AndoverMagSpring2015

www.andover.edu/intouchhouse in Italy for two years as well—and it is nowcomfortable and even accessible! (We had the roadpaved last fall.) We can easily accommodate sixto eight guests and hope to complete the upstairsthis summer, so guests can have a self-containedflat. Visitors are welcome—we are 45 minutesfrom the Mediterranean, 30 minutes from seriousmountains (skiing in winter, wildflowers in summer),and surrounded by Northern Italy, wherepeople know how to live and eat well, to cooperate,and perhaps even to live sustainably and well.Work continues to be interesting, especially trainingcourses offered in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore,Dubai, Jakarta, Qatar, and London. An interestingway to meet people and see bits of the world.”David ended his e-mail with the followingobservation/question which I am communicatingverbatim (folks with responsive thoughts canreach him at David.Bowen@Audata.co.uk): “Hasanyone else observed that European professionalorganizations seem to be smaller and more fragmentedthan their U.S. counterparts? Especiallyprofessional meetings in Europe seem to be muchsmaller than in the U.S. and less lively. In bothchemistry and information services, the meetingsseem to be less open to new ideas (or even newspeakers), stultified with lots of long talks (fewpeople need an hour to present their ideas), andcontrolled by few people who spend little or notime training their younger colleagues to managetheir organizations. The result seems to me to bethat European professionals have less influencethan their U.S. peers and are slower to innovate.”Communications with Thom Flory bracketedtrans-Atlantic cruises he and companion Lyn tookin 2014. From his April 2014 e-mail: “Lyn and Ispent the winter in Florida and picked up a coupleof last-minute Caribbean cruises. We leave theend of this month for yet another trans-Atlanticcruise from Florida to Barcelona. Cruise lines tendto have trouble selling repositioning cruises, andprices get so low we can’t resist. We spend virtuallyno time in our cabin other than sleeping andchanging clothes, so no compulsion to go with abig suite. Entry-level cabins are cheaper than flyingcattle-car-class to Europe; the worst cabin is morecomfortable than first class on an airplane, andyou arrive rested. We generally encounter someinteresting people to hang out with, and some havebecome good friends.” Thom also noted havingtaken “a river cruise in Ukraine in 2010, with stopsin Crimea, including Yalta. A couple of days later, itwas interesting to see both the Russian and Ukrainianfleets in different parts of Sevastopol harbor,and I did get to visit the submarine pens tunneledinto the mountains. I doubt there will be a lot ofCrimean tourist activity this summer.”Thom also shared stories from his work as anamateur genealogist: “Last fall, I researched (gratis)for a friend whose grandfather was deportedback to Palermo [Sicily]—an interesting familythat I wouldn’t want to make angry. This winterI delved into WWI Bavarian army records andWWII German military cemeteries; this projectThe Abbot Class of ’63 held a mini reunion in Santa Fe, N.M., last October. In front, from left, areAnita Miller White, Emilie Dean McBride, Mary Jasper Walter, and Ann MacCready Northrup. In thesecond row, from left, are Iris Vardavoulis Beckwith, Letitia Upton Brown, Elizabeth Cadbury,Danica Miller Eskind, Sue Boutin Atkinson, and Lucinda Hannon. In back, from left, areSusan Archer Vollmer, Elizabeth Bartelink Lane, Morley Marshall Knoll, and Marie Fox Young.traced parents through great-grandparents of mybrother-in-law (whose parents came from Bavariain the 1920s). He knew that he had two uncles whohad been killed in WWII, but other than names,no other info. I located the cemetery in Croatiawhere one is buried and found the record listingthe day the other went missing in action, just southof Sochi, Russia (interesting to discover that duringthe Olympics). Those research skills from History4 are still alive.” By e-mail dated Dec. 4, Thom andLyn report being safely back from their third trans-Atlantic cruise of 2014 (and admitting to being“addicted”). I admit to being jealous.My jealousy aside, I will confess to havingfollowed the duly somber occasion of my 70thbirthday last summer with a week at ChristChurch College, Oxford, taking a course onChurchill with 12 other folks of a certain age anda wonderful tutor. On the second day of the class,we were invited to put together short papers forpresentation to the class on the last day. About athird of us did. Mine, handwritten over four hoursand copied and distributed before my presentation,was on Churchill as autodidact, my thesis beingthat his early pigeonholing into a military (notacademic) track, viewed against the subsequentevidence of his genius, was an indictment of theBritish system of education in his time. I am surethat Jack Richards and Ted Harrison, who sufferedme as a nonhistorian (indeed, nonstudent), werechortling where they lay. I had so much fun that Iam enrolled to go back to Christ Church Collegeagain in August for a course called Spies in Factand Fiction.Stay tuned, those who communicated lastspring and have not been reached. Your submissionsare deeply appreciated.1964ABBOTAllis Brooks Hanley206 Sioux PlaceLoudon TN 37774865-458-8872dhanley@bellsouth.netMuch of the news from our classmates involves theweather. I hope that, by the time this information ispublished, the conditions will be a lot warmer.Gretchen Overbagh Lord reports that shewent on a major cookie-baking spree to make upfor the fact that temps were below zero in Minnesota.We can’t blame her for wanting to stay inside!Susie Localio shares my thoughts about retirement.She wrote, “Despite being retired, I seem tobe incredibly busy: grandchildren, gardens, and thedaily stuff of living. When people ask, ‘Oh, whatdo you do now that you’re retired?’ I feel like stranglingthem. I figure they must live in condos andeat all dinners out. All that said, tomorrow I go withmy old-lady hiking group for the day. Althoughgray haired, we still put in some good mileage. Ilove the mountains and hope that the fates smileso I can continue to be in them for a long timeto come.”It was so good to hear from Linda PattbergMeixner. She regrets missing our reunion but hadplans to travel to Cyprus with her daughter and herfamily at the time of the reunion and couldn’t passit up. Her in-laws have a house there, so what couldbe better? Linda loved the reunion book. It was sogreat to put names with faces again. After living for35 years in LA, she moved to DC a few years ago.Andover | Spring 201585