Class of '40

The year 2000 is almost here. Please send news of your activities. I hope this will include plans to attend our 60th reunion. Happy memories of sixty or more years ago and appreciation for a fine education are recurring themes in letters received from classmates. A keen interest in and concern for UVM’s present and future well-being are also evident in the correspondence and in contributions to our scholarship fund. PLEASE LET ME HEAR FROM MORE OF YOU. Merriman Hull wrote that playing baseball and playing in the ROTC band are among his favorite memories. After military service, he was an engineer for Western Electric (now Lucent Technologies) for thirty-eight years. His greatest satisfactions are his education and a wonderful family. He reads the Vermont Quarterly from cover to cover. He and his wife, Dorothy, look forward to seeing Bob Smith, Flossie Eaton, Betsy Komline, Bob Dudley, Ev Bailey, and Jim Roberts at our 60th. Another “cover to cover” Quarterly reader is Betsy Komline. She remembers “following a horse-drawn plow from Redstone to main campus as it cleared the snow from the sidewalk.” In 1950, she and her husband moved to Gladstone, N.J., “where he built his plant for the manufacture of pollution control equipment (in adjacent Peapack). Gladstone is the home of the U.S. Equestrian Team and an estate belonging to the King of Morocco. Not only was a UVM education a valuable basis for any career, but the university has drawn me back innumerable times for reunions and meetings as well as to enjoy the atmosphere. Beautiful location and super people.” Dr. Ed Irwin’s favorite memories of UVM go back to his childhood when his mother took him to hear John Philip Sousa’s band play in the UVM gym. Another highlight was when the Glenn Miller band played at the Kake Walk masquerade in 1939. “UVM made my career possible,” he wrote. “I would probably not have been able to attend college except for the good fortune of living in Burlington. I do read the Quarterly. We really scored when President Ramaley arrived. Tom Salmon’s years of capable service were a hard act to follow, and at times she must feel as though she has a tiger by the tail. We hope to be there for the reunion.” Carl Schofield regrets that he will be unable to be at UVM in 2000. He sent his best regards to all who return and hopes the event will be a big success. Elliot Pearl, who lives in Miami, Fla., plans to be at UVM for the dramatic 60th. Florence Eaton anticipates seeing former roommates Betsy Komline and your class secretary as well as Jean Butler Pye, Jean Morse Blakemore, Lois Redding Grace, Alice Hudson Morrow, and other friends in Burlington. She wrote, “I remember the fun we had at Kake Walk, the grand rush from campus to Robinson Hall to wait on table, and the close ties we Mortar Board members had with Dean Mary Jean Simpson, who reminded us that scholarship, leadership, and service are to remain with us the rest of our lives.” Katherine Davis Widness wrote that she enjoys reading about all the wonderful happenings at UVM in the Quarterly. She never hesitates to recommend UVM to young people as one of the best colleges. Katherine and her husband, John, are living in a retirement home in Sun City Center, Fla. She continues to do volunteer work in her church and community thanks to her education and training.

Class of '41

Regretfully, I report the death of our classmate, Roger Ramsdell, on March 14 in Rockville Centre, N.Y. Roger was principal engineer at Con Edison in New York until his retirement in 1983. He managed UVM’s varsity football team and was president of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. His hobbies were sailing and model railroading, and he was a talented artist, illustrating articles he wrote for railroading and boating publications. Norman Strassburg continues to play handball on the UVM courts three times a week. Dick Healy wrote from Westboro, Mass., that his grandson, Joel Lecouvre, received a full basketball scholarship to Armstrong Atlantic State University, a division two school in Savannah, Ga. Earl and Veleida Fleming (’40) Reed moved to a Presbyterian retirement home in Lakeland, Fla. They are both in good health and live in independent housing. They hope to return to UVM for their 60th reunions. With a new century ahead, the year 2001 will be rapidly approaching, the year of our 60th reunion. So, please begin to put your thoughts, dates, and recollections in order and drop me a line before the next Quarterly issue. Warren Robinson wrote from Monson, Mass., that his wife, Ruth Norcross, a classmate of ours in home economics, died in March. Her years at UVMwere interrupted by the war, but she continued her education at the School of Domestic Science in Boston. Besides her husband, she is survived by two sons. Elle Dee Gallagher ‘66 wrote from Springfield, Mass., that her mother Ellen Brown Baker, died on January 7, 1999, after a short illness.

