About Reunion

From Anne Turtle, our past class president

Dear Wellesley ’62 classmates,

It’s been an eventful couple of weeks with highs and lows starting at our class meeting on May 17th. We scheduled the meeting on Zoom in advance of our actual reunion so that we could spend more time together during the reunion itself. When it was time to start, we noticed that Martha Bewick, our class secretary, had not signed in. After phoning her, we learned the shocking news that she had suffered a stroke and was hospitalized. Sally Phelps called for a moment of silent thoughts and prayers for Martha.

We proceeded with the meeting. The minutes from our 2017 class meeting were accepted. The Officers and Committee Chairs gave reports. Sally presented the slate of officers for the next five years (until reunion 2027):

Judy Myers Kinsey, President
Toni Hess Gal, Vice-President, Mini-reunions
Marj Parish Bribitzer, Vice-President, Zoommaster
Joanne Couch Cogar, Vice-President, Webmaster
Martha Reardon Bewick, *Secretary
Susan Connard Chenoweth, Treasurer
Sally Rial Phelps, Wellesley Fund Representative

* Please note that Karen Capriles Hodges will serve as interim class secretary due to Martha’s illness.

Immediately following the conclusion of our formal class meeting, Muffy Kleinfeld presented the memorial service honoring each of the forty classmates who had died since our 55^th reunion. To do this, Muffy created a beautiful and moving video with pre-recorded musical performances, readings by classmates, and ending with Martha Bewick's solemn reading of the name of each classmate who had died. When Muffy initially volunteered to produce a memorial service, she envisioned its being held during reunion. Instead she rose to the challenge of producing a video to be shared online during our Zoom class meeting. What good fortune that these recordings were made well in advance since Martha Bewick was in the hospital the very day of our class meeting. Those of us who attended our reunion had a second chance to watch and appreciate the video. 

Reunion began officially on Friday, June 3, at Freeman Dorm with  67 classmates and 25 guests attending. The weather was perfect, and the campus looked as beautiful as ever.The entire weekend was managed quietly and effectively by our fearless reunion chair, Nancy Briska Anderson, who brought on board an entire team consisting of her husband, Lanier, and their three grandchildren, Molly, Will, and Milo. At our age, help from the younger generations is most welcome.

Two especially popular events held on Saturday were group sessions organized by classmates: Saturday morning, Betsy Cole led a session on Navigating Transitions: Best Practices. We were divided into small groups and discussed past, current, and future
transitions, some of which had been difficult. The afternoon session was led by Joy Overstreet with Betsy's help. It focused on mindfulness: a practice in being present in your life. Joy demonstrated how mindfulness can be used to alter our experience and control even such things as eating. To our astonishment, Joy introduced us to ways to experience a small piece of chocolate and then throw it out without consuming it.

As usual, faculty lectures and tours were available on Friday and Saturday afternoons. A special treat was touring the gorgeous additions to the science complex and the Global Flora Conservatory. The opportunities to study STEM fields have been vastly expanded to the benefit of students and faculty at Wellesley. In Paula Johnson's address in Alumnae Hall, she mentioned that Wellesley has spawned more women going on to receive PhDs in STEM fields than any of their peer liberal arts colleges have.

Saturday evening was a beautiful time for socializing over cocktails and dinner in Alumnae Hall. Prudy and Bill Crozier provided a generous gift of wine, which they purchased from Corky Scheffey’s vineyard. Marj presented the three retiring class officers, Bonnie Millender, Nancy Anderson, and Anne Turtle with handsome gold gingko leaf pins.

Then on Sunday morning, news quickly spread of very sad news. Several classmates who had planned to have breakfast with Marcia Burick were unable to make her wake up. Police were summoned immediately. They were unable to resuscitate her, and she was pronounced dead. Although our classmates were badly shaken by the news, we bravely lined up for the traditional alumnae parade followed by step singing. Both the Wellesley College president and the director of the Alumnae Association sent notes of condolence. In addition, classmates viewed Marcia's memorial service online and exchanged many email messages with Marcia's family. We are comforted by knowing that Marcia was happy being among friends and back at Wellesley one more time.

Our sad news was compounded on the Monday after reunion. We learned that Martha Bewick had suffered a second stroke and was hospitalized again. She has been diagnosed with advanced gall bladder cancer. Sally visited Martha and gave her a purple cross body bag, our useful reunion insignia, and I sent her a collage of reunion photos, several programs and a letter. Sally reported that Martha was on medication that made her drowsy. She slipped in and out of conversation. "Little naps" as Martha called them. Martha's stepson, John Bewick, said Martha was loving all our notes and pictures from reunion.

Martha is now in a hospice facility:
Pat Roche House
86 Turkey Hill Lane
Hingham, MA 02043
Tel: 781 659 2342
Visiting hours (mask required)
10 AM- 7PM
Messages can also be sent via e-mail to Martha’s brother, Tom, reardonre@gmail.com or to Martha’s stepson, John, johnbewick@comcast.net.

Classmates have exchanged many messages of concern, condolence and remembrance during the past few weeks. We are celebrating our classmates wherever they are and at the same time realizing that none of us knows how much time we have left. How fortunate we are to be members of the Wellesley College family and what special times we have enjoyed with one another through the 60+ years we have known one another.

Peace and love,
Anne

This year, we had the privilege of having Wellesley College President Paula A. Johnson at our virtual class meeting. For those of you who missed it, you may view the recording below.

Your new record book has arrived

The 60th reunion record book has been mailed to all classmates. If you did not receive your copy and would like to, please contact Joanne Cogar at joanne.c.cogar@gmail.com. I will mail you a copy if I still have enough overs.

A few classmates had trouble while trying to submit their entries online. An addendum to the record book is shown on this website under NEWS.

Please hang onto the little card enclosed with the record book. It gives you the url for our updated class website. Our website will become the central place for information about reunion and other class events in the future.

Joanne Couch Cogar and Mike Obourn Quenell, Record Book Co-Chairs

From Joanne

Here we are again, designing and producing your reunion record book, a labor of love. This year it required a bit more love than usual. So many of our classmates found it difficult to submit their entries. A ROARing team of classmates reached out to offer help, which turned out to be a gift. The web of our class connections just grew stronger, to the benefit of all.

At this age, we are increasingly aware of the need to celebrate one another and savor our friendships while we can. This record book celebrates our classmates through their personal essays and, for some, their art and poetry. Our hope is that the record book will remind you of special classmates and facilitate your connections. Please continue to update your contact information with Wellesley. We don’t want to lose any of you.

Big thanks to my extremely dedicated and likable committee members:

Mike Obourn Quenell, Co-Chair

Karen Capriles Hodges, Editor

Martha Reardon Bewick, Memorials and Poetry Consultant

From Mike

It seems important to me, as a History major, that at regular intervals we solicit the thoughts and musings of our class members and record them along with descriptions of their activities and accomplishments. Once again, my artistic, patient, and organized partner, Joanne, has produced a design using the artworks and poetry of the talented among us who were willing to share. It is our hope that this will add to your pleasure each time you revisit the record book.

It has been my privilege to have been part of the production of these reunion books for the past twenty-five years. No doubt this will be the last. It has been challenging, frustrating and a learning experience (as my mother labelled setbacks) but also gratifying. Thank you for this opportunity to give back to Wellesley.

From our Reunion Chair, Nancy Briska Anderson

This coming June will mark sixty years since the Royal-hued Class of 1962 left Wellesley for “the wide wide world.” That sounds like a long time, and it is. We’ve followed paths that led in hundreds of different directions, both literal and figurative, each as unique as each of us. Reunion is a chance to return to the starting place, to reconnect with those with whom we shared that time and place, along with the impulses which propelled us in the directions we took; to step back and reflect on who we were and who we have become.

