ALUMNI PROFILES
Hannah Laipson '46
A Need to Teach

Janet McMahon '79
Mapping the Uncharted

Jeremiah "Josh" Burns '81
Mountain Man

Chris Gieszl '93
SEAL of Approval

Roy Hirshland '85

David A. Ghertner '02

45

Dear classmates, news is needed! Please supply, okay? Note the postage-paid reply card at the back of this and each and every issue of Colby. Then--step two--fill it in and send it in. We all want to know what everyone else is doing, right? That being the case, if we are to have news in this column we need as much classmate participation as possible in contributing news as well as consuming it. So please, get with the program! Thanks a lot!

Naomi Collett Paganelli

46

With no news to write about, I was reduced to cleaning out the cellar. And there in a box marked "Colby," I found a great clipping from a very old newspaper about a Notre Dame victory in football against Boston College, 54-7. But here's the fun part: "Only a BC score with 1:46 left prevented the massacre from being the worst inflicted upon the Eagles since a 55-0 loss to Colby 80 years ago." The other choice find was a copy of the White Mule from February 1946. Lots of sophomoric humor, some inspired lunacy. I particularly liked the write-up of the football game between the Colby Amazons (27) and Notre Dame (21) with All-America blocking back Doc Taraldsen, fullback Cleats Lawrence and All-America quarterback Hannah Karp. "95,000 frenzied fans in Seaverns Field cheered wildly as Cleats, behind excellent blocking by Doc, scored on the kick-off, running 65 yards for the TD." But Hannah came through with the game-winning run in the "best piece of broken field running ever seen by this reporter." Best joke: a rumor reached the men's dorm that a case of beri beri had been discovered on Mayflower Hill. "Don't let it bother you," said Chappy. "We'll give it to the Dekes--they'll drink anything." And there are really good poems in the styles of Milton, Kipling, Whitman, Lear and Longfellow on moving to Mayflower Hill, by H.J. (Helen Jacobs '47?) Well, we did a lot of "creative" things, some nutty, some not so, to brighten the dark days and expand the slim pickins of life at Colby during WWII. Now, brighten my days with news before the next deadline, March 15.

Anne Lawrence Bondy

top  |  next

Dana and Harriet Nourse Robinson have returned to Beijing for a few months, and this time they have the pleasure of having their oldest son, Steven, living nearby. He is with a large law firm that has just opened an office in Beijing, and he will commute back and forth. His wife, Shelley, will remain in the States most of the time since they have three sons, one at Washington University and two at Sidwell Friends School. . . . Last October, David Weber and his wife were in France. At home, he volunteers for the Audubon Society and for Friends of Upper Newport Bay and monitors bluebird boxes that produced 46 fledglings last spring. He also started a book club in his area, serves on three committees and is trying to start a Colby group in Orange County. I hope he is very successful. . . . A note from Marjorie Maynard Englert said that in her retirement she greatly enjoys working at church with infants and toddlers. She leads a very active life gardening and maintaining a yard, work that includes clearing, trimming and pulling out vines that are attempting to take over. She lives on a hill overlooking a lake, where she enjoys canoeing and swimming, and she is trying to learn to paint with watercolors and use pastels. She reported that she thought the 2002 reunion with its sing-along and big 55-plus group was the best ever. Also, she included the sad word that Geraldine Costello Griesemer died June 21 in Kirkwood, Mo. . . . Richard Sampson was at Colby for the reunion and also for the Alumni College, which he said "was a wonderful experience, a superlative time for learning from the speakers, and a sharp group of participants about Islam and the West." Unfortunately, his wife had had a bad fall that required surgery and therapy so she was not able to attend (but Dick said the warm summer benefited their garden and provided him with excellent biking weather). He sends special thanks to Tossie Campbell Kozen and Dorie Meyer Hawkes for again planning and hostessing the reunion--a sentiment I think was felt by all who attended.

Mary "Liz" Hall Fitch

top  |  next

48

Evelyn Helfant Malkin wrote that she has five children, nine grandchildren and a Chesapeake Bay retriever. She says she visited Sicily last April and May with a daughter-in-law and saw "superb antiquities, even better and more than in Athens." They even had time for a day in London and one in Paris. Recently they had dinner with Bob '46 and Harriet Glashow Singer '46. Evie returned for her 50th reunion and commented on the changes from the Blue Beetle and the 1940s. . . . The Alumni Office sent us newspaper clippings that featured Dorothy Worthley Cleaver and the late Dominic "Miko" Puiia. The article on Dottie Cleaver is extensive and describes her work in the Head Start Program at the Kennebec Valley Community Action Program in Skowhegan. She is a volunteer reader with the Born to Read program, through the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program. The article, which describes her activity as an "intergenerational partnership between young and old," included a large photograph of Dottie reading to eight children. . . . Mico Puiia was inducted posthumously into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame on June 9. He attended Stephens High School in Rumford and Central Maine Institute in Pittsfield before coming to Colby. After graduation, he returned to Rumford to pursue a teaching and coaching career. In World War II he served in the Marines and was a member of the Marine All-Star baseball team that included Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox and Ted Lyons of the Chicago White Sox. He was the only New England baseball player selected to the East-West College Baseball All-Star game at Fenway Park in 1948. . . . Doug Borton wrote, "My wife, Doris, and I attended my 54th reunion in June. I was the only member of the Class of '48 to march in the alumni parade. However, Dana and Harriet Nourse Robinson graciously left the Class of '47 group to join me, so I didn't have to walk alone. Phil Shulman and his wife and Virginia Hill [check if married] joined us at the class dinner. Despite this year's poor turnout, Doris and I had a great time and are looking forward to seeing more '48ers at our 55th. . . . We have had a good summer and have sailed whenever the weather permitted. If the weather isn't good for sailing, then we play golf. Other than those activities and some community endeavors, we concentrate on our children and grandchildren. We planned to head for Jupiter, Fla., in late October and will be there until April. It would be helpful to hear from more of you so that we can make these notes more interesting.

David and Dorothy Marson

top  |  next

49

Nellie Macdougall Parks keeps her eyes peeled for any news of classmates, so she was the first to send me a clipping announcing the publishing of a second book by Horace P. Landry, Death on the Rocks. (The Alumni Office subsequently sent me five clippings!) This is a sequel to his first book, Death Under Tall Pines, which made the Maine Publishers and Writers Association top seller's list. The story is laid in Middletown, which you will recognize as Waterville, and he renamed Colby College, calling it Chamberlain College for the Civil War hero, Joshua Chamberlain. If you like mysteries, here are two set in Maine waiting for you to read. . . . Late in June, Don Nicoll wrote me the sad news of the death of Alice Covell Bender on June 24. She had suffered a severe stroke six days earlier. Our yearbook says, "Nothing seems to trouble Covie--takes things slow and easy." That and her sweet smile, that's how I remember her. Our sincere sympathy to Covie's husband, Joe. . . . Earlier this summer I saw Shirley Kydd Bastien at my daughter's. Shirley and my daughter, Elisabeth Eustis Paine '81, are both avid gardeners. Elisabeth's best friend discovered quite by accident that her friend, Shirley Bastien, was a classmate of mine. Small world department! . . . I also am in touch quite frequently with Carol Carpenter Bisbee, who was preparing for her trip to Antarctica at the end of December. Another small world department item: Carol is traveling on the same ship I was on last February and has even been assigned the same cabin! . . . That is it for now. Please send me your news no matter how inconsequential you feel it is. We do like to hear from you.

Anne Hagar Eustis

top  |   next