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JAN./FEB. 2006 VOLUME 108 NUMBER 4
The responses to our annual News and Dues mailing had not arrived as I wrote this column, so there's no new news. As I need news, I'm at the somewhat fun part of this job where I hunt for it. Phoning people you haven't seen in 50 years is iffy. The responses range anywhere from "Well, hello!" to "Who?" Despite that cheery first paragraph, it is now September 13 and the shadow of Katrina will be with us for a long time. Therefore, the first phone call was to Lynn Heidelberger MacEwen, with whom Joan Nesmith Tillotson, MD '56, and I spent a wonderful weekend in New Orleans some years ago. Lynn's husband Dean, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, was then at LSU and Children's Hospital. Thanks to Lynn, along with Carol Lovejoy McNeal (who with husband Bill '51 was a long-term resident of New Orleans), we did, saw, and ate everything there that was famous--and fun. As it turned out, after days of trying to reach her, Lynn had just spoken to Carol, who was in a Houston hotel, having made it out of New Orleans by train. The McNeals' newly redone house in Algiers was OK. Their son Rob, a lawyer, was in Mississippi, and his wife and family were with relatives in North Carolina. Their son Steve's family had remained in Mandeville, where they expected their daughters' school would open in a few weeks. Lynn reports that Carol, who has built a fine career with weddings and fabric restoration, was simply glad that her family was accounted for and well. The McEwens were to leave shortly on a road trip to Nova Scotia. Lynn sent an e-mail postscript: "I forgot to tell you we are in a little travel group with Jim '51 and Pat Gunderson Stocker '53 and Ken and Joanne Huntington Tunnell '51. This year we did the paddlewheeler on the Columbia River to see places connected with the Lewis and Clark Expedition.We had a great time and enjoyed the scenery, food, and interesting side trips. Two years ago we did the Mississippi Queen from Memphis to New Orleans. It was such fun, we did the Columbia River.We hope to do a boat trip in 2007 that will do Canadian cities along the St. Lawrence and Saguenay." As class correspondent, you get to thinking of people you knew and liked. At our last reunion, Harriet Scannell Morgan mentioned that she had seen O. Frank Richter, and he'd asked about me. I thought, call him.We had worked together on Willard Straight committees and boards. Otto, after a 36-year career with Procter and Gamble, lives in Annapolis, MD, in a retirement community where he is active on boards and committees, and with the Dining Club. Said club consists of 500 people.When it ran out of food last month, Otto learned how to keep old people young: make them mad.He works out regularly and has continued his 66-year run of attending Redskins games. His wife of 52 years, who had been his childhood sweetheart and also a Sweetheart of Sigma Chi, died last year. "It's hard," he said. Otto was able to tell me about my former Straight co-chairman JimWade '53, who now lives in North Augusta, SC, after a career with DuPont in atomic energy, and he filled me in on Jim Diefenderfer, Emmaus, PA. Jim has been a very successful family court judge, filling the same seat as his father. Jim Strub, a retired Air Force officer, lives in Colorado. Otto was about to take off on a European trip that covers much of the same territory we plan to visit in a couple of weeks. I cannot close without mentioning again that on Friday, October 14, Richard C. B. "Rik" Clark and Charles '51 and CarolWinter Mund were to be among the seven people awarded the 2005 Frank H. T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award. I seem to have reported it in the spring as a 2004 award, but it is 2005. Congratulations, you three. And, I absolutely cannot close without thanking Lynn Heidelberger MacEwen and O. Frank Richter for effectively writing my column for me. Finally, finally, you should have this in time to arrange to get to Philadelphia for the Cornell '52 class meeting on Saturday, February 18, 2006. The meeting is part of the annual CACO (Cornell Association of Class Officers) Mid-Winter Meeting gathering, February 17 and 18. In the past we've joined adjacent classes for a Saturday night dinner. These are fun gatherings, so if you are, or can be, in the neighborhood, try to attend. -- Joan Boffa Gaul, 7 Colonial Pl., Pittsburgh, PA 15232; e-mail,jgcomm@aol.com
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