Winter 2024-25 Class Notes by Judy Siskind

Greetings 1968 classmates,

Ellen Genat Hoffman and Anne Messenger discovered that they were on the same recent tour to areas of the former Yugoslavia. Anne was traveling with her daughter Sarah Langley '04.  At a Sarajevo restaurant, Ellen's husband took a photo of the three Wellesley alums (in the online magazine edition). “Great fun!” reports Ellen. 

 I am sorry to bring news of the deaths of three classmates.  They are Marjorie "Mardi" Dunlap Birmingham, Felice Gaer, and Kathleen Winslow Weld, 

Mardi was among our fourth floor McAfee friends. We cherished her for her kindness and ready laugh. Although health-challenged following college, she raised four children. Always artistic, Mardi enjoyed gardening and planning the landscape of her Hingham MA home.  We were thrilled that she joined our 2012 Tucson mini-reunion.. Here's a link to an obituary:
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/marjorie-birmingham-obituary?id=56240180  .
 

Kathleen Winslow Weld was a music major who went on to a career of piano performance, accompaniment, and teaching while also highly valuing her roles of mother and homemaker in Dover, MA.  She gave up plans for a career as a concert pianist to be fully present for her family. Kathleen was on the boards of several music organizations in the Boston area and also served as a selectman in Dover.

https://obits.hdlfuneralhome.net/kathleen-weld
 

My most recent notice was of Felice Gaer's death. Felice's career was in the field of international human rights. She held posts at the United Nations and later led an institute for human rights advancement with the American Jewish Committee. The first woman to serve on the U.N.'s Committee against torture, Felice won an Alumnae Achievement Award in 1995.  You can send remembrances of Felice to her son Hugh Baran mailto:hugh.baran@protonmail.com.  Here is a detailed obituary:

https://www.ajc.org/news/felice-gaer-legendary-human-rights-champion-who-inspired-generations-of-global-advocates-dies

Our class president, Judy Harte, wrote last month to say how pleased she was that Clair Brown and her husband had attended a birthday lunch for Judy hosted by mutual “karate friends.” Judy modestly described their connection as having trained in the same karate group, but Clair clarified that “Judy is an amazing karate teacher and I was her [lowly] student.”
Since Judy also enthusiastically described Clair's creation of the Climate and Society Center at UC Berkeley, I asked Clair to send us a description. She wrote that the center “brings together UC Berkeley faculty and students with California Climate Justice activists and lawmakers to undertake critical research on specific policies that will support California's transformation to renewable energy with zero-carbon emissions for all communities. Central to the ...mission is ensuring that policy
recommendations are grounded in date-based, rigorous research and are community-informed.”

As we head into the winter holiday season, I wish you all pleasant celebrations and a new year of good health, peace, and renewed dedication to the people you love, the projects you enjoy, and the
causes you champion.

Judy Siskind

Magazine Correspondent, Class of 1968

Please send news to jsiskind@yahoo.com