JUL./AUG. 2007 VOLUME 110 NUMBER 1

Sometimes the confluence of submitted news, magazine lead times, and reality does not work. Last issue I was glad to relay news that Stu Merz, LLB '57, had submitted in October. As the magazine came out, I learned that Stu had died in January. Another good one gone.

As you will be reading this in July, you may wonder why there is no news of our 55th Reunion. As of now (I'm writing in mid-April), it hasn't happened. You will be able to read all about it in the September issue. That's the way lead times go.

Meanwhile, there is news, some glad, some sad, and as the new policy is to include e-mail addresses, they're included. If you don't want yours in, please say so. Allen Galson (agalson@aol.com) is busy in Dewitt, NY, as a volunteer board member of the Nature Conservancy, the Syracuse Int'l Film and Video Festival, and a retirement home complex. The Galsons were most recently in China, as Allen's wife had initiated a Syracuse U. program in Beijing. Marguerite McKaig Craner, BS Nurs, Columbus, OH, is 16 years retired from 20 years of teaching nursing in Columbus. For 55 years, with just a short hiatus, she was secretary for the Class of '52 at the School of Nursing. Bill and Barbara Shear Koschara '50 are in Groveland, NY. They, with the Livingston County historian and three others, co-authored The Sullivan Campaign of the Revolutionary War. They found the work great fun and produced more than 100 pages with photos, maps, bios, and many footnotes. Otherwise the Koscharas keep busy with friends, family, church, and farm. "Who said retirement was boring?" asks Bill.

Barbara Schlang Sonnenfeldt, Port Washington, NY, is retired with an exclamation point. As a retiree she is a volunteer reader for "Choice Magazine Listening," free tapes of unabridged poems, prose, and articles for the vision impaired. Subscriptions available. Her husband Richard has just published Witness to Nuremberg, available at Amazon.com. Phil Fleming wrote from Washington, DC, that he and Grace had spent Thanksgiving with Ed and Joan Ruby Hanpeter '51 at the Flemings' family farm in Mercersberg, PA. