Fall 2011 - Wheelock College

Class NOTes
Associate Degrees
Stella Barlow-Reese ’77AS has written a children’s
book and had it published last year, The
Princess of Topaz: An African American Saga (by
Stella M. Reese).
Master’s Degrees
Receiving Wheelock’s August E-Newsletter
prompted Ramona Patterson ’77MS to write:
“As I read [the newsletter], my memory goes
back to when I first went to Wheelock and took
my first course, which was children’s literature,
and then when, with Joan Bergstrom’s assistance,
I later graduated with my master’s from wonderful
Wheelock. I enjoy the school’s email and look
forward to many more wonderful memories.
Sometimes I wish I were much younger than I
am now so I could join the students in many of
the exciting things you are all doing at this time.
My ‘way back when’ activities at dear Wheelock
will always mean so very much. Joan introduced
me to dear Wheelock, and it has been love and
always will be.”
“I feel honored and humbled that they put
their trust in me,” wrote David Siedlar ’91MS
during the summer, after being offered a position
as senior translation consultant for the Foreign &
Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the Huai’an
Municipal People’s Government in China. He
started work in August, and his responsibilities are
“assisting in the translation of key materials, introducing
and promoting Huai’an, and helping guide
translator training.” Earlier in the year, David,
who also teaches English to students in preschool
to high school there, wrote about the wonderful
pleasure he’d recently had seeing one of his students,
a high school junior, do so well in a competition
that she was accepted into a program that
will allow her to finish high school in Singapore
and then remain there for college. Congratulations
on both counts, David!
Wheelock is very proud of Sarah Nadolny
Roberts ’93MS, who was a finalist for
Massachusetts Teacher of the Year for 2011! A
third- and fourth-grade teacher at the South Shore
Charter Public School in Norwell, MA, she was
nominated by school administrators, fellow teachers,
parents, students, and community members.
The award ended up going to another educator,
but Sarah was recognized and praised for, among
other things, working with her students to find
creative ways to recycle and save energy and teaching
them to “walk the talk when it comes to service
learning.” In 2010 her work led South Shore
Charter to win national recognition as “America’s
greenest school”: The school was awarded a
$20,000 “green makeover,” a $3,000 scholarship
for the class, and a new electric-hybrid school bus.
After working in international schools in
Italy, London, and Bangladesh, Julia Alden
52 Fall 2011
’94MS is now at one in Singapore, and she is
hoping to connect with some Wheelock alums
who graduated from a program there. Julia also
recently went back to school and got a degree
in Education and International Development.
Matt Robertson ’97MS writes: “Although I am
no longer working directly in child development,
my master’s degree from Wheelock (Infant and
Toddler Development) has led me to focus my
financial advisory practice on meeting the needs
of families who have children with special needs.
Although not officially working in the child
development world, I remain actively involved
in supporting early intervention and other
child/family-related efforts here in the state of
Washington.”
Congratulations to Maureen Powers
Maiocco ’98MS, who received the 2011
Distinguished Faculty Award from SUNY
Canton, where she is a professor and director
of the thriving and popular early childhood
program. Colleagues say Maureen is a “model
educator” and outstanding mentor, and “[m]any
of her students credit her with their educational
success,” according to a story in the May 17 St.
Lawrence Plaindealer.
Dave McGrath ’99MS has written five books
since graduating: Poems from a Tragic Comic,
Poetry Volume II: Swirls of the World and More on
the Flavory Girls, III Sides to Every Poem, Episode
IV Play: 40 Selected Poems by David H. McGrath,
and E-lationship. He also wrote: “In 2010, I wore
a different T-shirt every day and wrote about
them at http://davestshirts.blogspot.com/. I took
donations for the T-shirts to benefit Hope Lodge
[in Worcester, MA] (where I work), which is a
house run by the American Cancer Society that
provides free rooms to cancer patients from all
over the world who are getting treatment in local
hospitals. The T-shirt money went toward renting
a rink for the event Skating for Hope, a Relay
for Life on ice to benefit Hope Lodge (see news
story at: http://www.necn.com/12/03/10/-Dave-
McGrath/landing.html?blockID=504240).” Dave
got back in touch with the Alumni Relations
Office in August to let us know that his event,
held on July 30, took in almost $15,000 for
Hope Lodge, and he skated for a whole 24 hours,
taking only bathroom and equipment breaks.
Also in attendance were the mascots from the
Worcester Sharks and the Worcester Tornadoes;
the Boston Bruins Ice Girls with their mascot,
Blades; and members of the Star Wars 501st in
full costume. The day included a Boston College
alumni game and a Westboro High Alum vs.
Saint John’s Alum game—Westboro is Dave’s
hometown, and Saint John’s, in Shrewsbury, is
where Dave went—in memory of two Saint
John’s grads Dave knew who’d passed away from
cancer. Congratulations to Dave on this tremendously
successful event!
Arrivals
04/05 Jennifer Thurston Carey, a daughter,
Samantha Marie
Unions
53 Alicia Eager to Dudley Davis
99 Staci Ruben to Rich Federman
03 Amy Mitchell to Joseph Lauro
In Memoriam
29 Frances Bannerman Churchill
30 Jeanette Gardner Langlois
33 Olive Russell Frost
34 Jeanette Woodruff Fischer
34 Shirley Bonnemort Schmalz
34 Roberta Hooper Story
35 Beatrice Hall
35 Mary Hammer Heron
36 Mary “Betty” Kelliher Bangs
36 Elinor Livingston Sirinek
37 Laura Dodge Brown
39 Elizabeth Weitz Faulb
40 Mary Brewer Allen
41 Ruth Hargreaves Backhurst
41 Ada Louise Johndroe Lytle
41 Jane Kiefaber Noland
41 Dorothy Robertson Parrish
42-43 Mary Louise Steele Callaway
42-43 Genevieve Mott Humes
42-43 Marybelle Wood Moon
42-43 Barbara Sartwell Mullen
43-44 Mary McConnell Bailey
43-44 Jane Robertson Campbell
43-44 Berenice Beard Candage
43-44 Martha Prouty DeNormandie
43-44 Jean Saltonstall Haussermann
43-44 Mary Howe Johnson
45 Jane Tomlinson Lamb
46 Mary Farrar
46 Alma Nathanson Solar
47 Helen Evans Hanson
47 Anne Whitney Vinnicombe
48 Barbara Wells Fenn
48 Harriet Hoffman Frost
49 Jevene Baker Littlewood
50 Jane Munroe Rice
51 Nancy Horton Evans
51 Charlotte Sears MacVane
52 Patricia Christopher Germain
53 Lois Hormel Walker
58 Beverly Filley Burland
58 Anne Britton Taggart
59 Virginia Gordon Hagan
59 Susan Van Aken Lippoth
59MS Nancy L. Reider
62 Roberta Hyde Hayward
62 Roberta Loveland Vest
65 Adele Abate Manfredi
66 Carol Vogelsohn Ladd
66 Joan Carey Noble
96/97MS Eilene S. Meyerhoff