Class of '40
The year 2000 is almost here. Please send news of your activities.
I hope this will include plans to attend our 60th reunion. Happy
memories of sixty or more years ago and appreciation for a fine
education are recurring themes in letters received from classmates.
A keen interest in and concern for UVMs present and future well-being
are also evident in the correspondence and in contributions to
our scholarship fund. PLEASE LET ME HEAR FROM MORE OF YOU. Merriman
Hull wrote that playing baseball and playing in the ROTC band
are among his favorite memories. After military service, he was
an engineer for Western Electric (now Lucent Technologies) for
thirty-eight years. His greatest satisfactions are his education
and a wonderful family. He reads the Vermont Quarterly from cover
to cover. He and his wife, Dorothy, look forward to seeing Bob
Smith, Flossie Eaton, Betsy Komline, Bob Dudley, Ev Bailey, and
Jim Roberts at our 60th. Another cover to cover Quarterly reader
is Betsy Komline. She remembers following a horse-drawn plow
from Redstone to main campus as it cleared the snow from the sidewalk.
In 1950, she and her husband moved to Gladstone, N.J., where
he built his plant for the manufacture of pollution control equipment
(in adjacent Peapack). Gladstone is the home of the U.S. Equestrian
Team and an estate belonging to the King of Morocco. Not only
was a UVM education a valuable basis for any career, but the university
has drawn me back innumerable times for reunions and meetings
as well as to enjoy the atmosphere. Beautiful location and super
people. Dr. Ed Irwins favorite memories of UVM go back to his
childhood when his mother took him to hear John Philip Sousas
band play in the UVM gym. Another highlight was when the Glenn
Miller band played at the Kake Walk masquerade in 1939. UVM made
my career possible, he wrote. I would probably not have been
able to attend college except for the good fortune of living in
Burlington. I do read the Quarterly. We really scored when President
Ramaley arrived. Tom Salmons years of capable service were a
hard act to follow, and at times she must feel as though she has
a tiger by the tail. We hope to be there for the reunion. Carl
Schofield regrets that he will be unable to be at UVM in 2000.
He sent his best regards to all who return and hopes the event
will be a big success. Elliot Pearl, who lives in Miami, Fla.,
plans to be at UVM for the dramatic 60th. Florence Eaton anticipates
seeing former roommates Betsy Komline and your class secretary
as well as Jean Butler Pye, Jean Morse Blakemore, Lois Redding
Grace, Alice Hudson Morrow, and other friends in Burlington. She
wrote, I remember the fun we had at Kake Walk, the grand rush
from campus to Robinson Hall to wait on table, and the close ties
we Mortar Board members had with Dean Mary Jean Simpson, who reminded
us that scholarship, leadership, and service are to remain with
us the rest of our lives. Katherine Davis Widness wrote that
she enjoys reading about all the wonderful happenings at UVM in
the Quarterly. She never hesitates to recommend UVM to young people
as one of the best colleges. Katherine and her husband, John,
are living in a retirement home in Sun City Center, Fla. She continues
to do volunteer work in her church and community thanks to her
education and training.
Class of '41
Regretfully, I report the death of our classmate, Roger Ramsdell,
on March 14 in Rockville Centre, N.Y. Roger was principal engineer
at Con Edison in New York until his retirement in 1983. He managed
UVMs varsity football team and was president of Phi Delta Theta
fraternity. His hobbies were sailing and model railroading, and
he was a talented artist, illustrating articles he wrote for railroading
and boating publications. Norman Strassburg continues to play
handball on the UVM courts three times a week. Dick Healy wrote
from Westboro, Mass., that his grandson, Joel Lecouvre, received
a full basketball scholarship to Armstrong Atlantic State University,
a division two school in Savannah, Ga. Earl and Veleida Fleming
(40) Reed moved to a Presbyterian retirement home in Lakeland,
Fla. They are both in good health and live in independent housing.
They hope to return to UVM for their 60th reunions. With a new
century ahead, the year 2001 will be rapidly approaching, the
year of our 60th reunion. So, please begin to put your thoughts,
dates, and recollections in order and drop me a line before the
next Quarterly issue. Warren Robinson wrote from Monson, Mass.,
that his wife, Ruth Norcross, a classmate of ours in home economics,
died in March. Her years at UVMwere interrupted by the war, but
she continued her education at the School of Domestic Science
in Boston. Besides her husband, she is survived by two sons. Elle
Dee Gallagher 66 wrote from Springfield, Mass., that her mother
Ellen Brown Baker, died on January 7, 1999, after a short illness.
