Summer 2005 - Hood College

Summer 2005
Hood Magazine 31
May that year. Paula has left her position as a preschool
director and is working part-time as coordinator
for a before-and-after-school program,
leaving her more time to enjoy her role as grandmother
of two adorable girls and two handsome
boys. She and Ken moved from their home of 35
years to a condo in Baltimore near the Johns
Hopkins Univ. campus and only five minutes from
one of their daughters. In addition to traveling,
mostly to wonderful places in Canada, the
Williamses manage one glorious week each year
with all of their children and grandchildren at the
Delaware seashore. This past year, the whole clan
also gathered to celebrate Paula and Ken’s 40th
anniversary. Also busy and satisfied in retirement,
Olga Boriakoff Johnson recapped her post-
Hood life in a recent note: “Ron and I met and
married in Washington, D.C., where we lived,
worked and started our family. We moved to the
Los Angeles area in 1976. After 25 years in southern
California, we retired, Ron from his 36 years
in federal service and me from 18 years as an elementary
school teacher in a bilingual classroom.
We retired to Henderson in the Las Vegas area
where we have lived in an active adult retirement
community for more than three years. Ron runs a
community Web site and I am active in a local
P.E.O. chapter. Our son Michael, a National Merit
scholar, attended college on a full four-year scholarship.
He graduated with honors as an electrical
engineer, then went to law school. He now practices
intellectual-property law in the San Francisco
area. Michael and his wife, Promise, who owns a
consulting company, have a vacation home in
the Sierra Nevadas in the Lake Tahoe area.
Michael, an inveterate rock climber, is also a
small-craft pilot, and he flies whenever he can
find the time. Our daughter Sonia was a Phi Beta
Kappa graduate, and after earning two master’s
degrees, one in psychology and one in public
health, she now works at her alma mater, UCLA,
doing behavioral-research studies in one of the
medical institutes.” Last Oct., Marilyn Farnell
made the big move from her beloved cottage in
Needham to a condominium/townhouse in
Auburndale, Mass., a suburb of Newton. The
condo provides plenty of space inside and a bit
of outdoor enjoyment without the upkeep concerns
of an independent home. Lynn continues
to consult on the management and preservation
of documents and media, and her most interesting
project last year was an assessment of the
Boston Police media collection. She also assisted
with getting a preservation guide, “The
Preservation of Local Television,” published.
Additionally, Lynn has taken up childcare for a
number of families, including one with threeyear-old
triplets and an infant, and she’s involved
in church activities. In April, she took her first true
vacation in years: “A fabulous 10 days in
Provence and Paris. Went with my sister Jean and
friends. Chartered a barge and wended our way
on the Canal du Midi through Provence. Lots of
excellent eating (local produce, cheeses, fish),
local wines and olives. Too good to be true.” A
big congrats to best-selling cookbook author
Nancy McAdams Baggett for being named
Distinguished Alumna at this year’s Hood
Reunion luncheon! Were it not for the reinstitution
of cluster-reunion scheduling, the exceptional
Class of ‘65 would have been there en masse
for our 40th celebration to cheer her on. Barbara
Moles Griffin, a classmate through two-and-ahalf
years, continues to work full-time as an
accountant for an international company that
buys and sells jet aircraft. She loves the work and
is quite happy with life in general. She and her
husband moved to Clinton, N.Y., 11 years ago
after living in Montana for 10 years. Barbara has
three children: Eric, a consultant for a software
company; Ben, a patent attorney; and Laura, a
CPA. Jo Ann Wyman Coughlin is enjoying a
completely congenial life, including husband
Barry, retired from Ford Motor Company; two
homes, one in New Hampshire, one in West Palm
Beach; two children, Christine 35, Robert 33; and
two abiding pleasures, bridge and golf. After
years of job-related moves around the country,
the Coughlins returned to their home state in
2000 ... at least for the warmer months of each
year. Jo’s father, a New Hampshire congressman
during our college years, died three years ago,
but her mother is still going strong and living
year-round in Florida. Jo’s children are her greatest
pride: Bob is a U. S. attorney in Washington,
D.C., and Chrissy is a professional singer in the
country/western vein who left her D.C. area fans
last year to take on the L.A. music scene. Check
out Chrissy Coughlin at www.chrissymusic.com,
and you’ll see a strong resemblance to Jo. Our
sincere condolences go out to the family of
Wendy Astley-Bell Fisher, who died July 23,
2004, in Chicago, Ill.