My nineteen-year-old granddaughter gave me an inkling of that sort of experience last month. Years ago I had given her Esther Forbes’ Johnny Tremain, a favorite book from elementary school that inspired my lifelong fascination with history, with how the past shapes the present. Enthusiasm outpacing efficiency, however, I gave it to her two years in a row, so as a tease she gave me two copies this year. Laughing, we shared perspectives: as I recounted the hero’s brush with the momentous events at Lexington and Concord, she recalled the crippling accident that ended his dream of becoming a silversmith. Whoops! I had no memory of that part of the story! Absorbed with the Sons Of Liberty rebelling against their Mother Country, I had completely forgotten a major dramatic theme. (It has been seventy years since I read it!) Now possessing two copies, however, I set about re-reading Johnny after Christmas, an exercise that unexpectedly put me in touch with my eleven-year-old self, deepening my appreciation for how and why the book had so powerfully influenced my intellectual interests.

Reunion will be similarly rewarding, not only as a way to reconnect with our younger selves and reflect on how they affect who we are in our 80s, but as an opportunity to explore how the world has changed while we pursued our individual muses. Then too, our classmates, like all Wellesley women, are some of the most talented, interesting and stimulating human beings with whom one can spend time. The monthly Zoom sessions Marj Bribitzer has organized over the last several years have been a testament to that; obviously we can learn as much from each other now as we did in1958. As engaging as those Zooms have been, however, they can’t compare to meeting in person, nor do they put us in the physical surroundings that once nurtured our aspiring selves.

For months members of the Reunion Committee have been considering how to make the occasion meaningful. Your entries in this book will get us started. Our Class Meeting and a Memorial Service will be held virtually via Zoom, before we get to campus, to free up the time we’re together for things that can’t be done virtually; that also permits those unable to travel to participate. Details can be found on registration forms and our class website. Please come! We really want to re-engage with each and every one of you!

Nancy Anderson

P.S. By the way, the granddaughter whose interest in history I tried to pique—is majoring in Physics.

60th Reunion Committee

Chair: Nancy Briska Anderson
Treasurer: Susan Connard Chenoweth
Class Meeting: Anne Ruhoff Turtle, Marjorie Parish Bribitzer
Memorial Service: Muffy Levenson Kleinfeld
Record Book Co-Chairs: Joanne Couch Cogar and Mike Obourn Quenell
Record Book Editor: Karen Capriles Hodges
Record Book Memorials and Poetry Consultant: Martha Reardon Bewick
Fund Rep: Bonnie Cobert Millender
ROAR: Judy Myers Kinsey
Insignia: Muffy Levenson Kleinfeld
Creativity Display: Anne Steele Hummel
Hospitality: Betsy Bolln Munzer, Angelyn Forbes-Freeze, Helen Goldblatt Guttentag Programs: Betsy Cole, Joy Kimball Overstreet
Decorations: Sally Rial Phelps, Toni Hess Gal
Saturday Reception: Prudence Slitor Crozier
Helpers: Joan Foedisch Adibi, Alexandra Asensio Koppen, Jane Lewit Lewis,
Betsy North Robinson, Lois Blesoff Tanzer

From Judy Myers Kinsey, Chair and Founder of the ROAR Committee

ROAR - Reach out and Reconnect - for the 60th Reunion Record Book

The November 15th deadline for submitting entries for this 60th Reunion Record Book was two weeks away, and we had 33 entries. Not enough for a book that represented the class. We wondered if the ROAR could once again come to the rescue as it had for our 50th and 55th record book efforts. We revved it up with twenty-one volunteer ROARers organized by dorm and aimed at contacting classmates in whatever way we could – phone, email, US mail if necessary. We thought we could put out a book if we could get to 75 entries and for a stretch goal, we aimed at the 55th Reunion Record Book’s 110 entries.