Parting Words From the Class Correspondent

Photo by Christi Rentsch Moraga 

A reunion is like Waterloo. Whether you overcome the many years of regret or embrace the joy of the return depends on who you were – Napoleon or Wellington. I had been a Napoleon, but left the campus finally on Sunday morning from Proctor, Gene O’Neill, again. The campus has shown much growth and change. Eastern vistas of the Green Mountains I had wished to revisit near Pearson, for example, had become obscured by trees. So quickly? And why? Wouldn’t anyone with an eye, see that and preserve it from other agendas? I chuckled though at declaiming against trees forty years old at least, on a campus such as this. And when I stared up at the four windows of my college lodgings, I heard the chatter of typewriters, the familiar voices of classmates, the soft resettling of gathering leaves, a recognizable rock tune from an opening in a building, and then the wind stopped. I was alone. Looking up at my past, in the hope that that uncertain college student inside my mind might look up from his desk and out, still… I completed my final walk reconciled to the forty year growth.

At the Reunion, the class of ’76 exchanged hugs, handshakes, anecdotes, memories; showed tears, enjoyed body shaking laughs, returned beer mugs, updated addresses, walked in parades, took pictures, showed grandchildren pictures, made promises to stay in touch and enjoyed a weekend made larger than three days’ time by the return of their classmates to a place they had shared for four years of their lives.

This is my last note as your class correspondent. It has been rewarding to share your thoughts with your classmates through this magazine. Stay in touch.

Gene O’Neill (ONeillEsq@optimum.net)

Lucy Call King

Contact: king4128@aol.com

Personal:  After marrying Roger King (’75) in Mead Chapel in 1976, I moved to Portland, ME.  In 1980 I headed west to Dallas, TX. where we lived and worked for the next 30 years.  I was in sales for both Towle Silversmiths and Reed and Barton Silversmiths.  In 2010 we moved to Boulder, CO.  My favorite activity is hiking.  Our daughter, Amanda, went to Colby and now lives and works in Boulder.  Our son, Joseph, went to the University of Texas and now lives and works in Aspen.  Colorado feels like home as we reconnect with so many Middlebury friends in the mountains.  We spend summers in Newburyport, MA. where I am learning to sail as a senior.    Please look us up in either location.

I found reunion to be an amazing experience.  I am filled with gratitude for the many experiences and friendships I had with you all.

 

Convocation Reminiscences — Class of 1976

These were the reminiscences of the Class of 1976 as presented at Convocation by Gary Holmes:

The 1970s was a good time to be in Vermont, far away from Watergate, the fall of Saigon, inflation, the gas crisis, the Arab-Israeli war and the looming threat of disco.

Our hair was shaggy, our shirts were flannel and the residences behind Pearson were still called the New Dorms. When our parents bought dinner we went to the Dog Team.  When we did, we went to Tony’s pizza. The drinking age was 18 and we took our business to The Alibi.

We began at Bread Loaf, with President Armstrong beating us in wood-chopping, and ended behind Forest with Holy Olin Robinson handing out diplomas.

In between we saw the final dismantling of parietal rules for late-night visits to Battell, experienced our first Aurora Borealis, survived the Otter Creek raft race, skinny-dipped at The Quarry, and somehow managed to learn more than we’d ever learn again in our lives.

Welcome back.

 

Reunion Photos

Here are some of the photos from the June 10-12 reunion.

A link to photos from Christi Rentsch de Moraga (click here)

A link to photos from Brian Holtan (click here).

Also:

Class photo by Sally Russell

Sheara Friend (on left) and Alexandra Baker

(At Alexandra Baker’s Open House for her former Russian students) (from left to right) Denise Selder, Marion Adler, Marie Zehngebot, & Alexandra (Alya) Baker.  Mrs. Baker was the wife Dr. Robert Baker (deceased), Chairman of the Russian Department, and she was also a professor in the department.

