Class Notes

From Miriam “Mim” Sollows Weiland: As you know we lost our dear Secretary Dorothy Held “Dottie” Gawley on February 3. She was in a lot of back pain and could no longer do anything, so she peacefully just went to sleep after calling me to wish me a “Happy Birthday”—her last thoughts. Her funeral was a lovely family affair with both her boys speaking and playing music while pictures of Dottie’s smiling face at different events through her life flashed on the screen. Yes, the boys had found some UMW reunion pictures as well as the days we shared over the years at our Cape Cod home.

Unfortunately, Earl and I can no longer enjoy long trips up there anymore due to our medical problems. Our son, Tom, has taken us up at different times and we treasure our memories there.

By the time you read this, Earl and I will have sold our house and moved “up the hill” to our retirement campus. It’s been three years in the building. Our address after September 7 will be: Mr. and Mrs. Earl Wieland, 539 Mountain Ave #806, New Providence, NJ 07974.

Before this happens, I may have to have hip surgery on July 27 and will be in a lot of therapy. At 88 it isn’t something I choose to do, but hopefully I will be able to get around in our new home. Luckily we have packers/movers and family ready to help. All I have to do is a lot of therapy for back and hip for our adventure at “Lantern Hill” for the rest of our life.

I do hope all of you who have been so loyal to Dottie with reports of your doings will continue to let Marcy and I know of your doings. Dottie would be so happy to know that HER newsletter will continue. Marcy has been working on the plaque to go on a bench on the UMW campus to remember our special friend.

From Marcy: This column will be based on news I have received since Dottie’s passing. Do keep me or the Alumni Office informed of your news so we can keep our Class of 1950 together just as Dottie successfully did for so many years!

Pattie Head Ferguson continued her travels with a cruise to Easter Island which was well worth the stormy weather getting there. Statues of the Moais, the people who inhabited the island, still stand guard. There were more storms as she headed to Pitcairn Island and on to Bora Bora and Papua, New Guinea, where she stayed over to view the Papuan Museum and other interesting and beautiful areas. “She was one of a kind—always cheerful and always after us for MORE news,” Pattie said of Dottie.

Nan Riley Pointer wrote of her sadness to hear about Dottie’s passing and shared thoughts echoed by everyone of her college and more recent experiences. “She was such a lovely and joyous person who made everyone around her happy.”

Carol Bailey Miller is still attending horse shows and enjoying visiting old friends, which include members of the Hoof Prints riding club from her days at MWC. She said, “Dottie was loved by all and will be missed!”

Our news includes two grandchildren’s weddings: Natalie, Tip and Laura’s daughter, married Chris Hanway on April 9 at the Columbia Firehouse in Old Towne Alexandria and Paul, Tip and Laura’s son, was married to Cassandra Lewis on July 4 in our backyard! Both lovely affairs! Both Paul and Cassie are UMW graduates! We also are so thrilled that our great-grandson, Lucas Prunczik, will enter UMW as a freshman this fall!

Dottie was one of the sweetest, most caring people I’ve ever known. Working with her for our many reunions was a special, lasting bond.

Miriam Sollows Wieland, Dottie’s close friend since freshman year at MWC, wrote a very precious letter. Wish you could all read it! Mim’s sorrow is so genuine and her memories so special! “Dottie was like a sister to me, and we had a 70-year friendship. We met the first day of college in 1946 and roomed together the last three years,” she said. Their friendship lasted until Dottie’s death early this year.

I had a surprising, joyous, letter from Jerry Hipp Elliot, who attended MWC our first two years then returned to California to finish college at U.C. Berkeley and marry Gilbert P. Elliot, now deceased. They had two daughters, Paula and Marcy (yes, named for me—what an honor and surprise to find our after all these years that I have a namesake!), four grands, and six great-grands! She didn’t know Dottie, but sent a donation in her memory because of her wonderful memories of her two years at MWC.

