Summer 2010 - Simmons College

classnotesWallace and Barbara MeaneyKeough attended the SimmonsCollege Scholarship AppreciationBrunch representing theMiddlesex Simmons Club inMA. The group is small (abouta dozen members now), meetsfour times a year, and managesto raise between $500–$700to benefit a Simmons studentfrom the area. Our biggest fundraiseris our Annual Silent Auctionand it is also the most fun.Eleanor (Ellie) F. Dosick, JeanMarie Lehan Levergood andKay Rogan Paltsios are 55ers inthe group. Kay actually startedwith us left to marry and havea family, returned as a widowand graduated with the class of1965. | We have lost touch witha number of classmates. If youhave any information about thegroup please call or email JackiePell Tuttle at 631.749.0274,jackieapt@aol.com: RosemarieAnzivino Masters, Cynthia BarreDiehl, Ray Dodkin Sampson,Roberta Feldman Fechtor, PatriciaGreen Fuller, Nancy HambroKestle, Mary J. McDonald, MarilynThomas Durgin, Ann Veit.We appreciate your help…1956Dorothy Bruce Willis24 Bradford LaneBasking Ridge, NJ 07920dandfwillis@verizon.netREUNION ’11JunE 3–JunE 5Helene Goldberg Oppenheimerand husband Martin celebratedtheir 50th anniversary in September’09 with their family at alodge on Lake Sebago in Maine.Martin recently retired fromthe practice of Law. Helenefrequently travels to Baltimoreto visit with her mother whois 104. | Marcia Ufland Alper’smost recent trip was to Icelandfollowed by a trip to NewSylvia Ann McDowell ’56, ’57LS LeavesLegacy of Social Activism and ProgressiveLibrarianshipThe Simmons community said goodbye to a quietly exemplary memberof the community on March 11, 2010. Sylvia Ann McDowell ’56, ’57LSpassed away just five days after Mayor Thomas M. Menino declaredMarch 6 Sylvia Ann McDowell Day in the City of Boston. Ms. McDowelldedicated her life to librarianship, research, and social activism, focusingon African Americans and women.Most recently, McDowell was chosen by Boston’s Forest Hills Cemetery Educational Trust to be thesole researcher for a project called Finding Voices in Silence, the purpose of which was to recover andrecord the stories of African Americans buried at Forest Hills during its 160-year history. Prior to this,McDowell had enjoyed a career as librarian and researcher at institutions including MIT, Harvard, andBoston University.McDowell was a member of the foundation board of Roxbury Community College for more than 15years. She was a founding member of the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail and one of the authors of a bookabout the trail. For over 50 years, McDowell was an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Psi OmegaChapter, an African-American sorority dedicated to community service and providing scholarships to highschool students. On May 19, 2010, she was postumously acknowledged as one of 100 Unsung Heroinesof Massachusetts by the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women.She will be greatly missed at Simmons and beyond.Mexico. She is still active withvolunteer work at her templeand a homeless shelter serviceagency. Marcia, who lives inPasadena, CA, has her fourchildren and their familiesspread throughout Californiaand Seattle but they do all try toget together for holidays. | JoyceDavidson Franklin, our Classpresident, traveled to China inMarch. Beijing, Xian and Shanghaiwere some of the highlights.| Dot Neville Starkweather andhusband Dave spent the monthof February on Jekyll Island, GA.Dot has painted for many yearsbut recently branched out intoa new medium. She works withhomemade paper and pastelswith her favorite subjectsbeing egrets and herons. Shehas also been introduced to amedium — “encaustic.” Encausticis an ancient medium wherebyartists paint with a beeswaxbasedpaint kept molten on aheated palette. | Bobby RubinBurnbaum, who lives in ManhattanBeach, CA, continuesto travel. Her most recent tripswere to Scotland and then toIsrael and Jordan to her grandson’sbar mitzvah. Her granddaughter,who was a high schoolexchange student in Chile, hadthe misfortune of arriving thereon the day of the earthquake. |Our condolences to Rose MarieBosna Cassell whose husbandClay passed away in September,09. In February she traveled toLas Vegas to visit her son whois a spokesperson for NY, NYHotel and Casino. | BarbaraSolomon Moglia still keeps herfinger in retailing working inher daughter’s lingerie store inSpring Lake, NJ. | Ann WashburnSamuels traveled with herdaughter Jayne to Israel in ’09. |We were saddened to learn thatSylvia McDowell ’57LS passedaway on March 11, 2010. Sylviawas very dedicated to SimmonsCollege and had been involvedin many interesting projectsin the Boston area. | Circle thedate — our 55th Reunion isJune 3 – June 5, 2011.1957Claire Austin Anderson15 Juniper LaneMadison, CT 06443-3326bankerscasualty@sbcglobal.net1958Dianne Kofman Chirls3 Robinhood DriveMountain Lakes, NJ 07046diannechir@aol.comPat Keegan Harding (via LouiseRazin Brown ’77LS) is volunteeringat the visitor center of aBelted Galloway cow farm. Patis also on the board of FreedomRiders, a non-profit organizationthat works with mentallyand/or physically handicappedsummer 2010 19