Our class has had several mini-reunions since the beginning of 2007. On March 24th, Heidi Keller Moon, Kasha Duffield Kingsbury, Fran Hall Miller, and Nancy Zone Bloom attended a performance of “Ellen Craft: Self-Emancipated Woman” at The College Club of Boston. The event was part of the Mount Holyoke College Lyon Lecture series. After the one-woman show, our four classmates stayed on for coffee and dessert and a wonderful hour of catching up. Many people responded to Nancy that they were truly interested in attending, but that they were going to be away until the beginning of April. Combining a mini-reunion with a College-sponsored event seems to work well for our class.
A few days later, six of our classmates gathered in NYC at another Lyon Lecture, this one at The Harvard Club. It is probably best to quote directly from Nancy Zone Bloom’s email to Dana Feldshuh Whyte the next day:
"I just wanted you to know that last night was wonderful. We ended up with six classmates: Marie-Claude Palmieri Wrenn, Susan Barber, Jackie Cannon Brown, Joyce Rasmussen Flach, Cynthia Sahagian Cross, and me. The program was very interesting (geology professor Darby Dyar speaking on gemstones) and the get-together afterwards at the Sofitel Hotel was amazing. We had so much fun. The hotel restaurant gave us a separate little area that was cozy and conducive to good conversation. There is a possibility that there will be another mini-reunion within the next six months at a classmate’s NYC apartment. We will work on this and let people in the New York area know well in advance."
Hi All:
We aging tennis players cavorted on the courts of Rancho Valencia, with a
Susy Kovacs Buxbaum and Joel invited us to play tennis in their backyard.
On
February 16th, Sue Swanson, Betsy Miller and myself had a
delightful lunch at the Women's University Club in
Seattle.
Mary Ann Woodruff expected to come, but at the last minute
a
new grandbaby arrived and she was called away! Those
who
couldn't
come missed a great time. It turns out that Betsy
skis
at Whistler almost every day; she has found a strong
senior social
group with many activities among the Whistler skiers.
Sue
plays golf almost every day and is getting ready for a
move to a
smaller house so is in the throes of clearing out.
She just did a
reunion book for her high school 50th which included a
power-
point presentation. No couch potatoes in this group
either!
The class of ’60 Florida Gulf coast contingent (or a goodly number of them) got together at Sheila Porter Lirtzman‘s in Sarasota on March 23rd, 2007 to launch what will become an annual mini-reunion. The day was wonderful; everything that could go right went right! Even the weather. Uncommon women all, we sipped bellinis in the sun…ate for hours … and traded a gazillion stories. Attendees were: Judy Rogers Swisher, Ruthie Goodwin Murray, Jane Ross, Mary Lou Hawkins, Jan Herridge Keffer, Joy Fletcher Montgomery (who was passing through from Minnesota), Sheila (of course) and Carey Downs Gibson (who flew in from Denver).
Quick observations: we are in good shape. It would not surprise me to see us all someday on Smucker’s jars with Willard Scott’s replacement lauding us for reaching 100.
We are verbal. And busy. Jan Keffer (and husband, Dave) are gearing up for a three-week jaunt to Eastern Europe in a few weeks. Recently the Keffers chaired a large two-week golf tournament down here. After selling her ad agency in NYC, Jane Ross “semi” retired to the Tampa area where she’s taught international business and women’s studies at Eckerd College. Four years ago she founded a new company called Personal & Family History Writing & Publishing to help families “save the stories” for future generations. Mary Lou Hawkins is volunteering for SPAARC (rape counseling) in Sarasota; Carey Gibson chairs the board of the National Czech & Slovak Museum and Library. Judy Swisher’s writing a second children’s book. Joy Montgomery is in a
women’s singing group and loves playing the “new” bridge. Your scribe is on the boards of JOY, Inc., a new non-profit that will provide mentoring and other services for newly emancipated young people in the SW Florida foster care system, and the Foundation to Support Health in Aging, the foundation for the American Geriatric Society. We all seem to like to cook, to read and to travel. None of us can believe we’re facing our 50th!
Looking back, Judy Rogers Swisher summed it up best, “Ruthie and I were telling our husbands last night about our wonderful gathering – BUT they already knew a get-together of ’60-ers would be great! It’s always interesting to hear about classmates’ lives, even ones we hardly knew at school.”
Judy has offered to host our 2008 mini-reunion and Jan Herridge Keffer may be in the wings for 2009. Naples crowd take note: We hope to plan several hours of sightseeing in Sarasota to follow our next mini reunion luncheon in hopes of luring you north for the day. Up for orchids, anyone?
