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.
As calls started, entries began coming in slowly, and then they poured in, overwhelming the committee for a bit. When the committee finally got through all of the submissions, there were over 140 classmate entries. There are wonderful stories about their calls. Roarers showed such caring and compassion helping classmates with their information, providing whatever kind of help was needed – instructions for online submission, addresses and processes for USPS mail, and in several instances, the ROARer actually wrote the entry for a classmate unable to do that. Wonderful! What a pleasure it has been to work with these ROARers. Love, Judy Judy Myers Kinsey, Chair and Founder of ROAR Committee
Thank you to all the ROARers : Anne Ruhoff Turtle, Marj Parish Bribitzer, Sally Rial Phelps, Courtney Harris Petre, Marcia Kinnear Townley, Sandy Asensio Koppen, Joy Kimball Overstreet, Betsy North Robinson, Angelyn Forbes-Freeze, Bonnie Cobert Millender, Judythe Walden Roberts, Helen Goldblatt Guttenberg, Harriet Handel Moser, Barbara Hobart Shope, Betsy Cole, Susan Stokes Ellis, Marcia McClintock Folsom, Lyn McGiffert Ekedahl, Annie Steele Hummel, Marnie Stage Salter, and Judi Porter Gieske
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