Cynthia Medley England, who now lives in The Carlisle retirement community in Naples, Florida, is getting her children’s musical play published in the United States from a publishing firm in England. She feels it would do better in the future with a United States publisher, although it was performed in England. It’s also seen two performances in Florida. She free-lanced with numerous national and state publications and now edits The Carlisle’s newsletter in her retirement.

Greetings! Jesse and I are really putting down roots in fast-growing Culpeper and looking forward to our 63rd anniversary in August. He sings in the choir but misses Blue Ridge Barbershoppers, after organizing when we moved to Warrenton in 1964. I teach in senior adult Sunday school and work on flower and funeral reception groups. Daughter Linda is now Special Assistant to the Director of Law Schools of America. We delight in no more overseas work-related trips! Son Stephen and his wife, Missy, still work for POs six days a week, so family get-togethers happen on every holiday.

We attended our granddaughter’s high school graduation in May in West Virginia, and her 14-year-old sister moved in with her Dad, son David, still here with us. My brother is in fantastic health at 80 and is our built-in “master gardener” in our small yard. There is no empty guest bedroom, den, or sewing room! We are all in really good health, find lots to do for each, and meet the challenges of three generations as they come. Life is exciting!

It was good hearing from Barbara Pittman. She and Pitt attended UMW for her grandson’s graduation in May—what changes! The University Center is magnificent. She has chronic leukemia and Pitt had another recent TIA, but they stay busy with church and family and she enjoys hearing from her former students, having taught in high school.

Doris Lindsey Whitfield writes of her “quieter days” in Raleigh, North Carolina, in a small community with nearby library, Healthtrax for swimming, two and a half mile walking trail for daily walking, bluebird-watching in the back yard, and tennis-watching on TV (playing is no longer an option). She is enjoying visits often from daughters in Maryland and Austin, Jim’s sons from Arizona and Illinois, and the grandchildren. Doris misses campus events but is looking forward to seeing the new restored amphitheatre at UMW when completed. I’m sure politics weighs heavily on her mind, as she was so active in Fredericksburg for many years.

Nell Savapoulos and husband are enjoying life at a large continuing care community in Silver Spring, Maryland. They miss St. Augustine but see family quite often and are “chugging along, having fun” together with usual health issues. She says, “If I were a car, I would be in the junk yard.” I bet she is still standing tall!

Peggy Hopkins Johnson is progressing after her traumatic Amtrak derailment experience. When we met at the delightful MWC/UMW anniversary brunch, she had severe neck pain. Several days later my sister emailed me that Peggy had a stroke and was in the hospital, then rehab for a long time. She and Nancy taught school together until retirement in Fredericksburg and have been in a weekly bridge club together for years, so they stay in close contact since her daughter is out of town. Unfortunately, a recent car accident set her back, but knowing Peggy she is bouncing around the town, just not taking her many Hostel trips (presently!). I’ll guess she is looking at itineraries, however! She has enjoyed friends’ prayers and many contacts!

Barbara White Ramer lives with her daughter and is still employed at what she likes best—school administration at the private school.

It is always good to get updates, so please send your current email with happenings on a regular basis to keep in good contact—many were returned as incorrect. As Class of ’53, we each need to care about you. Do remember YOUR VOTE COUNTS! And prayer will surely help in all of life’s decisions. Have a blessed year and be a blessing.

Because I only received two e-mails for this edition, I would like to make sure that I have all the e-mail addresses that are not on my list. So, if you have not been receiving any requests for information in your email (from me) and do have one, please send it to me. I also would like any letters that you would care to send; even a phone call would be nice. Most of what I have came from Christmas cards or emails sent after the deadline in December of 2015. My mailing address is: 1481 Balboa Street, San Luis Obispo, CA 93405. My phone number is (805) 543-0366.

From Polly Stoddard Heim‘s Christmas card there was news of Ken’s death in November of 2015 after a short illness. Their house was sold in McCall, so she has been doing some sorting as well as learning computer skills to manage financial tasks.

A short note from Barbara Trites Peterson saying didn’t we all have fun at the reunion and wishing that more of you could have made it.  And yes, we did talk about you all and good times.

Anne Dunaway Criswell wrote that she was sorry to have missed our 60th, but Floyd’s reunion was the same weekend in Kentucky. Her roommate, Frances Smith Schoeninger, did some detective work, found her, and contacted her—proof that my class notes do work and are read.

Long Christmas note from Dottie Booth Sanders. Dottie has enjoyed spending time with her sister, Boofie, and talking daily on the telephone. They spent a weekend in Georgia with their cousins at their lakefront cottage. Dottie got to visit Boofie in Nashville to see her nieces perform and direct theater there. Her husband, Dewey, has been blessed to do three more marathons (77 total). Their children and grandchildren are doing well. Both boys are active in soccer, one on the NKY all-star team while the other is on the JV team. Both boys now start traveling all over college showcases with their academy teams. Lastly, the Sanderses traveled to Florida, the Panama Canal via a cruise, Northern Michigan, West Texas, Bryce, Zion, and the Grand Canyon. She said it was a great year.

Joan Kleinknecht wrote to say thanks for the news of the reunion and wondered if we could fit in UMW today. Well, yes we could, as the changes and new buildings are wonderful. The people that couldn’t fit in would be our old housemothers, they are somewhere spinning I’m sure. Joan, thank you for your kind words on retirement.

From Anne Lou Rohrbach Culwell, recounting 2015: A few more aches and pains, but still up and moving and working. She had a family increase this year, two granddaughters married in April and October plus the oldest great-granddaughter has two wonderful little boys. She also had a very unusual summer with a lot of rain, green foliage, and no tornados. (This was last summer and I hate to think what this year has been like.)

Anne Lou says she is getting to be a homebody and a trip to Dallas is now a big trip. She has five friends that she goes out with every Friday night for dinner and then to one of the houses for dessert and coffee. Her stepson passed away last August who was an only child and started their tribe of four children, 17 grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and three more due in 2016!

Charlotte Fisher Klapproth writes, “Vacation? What’s that?” (This was from November of 2015.) She and Chris have been nowhere because it was too hot in Delaware. They can no longer handle the heat and humidity of summer anymore. They stayed home and listened to the news of zillions of people who came to the beach for vacation. By the middle of June she was ready for them to leave their money and go home. Now they are in the “shoulder” season and they enjoy the restaurants with no crowds and no waiting lines. Last Thanksgiving they went to Baltimore as helpers for their daughter’s recovery from her second hip surgery and “dog care” for the two dogs.

Patricia “Patty” Seibert Siegel writes from Oceanside, California, that she and Mike are retired and doing whatever they want every day. She says it’s fun to have the free time to do anything and go any place in the summer. It was the racetrack at Del Mar and museums in the winter. She has a dream that she would love to see all old friends together—LA-area friends, school friends, and back east friends. Maybe someday? Patty and Mike have three girls, two in the Oceanside area and one in Torrance, and, if I counted correctly, they have five grandchildren. In June of this year Patty and Mike were invited to join other San Diego alumni for a get together to say goodbye to President Hurley as he toured the area on his farewell visit. They went on a harbor cruise with other alumni and friends and listened to President Hurley tell about his years at UMW.

I had a quick phone conversation with Carole Kolton Bryson. I told her some stories about last year’s reunion. Her news was that she had a great-grandbaby born this year in Nashville.

Ok, before I get started on Sally Hanger Moravitz‘s news I want to apologize to her husband, Fran, for inadvertently leaving his name off of my report of people who attended our 60th reunion! We are all too familiar with misplacing various items in our houses like keys, cell phones, and the like, but this is the first time I have misplaced someone’s husband. Gee, it’s fun getting older isn’t it? So from Sally’s holiday letter, this is her news: The two of them took a Viking cruise on the Rhine which was a wonderful trip and they loved the cities they visited and the countryside. They were able to attend a mass at Strasbourg Cathedral, which was magnificent. They especially enjoyed Cologne, as it is a historical city with the floors of a Roman house uncovered for viewing from the street next to a contemporary art museum. Both of them went to Fredericksburg for their granddaughter’s graduation from UMW and then they BOTH came back for the 60th reunion.

