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Class Notes

 

Class Notes for 1969

Spring 2013

Happy spring, everyone! * Robert Oldershaw and his wife are expecting their first grandchild this summer. Congratulations! * Tom Wright looks forward to hearing news from classmates, would love to hear from more, and hopes to see more classmates at reunions. * Gary Austin checked off another bucket list item in late November/early December with a trip to Antarctica. The trip lasted nine days, including five exploring the Antarctic Peninsula and two on each end crossing the Drake Passage, which is “not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach!” This was also his seventh continent! * Chris Christensen didn’t run for reelection last year, so after 12 years he had some time free in the winter. He’s been to the capitol several times to testify on bills he started in motion last term. His family traveled to Disney World to celebrate granddaughter Clara’s birthday, where the highlight was breakfast with Mary Poppins. “Nowadays, all the little girls come in princess costumes. Not a coonskin cap to be seen on a kid anywhere.” Chris works as development committee chair for Meals on Wheels. In June he’ll attend a Tau Delta Phi reunion at the Samoset Resort, where he’s looking forward to seeing friends from other classes. * Jeff and Judy Lee Moeckel celebrate 10 years of retirement May 30. Judy teaches voice and piano, writes for the local paper, and provides pastoral care through her church and Middlesex Hospital. Classical music (especially sacred choral music) remains her passion. Judy says they “live in the woods in Killingworth, Conn., where we hear coyotes but have not yet seen any bear.” This June Judy is going to Vienna, Budapest, and possibly Prague, and she will go to Washington State in August. She remains in touch with Linda Patton in Alaska and Debby Van Hoek Abraham in the Boston area. She recently saw Fred Richter Jr. ’66, who lives in Bethany, Conn., with his wife, Beth, and daughter, Orly. Fred teaches and does college counseling at Hamden Hall School. * Karen (Knapp) ’70 and Bill Lyons announced the birth of grandchild James William Lyons to their son Kevin and his spouse, Megan. James lives in Lincoln, so they see him more regularly than their other two grandchildren, who live north of Chicago. They spent almost two weeks in Castine, Maine, at the end of the year and visited Sarah Hudson and her sister. * Anne York Samson spent the holidays with family in Portland, Ore., Louisville, Ky., and Basel, Switzerland, before returning home to Denver. In March she returned to work part time as a psychologist for Kaiser-Permanente, and she plans to do more traveling. * John Burnham practices internal medicine full time and finds it fulfilling and necessary, as daughters Claire and Emily are college sophomores at Skidmore. He’s still skiing despite four total joint replacements and looks forward to their annual trip to Sugarloaf. * David Noonan still enjoys San Diego after four decades of practicing law, 37 years with the firm he helped start in 1976. Dave and Barbara have four thriving children and one grandson. They have one son in college, a junior at the University of Alabama. Dave and his son have traveled to each of Alabama’s last three national championship games, recently returning from Miami where the Crimson Tide swamped Notre Dame. This caused family friction since his older brother graduated from Notre Dame. They stayed with Dave’s daughter in Miami, where she recently graduated law school and passed the Florida bar and is now practicing law. He recently saw Dan Libby ’68, who teaches in Pennsylvania at Moravian College. * Bill Merritt, a program director for clinical grants at the National Cancer Institute, received the annual Public Service Award from the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. He also participated in a meeting related to his work in the field of cancer immunotherapies, a burgeoning and important direction for cancer therapy. Bill remains active, singing in two barbershop choruses, canoeing in his dad’s restored 1924 Old Town canoe, and skiing at Sugarloaf. While attending a recent volunteer-recognition event, he had the pleasant surprise of running into Ed Woodin and Rick Frantz.

 
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