Denise Selders and Lucy Call King

Sue Potter Spencer, Bill Spencer, Jan Carney, and Geoff Knisley (’75) (Jan & Geoff are married)

Sue Potter Spencer and Denise Selders

Convocation remarks

The march to Mead Chapel

John Germanow and Betsy Kuphal Wyckoff

From the Golf outing- L to R- Tim Fisher, Peter Prescott, George Tooley, Dave Treitel, John Germanow and Bill O’hare

Deb Martin, Nancy Clark Herter, Jack Henderson, Jennifer Cogswell, Robin Wonnacot Davis atop Snake Mountain

Robin, Nancy, Jennifer, Deb

Carol Miller, Roz Walrath, Nancy Clark Herter

The march to Convocation

Chris Ryer, Gary Holmes, Sheara Friend, Sally Russell, Betsy Shreve-Gibb

Patty Forbes Gray and Gary Gray

Karen Gross Straim and Sheara Friend

Chris Ryer, Scott Pitz, Roger Prince, Gary Holmes

Carol Schnabel

Personal:  I have lived in Vermont since college.  We (husband Peter Hetzel) and I have 2 grown boys.  Ted works in engineering in Portsmouth NH and Jeff works at a criminal defense firm in NYC.  He surprised his mother by choosing Middlebury and graduated 2 years ago.  It turns out that the photo above is the only one I could find of all of us together-along with my aunt who was at my graduation too.

Professional: I have had my own weaving business for 36 years.  I also have been a doula for the past 13 years and I currently run the Volunteer Doula Program at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital.  I love the juxtaposition of working alone in my studio and working with others at the hospital.

I spend as much time as possible outside and enjoy almost daily walks with my good friend and neighbor Nancy (Smith) Detra, also class of 1976.

New Faces

Thanks to Sally Russell for lending her copy of New Faces to be PDF’d for this blog.

Click on New Faces 1 for the first half of the book (letters A to K)

Click on New Faces 2 for the second half of the book (letters L to Z)

Jonathan Phillips

Not only is the world warming, gravity is getting stronger!  It used to take me 27 minutes to ride my bike from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey CA, where I work as a Research Professor teaching engineering courses and studying super dielectric materials, to my home, about 500 feet higher. Now it is taking me, on a good day, 28 minutes.  Or perhaps the ‘steady ocean breeze’ of this land of eternal spring, is getting stronger…

Before moving to CA we lived in Rio Rancho, NM.  I commuted north, 4 days/wk, 90 minutes each way, to work at Los Alamos Nat’l lab. One day/wk I commuted the other way to the Univ. of New MX, where I was a National Lab Professor, working with post-docs (10 total!). Absolutely love NM, but the job and the commute?? My wife Claudia was offered a position as a Prof. of Mechanical Engr. at NPS, and that seemed like an invitation to a more rational existence.   The move worked! Both of us prefer our new jobs, particularly the tiny commute along the ocean, and all four sons agree CA is ‘cooler’ than NM. The youngest, Carlos, dreams of being a soccer player, but being practical, is preparing to study math in college.   Bernardo, 17, wants to be a journalist, like his older brother Ari Phillips who works in Brooklyn as a senior editor for environmental coverage for ‘Fusion’.  Finally, Zach, who is in graduate school studying ecology/entomology at UT Austin has been a fan of CA since his days as an undergraduate student, along with brother Ari, at UC-Santa Barbara.

Other mentionables:  After five frigid and wonderful years in Madison, WI, which included three long canoe trips to the Canadian wilderness west of Duluth, I received a PhD in Materials Science.  Left to be a post-doc at the Technion in Haifa, Israel, and got there just in time to observe ‘Operation Peace in Galilee’ from my office window.  A PhD in Materials Science led to a job teaching Chemical Engineering at Penn State University.  I left there as a full Prof. after 17 years, two sabbaticals (Institut de Recherche sur La Catalyse, Villeurbanne, France- another war- first Gulf War, and Ben Gurion Univ, Israel as a Fulbright Fellow- a period of remarkable calm), 10 PhD students, ~20 MS students, etc. to move to New Mexico.  Along the way I have accumulated 26 issued patents and about 140 reviewed journal articles. Oh, and please ask about Classical Quantum Mechanics….

