Annual Report from Our Class President,
Judy Myers Kinsey
WELLESLEY COLLEGE GREAT CLASS OF 1962 ANNUAL REPORT
Question 1: In your experience as a leader, what efforts have been most successful in connecting your classmates to each other and to the College? Please tell us about any key class programs you had this year and what aspects were particularly successful.
The past year was a watershed experience for the Great Class of 1962, beginning with our 60th Reunion in June 2022. We lost one of our beloved classmates at the reunion and lost our longtime phenomenal class secretary shortly after. And it continued – several more classmates died in the next few months. Most of us came into
that reunion as always – thinking that time for us was infinite. We left fully aware of our mortality, with a closeness as a class that hadn’t been there before, and a sense of urgency to do more together.
We increased the Officers’ Team from five to ten, with three vice-presidents (Gatherings, Zoom-master, Webmaster), plus an Outreach Chair, and two College Liaisons. And they have been busy. We hold Officers’ Team meetings via zoom monthly – lots of good ideas come from the more frequent meetings.
Toni Hess Gal, vice-president of gatherings moved from the mini-reunion model with large numbers and lots of volunteer work, to a gatherings model. Smaller, more informal, much less planning, doable for our aging class. The first gathering happened when we lost Martha Reardon Bewick, just after reunion. Her memorial service was in Hingham, MA, on the south shore of Boston, in September of 2022. Around 25 classmates both near and far planned to attend, presenting us with a perfect opportunity to gather to remember Martha and to enjoy seeing each other. To that end we met over dinner the night before in Boston, sharing stories about Martha and just catching up.
Another gathering was organized by Outreach Chair Karen Capriles Hodges in March around the visit of four classmates on a Road Scholar trip to Phoenix. After their tour they gathered for a lunch at a North Scottsdale restaurant with Karen, our only permanent Phoenix classmate, plus two classmates who are Phoenix-area snowbirds. After lunch the gathering continued with more good conversation. Relations cemented and new ones begun. Great!
In Washington D.C., Joanne Couch Cogar hosted a cocktail party in April for a group of 14, mostly classmates and a few of their husbands as well. This renewed existing friendships and fostered a few new ones as we could see from the many follow-up gatherings - at least eight get-togethers for lunch or dinner with our classmates just this spring.
More gatherings are planned: Sally Rial Phelps has invited Southern California classmates to a gathering and we’re working on Florida, maybe New York.
Wellesley ’62 Zoom - our key communication vehicle happened because of COVID in 2020. Our then vice-president Marjorie Parish Bribitzer had planned a wonderful mini-reunion that had to be canceled because of the pandemic. She had excellent speakers lined up, tours of the area, etc. and she thought it was too bad the prospective attendees would miss all of this. So she transferred it to ZOOM, and the attendees all loved it. That led to developing an ongoing monthly meeting in which classmate make presentations – often about career or hobby. These have been held monthly for more than three years. After the formal presentation there is a Q&A session - this often leads to lively discussions. The topics vary widely depending on the presenter’s interest or expertise. About 150 class members are on the list to receive notices, and attendance ranges between 20 and 55 in any one meeting. The meetings have generated a lot of enthusiasm; many classmates have found it a helpful way to connect with others.
From the Wellesley ’62 Zoom came requests for sessions with discussion groups relating to octogenarian issues. Betsy Cole and Betsy North Robinson volunteered to start a new Zoom discussion group on Healthy Aging. The format is somewhat different – a breakout into small groups to discuss a topic and then following up with a report to the whole group. The topics have been carefully chosen, and the response has been excellent.
We added two Wellesley College Liaisons to the Officers’ Team to be our eyes and ears to the College, to WCAA, to any College-related issues that we should know about and maybe take action on. College Liaison Bonnie Cobert Millender became aware of President Paula Johnson's statement, "Affirming our mission and embracing our community," as well as the student reaction to that statement. She brought it to an Officers’ Team meeting. We read all the information and discussed the concerns that were involved and wrote a letter to President Johnson from our group expressing our support for her stand on the issue.
College Liaison Anne Ruhoff Turtle lives close to the campus, and when we have a question, she can walk over and take pictures. This was especially helpful when somehow recognition was delayed for a significant gift of plantings on the campus in memory of a classmate.
Secretary Sandy Asensio Koppen has attended the training to understand the change in her job from Secretary to Magazine Correspondent. She will update the Officers’ Team at our next meeting so we can understand what this means to us.
Karen Capriles Hodges, our Outreach Chair is working to include all classmates – trying to reconnect with those who are not participating. For example, she has sent hardcopy information to those who don’t have email. Also she has called classmates on the lost list – she has had some positive results - some of the lost are now found.
We have a great deal of experience on our Officers’ Team – most have held a class office in the past, including three former class presidents. We can’t remember any other treasurer than Susan Connard Chenoweth. She has an excellent understanding of all things financial. With her help, we were able to continue our practice of a $100 contribution to our class scholarship fund in memory of our deceased classmates.
Our Wellesley Fund participation is very important to us. Sally Rial Phelps has done a yeoman’s job – with notes to the entire class, personal calls, personal letters resulting in some very nice contributions to the college.
Question 2: Is there anything else you would like to share with us?
All in all, It’s been a Great Year for the Wellesley College Great Class of 1962. We have learned and grown – and are much more aware of who we are at this stage in our lives than we were a year ago. We’re closer to one another. We love one another. We love our class. And we love our college.
Our plan is to continue reconnecting with gatherings, the '62 Zooms, finding and including lost classmates - all that we've done this year. We are sharing this Annual Report with our classmates. We want to listen for new ideas on how we can do more to help on this octogenarian journey. Watch this space – I know it’s going to amazing!
Judy