SPWL
04/16/07
Here are 3 photos from a lovely evening of dining on a patio in Boulder, Colorado with
Joyce (JJ) Johnson Spencer
Deb Kretschmann Taylor
Pat Kennedy Ascher
Barb Dilley
plus an extra one of Barb.
Missing from the picture is another
Boulder resident, Sue Furman, who had planned to be there.
(She ended up with electrical problems with her camper and
did not make it.)
Pat brought the MHC hats. She was in town to make some contacts for the Development Office.
 |
 |
 |
|
Sue Furman at lunch
with JJ |
(Click on a picture to see it larger)
Lyon Lectures and Class of 1960 Mini-Reunions
Our class held three mini-reunions this past winter, each one tied in with the college’s Lyon Lecture series. The get-together in New York City, held at the Yale Club on February 26th, brought out nineteen classmates. There was a wonderful feeling of connection for everyone that evening and much sharing of experiences. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the evening was the chance to visit again with some women who never graduated with our class. The classmates who attended were: Linda Bly Boxenbaum, Betsy Cameron Barnett, Jackie Cannon Brown, Susan Feigin Gerson, Barbara Friedman Press, Judy Garland Halleran, Susan Karp Manning, Carol Klein Mack, Andrea Ludgin, Jane Mack Gould, Lynne Mayo Cole, Nancy Morgan, Sheila Porter Worthington, Joyce Rasmussen Flach, Maryann Schlossberg Gelula, Linda Shapiro Ader, Nancy Shaw Scher, Betsy Wells Farber, and Nancy Zone Bloom.
Two days later, a small group from the Class of 1960 met at a lecture at the Merion Cricket Club in Haverford, PA. In attendance were Bev Burke Eighmy, Julie Gibson Biehn, Ellen Patz Myers, Barbara Terry Sterk, Karen Yellig Cromley, and Nancy Zone Bloom. Again, there was a chance to catch up on the interesting directions each of our lives have taken.
The third mini-reunion planned in conjunction with the college’s lecture series was held in Boston on March 25th at the Lenox Hotel. Eleven brave classmates battled the traffic jams caused by the President’s visit to the city. There was delightful conversation and much catching up. The eleven who came were Dana Feldshuh Whyte, Fran Hall Miller, Nancy Larkin Price, Barbara Manfredi Senecal, Mary Lou Pratt Montgomery, Nancy Rich Coolidge, Bev Rowlings Smith, Jan Saybolt Bowers, Sandy Segal Macey, Marion Vermilye Thayer, and Nancy Zone Bloom.
April 8, 2004
We Bay Area members of the Class of '60 had such a great time getting together at the Mary Lyon Tea on February 28 at The Ritz Carlton in San Francisco, that we plan to have another party this summer.
Anita Lyall Mitchell is just as full of joi de vivre as she was in college. Now working as a medical consultant for the State of California, she divides her time between Sacramento and San Francisco. After hearing her hospital tales, we all made her our personal medical consultant!
This mini-reunion has become very important to the women involved and has had an effect on each of them that no can seem to describe. It is so much more than just talking about wearing shorts under our skirts to Gracious Living or pulling all-nighters before papers were due. It is also a sharing of experiences that are common to women our age. We all seem to drive away rejuvenated and with things in better perspective.
This past April, the classmates who came together were: Bee Webster Summers, Julie Gibson Biehn, Ellen Patz Myers, Nancy Zone Bloom, Gretchen Berner Crisafulli, Barbara Pollock Newman, Fran Hall Miller, Liz Musser Solway, Anne Tripp Hopkins, Jane Wier Apple, and Judy Flanders Coon.
Several of your classmates engineered a so-called mini-reunion on campus between Reunions I and II. Present were Dana and Sue; Nancy Zone Bloom and Pat Kennedy Ascher, co-chairs for our next reunion; Sherri Faught Gillespie, our last and next Hospitality chair; and, for a few hours, Susan Moore, who will co-chair the Friday night dinner in 2005. Kate Frum Buttenweiser also stopped by for awhile. The gathering had about it the distinctive whiff of a reunion planning session -- but because it was casual and lighthearted and our conversations were wide-ranging, it was also the kind of mini-reunion we hope will begin to pop up like mushrooms (there's been ample rain, after all).
If you'd like to explore hosting or organizing a mini-reunion in your neck of the woods, the Alumnae Information Service will send you a print- out of classmates in northwestern Ohio or southern Maine. The picnic and cookout season is upon us. Potlucks are good. Sleepovers are good. Tea parties are good. Brunches are good. If you want to stick your neck out, you could organize around political action or peace and justice or environmental concerns. Or rug-hooking or collage-making or sight-reading and singing.
Mini Coopers are all the rage: can Mini Reunions be far behind?