Class of '42
Collamer Bud Abbott has retired to White River Junction, Vt.,
after a varied career. His years of teaching included time at
Castleton State College and Nathaniel Hawthorne College. Bud has
a great interest in mining, especially copper mining. He has had
a wide variety of articles published, including Vermonts Pioneer
Copper Plant and Isaac Tyson, Jr., Pioneer Industrialist, travel
articles, including Touring the Aleutians, and lighter reading
like White River to Randolph in an REO. He has a very impressive
list of articles published for those would like to read more about
mining, the history of Vermont towns, and Vermont folklore. Ethel
Shippee Heyland of North Babylon, N.Y., still drives to Vermont
several times a year, though not in the winter. Robert Carlson
is hoping to have a fourth generation of his family attend UVM.
His son and two grandsons have already graduated. He hopes his
two-year-old great-grandson and one-year-old great-granddaughter
will attend UVM in the future.
Class of '43
Celia Cioffi Paquin of Swanton, Vt., wrote about the UVM alumni
in her family. Son Burton 69, is an auto dealer in St. Albans,
Vt.; son Robert 71, G75 of Shelburne, Vt., is a legislative
assistant in Senator Leahys office in Montpelier, Vt.; and granddaughter
Jennifer of St. Albans, Vt., is a student.
Class of '44
Dorothy Wimett Costello is happy to report that she has eleven
grandchildren. Her husband, Judge Edward Costello, died in 1993.
Son Edward Jay 72 works for IDX in South Burlington. Dorothy
was looking forward to Reunion when she called in April.
Class of '46
Jacquelin Swasey Smith of Cornish, Maine, wrote that she enjoyed
spending some time with classmates Connie Brownell Hall and Martha
Perry Lyon during Commencement. She attended the Green and Gold
Luncheon and enjoyed seeing everyone. Hilary Shelvin Caplan and
husband Leonard celebrated their 50th anniversary at a luncheon
at the historic Colonial Inn in Concord, Mass., and on a five-day
trip to the Czech Republic. Hilary teaches
an adult tap class and a ballet, tap, and jazz class for children
at Chelmsford Recreation in Chelmsford, Mass.
Class of '49
Joseph Waterman of Lowell, Mass., was looking forward to seeing
classmates at the 50th Reunion celebration. He is in his 37th
year as a full-time member of the UMass Lowell faculty, currently
an associate professor and assistant head of the department of
psychology. He wrote, Despite the fact that I am in my mid-70s,
I am still teaching and counseling full-
time with no desire to retire. Peggy Lawlor Corley of South Dartmouth,
Mass., wrote sadly that her husband, Paul Corley 41, MD 52,
passed away in December 1994. They have five children and four
grandchildren. Lawrence Dale and wife Shirley celebrated their
50th wedding anniversary in June 1998 on an Alaskan cruise. Although
he could not attend reunion, he sent best wishes to all members
of the class of 49, hoping everyone had a most memorable celebration.
Lawrence wrote, My favorite memories of UVM are of physics and
math professors, and Professor Holmes, in particular; also of
classmates Bill Flanders and Frank Scribner, now deceased. He
asked, Is there still a UVM flying club? We had one in 1948 with
one airplane, a Fleet biplane, Friendship. A former librarian,
Nancy Joy is enjoying life in a retirement community in Hartford,
Conn. Deane Milligan visited his son, David 77 and his wife,
Debra, in Heideberg, Germany. He enjoyed celebrating the 800th
anniversary of the famous castle, enjoyed the play, Student Prince,
performed in English, and participated in a volkswalk (hike) and
was rewarded with a beer stein at the end. Ella Chamer Noack wrote
that her son, Dr. James Petersen 79, is head of the anthropology/archaeology
department at UVM. He obtained his masters and PhD degrees from
the University of Pittsburgh. Natalie Clapp Barber enjoys Elderhostels
and traveling abroad. She has visited Scandinavia, the Greek Isles,
and Costa Rica. Natalie has been honored for 14 terms of volunteer
service at Mt. Sequoyah United Methodist Conference Center in
Fayetteville, Ark. Frances Akie Crowley of Milford, Conn., wrote
of her happy memories of UVM. She remembered the wind blowing
off the lake as she walked from the Bastille to Waterman in
a skirt per Mary Jean, SAE hums in Winooski, 10 p.m. curfew
during the week, and Kake Walk music everywhere from October
until February.