2011 Jotting for 1966

Here are some of the photos that commemorate our 45th year.  The Chaffees had visitors in Binghamton.  Pictured are John, Barbi, Rajan and Phil. 

A picture from two years ago was taken at the anniversary party of Deepak Dayal's son's engagement party - includes Cate, Ahmad Omair ('93), Deepak and Anne Robinson.

Cate and Jack visited Rajan in Denver in August of 2011.

There was a large WOSA group at the funeral for Cate's niece Rachel.  
Notes from other classmates follow:

Claire Blickenstaff Beery: Hi Cate,
Thanks for making sure none of us fade from view.  Here’s a brief update on me and my family.

I continue teaching Child Development at Santa Rosa Junior College and am Director of Parents Place at Jewish Family and Children’s Services.  Oldest daughter Willow was married August 20 to Lew Summer in a beautiful outdoor wedding in Tilden Park above Berkeley, CA.  Mama Claire’s jazz band provided some of the music.  Willow also graduated this summer from Waldorf School training and is now working as a Waldorf preschool teacher.
Mira was awarded the prestigious 2 year Stegner Fellowship in poetry at Stanford University and is moving with husband Greg and 2 year old Tillie to live in Berkeley.  Her first book of poetry has just been published by Kent State University and she is completing her PhD this fall too.
Zoe is in her senior year at San Francisco State University studying Broadcast Engineering and Communication Arts and loves living in the coolest city in the world.
Grandma is very happy about having all her kids and Tillie so close by again. 

Love to you and Jack, Claire

Evelyn Bryant Pitts: Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas from the Pitts! We hope that 2011 will have many blessings for all of you.  Here is a brief update on our family:

                Dan is in the process of starting a new business: Rayne Clinical Nutrition, a pet food company that specializes in whole ingredient/less processed therapeutic diets available by veterinary prescription.  He has two partners, one in Australia and one in New Jersey who have a lot of industry experience.  He has been traveling a lot to promote the new company at various veterinary conferences and to get distribution & plant operations up and running.

           Evelyn continues to teach math at Washburn University in Topeka.  Washburn has arranged all her classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to help with the commute, and make it easier for her to attend KU basketball games during the week  J

                 Kevin married Jessica Morris in August.  Kevin is currently working at Home Depot’s headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia as a Pricing Analyst using his statistical skills.  Jessica works at In Harmony Pediatric Therapy, where she uses her Music Therapy degree to help children with special needs.  We are delighted to have Jessica in our family.

                Michelle continues to work at Grosvenor Capital Management in Chicago as an accountant.  Her work includes tax and financial accounting responsibilities.  We are very pleased that she worked hard and passed her 4^th (and last) CPA exam in November.  She continues to support KU basketball with her boy friend Sammy and their many KU friends that live in Chicago.

Of course, Mom and Dad miss having Michelle, Kevin and Jessica close.  However, we have been able to visit all of them, and they are all home for Christmas, so that has been a blessing.

We hope that you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Don Camp: I am retired from the US Foreign Service and live in the Washington D.C. suburbs.   I continue to work on a periodic basis.  I'll be in New York all this fall, as the South Asia advisor at the US Mission to the UN.    That job lets me stay in touch with friends at the Indian, Pakistani, Nepali, and Sri Lankan missions in New York and occasionally get a South Asian meal out of it.  My wife Betsy will be able to join me in New York part of the time this year, since we are now officially empty nesters.  In August, we took our daughter to the Columbus College of Art and Design (a slightly smaller institution in the same city as Ohio State University).   She is a budding photographer and thrilled to be in an environment of artists.    Before I leave for New York, I'm helping to plan the festivities surrounding the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps in late September.   

  Several hundred Peace Corps volunteers who served in India between 1961 and 1972 will be in town for the reunion (I was a volunteer in Tamil Nadu from 1970-72).  Best wishes to all    Don Camp

Janet Edlefsen:   Hi Cate,  Thanks, as always, for all you do to keep our class connected.  I hope we can make a reunion work before too much longer.  Here's my brief jotting.

My husband Frank and I both work a 4-day week now, and enjoy spending as much time as possible out on our boat.  We keep the boat in Anacortes, about 80 miles north of Seattle, where we can quickly get out cruising in the San Juan and Gulf Islands, and this year travelled farther north to a cruising area called Desolation Sound.  We're both healthy and doing well.

