Fall 2008 - Wheelock College

CLASS NOTES
And remember, our 50th Reunion is only three
short years away (June 3-5, 2011)! Are you making
plans to be there?
1962
Roberta Weiss Goorno
Susan Bromfield Barber says her new area in San
Francisco, North Beach, is closer to the water and
has a “zillion good restaurants” and better weather.
She and Kent have four grandchildren in the Bay
Area and four in Colorado. They were on a committee
to build a “columbarium” (in ancient Rome, a
sepulchre with niches for cinerary urns) in the back
garden of their church. The beautiful structure, a
three-year project, was completed and dedicated last
fall. Sabra Brown Johnson was leaving for a threeweek
trip to China as she wrote, “Visiting Beijing,
Xian, Wuhan, a four-day Yangtze River cruise,
Guilin and Hong Kong.” Her other travels include
“Peru (Machu Picchu) and Ecuador (Galapagos
Islands — I learned to snorkel there)” and a
Caribbean cruise to eight ports. In May, Sabra went
to Minnesota to see her twin step-granddaughters
graduate from St. Cloud State College and visited
her son and his wife in Wisconsin. At home in
California, she volunteers with the Assistance League
of Diablo Valley, is an elder in her church for
Children and Family Ministries, and tutors a
Japanese girl in English. This August was Sabra’s
“50th (gulp) high school reunion,” and she returned
to her hometown in New York to attend it.
Susan Powers Knapp was sorry to miss
Reunion, but she and Ron were traveling in
Scandinavia at the time. She loves living in
Westport, MA, where the Westport rivers and
Buzzards Bay make it “a very special place to live.”
They see their children and grandchildren quite
often. Susan is involved with UMass Dartmouth’s
Second Half learning program — many interesting
courses are offered and facilitated by area volunteers
— and wrote of another great program offered
by the Westport River Watershed Alliance to teach
schoolchildren about the river and beach environment.
She works with grades K-6. Her garden club
is also involved with the school in planting seeds and
bird programs. Susan thinks it wonderful that
“Wheelock is growing and continuing to provide
great opportunities in education.” Dorothy
Loofbourow Nichols and Dave are “fortunate to be
Change of address?
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tay in the loop by refreshing your contact information at
Shttp://www.wheelock.edu/alum/alumupdates.asp.
in good health and to live in a lovely corner of the
world” — Bellingham, WA. “Our favorite trip was
to the Tuscany area of Italy,” she wrote, “and the second,
to the north corner of Costa Rica. Our favorite
ski areas are Whistler, B.C., and Sundance in Utah,
but we love being home best of all.” Dottie keeps
busy with grandchildren, bridge, walking, and
church Sunday school work. Helen “Bonnie” Beck
Noble and husband Wayne are now living in their
diesel pusher motor home in Morgan Hill, CA (near
San Jose), and managing an RV resort (www.coyotevalleyresort.com).
“We love this lifestyle and have
committed to this job for three years,” she wrote.
“We also have our own business in RV park consulting.”
Now wine connoisseurs, they have a wine cooler
in their motor home and love going wine tasting.
They visit their daughter in Scottsdale, AZ, as often
as they can. Bonnie welcomes visitors.
Two new activities gave Jane Saltzman
Rosenberg great pleasure last winter while at Pelican
Sound in Estero, FL. One was a watercolor painting
class, which she planned to continue when she
returned home to Gloucester, MA. She also became
certified as an ESL tutor and worked with a student
from Mexico, a fulfilling experience for both of
them. She and her husband had a wonderful visit
with their newest grandchild, Elena Sophia, and her
parents. She met Judy Green Chaloff at the
Wheelock alumni luncheon in Naples last winter.
Brenda Richmond Verduin-Dean was widowed in
1999 and remarried in 2004. She and Herb traveled
a lot between their three homes — his on Cape Cod,
her apartment in NYC, and one together in
Worcester, MA — before deciding recently to give
up the Cape one. Back with family and reunited
with old (high school!) friends in Worcester, she says
her “life has come full circle!”
I (Roberta) have a fifth grandchild, Ariel
Edward, named for both granddads (Edward for my
late husband). This year I became a Florida resident,
though I will still spend half the year in New Jersey,
nearer to family. My eldest grandson had his bar
mitzvah in April. We are celebrating with a trip to
Rapid City, SD: gold mines, a buffalo safari, underground
caverns, the lore of cowboys, pioneers and
Indians, Mt. Rushmore, fossils, Crazy Horse sculpture,
and a Minuteman silo into which you can
descend! (I hope I survive all this fun!)
Great to see some new names in our Class Notes
section! Keep sharing, all of you!
1963
Jane Kuehn Kittredge
What a wonderful time the Class of 1963 had at our
45th Reunion! It was so much fun reconnecting and
reminiscing with our classmates. I (Jane) will try to
give a capsule update from those in attendance with
news not specific to the Reunion to be reported at
another time.
The construction of the new Campus Center
and Student Residence is ahead of schedule and a
real asset to Wheelock. The facility will be multifunctional
and certainly will be made use of by our
50th Reunion. Our class processed to the luncheon
carrying yellow umbrellas which we felt might even
be needed, but the weather held for us. At the class
meeting, Nan Ware Morrow and Zelinda
Makepeace Douhan agreed to co-chair our 50th
with others willing to assist as before. Ellie
Starkweather Snelgrove will be anxious to have any
Wheelock photos sent to her as she plans to assemble
a scrapbook. We missed Ellie, who was on a trip
to Mexico. She also took a cruise on the Danube in
November 2007, and she keeps active subbing and
working with the seniors. We also missed our class
agent, Lynn Sanchez Paquin, who was unable to fly
due to a vertigo condition which she has suffered
with since her wonderful cruise to the South Pacific.
She was planning to operate Crescent Cottage in
Block Island this summer as usual and was looking
forward to improved days. Also responding and
wishing classmates well were Suzi Dimmitt, who
had two sons married this summer, and Susan
Memery Bruce, who was attending her nephew’s
wedding in Florida.
Regrets came from Marjorie Sanek Platzker,
who had work obligations in California, where she
continues as associate director of Skidmore, Owings
and Merrill LLP, a commercial interior design firm.
She wrote, “I direct a wide variety of commercial
interior design projects in the areas of media, law,
financial services, and hospitality. Arnold continues
his pediatric pulmonology position at USC Keck
School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Los
Angeles. Our children both live in the New York
area. David and wife Susan are in the art world.
Kate Platzker is 8 and enjoys life in Soho. Liz, a
fashion designer, is married to Steve Kawut, a lung
transplant pulmonologist and pulmonary hypertension
expert. Liz and Steve will be relocating to
Philadelphia this fall.” Jackie Taft Lowe is traveling
internationally with her husband, who is on sabbatical
and teaching in Australia and Scotland, while
Judy Thompson Seeley and Larry still make their
home in Louisiana and were unable to come to
Boston in May. Nancy Clark Migneault and Al are
enjoying a busy retirement with three delightful
grandchildren. Nancy works with hospice and seems
“traveled out” after a month in Africa. She entertains
46 Fall 2008