AndoverMagSpring2015

stay connected...provided music when the band was not playing.The weather was perfect, and I am truly lookingforward to our 53rd, next October. There will be agreat deal more information about this, which willbe appearing sporadically in my e-mails.In early January, our friend and classmateTom Gilbert died suddenly. Throughout theday my computer was flooded with e-mails fromclassmates. There was quite a discussion about thetragedy of Tom’s passing. We’ve lost a lot of ourclass members, but the ones that really affectedme were Ivan Higgins and Pete Watson. Thisdoes not minimize the deaths of Rick Russ andEric Muller in Vietnam; I was just closer to thefirst two.Rockwell House has been hard hit, and theloss of Tom Gilbert has made me physically ill.Our Andover was indeed a diverse and egalitariansociety of adolescent boys. Neither wealth norpoverty were of any significance. Doing well inschool and in sports and getting along in the dormwere the main areas of interest until the time forcollege applications came up. Tom was a supergentleman with a quiet sense of humor and agreat deal of intelligence. God bless you, Tom.May you rest in peace and pave the way for us tothe next world. I cherish your memory and willalways miss you.Two weeks after I wrote the above paragraph,our class sustained another surprising and brutalblow. The New York newspapers announced thatTone Grant passed away while finishing the latterpart of his term at a federal prison in Duluth, Minn.Apparently, he was sick and had been treated at theMayo Clinic and then returned to the penitentiary.I refrained from discussing Tone’s situation at hisrequest, but I communicated to him the thoughtthat we were all still friends and that the entire classwished him well. We lived in Bartlet together asseniors, and I had the pleasure of catching up withhim as a young lawyer in San Francisco; like me, hemarried an older woman and adopted her children.I hope that this worked out well for them; I neversaw Tone again after he went back East. In college,it was always strange watching Ivy League football,especially Harvard and Yale, and seeing all of myAndover classmates on the gridiron. Tone was anall-around athlete and all-Ivy quarterback at Yale,but I thought that his sport was baseball. In anyevent, he was a great guy and is certainly missed.However, as with Tom, we will all be togetheragain, and I hope that heavenly fare is better thanBaldy Leete’s. Rest in deserved peace, Tone; we areall grateful that Jim Riley and Rick Malone werethere to see you off at your services on behalf ofyour classmates.Guys, we have an enormous amount in commonwith one another and are part of a wonderfulgroup. We must hang together as closely as possibleas the years go by. The annual reunions and e-mailconnection are part of achieving this goal.1963ABBOTCynthia F. Kimball7 Thoreau RoadLexington MA 02420781-862-6424cynthiakimball@earthlink.netMajor life events seem to be part of the scene forseveral members of our class. First, the weddings.Ann MacCready Northup wrote, “My son, Peter,married Beatriz Viçoso on Oct. 25, 2014, at the topof Twin Peaks in San Francisco. Beatriz will startan evolutionary biology laboratory at a multidisciplinaryresearch facility outside Vienna, Austria.Peter will telecommute. Coincidentally, he is now afour-hour train ride from his sister, who is a physicistin Innsbruck.” Mimi Dean McBride reportsa family wedding a week later. “My son, Web, wasmarried in NYC on Nov. 1. It was a great time, eventhough the weather was less than perfect.”Now, on to the babies! Anita Miller Whitewrote, “My daughter and her husband have threedaughters, and my older son and his wife havethree sons. We always said that my younger sonand his wife would be the ones who would getone of each, and indeed, they have a son and areexpecting a daughter in April.” Betsy Cadbury isso excited that daughter Cate and her husband,Karim, are expecting their first baby in July. Shecontinues, “Most of you are already grandmothers,but this is my first crack at it!” Mary “Maidy”Wilkins Haslinger wrote, “Sometime in January, Iam due to become a grandmother for the first time.A little girl is scheduled to arrive to her excitedparents, my son Robert and my daughter-in-lawRheinila Fernandes.” Another baby, a grandson, isdue in March.Barbara Rugen and her husband, Steve, havegone to Namibia for two years through the PeaceCorps. Barb wrote, “We’ve made a brief videoshowing our first Christmas in Namibia. Pleasesee it on YouTube at http://bit.ly/1GQ8f5v.”Mary Jasper Walter reveals that MuthoniGithungo Gitata has returned to Nairobi, Kenya,but “stays in touch through the blog and alsoanswers e-mails. I thoroughly enjoy hearing fromher because I so loved my own two years in Kenya.I am just very sad that I didn’t know she was backthere when I returned for a visit in 1989.”Several of our classmates enjoyed a “minireunion” in Sante Fe last October, under theauspices of Anita Schenck Zednik. Betsy Cadburysummarized the trip: “The highlights were dinnerfor us at Anita’s house with fabulous Moroccanchicken and a view of the surrounding hills to diefor; a viewing of The Girls of Abbot, the video byCharles Stuart ’62, which Debby Murphy ’86 sentto me so I could share it with everyone; a tour ofthe New Mexico Museum of Art, where Anita is adocent; a tour of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum;and tours of O’Keeffe’s homes. Most of us stayed atthe Old Santa Fe Inn, right in the middle of townand convenient to everything. Anita shepherdedus around all day and arranged wonderful grouprestaurant meals. In the evenings we hung out at‘party central’ (Marie ‘Re’ Fox Young and husbandBob’s room!) and talked about where we’re goingfrom here, how we feel about turning 70, etc.”Lucinda Hannon described a great side trip shetook while in New Mexico for the gathering. Shewrote, “I’d been curious about Biosphere 2 sinceI’d first read about it in the early ’90s and thoughtit was a wonderfully imaginative undertaking. Idecided to take advantage of its proximity to SantaFe and see it for myself. It’s in Oracle, Ariz., a littleoutside of Tucson. Driving out to it, I was scanningthe horizon and wondering, each time I saw awhite structure on the horizon, if I were getting myfirst glimpse of it. I figured I’d spend a few hours,take the tour, and come away feeling that my curiosityhad been quenched. I hadn’t anticipated howextraordinarily accessible and interesting it wouldbe! After an afternoon of soaking up so much newinformation, I went back for the historical perspectivetour the next day. I lucked into this day, offeringa ‘discovery night’ program. The researchers andstudents were all around us, ready to answer questions,show samples of their subjects, or otherwiseexplain their work, and I stayed until closing time. Iwas so impressed with all the displays and interactivelearning opportunities, and also with how thestaff reached out to young children as well as toadults. I’d go back in an instant, and if I had grandchildrenI’d make sure they got to see it, too. If anyof you wonder about a good family trip, this truly isone for all ages.” Please keep the news coming!PHILLIPSJohn C. Kane Jr.28 Puritan ParkSwampscott MA 01907781-592-4967Jkane2727@aol.comThe following items are drawn from e-mailsreceived nine months ago, and the output will notbe in your mailboxes for another few. Recently,we lost a classmate (Terr y Rogers) between asubmission and publication. My hope goes out tothe submitters that they, and not their survivors,will be reading this in print.David Bowen offers the following: “I guess Iam perhaps missing the dignity part of aging—stillworking and still running the small company Istarted in 1998. So, family news: All of our childrenhave grown and left home, all working, only onegrandchild so far. Three kids in London, whichgives us a good chance to visit the city, now onlyan hour away by high-speed train. We have beenin our new (smaller, well-insulated, solar-paneled)house for almost two years. Have finished thegarden landscaping (patio, paths, small pond) andplanting. Getting to grips with the need for ongoingmaintenance. We have been able to live in our84 Andover | Spring 2015