Winter 2005 - Keuka College

C LASS N OTES
1955 Reunion Year 1960 Reunion Year
Martha Jimerson Bezner, Henderson
Harbor, Fla., and husband Dr. Gerald A.
Bezner celebrated their 50th wedding
anniversary Dec. 26, 2003. They observed
the occasion with family and friends Aug.
21, 2004 at their home and hosted a brunch
Aug. 22 for family and out-of-town guests.
Martha and Gerald met in first grade and
were high school sweethearts. Gerald
owned Boulevard Animal Hospital in
Syracuse from 1967-2000. He opened the
Intracoastal Animal Hospital in Tequesta,
Fla., where he currently practices, in 1999.
Martha has worked as an administrator for
her husband since 1967. The couple has
five children and seven granddaughters.
Marilyn Porter Shampine, Syracuse,
N.Y., lost her friend, Angie Castorina ’51,
to cancer on July 1, 2004. She attended the
memorial mass for Angie at St. Matthew’s
Church in East Syracuse on Oct. 9. Also
attending the mass were Nancy Weninger
Greenleaf ’54, Elizabeth “Bib” Mosher
Dyre ’54, Ann Nevin Chu ’51, Pat Law
DeSain ’57, and Linda Willauer ’64. “All
of us miss our friend,” said Marilyn.
What do John Kerry, John F.
Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert
Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, and Neil
Armstrong have in common?
Aside from the fact that they all
have a place in U.S. history, they were
all treated by Barbara Ellen Miller ’56
during her 20-year career in the Navy
Nurse Corps.
Now, more than two decades after
retiring from the Navy, Miller is being
recognized for her military service in
an exhibit at the Mystic (Conn.)
Seaport Museum titled Women and the
Sea.
The exhibit highlights the role that
American women have played in maritime
history, from the colonial period
to the present. Miller’s uniform, dog
tags, passport, Navy Commission, and
photographs from service abroad are
on display through April.
“I am very honored to have been
chosen for [the exhibit],” said Miller.
She joined the Navy in 1961, after
1961
Mary Ellen Lee, Penn Yan, N.Y., recently
released the fourth book in her Danny and
Life on Bluff Point series of
historical novels for children:
The Man on the Train. The
series is based on journal’s
written by her grandfather. In
the most recent book, set in
March 1895, the Lee family
takes an iceboating trip—the last one for the
winter—across Keuka Lake. Danny has sister
Mary with him and must carefully control
the iceboat in a very strong wind. Great
Grandma Baker tells the children about her
family's trip from Rensselaer County to
Orleans County on the Erie Canal in 1858.
Grandma and Grandpa Scott leave Bluff
Point and move to Gorham by way of train
with the help of the Lee family. A man
traps Mary in the livestock car and Danny
helps rescue her.
Miller’s Military Time Memorable
earning a master’s
degree from the
University of
Maryland, to “make
some money” and
“see the world.”
After the Navy,
Miller went on to
join the education
department at
Lawrence and
Memorial Hospitals
in New London,
Miller in an
early Navy photo
Conn., where she worked for 18 years.
While her list of famous patients might
be considered a bragging right to some,
Miller is humble about the whole thing.
“I don’t really talk about it much,”
said Miller, who received the College’s
Professional Achievement Award in
1972 and is an emeritus member of the
Board of Trustees. “They were my
patients and I was there to take care of
them.”
—Tanya Cornell-Kestler
KEUKA MAGAZINE 18 WINTER 2005
1965 Reunion Year
Diane Beardslee Davis, Prattsburgh, N.Y.,
says she is enjoying retirement after teaching
for 30 years, 25 of which she taught
English in Bath. These days, she’s active in
church as treasurer and is on many
Presbytery committees. Her husband of 39
years, Clark, died in November 2004, and
she’s slowly adapting to her new lifestyle.
She travels some and is enjoying her nine
grandchildren.
1970 Reunion Year
Barbara Piscitelli, Brisbane, Australia, a
native of Bradford, Pa., gave a lecture at the
University of Pittsburg at Bradford in
October on how the arts have changed the
lives of young people in Australia. The lecture
was titled “Art Changed My Life:
Young Indigenous Artists in Australia.” She
holds a master’s degree in early childhood
education from Antioch Graduate School of
Education and a doctorate in creative arts
from James Cook University.
1974
Karla Linn Merrifield, Kent, N.Y., recently
had a chapbook of nature-inspired poetry,
Midst, published by the Foothills Publishing
Company. An adjunct professor of English
at the State University of New York
(SUNY) at Brockport, Karla holds a master
of arts in creative writing from the college
for which she works. Since writing and
publishing her first poem at age 11, she has
had her works published in national publications
as well as anthologies. She read
from her latest chapbook at her alma mater
as part of the College’s Spotlight Series
Nov. 8.
1975 Reunion Year
1977
Sally Razionale Umbro, West Harrison,
N.Y., was selected as an Italian American
role model by the Columbus Alliance and
was honored at the annual Role Models
Awards Night held at Gino’s Restaurant
Oct. 27, 2004. She is the director of nursing
at Calvary Hospital.