Sally then went to her Fairfax High School reunion held at Stump Run Farm in West Virginia. The cabin was built in the 1700s. Lord Fairfax owned the land before the Stump’s bought it in 1749. Sally attended a Sacred Dance Festival in Erie, Pennsylvania, with a side trip to Chautauqua. She is still volunteering at the Insect Zoo and doing low impact Jazzercise. More news from the last e-mail: She and Fran were scheduled for a western Caribbean cruise out of Baltimore last February. She said they were carded because the excursions (snorkeling) were closed to anyone over 80! Turned out it didn’t matter since the weather was so rough that no one got to go!

I would like to tell you that I have done all sorts of exploring. However, the only exploring has been in the garage discovering all sorts of treasures that I didn’t know I wanted or even had. It seems that I have spent a large part of my life collecting and now the last part of my life seems to be selling, gifting, or donating. I really, really miss The Dance Shop and the customers. I watched many children grow up and have children of their own and was starting on the next generation. I also know more about the people who inhabit this city than I really wanted to know. But I live in a beautiful part of our country between ocean and mountains and can still enjoy life, rusty joints and all.

Three cheers for our classmates who met “High on Marye’s Hill Top” for our 60th reunion—Suzanne Borne Grasberger, Connie Crigler, Sandra Cutchins Pittman, Connie Hook Felvey, Jo McPherson, Meredith Milne Roos, Ann Mitchell Wood, Carole Petley Toone, Jeanne Pinckney, Beth Poteet Pollard, Angela Walton Barksdale, Meg White Fary, and Stokey Saunders Scott. Beth presided and reported that among the missing who responded to her call were Anne dePadro, still active in real estate in Fort Lauderdale, and Nancy Hanna Stone, who was busy babysitting in Mechanicsville.

It was beach week for Anne Skinner, and Marie-Lousie “Red” Rosanelli Metzger was already at her summer home in New Hampshire. Diane Christopher Vance reported that one granddaughter had earned her master’s degree at UMW and another was applying.

Help me keep this column going by keeping in contact.

Sixty-four years ago, if I used the right number of fingers, we were young girls trying to decide which school we should attend. Now we have friends from Mary Washington who have contributed much to their communities, many of them world travelers, and many who are trying to complete more “bucket list” items.

Dot Rice Clarke summarized her activities. She retired from a career in Physical Therapy in 1998, but is still receiving inquiries from family members. She and husband Tom have traveled to sixty countries, most recently to Spain and Portugal, and they anticipate a visit in the fall of 2016 to Patagonia, followed by a family gathering in Topsail, North Carolina. They have one son, two daughters, six grandsons, one granddaughter, and great-grandsons. Tom is now clear of colon cancer after a long battle, and they are thankful and hoping to complete a lot more items from their “bucket list.”

Deane Ford Rook and “relatively new” husband Clark recently spent two weeks in Cuba through the Road Scholar program, and they had the pleasure of spending a night in a Cuban home. She senses that the people there are happy having Americans visit again. She is hoping to get an UMC Alumni group going in Tucson and in Pensacola, and is requesting calls. (520-743-3697 or deanef2460@msn.com.)

Bruce Spain, living in Westminster Canterbury in Richmond, is keeping “super busy” and was even a flower girl in her grandson’s wedding. After that she went with her daughter on a theater trip to NYC. Her son, Quigg Lawrence, is a bishop in the Anglican Church of North America. Not everyone has such variety in her life.

Joan O’Shaughnessy Kaufman is reported to have been very ill, and has now recovered!

