AndoverMagSpring2015

www.andover.edu/intouchI know he was very appreciative of the fine workPaul Brown did on his Maine home, and he trulyreveled in being a grandfather.“I had no idea he was so ill, which probablyexplains why I never heard back from him whenI left messages for him over the summer andfall, inviting him to go to a Sox game. I am quiteshocked that he is gone so young: only 11 or 12years older than most of us, a stark reminder ofour own mortality. I was at his memorial servicelast Nov. 15. I treasure my memories of this solid,good man.”Unfortunately, we have also lost another classmate,Bob Havern, who had a positive impacton state legislation regarding LGBT rights andissues before he passed. Here is his obituary fromthe Boston Globe in July: http://bit.ly/1FLv3q7.[Editor’s note: Please see Robert Havern’s obituaryin the In Memoriam section.]Gary Meller passes along this tidbit:Ken Fishman, living in Israel, is returning to hisHollywood past by producing and directing a newmovie. An article here, http://bit.ly/1FWPAXb,includes some more background and photos ofKen, now known as Tzvi.Ward Flad wrote, “I have wrung many a greatcocktail tale out of our Oak Island folly, none asgood as the real story of the Oak Island Money Pit:www: oakislandmoneypit.com/. Even though wehave visited this topic before, good tales may betold again. It was indeed our summer of triumphand discontent. I recall best our mascot, a large andslobbery Newfoundland that belonged to [physicsinstructor] Peter Beamish, our intrepid leader. Ithink the dog’s name was Newfie, or at least Fishie.He roused himself each day before dawn so as tobe able to scout out the beach and thoroughly rollin the most odoriferous, gelatinous decompositionthat had been washed up at low tide. He thenwould charge back into camp and throw himselfupon any one of us who got in his way. We wereonly allowed off the island once a week, andthen simply for a shower at the closest mainlandcampsite. To get there, we had but one vehicle, adouble-ender Canadian Coast Guard surfboat thatonly carried 10 of us at a time.“That surfboat was powered by a one-lunger: adiesel 1,000cc single cylinder without a transmission.So every time you started it, you had onlya 50 percent chance of the propeller going inthe direction intended. Peter Beamish, for all hisidiosyncrasies (we nicknamed him Squeamish, forwant of a better epithet), was a physics professor tothe end. His comment on the boat was that it was afine real-world example of entropy and randomnessin the exercise of probability. Prof. Edgerton,of MIT, provided the state-of-the-art metal detectorswe used, which had a box with the transmitterat one end of a four-foot pole and another box,the receiver, at the other end. They were reputedto be able to penetrate the earth down to 15 feet.Sadly, they were far better at detecting abandonedgarbage pits than anything else.“The reason we were so in dire need of showerswas the task at hand: searching for Captain Kidd’sburied treasure. We had three job descriptions:plotting grids across each island we surveyed, thencutting the brush, and finally detecting. Surveyingrequired being scoured raw by the native brush.Cutting the brush into a path was exhausting.Walking the detector was the fun job, with the bigpayoff potential. We quickly developed our preferences;unfortunately, we all seemed to have thesame preference. Altruism played no part.“I recall the name of the bivouac island as Frog,not Goat. I make this association because all of ourfresh water came from a spring on the island, wherethe peeper frogs lulled us to sleep at night. Whenthe spring ran dry in August, it spelled the end ofour adventure. I invite any of you Kidd’s treasurehunters (a.k.a. Beamishers) to challenge any of myrecollections as embellished by time (and the moretime elapsed, the more likely embellishment hasoccurred) and add your own.”Al Garten shares a reminiscence: “I was raisedin a military family. Before I went to Andover, I hadlived on Army bases my entire life. My family neverhad any money, and no one I knew had any money.When I went to Andover, my dad was scheduled togo to Vietnam. Right before he went, not knowingany better and following the example of the wellheeledstudents, I went down to the Andover Shopand charged home a pair of shoes. My father blewup at the cost. I think it was the first and perhapslast time he yelled at me. And it was literally a weekbefore he went to Vietnam, where he was the firsthigh-ranking officer to be seriously wounded. Theexperience of my dad yelling was so traumatic thatI rarely wore those shoes. Today, 48 years later, theysit in my closet, in the original shoe trees and shoebags, looking like new. They remain today as theydid those many years ago, a stark reminder of themany worlds that were merged at Andover.”And this just in: In December, Rob Barberwas confirmed by the U.S. Senate as ambassador toIceland (see page 58).1969ABBOTMadelon Curtis Harper529 Poppy WayAptos CA 95003831-345-9111 (cell)madelon@madeloncurtis.comWho can believe it’s already 2015? Time just fliesby faster each year, it seems. I heard from a fewpeople this round. I hope to hear from more of yousoon so I can keep your news ready for the nextround of notes.Sara Gray Stockwell wrote: “We are loving ournew life following a ‘downsize’ auction at our farmlast June. We now live in a two-bedroom camp inthe summer and a three-bedroom condo in thewinter. My sons are thrilled that we went througheverything now, rather than leaving it for themlater. [Husband] Bill and I ski at Sunday Riverski resort nearly every day, and I am still teachingskiing several days a week at Maine AdaptiveSports, as well as serving on several boards in my‘spare’ time.”Katrina Moulton Wollenberg told me,“Life is treating me so well. Took my oldest sonand daughter-in-law to Hawaii in August justbefore he launched his new business: the veryfirst baby carrier designed just for men (www.MissionCritical.cc). In March I took the youngestson, his wife, and their two little girls on a Disneycruise. The entire crew was here for Christmas for11 days, so it was a very busy and happy time. Butthere is something quite special about travelingwith your kids separately. Each set has differentlikes and is at a unique point in their lives. Separatetravel allows you to focus on those differences.Of course, I also visited the Boston area to see mysister and mother, which always brings memoriesof Abbot to the forefront. Am just wishing all myfriends a very happy, healthy, and peaceful year.”Carol Kinzler wrote, “My husband, Tom,retired in June and we left Connecticut after 28years to move back to N.Y. I’m still working atEnvironmental Defense Fund, so now have an easycommute. Family is good, number three grandchildarrived last February, so the little ones keepus amused.”Jennifer Cecere was thrilled to be includedin the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’sAutumn Art Auction. She sent me the noticewith some lovely photos of her work. It happenedlast October, and there was an exhibition opento the public last November at William HolmanGallery, 65 Ludlow Street, NYC. Some of herwork is also being exhibited at the Newport BeachCivic Center Park through 2016. Go to http://bit.ly/1pMe7E1 or http://bit.ly/1OB4PsZ formore information.And now for my exciting news: I wrappedfilming for a week in Baton Rouge, La., on theaction-thriller Caged last November. The filmstars Loretta Devine (Dreamgirls, Grey’s Anatomy)and Kevin Sorbo (Hercules). In a supporting role,I played the very evil madam of a Greek brothelthat houses sex-trafficked girls. Being 100 percentGreek-American, I got to use my fluent Greek inmany scenes! It was so fun working with thesewonderful people on a film that deals with suchan important and frightening subject. We all hopethat the movie, which is due out in the summer of2015, will bring much awareness to the frighteningsubject of human trafficking. You can read moreabout it through the following links: http://bit.ly/1D2ucRk, http://bit.ly/1IzHgMI, and http://bit.ly/1CecEhK. And for more, check out somephotos on my Facebook page, IMDb page, andmy website at http://madeloncurtis.com/news.php. Learn more about Caged at https://www.facebook.com/#!/themoviecaged and on Twitterat @TheMovieCAGED.Andover | Spring 201591