Class of 1953

Class Secretary: Ronald Clayton, 55 Augusta Way, North Chelmsford, MA 01863

Class President: Alice Huntington Vannerson, 93 Pokonoket Ave., Sudbury, MA 01776-2320; albovan@channel1.com

Next Reunion in 2003. Got news? Tap out a note to magazine@bates.edu! John and Susan (Martin ’52) Ames stay busy in Sarasota, Fla., and elsewhere. Last June, John performed in Prague and Budapest with the Key Chorale. At home, John spends time on his culinary and gardening skills…. Joan Fretheim Barlow and Linc ’51 cruised the Panama Canal and visited daughter Wendy in San Diego. Joan continues to work part time as a public school reading consultant…. Pete and Bev Bragdon Borden spend winters in an Everglades canal boating community and summers in wilderness Maine near Grand Lake Stream, where three daughters and families enjoy woods and water. The Bordens also go on eco-anthro tours to such exotic locales as the Galapagos, Easter Island, Ecuador, and French Polynesia. Pete taught his last Borden Executive Program more than a year ago, but still chairs the audit committee…. Jay Chapman Neely and Bill winter in Sarasota where she sees the Ameses from time to time. In West Virginia, Jay continues fund raising for the local nature center (finished in the black after the first year)…. Len and Katie Day Chase were preparing for an April “Great Trains of Europe” tour. Len continues to sail Casco Bay from their summer home in Harpswell and ski at Sunday River in winter. Katie plays historic roles at Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth…. Ronald Clayton writes: “Please make sure you circle June 5, 6, 7, and 8, 2003, on your calendar for our 50th Reunion. Hard to believe but hope to see you there!” He and Dotty ’52 bought a getaway house in South Yarmouth on Cape Cod about a year ago. “After renovations (including the addition of a new room), we really enjoy the place. It’s a great area for golf, birding, and beach walking.”… George Conklin attended a World Congress of Church Communicators in the Netherlands, went on a five-day sailing cruise with two old friends on Lake Ontario, visited Santa Fe for music and scenery, sojourned in Tokyo and other places in Japan, spent a week in London visiting all the city’s museums, and traveled to meetings and conferences in Minneapolis, New York, and Washington, D.C. At home in Berkeley, Calif., George sees his daughter, Karen, and her husband, Stephen, both teachers…. Trustee Dick Coughlin’s current Bates project is a new campus center that will house many of the functions of Chase Hall (now more than 80 years old), plus many others Chase can no longer accommodate…. Bob Ernst and Janice visited Bob’s brother and sister-in-law in Hawaii last May and enjoyed trips to see children and grandchildren in Rochester, N.Y., and elsewhere…. Chuck Fisher plays golf and works at the Oaks Lane Country Club in Connecticut. He also enjoys carpentry, building stone walls, painting watercolors, and skiing in Colorado, Canada, and elsewhere, as well as babysitting with his grandchildren…. Al and Gail (Molander ’56) Goddard moved to New London, N.H., from Cape Cod. Closer to Bates and kids, they enjoy hiking, bicycling, kayaking, sailing, swimming, skiing, golf, and tennis, along with working on their home inside and out…. Clark Griffith is chair of the Bates Board of Overseers, and was proud to serve Bates in the year the full board elected Elaine Hansen as president. He and Gerry enjoyed trips to Cancun and Aruba in 2001…. Maury Hight and Pat love living so close to the beach in Cape May, N.J. Maury is active in several YMCA-related groups, which take the Hights to national conventions. They took a two-week road trip to Nova Scotia in September and were in Florida in March…. Alice Huntington Vannerson and Bob enjoyed a driving trip to Portugal last March and a stay at an old stone farmhouse in southern Sicily in September. Bob is involved in an inter-generational program with fourth graders, and both Vannersons stay active in various church endeavors as well as tennis…. Norma Judson’s home is lively with three granddaughters living there. Bridge, volunteering, reading, and writing