Richard Friedericks and Suzanne McCulloch Friedericks: Last April Suzy and Richard visited Portland, OR during Spring Break to see their youngest granddaughter - Adelle Marie Nelson, their daughter Elizabeth's first child. Now we have six grandchildren; David, their oldest has a set of twins, Finley and Tsai, and another little girl, Sylvie; Ethan has a Maya, now three, and Kai, almost one. It was a busy summer, too, visiting and helping out with each household. Besides that they helped move Etta McCulloch, age 96, from the house she'd lived in for 30 years into a retirement center a few blocks away. They also helped move Carl (age 90)and Betty Anne (88) Friedericks from one apartment to another in the center where they are living. They are back in Hong Kong starting another two year contract. Suzy teaches kindergarten and Richard teaches journalism, film, Web design and meditation at the high school.

Linda Gamble McKendry: Hi Cathy...alias Kate.....thanks once again for being our class secretary (mother!).

My current news: Still primary care-giver for parents with the help of about 11 other people over each month, including my siblings who rotate one weekend a month to come and stay where they are living. Jim bought a farm four hours drive away and 'lives' there in our 5th wheel trailer each summer cleaning it up and making necessary changes and repairs. We rent the land and our daughter, Shelley Anne lives there with her mother. We still have four generations under Mom and Dad's roof at least once a week as my daughter and her children pop over from school. I have Self Managed Care funding from the Government and with that I have a full time live-in foreign worker, who is a nurse. I am off duty noon each day and still have a few clients I work with.  Life is interesting, challenging and very rewarding.  

You can edit any way you need to, Cathy to make it fit the required space.... Linda  

Miriam Haqq Prabhakar: Dear Cate,  Always good to hear from you and keeping us all up to date.

My eldest son, Joshua and his wife Josie are blessed with a son, Isaiah Aleem on June 25th. It was a joy to be in the US for the birth, making me a proud grandmother for the first time!!  I returned back to  Andhra Pradesh mid August and am happy to back and working again.

With prayers,

Miriam

Rebecca Hill:  Although I only went to Woodstock in 10th Grade, I have great memories and enjoyed seeing the pictures of classmates on Cate's page.  I also enjoy the group of Woodstock alumns that Steve VanRoy has organized in the Dallas area (I live 65 miles east of Dallas) I was Rebecca Hill in those days, a daughter of a great man - Lillard Hill - who worked in Delhi.  I have wondered what happened to Pat Riddle - Tom's sister and others an all others, and have trouble using the web site with addresses of all)  I was a social worker, then became an Army Officer and retired from the Army, then became a school teacher and volunteer for National Council for International Visitors.  For 7 years I helped take care of my parents before their death.  I now live on my 80 acres in eastern Texas and wish my children would have children, but so for no luck.

Are these the jottings you need.

What stands out about the year I was at Woodstock was Nehru and Kennedy's death.  Our festivals were cancelled.  I remember Sandy - who had a short wave radio - coming down stairs to our room to say Kennedy had been shot.  We didn't believe her at first.

I remember going swimming at the boys dormitory, and bracing myself for that cold, cold, water.  I also remember lovely walks behind the girls dorm down to the pine forest and then to the rain forest. On Sunday's having so many demerits I had to go to church with the teachers; toast made on Monday lasting all week; collecting peanut butter from all the tables after breakfast for snacks later; Kalia ringing the bell; Mr. Fleming the best biology teacher ever; reference books in the common room that said to bleed a patient to cure cholera; waiting in line for hot showers on Wednesdays; calling coolies to our dorm to send notes at night; typing on ancient typewriters; climbing, climbing, climbing, endlessly to many wonderous sited, Saturday's in town - wonderful; Quality's coffee shop. The greatest young people - fun to be with, an enchanting time.

Frances Hilliard Dawson: 

It is rather difficult to summarize a year!! I will stick to recent events. 

Our second grand-daughter, Kate, arrived in early August. Love at first sight. Michael, who is still posted in Colorado Springs with NORAD came to Calgary. where I was busy being grandma, to meet his newest grand-child. We drove back to Colorado Springs seeing so much of interest and beauty on the way.

One stop was Medicine Wheel, in Wyoming.  At 10,000 feet it is just above the tree line, where Michael indulged my interest in the Alpine flowers and together we gloried in the magnificent views. The strips of cloth and objects left by the faithful at this sacred spot are reminiscent of other rituals: of Tibetan flags and petitioners at Lourdes. The only sounds are the wind and birds. A suitable spot for a vision quest.