Bobbi Falkenbury Wright has lived in many places since graduating, among them, Japan; Alexandria, Virginia; Newport, Rhode Island; and now Spartanburg, South Carolina, where their daughter lives. Bobbi and Jim live in a retirement community there. They have traveled with Jim’s work, and have gone on Viking River Cruises in Europe and on trips to such places as Greece, Israel, China, and Russia.

Bobbi and her sister, Patty Cook of Suffolk, Virgina, keep in touch by visiting with their roommates, Nancy Moore Cavins and Patsy Whitmire Culberson, both of Florida, and Mary Frances Pierce Burton of Rochester, Minnesota.

Jean Durham Busboso enjoys river boat cruises, and has written about some of these in former notes. In June 2016 she was in France. With floods and threats of airline strikes, the itinerary had to be altered, but the trip was still enjoyed. She found the most memorable part was the visit to the American Cemetery of Normandy. Also, she was treated to a marvelous lunch in the countryside by a Frenchman whom she had last seen in 1967 when he spent a week as an exchange student with Jean and husband Buz in Fairfax, Virginia.

Mary Montague Sikes is still painting and writing. She participated this summer in an alumni book signing in Fredericksburg and in events in Mathews and Gloucester on the same day. Her art has been displayed at several locations. She has eight published novels, a coffee table art book, and more.

We are saddened to learn of the loss of Barbara Hitchings Gresham on June 6, 2016, and of Foncie Lawrence Williamson on June 12, 2016.

Ellen Hertz Hewitt commented that we will probably be seeing more and more of these notes. “It makes me so sad,” she remarked; a feeling of so many. Ellen and Charlie are healthy, but traveling closer to home. This summer’s plans included Cape Cod; Newport, Rhode Island; Virginia Beach; and Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, before returning home for more Bridge and French lessons.

Barbara Craft Grantz, enjoying life in Virginia Beach, is doing well.

I am still in Chesapeake. Like Ellen, we are traveling closer to home this year. My husband and I are visiting Alaska again in August, as we like to keep a check on the glaciers there. My church choir in Great Bridge took no summer vacation from rehearsals, in preparation for a concert in observance of the fifteenth anniversary of the 9-11 event.

I hope to hear from you again in a few months as we prepare for the spring class notes.

Carrie Lee Henderson is living in Lexington, Massachusetts, working part-time as a social worker at Boston ASAP in downtown Boston. She has taken up biking since she lives close to the Minuteman Bikeway and other great trails. She enjoys everything Boston has to offer and all her family who are in the New England area. She says she is blessed with great health, and she travels around New England quite a bit. She also went to Morocco in 2014 and the Bahamas in 2015—she doesn’t know where 2016 will take her!

I am sorry that our class notes are incomplete for this issue. The powers that be decided to rehab the Fort Loudoun apartments. We were all given notice on April 8 that we had to be out by June. I had 30 years of stuff to deal with, and was unable to gather class notes for this edition. Please send me your news for next time. My email and phone number remain the same.

Update from Jane Tucker Broadbooks: She and John arrived on June 24, 2015, in Chatham, Illinois, just south of Springfield, with much help from son, Jon Karl, and grandson, Tucker, who will be attending a Missouri school in the fall. The best benefit of their location is a fifteen minute drive to Jon Karl and family. Jon Karl is the Director of Commissions of the Illinois Association of Realtors, and he travels frequently. Catherine is wife, mom, cook, and English as a second language teacher at Lincoln Land Community College. Tucker (17) is a senior and a family chauffeur who plays baritone horn in the marching band and wing ensemble and is active in scholastic Bowl competitions. Anna (15) is a freshman who runs cross country, plays softball, takes piano, and participates in dramatics. Virginia (13) is a seventh-grader and likes architecture, excels in construction courses in middle school, and plays saxophone in the jazz band. T.J. (12) is a fifth-grader and is their resident foster child, and he loves math.

