Enveloped by Cuba
Alumni gather to help Cubans on their own turf.

Medal Round in Sydney
Hilary Gehman '93 rows in the Olympics.

Alumni Club Circuit
Club News, upcoming events, etc.

ALUMNI PROFILES
Robert C. Gerrard '60
Tackling the case
of a lifetime

Kevin Leddy '77

Helena Bonnell
Gilman '78
Microsoft in the Middle East

Todd Coffin '83

Carolyn Treat '82
Turning art into a balm

Christopher Thayer '93

Michael Eash '94
Chopping champion

It's clear that the classmates who attended our 55th reunion had a very fine time. They were, specifically, Shirley (Frances '46) and Chuck Dudley, Roz Kramer, Helen Strauss, Maurice Whitten and Doris, Adele Grindrod Bates and Ralph, George Heppner and Joan, Michael Nawfel and Dolores, and Ronald Roy and Millie. On Friday night (6/2/00), everyone gathered for the all-classes banquet, awards ceremony and presentation of class gifts ($) to the College. On Saturday night, the 50-plus classes had dinner together at Dana Hall, where most everyone was quartered. Chuck tells me that all the food the College served was great (for sure they no longer serve that dreadful angel pudding–all froth and cornflakes–we rebelled against our freshman year in Foss Hall dining room). He also said that Dana has been enlarged and greatly changed and is really, really nice. On Saturday afternoon there was the traditional lobster feed for all. Chuck and Shirley visited the Margaret Chase Smith Museum in Skowhegan, which Chuck reports is fascinating. An interesting fact: the late great senator received 165 honorary degrees, the first and the last of which were awarded by Colby. . . . Helen Strauss found that the Colby College Museum of Art, already outstanding, has added more and more galleries. Sorry to say, I was unable to attend the reunion and so I missed out on all of the above. As I write this (early June), Helen is on a tour of the Baltic countries. . . . Muriel Marker Gould and I were scheduled for a cruise along the Norway coast in August. First, we planned to spend two days in Copenhagen.

–Naomi Collett Paganelli

Start planning to be at our 55th next year. As I write this, Helen Strauss '45 (who was in our class but accelerated) has just gotten back from her reunion and said she had a great time and plans to go again next year. She saw Emily Holbrook Pelissier and stopped in Worcester on the way to Waterville to see Hannah Karp Laipson and Carol Robin Epstein, who are both doing well after various surgeries. Hannah is our new class agent, a tough job that she'll do well in her usual efficient way. Considering the wartime disruption of our class, I think our record of participation is very good–keep it up! . . . Faithful correspondent Charlene Blance Ray recommends The Hungry Ocean by Linda Greenlaw '83, and I agree, especially after reading A Perfect Storm. Linda was captain of the sister ship Hannah Boden and was out there in the storm when the Andrea Gail went down. Remarkable woman with an interesting career–for an English major! She's now lobstering out of Isle au Haut. . . . Sad news that Ruth Drapeau Hunt died in Brunswick, Maine, last year. She was a chemistry major at Colby and worked as a lab and x-ray technician. Her husband, Philip, was in the Navy, and after the war they were stationed at Brunswick Naval Air Station. She leaves her husband and four sons. . . . Please send news. Don't be discouraged about the long wait to see it in print. That's the publication schedule.

–Anne Lawrence Bondy

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The Class of '47 enjoyed a mini-reunion on the weekend of June 1-4. People from our class attending were Dorothy Briggs Aronson, Betty Wade Drum, Liz Hall Fitch, Dorie Meyer Hawkes, Ray and Tossie Campbell Kozen, Marjorie Maynard Englert, Marilyn Hubert, Roberta Young, Patricia and Les Soule and Chuck '45 and Shirley Martin Dudley '46. (Chuck considers himself Class of '45, but he's in our yearbook and we were glad to claim him for the weekend.) . . . It was also very good to see Shirley Besse '48, who has had a very full career–studying at Springfield College and teaching there one semester, setting up recreational programs and attending conferences all over the country and who is now living back at the family farm, 18 miles from Colby. . . . I had the pleasure of riding up with Betty Wade Drum and Briggsey, both of whom are as busy as ever, Betty with music, Alumni Council and various clubs and Briggsey with singing, teaching, hiking and the Medfield Historical Society. We three enjoyed seeing Dorie Meyer Hawkes in her new home, which was completed and furnished by her three daughters and their spouses while she was on a five-week trip. It is a lovely place, beautifully decorated, and Dorie had been busy gardening just before we arrived. She obviously has a devoted family. . . . Lester Soule is retired from the furniture industry. He and his wife have been married 45 years and have two daughters and three grandchildren. They live in Maine and winter for seven months in North Carolina, where they own a townhouse on a golf course and regularly play golf and tennis. They do some traveling in the U.S. and overseas. . . . After spending their first winter in Maine in 16 years, the Kozens celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in May. . . . Roberta Young finds that retirement offers many social and volunteer opportunities. She enjoyed accompanying Marilyn Hubert to the reunion and renewing old acquaintances, roaming the campus and eating the delicious meals provided. Her disappointment was in finding no mayflowers on the hill. Her hope is to see more classmates in 2002. . . . Again, we thank Tossie and Dorie for the great job they did setting up this reunion.