Affectionately,  Frances Hilliard Dawson

Carlton Hoke: It seems that the main thing I have been doing this year is designing and building sets.  I worked on Seussical the Musical and MASH for Hershey High School, Amahl and the Night Visitors, Seussical the Musical again, The Guys, and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever for the Hershey Area Playhouse, and the children’s musical American Ideal, Vacation Bible School props, and an adobe house for the summer Sunday School program at our church.

Our big trip this year was a Caribbean cruise to St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix, St. Kitts, Antigua, and St. Martin.  We also took excursions to New York City for our grandson’s birthday at the Natural History Museum, the Philadelphia Flower Show, the Morris Arboretum, the Baltimore Aquarium, and several trips with family and friends to my sister’s cabin on Pine Creek for kayaking and relaxation.  Our extended family vacation this year was a week at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware.

Other activities included being a Hershey Elementary Art Docent for their mini art museum, displaying my pottery in the Hershey Historical Society Art Show, hanging the Milton Hershey Student Art Show, teaching pottery and painting for the Hershey Summer School enrichment program, and preparing photographs for my 94-year-old dad’s fourth book, A Rich Mosaic.

At home we also managed to refinish three bedrooms.  We continue to be well and enjoy being with our family in addition to all of our retirement activities.

Marcia McKelvey Olsen :  Hi Cate.

We have had  a busy summer.  My engineer daughter has finished school to be a Dental Hygienist, and after two years is now ready to clean teeth and give shots.

I enjoyed having my cousins Janice and Ellen Dobson here for several days, we drove up to Ft Collins to see those who attended the WOSA reunion.  Too bad there were only three from our class there.

My daughter and I travelled to NY to see my son and my grandkids.  Ulysses is 3 almost 4, and Miranda, who is 1, such a fun age.

We were there for the US Tennis Open and Hurricane Irene. We did see one day of the Open and did have some rain and wind, but where my son lives, North Manhattan, the hurricane wasn't a big issue like some had.

I am expecting my oldest brother, Bill McKelvey, to be here the end of Sept. He mostly works in Europe, so it is always great to see him.

I pray all are well and in good health. My best to all,  Marcia McKelvey Olsen

Bill McVicker: After leaving Woodstock in 1965. My family returned to the US in 1966, Marin County, Calif.

In the fall of 1969 I enlist in the Navy to avoid the draft, and served three years as an electronics technician.  I settled in San Diego after I got out of the Navy in 1973, and found work in the electronics industry.  Went back to church, learned of God’s plan for man, and entered into a covenant relationship with Jesus the Christ.  I met my wife in the church and after two years I knew she was the one for me, she knew sooner, and we married in January of 1975.  For the next twenty five years I did electrical contracting as we home schooled our kids, took in foster children, and adopted 11 out of the many that we parented in foster care.  During that time we moved from San Diego to Nevada City, Calif. Where we now live on five acres a few minutes from town.

We birthed seven children, 6 boys, 1 girl. Adopted 11; 7girls, 4 boys, and are still fostering kids today; 3 in foster care. Seven are still at home.

2001 I went back to college to get a Master’s degree in psychology to be licensed to practice marriage and family therapy.   Just last month I completed the state requirements to qualify for the state exams and am waiting to take the final exam. I expect to be licensed within 4 months.

My wife, Kathleen, and I started a non-profit counseling agency about 5 years ago. It is slowly growing, see it on the internet- www.touchedbyachild.org

Finally, the wonderful stage of life now, as many of you also know, are the grandkids; 6; 2 boys, 4 girls with another, boy, due in February, 2012.   It’s wonderful hearing from all of you.  God bless, Bill McVicker

Mary Merchant Anderson: Hi Cathy, Thanks for your faithfulness in doing this for so many years ! In a nut shell adapt or delete as you see fit: We have 3 children and 7 grandchildren all within 3 miles of us! We enjoy taking them camping with us up north! I work fulltime as a school nurse at a large diverse inner city elementary school. We are involved in ministry at our church-especially missions/trips/girls club and seniors.

Love and again MANY thanks! Mary Merchant Anderson

Ruth Morris Paige: I retired from my job at Wright State University this summer and we celebrated by visiting with Rajan at Philip and Susan DeVol’s wonderful home, Crow Park. Harvey and I began our “retirement adventure” with a birding trip to the Highlands of Ecuador where we saw 22 species of hummingbirds at one sanctuary.  We then spent 8 days visiting 9 islands in the Galapagos and ended with a 4 day, 35 mile trek in the Andes of Peru to explore the “Little Sister of Macchu Pichu.”  The trek was arduous (I averaged a little over 1 mile/per hour) but we were rewarded by exploring the ruins with just our guide and three other trekkers.   