Jane and John celebrated their 55th anniversary. Jane has joined a post-polio support group, with a new physical therapist who is helping her improve her mobility with less pain. With shopping areas five to 15 minutes from home and medical facilities about eight miles away­­­­­­, it’s been a good move. She sent news that Molly Bradshaw Clark is in Florida and spent Christmas with her family.

Charlotte “Charlie” Wohlnick Wiggs and Archie celebrated their 55th in Hawaii. They had much fun at a luau and circled the island on a dinner cruise. They surprised their son, Alan, with a 50th birthday party. Daughter, Tracey, and her husband, Andy, are fine. Tracey’s youngest daughter, Anna, is in 10th grade and has been bitten by the acting bug. She has been in three plays this year. Tracey’s oldest daughter, Molly, graduated from MIT and is engaged. Charlie and Archie also took a cruise to eastern Australia, Java, Bali, and Singapore during the year.

Mary Massey sent the sad news of Priscilla “Pete” Brown Wardlaw passing in her sleep in October, 2015. She died peacefully of natural causes according to her youngest son, Robbie. It was quite unexpected, for her health was good, he wrote. Pete was one of my regulars. She wrote a lovely Christmas letter every year—so very sweet.

Mary also emailed the news of the death of Jack Meiners, her husband, in April of this year. She wrote that during the year they enjoyed many family get-togethers, took computer, health, and music classes, went dancing, and even shoveled snow together. Jack died quickly and painlessly of pneumonia. She wrote that he had an amazing, long (96 years), active, healthy, and fulfilling life. They had over 30 happy years. Now she and her dog, Gigi, will carry on. She is staying busy and is in good health.

Another update—they are never too late. Mary Fredman Downing and Glenn have done a lot of traveling over the years. They have toured all seven continents, all fifty states, and all Canadian provinces except the Northwest Territories. Volunteering is also their thing. Mary for twelve years has volunteered with Traveler’s Aid at Dulles Airport, served on the UMW Alumni Association Board, volunteered for local charity FISH, and is a member of the Gourmet Luncheon Club. Mary worked for Piedmont (American Airlines) and United for many years, which gave her the opportunity for low-cost flying when space was available. What a perk! Glenn has been on several boards, including the Connection newspapers, the Reston Association, and a number of small but full sized railroads—Westar Institute (Oregon), and the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad (Maine). This year he is doing economic consulting work for a small railroad in Wisconsin and Michigan, the Escobar and Lake Superior since 1980. (Check Virginia shops on EBay.)

Their daughter, Allison, is married to Justin Fox. They live in Manhattan. She has set aside her law practice and has developed a website called Laud-it. You use it to celebrate a birthday, anniversary, etc., by asking friends to write notes and take pictures, all of which are released to the individual on the celebration day. She is also the Chancellor of St. Micheal’s Church on West 95th. Justin left Harvard Business Review, Fortune, and Times. He is now writing for Bloomburg, is still on TV, and is traveling around the world for stories. He wrote the book The Myth of the Rational Market which was very well received. Now he is contemplating a second book. Their son Joseph is a 16-year-old H.S. junior. He has studied in an immersion Spanish program, has several years of Mandarin Chinese, and is now taking Latin. He sings in St. Michael’s choir and plays the harmonica well.

Mary and Glenn’s son, Stefan, lives in Madison, Wisconsin. After completing his studies at the University he decided to stay. He bikes all over Wisconsin, Utah, Colorado, Virginia, and other places. He left Trek Bicycle and changed to a pharmaceutical company. They were bought out so he is now working with a friend in real estate rentals. He still has an active bicycle apparel website, silvercog.com Wow! What a busy family.