1967
Barbara Morgan Herron
4504 Fernhill Ave.
Baltimore, MD 21215
cymraesteg@aol.com
Judy Lehman Ballinger
P.O. Box 298
Cape May Point, NJ 08212
(609) 898-9647
judyballinger@hotmail.com
Sue Bracken reports that her son in Boston is
getting married in Nov. to a fellow Bucknell
Univ. graduate. Her daughter and her husband
moved to Connecticut so the children are close
to each other, but too far away from her. Sue is
still with GNC and counting the years ‘til retirement.
Kris Campbell Joyce and husband BJ
spent two weeks in the Netherlands in April,
doing research for her art and teaching, along
with some vacationing. They also have son
Keir’s children, 1 and 3, in Baltimore. Babs
Cummings Stacks recently visited Hood to
attend the 75th anniversary celebration of the
Onica Prall Child Development Lab School.
Babs and husband Myron, both cancer survivors,
moved twice in three years, from
Connecticut to Cape Cod and back. Babs is
retired, but speaks at conferences and plans to
write a book. Pam Higginbottom Carey finds
time for weaving, knitting and gardening. She
and husband Hugh visited Sweden for the wedding
of their Swedish exchange student
“daughter.” Marty Hoffert Burns writes from
Wayne, Pa., that after 25 years as a marketing
officer in large organizations, she now enjoys
being an independent consultant focusing on
strategic marketing. Marty and Peter look forward
to becoming grandparents this summer.
Molly King Safren has a private psychotherapy
practice in her home in Columbia, Md. Her
husband works at NASA, and two of their
daughters live nearby. Angela Milea Mogin’s
son Josh and his wife Lexi moved to Los
Angeles from N.Y.C., trading terrorist threats for
earthquakes and floods. Last Sept. they presented
Angela with a new granddaughter. Kitty
Nevin Rieske reports that daughter Christina is
a registered nurse at Massachusetts General
Hospital’s Cardiac Care Unit. Kitty’s son is a
realtor and stand-up comic in N.Y.C., selling
real estate to pay the bills. Kitty still works with
kids with learning disabilities, and Dennis is
designing housing for “over 55s” in an old mill
building. Cindy Newby was traveling with her
mother Mel and sister Lucinda to the Lake
District (UK) in May, with memories of Dr.
Martha Briney and her dear radical Romantic
poets in tow. Joan Peschel Young is getting
ready to move from New Jersey to Virginia.
Daughter Kacy lives in Fairfax with Joan’s first
grandson, and they hope to live nearby for a
year while building a more permanent home in
the Williamsburg area. They look forward to
being neighbors there with Johanna VanWert
Thompson and Michael. The Youngs enjoy getting
together with Gretchen Hahn Anderson
and Sally Raube Chandler and their husbands,
so they will make visits north. Ginny Price
Bracken’s daughter Kristen and husband just
had a baby boy. Ginny’s other daughter Kelly
and her husband are living in Paris with their
two babies. Pat Rosner Kearns writes from Falls
Church, Va., that she retired as president of the
National Association of Japan-America Societies
in June 2004, then went back to work in Jan. as
manager of the Irrigation Association Education
Foundation. Sons Neil and Max are in Georgia
where Max and his wife had a daughter last
May. Her other two children, Josh and Johanna,
are currently in Kuala Lumpur; Josh is working
on a master’s program and Johanna is just having
fun. Pat wonders if anyone has given any
thought to establishing some kind of scholarship
for genetic research in memory of Elinid
Erdlitz Apostolik. Debbie Smith Aldrich is happily
settled in Newburyport, Mass., and
involved with the Red Cross, library and church.
She works two days a week at her company,
Marine Biotech. Ann Truell Bennett, in Maine,
enjoys sailing, and keeps busy with hospital
work. Son Timothy also loves the sea and plans
to settle in Maine after he marries this summer.
Johanna VanWert Thompson and husband
Michael still enjoy living in Williamsburg, Va.,
where Michael leads ghost tours. They are close
to their children and grandchildren and get to
see them often. After retiring from teaching, Jo
continues to work part-time at a clothing store.
Carol Miller Hnath writes, “John and I have
been keeping busy since his retirement in 2002.
I had arthroscopic surgery on both knees for
meniscus tears plus shoulder surgery to repair a
rotator cuff tear. I’m doing fine now. With
John’s retirement and the surgeries, I decided
to give up my part-time tutoring job. For 10
years I tutored children with dyslexia, a very
rewarding job. Now we keep busy with our kids