–Mary "Liz" Hall Fitch

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48 We do have some news for the class but not as much as we wanted. In desperation we requested the Alumni Office to send out an e-mail to those of you who have registered your e-mail address with the Colby Alumni on-line Community, and we received a quick response from Joan Crawley Pollock. She reported that they spent Mother's Day in Laguna Niguel, Calif., with their five adult children, spouses and their children. They had fun showing the pictures of their recent New York trip–two weeks in New York City and one upstate at the Watson Homestead near Corning. All three stops were Elderhostels. The first, in Irish New York, included seeing the St. Patrick's Day parade in a snowstorm. Joan highly recommends Elderhostels, having participated in 10 of them. While in New York City Joan met with P.J. Fratano '49 and enjoyed seeing many of her eastern cousins. Upstate, Joan visited her brother who has a farm south of Elmira. She commented that it is about reunion time and that she loved going to our 50th. . . . We just received an e-mail from David Beers '85, director of annual giving at Colby, informing us that Kay Wiseman Jaffe has agreed to take the assignment of class agent. Our class is indeed fortunate to have such a competent and dedicated person assume the role that was so capably filled for many years by Peg Clark Atkins. . . . We hear fairly regularly from Howell Clement. Howell is refereeing soccer games on Saturdays and plays golf about two days a week. He had a three-day soccer tournament on Memorial Day weekend in Butte. He said that the weather was finally getting warm enough to do bike riding, although he pointed out that it had not been low temperatures but rather strong winds that prevented him from riding. Howell keeps inquiring about our golf scores and we keep waiting to improve so we can give him the lowest possible number without stretching the truth. . . . The Alumni Office sent us Doug Borton's lengthy article in the Actuarial Digest titled "Reflections on a Golden Age for Actuaries." In the article Doug traces parts of his impressive career, including an anecdote about when he was a senior at Colby and took a bus to Portland to sit for the first two parts of the associate examinations. . . . If you use e-mail we suggest that you register with the Colby on-line Community so that we can reach you with a class letter or an appeal for news. . . . On April 7 we drove to Waterville to attend a dinner honoring Bill and Linda Cotter. It was a great affair, with many special presentations and testimonials to the incomparable Cotter years. At this writing, we have just returned from the 179th Colby commencement. The weather was quite chilly but the rain held off and commencement was held on the grounds in front of the library. It was a bittersweet moment because it marked the end of Bill and Linda's service to Colby. Both Bill and Linda received honorary degrees. . . . We planned to return to Florida for two weeks to close up the house for the summer and to play a little golf before we start spending most of our spare time on our boat.

–David and Dorothy Marson

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49 Time to be in touch again! Don and Hilda Farnum Nicoll attended this year's reunion weekend and report that "a small, but good group" of our classmates and spouses joined them. They were housed in Dana Hall, which is "marginally less posh" than our dormitory a year ago. The focus of the weekend was on President Cotter's farewells. Don reports that he and his wife, Linda, are obviously held in great affection by all. Don also recommends making the reunion an annual occasion for 50-plus alumni. How about it in June 2001? Don went on to say that he and Hilda spent a very busy and happy month last fall visiting family and friends in various parts of Japan, including an overnight in the home where Hilda lived in the 1930s on the island of Innoshima, Hiroshima prefecture. On the way back home, they spent several days in Honolulu with Bob and Alice Covell Bender. In January, Hilda had a mild stroke from which she has happily made a good recovery with virtually unnoticeable residual effects. Almost as an aside Don admitted to having been presented in May the Muskie Access to Justice Award by the Edmund S. Muskie Fund for Legal Services. This award recognized his work in expanding the availability of legal services for the poor and elderly. Congratulations, Don! . . . And speaking of awards, the Alumni Office sent me an article about Jeanne Littlefield Hammond, who has received the Achievement Citation Award from the American Association of University Women of Maine. The article speaks of Jeanne's "ability to 'accomplish quietly': without fanfare, but with gentle humor, compassion and tireless effort." Congratulations, Jeanne! . . . Also from the Alumni Office came the sad news that Burt Silberstein had to close Colby Footwear at the end of June after 40 years of producing shoes "Made in the U.S.A." He tried to survive but finally succumbed to competition from the foreign labor market. Burt comments that 92 percent of all shoes are now made outside the United States! . . . My news is happier than in the previous issue. In May I finally became a mother of the bride when my daughter, Elisabeth Hagar Eustis '81, was married! It was a Colby wedding: Susan Oram '79 officiated, and Elisabeth was attended by Cate Talbot Ashton '80 and Elizabeth Stuart Bailey '80.

–Anne Hagar Eustis

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