We plan to be in Boulder this weekend to visit with Rajan as we are driving to our son’s wedding in California.  We’ll be back in Yellow Springs by the end of September and would welcome visitors to our Village.  

David Rugh:  Hi Cate-Thank you so much for herding we cats into doing our homework. We just need a prod or two; sometimes a little wrap on the wrist can bring back Woodstock disciplinary reminders. If you want quicker replies from me in the future, please use dave.rugh@juno.com (using rughcrd@juno.com goes to Ruthe who has to reroute the message all the way across the room!)

So here's my short story for the spring and summer of 2011:

Dave Rugh is enjoying retirement after 34 years of doing research on Alaska’s whales. Currently construction projects consume his time, including sculpting a 55ft woodshed and building a 3-story addition to Ruthe & Dave’s home on the Olympic Peninsula. Also there have been excursions onto the sea ice north of Barrow, AK, to count bowhead whales; to the NOAA office in Silver Spring, MD, to receive a Distinguished Career Award; to Lancaster, PA, for a nephew’s wedding; and to little Gabriola Island, BC, for another nephew’s wedding (Chris Green ’90 married Erin Orr, with Carol Rugh Green ‘60 and Kim Rugh Bergier ’69 attending).

'nuff for now, yes?

In admiration,

Dave

Judy Scheuerman Bender’s husband Larry is in remission from colorectal cancer still and doing well.
They are enjoying retirement on Hat Island (Gedney Island on the map) where they have been for 10 years now.

Phil Schoonmaker: Cathy...here's Schoonie news...my little book (only 126 pages) of 16 short stories and vignettes from my India years, Mish-Kid Mosaic, will be available on Amazon.com within the next few weeks. There's quite a bit of Woodstock and TCK stuff in the book; I'll let you know when it can be purchased.

I'm again working with Steinway retail in Boston and doing piano teaching and technical work on the side. I've left the ministry paradigm for good and will not return...I was always too attracted to the good of it and too repulsed by the bad of it. I live alone now but that, too, is changing...

My best to all our class family...Schoonie.

Sherry Sergeant Cox: Stephanie is getting married in mid-September so you can imagine we have been busy.    In December Sarah finished her BS and continues to work for a PT clinic.   Stephanie finished her BSN-RN in May, passed her nurse boards in June and started working full-time at the local county hospital in the ER. 

 On 17 Sept she will marry John Toombs who works as a cartographer for the U.S. Army at Ft. Sill.  My mom, June Sergeant, continues to decline with her Alzheimers but is still at home in NE.   Steve continues with Red Cross  and I try to keep track of everyone, am busy at church with choir and Bible Studies, went to El Paso on a mission trip and am still studying Spanish.    As you can see I didn't quite make the 3-4 sentences(ha!),  cut whatever you need to.   I've talked to Linda Gupta several times earlier this year but no one else for awhile.  I really wanted to get to Colorado but couldn't fit it in with the wedding plans, a trip to Nebraska for my great-aunt's 103rd birthday  in July and then the trip to El Paso.    Hope you have a great fall.

Karen Smyres Wolner: Despite a broken right wrist (Karen) and a  torn right hamstring (John) the year has been good to us.  We welcomed our first grandchild, a beautiful little boy, the day before Father's Day.  We couldn't be more in love!  He is such a delight to us as well as to his parents, our son Jason (tech teacher) and his wife Lisbel (CPA/accountant). They recently purchased and extensively renovated a home in Sea Cliff, Long Island.

Daughter Kim and husband Caleb are established at their jobs in DC.  Kim works for Vista/Americorps as a trainer of volunteers and Caleb works for the Peace Corps.  We were encouraged when both departments received continued funding from our somewhat disfunctional government! 

Our one great sadness is the state of my mother, Mary.  Her Alzheimer's has developed to the degree that she no longer remembers her children or grandchildren although she still seems to recognize my dad, Bob.  She is in full time care.  The retirement community they live in has continual care and Dad is able to visit her daily as his cottage is just a block away.  We "children" visit frequently.