Beth Slocat Cole sent a lot of news. Her daughter, Cindy, still resides in Denver. She had been working for DISH network but changed to a happier job. Her husband, George, owns his own business and is the Facilities Manager for a Charter school. Their daughter, Alex, is a senior in the Denver School for the Arts. She sings in the Denver Jazz Program and the jazz program in her school. She is applying to colleges with jazz as a prominent part of their music department. Beth’s daughter, Debbie, is still in Southern Maryland. She and husband, Jim, are now empty-nesters. Their daughter, Teri, is the assistant gymnastics coach at Rutgers. She will be pursuing a master’s at Rutgers next year. She still teaches gym at a small club. Beth’s daughter Julie’s ranch is extremely successful. She and her husband, Tom, have 20 acres, 25 horses, give riding lessons, and train ponies. It is very productive. Tom is the administrator for a large electrical contracting firm and helps Julie do everything around the ranch. Their son, Nick, is 30 and lives nearby; daughter Tanya is a business analyst for the local electrical company and has a house near Nick. Julie’s youngest daughter, Charlie, is in the third year of a five-year program at Colorado State where she is double-majoring in Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering. Beth manages a few interests and projects and does some business/personal coaching. For the last six years she has taught a course at the local library for job seekers. It is very successful. She is now planning to become a certified yoga instructor. Yeah Beth!

Martha Hoffman Wood retired after 22 years of teaching is Stafford County, Fairfax County, and Albemarle County. Since 1962, she has been very active in local, state (VEA), and national (NEA) education associations and now the retired association. She is still working on cyber-lobbying and trips to the Georgia capital and Capitol Hill in D.C. to lobby on Social Security, public employee pensions, and education issues. She is also involved with a local non-profit that manages the benevolent funds of the congregations from four faith groups. They assist working folks who need help when an event puts them in crisis. She also volunteers for Friends of the Library and public radio, and does water aerobics and gym machines, too. Her daughter, Elizabeth, lives with her and works for the local newspaper, writing on the popular music scene. She sees her five grandchildren frequently.

Martha “Marty” Spilman Clark and Paul had a little sad news. Their ship, the Amazon Hope, part of the Vint Trust medical mission, sank. They lost the ship and residences for 40 children, but friends from Virginia are trying to secure funds. Health Bridges International is assisting in rebuilding their medical work and VOSH International (Volunteer Optometric Service to Humans) are planning to send teams to help. They are facing a difficult decision. There has been a drop on donations which has forced them to reduce the school ministry staff and close the Home for Abandoned Boys in Kimo. Paul left the leadership of Scripture Union Peru in 2011. The board took on another General Director. Paul has been asked to be his mentor. This takes much time and travel. Marty is preparing this spring for the new Women’s Fellowship and her Community Bible Study Group. Her most time-consuming task is the preparation for the weekly lecture at their church. On a personal note, Marty and Paul attended the wedding of their granddaughter, Ashley, in Dallas.

Celeste “Pug” Shepman Kaufman and I talked in June. She is still traveling when she wants. Her kids are great, and Smylie (grandson) is still on the golf circuit. Most of her grandchildren are on their own. She told me Edie Weber Staub lost her husband, Al. (We’re getting older, girls, hate to tell the sad news these days.) Alan is helping out in the cleaning and cooking department. Good job, Pug.

Pug and family took their annual trip to Nassau and Vero Beach, then to San Diego to see Smylie (grandson) golfing, and off for four days to Carmel, California. From there they traveled to south Florida to see Smylie play in the Honda Classic. They walked 18 holes of golf for three days. Pug is now having, as she wrote, a bump in the road in an ovarian cancer diagnosis. She wrote she has an excellent healthcare team and has been doing her chemo. The prognosis is good. Hang in there, Pug.

Dorothea “Dodie” Reeder Hruby invited a group for a get together in Williamsburg. In attendance were Carol Kowalski Rudy, Barbara London McNamee, Nancy Gwaltney Gillette, Diane Trishman Lee and her daughter, Linda, Kay Rowe Hayes, Christa Hutchchausen Mueller, Dodie, and myself. We had a lovely lunch and kept the noon humming! Yea! Dodie!

Lucas happily passed to second grade. Losing teeth and growing height! Swimming is his new love.