Class of '42

Collamer “Bud” Abbott has retired to White River Junction, Vt., after a varied career. His years of teaching included time at Castleton State College and Nathaniel Hawthorne College. Bud has a great interest in mining, especially copper mining. He has had a wide variety of articles published, including “Vermont’s Pioneer Copper Plant” and “Isaac Tyson, Jr., Pioneer Industrialist,” travel articles, including “Touring the Aleutians,“ and lighter reading like “White River to Randolph in an REO.” He has a very impressive list of articles published for those would like to read more about mining, the history of Vermont towns, and Vermont folklore. Ethel Shippee Heyland of North Babylon, N.Y., still drives to Vermont several times a year, though not in the winter. Robert Carlson is hoping to have a fourth generation of his family attend UVM. His son and two grandsons have already graduated. He hopes his two-year-old great-grandson and one-year-old great-granddaughter will attend UVM in the future.

Class of '43

Celia Cioffi Paquin of Swanton, Vt., wrote about the UVM alumni in her family. Son Burton ’69, is an auto dealer in St. Albans, Vt.; son Robert ’71, G’75 of Shelburne, Vt., is a legislative assistant in Senator Leahy’s office in Montpelier, Vt.; and granddaughter Jennifer of St. Albans, Vt., is a student.

Class of '44

Dorothy Wimett Costello is happy to report that she has eleven grandchildren. Her husband, Judge Edward Costello, died in 1993. Son Edward “Jay” ’72 works for IDX in South Burlington. Dorothy was looking forward to Reunion when she called in April.

Class of '46

Jacquelin Swasey Smith of Cornish, Maine, wrote that she enjoyed spending some time with classmates Connie Brownell Hall and Martha Perry Lyon during Commencement. She attended the Green and Gold Luncheon and enjoyed seeing everyone. Hilary Shelvin Caplan and husband Leonard celebrated their 50th anniversary at a luncheon at the historic Colonial Inn in Concord, Mass., and on a five-day trip to the Czech Republic. Hilary teaches
an adult tap class and a ballet, tap, and jazz class for children at Chelmsford Recreation in Chelmsford, Mass.

Class of '49

Joseph Waterman of Lowell, Mass., was looking forward to seeing classmates at the 50th Reunion celebration. He is in his 37th year as a full-time member of the UMass Lowell faculty, currently an associate professor and assistant head of the department of psychology. He wrote, “Despite the fact that I am in my mid-70s, I am still teaching and counseling full-
time with no desire to retire.” Peggy Lawlor Corley of South Dartmouth, Mass., wrote sadly that her husband, Paul Corley ’41, MD ’52, passed away in December 1994. They have five children and four grandchildren. Lawrence Dale and wife Shirley celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in June 1998 on an Alaskan cruise. Although he could not attend reunion, he sent best wishes to all members of the class of ’49, hoping everyone had a most memorable celebration. Lawrence wrote, “My favorite memories of UVM are of physics and math professors, and Professor Holmes, in particular; also of classmates Bill Flanders and Frank Scribner, now deceased. He asked, “Is there still a UVM flying club? We had one in 1948 with one airplane, a Fleet biplane, Friendship.” A former librarian, Nancy Joy is enjoying life in a retirement community in Hartford, Conn. Deane Milligan visited his son, David ’77 and his wife, Debra, in Heideberg, Germany. He enjoyed celebrating the 800th anniversary of the famous castle, enjoyed the play, Student Prince, performed in English, and participated in a volkswalk (hike) and was rewarded with a beer stein at the end. Ella Chamer Noack wrote that her son, Dr. James Petersen ’79, is head of the anthropology/archaeology department at UVM. He obtained his master’s and PhD degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. Natalie Clapp Barber enjoys Elderhostels and traveling abroad. She has visited Scandinavia, the Greek Isles, and Costa Rica. Natalie has been honored for 14 terms of volunteer service at Mt. Sequoyah United Methodist Conference Center in Fayetteville, Ark. Frances “Akie” Crowley of Milford, Conn., wrote of her happy memories of UVM. She remembered the wind blowing off the lake as she walked from “the Bastille” to Waterman in a skirt “per Mary Jean,” SAE “hums” in Winooski, 10 p.m. curfew during the week, and “Kake Walk music everywhere from October until February.”