I continue to marvel at the rhythm of the seasons. It has been fun reading what you remember of our ’71 Jan Plans. Will someone please tell me what MINE was? * Last September, after my deadline for this column, Ralph Nodine let us know that in June 2014 he was inducted into the Virginia Housing Hall of Fame. He works for the Virginia Community Development Corporation in Richmond. * Larie Trippet can’t recall his ’71 Jan Plan, but he does remember driving across the country at that time. Maybe I was with him? * One year into retirement, Fred Copithorne realizes he hasn’t yet come close to checking off the “honey-do” list, but he’s still enjoying pottery. His senior Jan Plan was his first glimpse of the wheel as he faced doing two Jan Plans simultaneously. Ask Bob Vaughn ’72 about why that was necessary. Maybe I was in the same boat? * Rich Abramson is interim president of Good Will-Hinckley in Hinckley, Maine. The Maine Academy of Natural Sciences at Good Will-Hinckley is the state’s first charter high school. GWH also works with the Day One substance abuse program, among other noteworthy initiatives. Rich is busier now than ever. He remains in touch with Bro Adams and his wife. * Bob Gordon recalls only his sophomore Jan Plan, when he and Bruce Hubbard developed an economic system to control the world’s population. They thought it was a great idea at the time. He’s retired after 42 years as a builder, and he recommends retirement. * Along the same lines, John Slagle loves retirement and is living full time at Sugarloaf. “What more needs to be said?” * Martha Smith Mickles spent her senior Jan Plan drilling cores of frozen samples from the Sidney Bog. It disabused her of the notion of ever becoming a field geologist. Maybe I was in the bog with Martha? She and her partner are looking forward to traveling more together when Martha retires. They spend lots of quality time with their grandchildren. * Elaine Weeks-Trueblood is still working full time but looking forward to retirement. She works on a master data management program for JPMorgan Chase and enjoys its daily challenges. She was in Maine last fall, partly for a Fryeburg Academy board of trustees meeting and partly for some vacation. She played golf at the challenging Belgrade Lakes Country Club. * Nancy Gottlund Ghertner and her “crew” had another reunion last year in Joan Alway’s neck of the woods in the Cascade Mountains in Washington State. There were 10 of them: Dennis Marble, Lory and Nancy Ghertner, Joan Alway, Joan Harris Wiseman, Jeff Hood, Steven and Marilyn McDougal Meyerhans ’72, and Ann McEwen ’70 and her husband. Nancy is working on another film and will let us know how it progresses. * Two years into her retirement, Carol Fall Bourgoin and her husband, Joe, enjoyed a river cruise in Europe last fall, from Budapest to Amsterdam. They returned to Myrtle Beach, S.C., this winter and look forward to some time on the rugged coast of Maine this summer. Carol, unlike SOME of us, does remember her senior Jan Plan—student-teaching in Skowhegan with Jane Hight. Maybe I was teaching in Skowhegan with Carol and Jane? * Leslie Anderson settled into her winter groove, which includes lots of painting and music. She has been learning how to play the electric bass guitar, and she’s finding it fun and challenging. She and her husband were looking forward to their getaway to France in March. Leslie’s final Jan Plan was a photography project requiring lots of time in the darkroom in Roberts. Maybe I was in the darkroom with Leslie? She wandered streets, taking “artistic” shots, and yet had time to sneak off to Sugarloaf, too. Oh, maybe I was at Sugarloaf! That’s it!
Spring 2015