face … a very emotional trip,” he said. (He’s still sponsoring them.)
Regarding college class rings, Ron said Ted Tocci (of Vero Beach, FL; he died in January) was the only one he ever knew to wear one. And with the sound of a lawnmower in the background—he wasn’t mowing—our conversation was something else. Ron said: “I told Lorna, ‘When a man turns 80, he has a right to be a cranky old geezer,’” but he’s still “up and at ’em,” active in the church and still driving his 2005 Toyota Tundra pickup truck, going in for its 230,000-mile checkup next week. See you at reunion and Happy 85th September 18.
And, Carol Prentiss Mower, “Dizzy Dame” (I’ve got that in quotes, Carol), of Orono—Happy belated 86th Birthday Aug. 30! She’s just fine.
And, Roman “Whitey” White, of Buxton, Happy 85th Birthday Nov. 30, the youngest member in our class. Sorry, Ron. How he got to be the youngest? He said in East Winthrop there were only two in second grade in a log home, a one-room schoolhouse; one was demoted and he was the only one left, so the teacher promoted him to third grade. Whitey and his wife, Phyllis, 20th year together, will soon move to 18 Larchwood Drive in South Portland. (Perhaps they’ve already moved.) Whitey mentioned Bernard Gardner ’52, who died in August in Georgia. He and Bernard were Good Will School classmates. Whitey said Bernard went from South Windham (OCS) to Missouri, then Milwaukee, and that he and his wife, Phyllis Bruce Gardner ’52, of Estabrooke Hall, became Mormons and that she played the organ “very well.”
Dick Searles, whose “greatest joy is reading,” said he and his wife, Joan, of Old Orchard Beach, are with the “Silver Sneakers Program” at the Saco Fitness Center. Good for you! They spend late January to early April in Vero Beach. (They miss Ted and said in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Class of 1953.)
Phyllis Noyes Scantlebury, of Pompano Beach, FL: Guess what? I’ve lost your notes! (But, I will get you next column.) I know you’re going to Reunion and your cousin Warren Noyes ’53 will be there with you. Great!
Zeke Mavodones, of Poughkeepsie, NY, emailed me June 29: “You wanted some news so here goes. We celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary this September. Next, we have three daughters, a nephew-son, and five grandkids and we have close relatives in Maine, Oregon, California, Nevada, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Europe. We plan to vacation at Higgins Beach in Scarborough and see at least 35 relatives. This spring I lost my brother Nicholas M. Mavodones after an illness. He was a grad of USM Law School and is survived by a son, daughter, and five grandkids. My one other late brother’s grandson Spencer Bernier is a ’17 UMaine graduate in mechanical engineering.
“In Freemasonry I was awarded a medal from New York State Grand Lodge for Distinguished Service. We did house repairs: new roof, gutter guards, heat efficiency windows, stair rails, and a complete painting. It now looks like a wedding cake. Active in church, singing Byzantine hymns with a trio and on auditing and stewardship committees. Have not heard from Ruth Pelletier in quite a while. My wife, Maria, loves cooking new recipes plus knitting clothing items for grandkids.
“The reunion is up in the air as we have three other activities going on at those same days. Physically we are all pretty good. I completed a career of over 55 years in teaching and administration in public schools and Continuing Education.” Thanks, Zeke.
This is it for now. Live it up, but keep out of trouble. *(I got a speeding ticket a month or so ago; I hope they’ll have mercy on little old me, an 85-year-old woman who just had a heart operation and needs a new knee. Wish me luck!)