 

 

 

 

Chandler Lee

Carolyn and Chandler in Patagonia

Family: I have been married to Carolyn Stone for 22 years. We are happily childless and petless. Our extended family includes fellow San Francisco Midd Kids: Chris Mead, Eli Haizlip, Jill and Gail Robinson, Halsted Wheeler, Rich Hodges, Larry Moulton and Molly Miottel. Carolyn and I love to travel and I have exhibited photographs from our trips in art galleries and on my website: www.chandlerphotos.smugmug.com

Contact: chandlerle@aol.com

Profession: I transferred to UC Berkeley after sophomore year. I graduated with a major in Urban Geography and have been a city planner in the San Francisco Bay Area for 40 years. I started my own business in 1991 helping cities revitalize their downtowns and transform large tracts of land into pedestrian-oriented, mixed use neighborhoods.

Favorite Memories: Hearing new music from my hall mates in Stewart Hall, riding in the back of Peter Gay’s vintage fire truck with stimulated classmates and a keg of beer, skiing at Stowe and Mad River Glen, winter terms and spring breaks, and enjoying the changing views of the Vermont landscape from my room in Hadley Hall.

Memorable Song:  Dixie Chickens by Little Feat

Old Photos:

Molly Miottel, Chris Mead, Rick Ridder, Chandler Lee, Kim Fricke, Peter Gay, Steve Brown (Photo by Halsted Wheeler)

Chris Mead, Rick Ridder, Peter Gay, Peter Lizotte, Joan Reichert, Chandler Lee (Photo by Halsted Wheeler)

Patty (Patricia R.) Forbes

In New Zealand celebrating (early) our 40th wedding anniversary.

Family info: Married to Midd classmate, Gary Gray for 40 years — we married the day before graduation at the Weybridge VT Congregational Church, with many Midd friends in attendance.  We have three adult daughters, ages 34, 32 and 30.  Sage teaches high school math in Brooklyn, NY.   She and her wife Amber have four-year-old and one-year-old sons — great joys to us, their moms and their two aunts.  Nora is a bio-chemist doing post-doctoral Alzheimer’s research in Portland, OR.  Amy, also in Brooklyn, is a labor and delivery nurse by day and studying to become a nurse practitioner by night.  Gary and I are retired, enjoying our winters in Arlington, VA and summers onLake Champlain in North Ferrisburgh, VT.

Contact info: prforbes47@hotmail.com

Professional Background:  I had two careers: 11 years as an upper elementary school teacher working with low-income students, many of whom were learning English; and 23 years as a Federal government lawyer specializing in legislation and regulations.  For about 8 years of my Federal service, I worked as the Democratic Staff Director of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Favorite Memories: Celebrating Lisa Bent Chace’s birthday at the Middlebury Inn’s bar, the Pine Room, where I met Gary Gray. I also fondly remember getting bagels at the SDUs for evening study breaks, beers at the Alibi and sloe gin fizzes (!) at Mr. Ups, winter dances at the former Art building, and the Spanish and German tables at the Chateau.

Memorable Professors: Roberto Vequez, Marisol Maura, Kimberly Sparks, VanHorn Vail, David Stameshkin

Memorable songs: You’ve Got a Friend by James Taylor, Court and Spark by Joni Mitchell, and anything from Tapestry by Carole King.

Photos from 1972-1976:

Kim Caldwell & Lise Fisher

Gary and Me

Jane Buckley (Whittinghill) & me

Lisa Bent (Chace) & me

Me and Sabrina Herzog

Karen Youtchef (Lewis) and Leigh Shields

Me, Joan Ingram & Ruth Reinstein

William O’Hare

Personal:  Attorney.  My wife is a Delta Airlines flight attendant. My son is 25 and pursuing a baseball career and my daughter is a 23 year old BU grad working at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston.

Contact: I can be reached at home in Lynnfield, MA at 781-334-9895.