fill in the gaps. Norma also stays active with her Quaker Meeting and Westport (Mass.) Historical Commission…. Joanne Kennedy Murray and Floyd have the best of both worlds: summers in Montana and winters in Arizona…. Kaye Kirschbaum Harvie continues her church office and pastoral care liaison work, though she has been “retired” 10 years. Daughter Lisa was promoted to vice president of human resources at Miles Memorial Health Center in Damariscotta, Maine. Kaye attended the rededication of her daughter Kim’s renovated sanctuary of the Arlington Street Church in Boston…. Ginnie LaFauci Toner traveled to Greece and spends three mornings a week at her exercise class, plus another morning of yoga, and stays active in her church. Ginnie’s dad will be 102 in March!… Viv Lindquist Okerlund enjoys bridge, theater, concerts, hospital gift shop volunteering, babysitting for her five grandchildren, and lunches and dinners with family and friends (including a surprise 70th birthday party in November)…. Fritz Littlefield and Stephanie spend six months of the year in Mount Pleasant, S.C., and the other six months in Seabrook, N.H., where “Captain Fred” operates fishing boats and will also serve as a dock master at a local yacht club…. Curt Osborne and Lurancy enjoy their two children and five grandchildren and joined a Florida Audubon venture from West Palm Beach through the Everglades to Key West and out to the Dry Tortugas. Another trip retraced the western end of the Lewis and Clark expedition…. Rich Raia and Martha bought a second home on Lake Ossipee, N.H., as a getaway. Rich says he is in good health and still working with Comprehensive ID Products in Boston…. Fred and Barbara (Atkinson ’56) Russell moved to Pensacola, Fla., after 10 years in Tucson. They’re now within a day’s drive of their four children and five grandchildren…. Bob Russell reports that Betty is undergoing treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She has had six cycles of chemotherapy, followed by a stem cell transplant at Maine Medical Center. She is responding well to the procedure…. Pat Scheuerman Pfeiffer teaches part time at UC-Santa Cruz; Rob takes a course in computer graphics. Son Chris recently retired from Sunrise Telecom, the company he co-founded. Daughter Lisa spent another summer with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife in Alaska, and is now on her way to New Zealand…. John and Barbara Earl Sturgis still thrill to the scenery of Sedona, Ariz., after 13 years. Their annual Sturgis family reunion in Maine in August was extended to six weeks at an archaeological dig at Fort St. George in Popham. John and Barbara spent a week at a dig in East Texas and another week at the Escalante/Grand Staircase National Monument in Utah…. Jo Taylor Kellogg has had health problems, but is now improved and working part time as a caregiver. She and Bud enjoy Florida rodeos…. Ardie Ulpts Vernon and Bill were on a trip to France and Germany when the Sept. 11 tragedy occurred. After trying to get word about daughter Kristin, who worked on the 46th floor of the Goldman Sachs Building, Ardie got in touch with daughter Karen in Tampa and learned that Kristen was safe. Later last fall, Ardie and Bill visited Boston and Portland, then flew to San Francisco to spend Christmas with the whole family at daughter Lisa’s home…. Mary Van Volkenburgh Kashmanian stays busy with church work and helps homeless and low-income people. She and Kash went on two service Elderhostels in 2001 at the Yorktown and Jamestown museums and restorations in Virginia and at the Enfield (N.H.) Shaker Museum…. Dick West and Elaine, retired for four years, have traveled and cruised to Bermuda, Aruba and other Caribbean Islands, Alaska, Newfoundland, the Panama Canal, and Britain from Scotland to London. The Wests (three sons, six grandchildren) divide time between Pembroke, Mass., and Hills Beach in Biddeford, Maine…. Lois White Becker looks forward to attending our 50th from California and hopes to renew wonderful memories. After two husbands, two sons, and five grandchildren — and with the perspective of 50 years — she says life has been very good to her.