Paul Spottswood: This summer I have continued to work at the United Health Systems hospitals as an anesthesiologist.  I did a mission trip to Rivas,

Nicaragua in May and a mission trip to Guiamaca, Honduras in July.  Lydia continues to be a moderator on an on-line forum for parents with children with eating disorders and leads the Buildings and Grounds Committee at the church as we renovate our old building and prepare to add a large addition.  My son Mark has accepted a job as an Asst. Professor of Law at the Florida State University Law School, my daughter Erin is working on her PhD at Cornell University in Ithica, N.Y. and my daughter Jayne is finishing her masters at DePaul University in Chicago and works full-time as a social media director for Kemper Insurance.  We are busy and blessed!

Again, thank you for your many years of labor for us and for Woodstock.

Affectionately,  Paul

Betsy Taylor: Cate,

Thanks so much for snail mailing your last news re/ Woodstock classmates!  Sorry you didn't have my current email...  I'm attaching several photos plus this news:

It's great to keep up-to-date on classmates through Cate's good networking!  I spent much of the summer writing a memoir of my parents (Mary & Carl Taylor).  I would love to hear from any of you with memories or photos to help feed my writing.  Please 'friend' me on Facebook -- & here's my website...http://vt.academia.edu/BetsyTaylor

Betsy Taylor

Betsy Taylor waiting to get arrested in front of the White House in Sept 2010 as part of "Appalachia Rising" -- an environmental justice coalition of people concerned about climate change & devastating strip-mining in Appalachia (called "mountaintop removal"). She is the one holding a white cross in the back row.  In the front row are James Hansen (preeminent climate scientist in US) & grassroots Appalachian activists with whom she's worked for years.  It was pouring down rain...but spirits undimmed

Helke (Wolff) Ferrie has recovered from nearly a year's sickness caused by EMF radiation; this affected especially her thyroid and caused cataracts. A public campaign against the source, finally identified as coming from a Smart Meter attached to her house without her knowledge, the removal of that device and other remedial action against EMF pollution, and successful treatment for radiation injury has now restored her health and eyesight. For her published material on this and other medical-legal issues she wrote about over the past year, go to www.kospublishing.com. Helke and her husband Robert of 41

years hosted the wedding of their oldest granddaughter Miranda Brar who this summer married a Pakistani businessman (born in Canada) named Asad Naeem; their second granddaughter Ysolt  Brar, class of 2010, has started pre-meds at the University of Toronto. After what Miranda and Ysolt witnessed the EMF damage to their grandmother, they were successfully weaned off cell phones and only use landlines. Daughter Bronwen (class of 1989) is still working in Mussoorie for MGVS.

Cheers, Helke

Ruth Yoder Dyal:  Ruth and son Jon had an incredible, nostalgic journey back to Woodstock summer of 2010.  Meeting with Cate and Jack in Delhi, and together finding Dolma in her Tibetan Antique shop was a highlight.  The most overwhelming moment was learning of the tragic death of Dan Terry while we were visiting the school-old memories flooding back.  I thank everyone who offered suggestions and contacts for Jon's research term in Poona.  He truly had a fabulous experience, although the "electronic medical records" he was promised were available never materialized!  Jon is now in his third year of medical school at John's Hopkins-considering specializing in Epidemiology/Public Health.  Jamie is finishing a Masters in Bio-Ethics at U. Penn, and currently applying to medical schools for next fall.
Jim had a hip replacement this spring, which slowed him down for a little while, but he has now recovered completely.  This summer I went with a delegation of Ob/Gyns invited by People to People to China and Shangri-La (an autonomous region of Tibet).  They have made remarkable advances in reducing Maternal and Infant mortality-but certainly at considerable price, especially in Tibet.  The spirit there remains strong.  In Shangri-la, the residents get together every evening from @ 700-900 to sing and dance in the town center.  They assured us they do this all year 'round, for themselves, not for the tourists.  The elderly seemed to enjoy it particularly.  It is the time they get together, socialize with friends, etc.   They said they look forward to it all day unless it is just snowing too hard!  I am still doing both Obstetrics and Gynecology, and doing associate clinical teaching for students from FSU medical school.   We just hired a new partner, who was one of the first  students we helped train.  The Ob hours are becoming a little more of a strain, but it is hard to give up.  I suspect I will continue for quite a few more years-especially with 2 kids still in school!  I always enjoy reading about all of you and hope to see you soon.  Let me know if you are ever in Sarasota-we would put you up in the blink of an eye!  Much love, Ruth