Class of 1961

Class Secretary: Gretchen Shorter Davis, 315 Chandlers Wharf, Portland, ME 04101-4652; gretchend@alumni.bates.edu

Class President: Evelyn Yavinsky Biddle, 362 Acorn Ln., Shelburne, VT 05482; evelynb@langrealestate.com

Next Reunion in 2006. Got news? Tap out a note to magazine@bates.edu! Rosemary Cousins is still teaching and has no plans to retire. She took a marvelous trip to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island this summer with her two sisters. Her nephew, James Nutting ’76, was featured on Portland television station WGME’s “Where’s Amy?” last month with his stained glass, butterfly, and bug collections…. George Drury was in France in April 2002 gathering information for The Railfan Guide to France and also gave a tour in Switzerland. He’s self-employed and does the following: indexes magazines, leads tours, edits the church newsletter, writes, and publishes travel guidebooks. He’s also a columnist for Railfan & Railroad Magazine, Railroad History, and the B&M Bulletin, a publication of the Boston & Maine Railroad Historical Society…. Now retired as the director of the preschool and lower school divisions at Holy Spirit Episcopal School, Vera Jensen Bond is enjoying her time. She and Joe have moved to the lake and are adjusting to a town of 3,000 after living in Houston. Vera’s school received the Blue Ribbon School of Excellence Award from the Department of Education, one of only 42 private schools to do so and she traveled to Washington, D.C., for the awards ceremonies…. Paola Mangiacapra divides her time between her W. Kingston, R.I., residence, and a vacation home in Center Sandwich, N.H., since retiring from public school teaching in ’92. After a celebratory three-week camping trip around the coast of Iceland in June of that year, she launched a self-directed fine arts study course with emphasis on watercolor painting. She’s won awards at juried competitions throughout the northeast…. In fall 2003, Mary Morton Cowan‘s new book, Forest for the Trees, will be out. She keeps busy subbing at the organ in addition to more writing projects for children. Carl is now retired from his computer technician job…. Doug Rowe works on acting assignments only if they really interest him. He shows up on Providence as a brain surgeon from time to time, which he says would have a few Bates instructors rolling over in their graves — or putting them there. His older son is in Santa Barbara on a baseball scholarship and his younger is a junior in high school. He is working on a screenplay…. Jack Simmons reports that his younger daughter is defending her dissertation and will soon have her Ph.D. He and wife Margo bought a piece of land on a river in Falmouth, Maine, and are building a new home. They commute between Maine and Longboat Key, Fla…. Still teaching a bilingual second grade in Salinas, Carol Smith also cares for her 95-year-old mother who lives independently a few doors away. All three of her children are teachers too. Carol spends each Thanksgiving with Sally Marshall ’62 and her family in Newport Beach…. After 31 years in the Weymouth, Mass., school system, Judy Williams Gordon retired in August 2001. She and husband Bob moved to a 55-plus community in Middleboro, Mass., in October 2001. Bob had to have his right hip replaced for the third time in May and is doing very well.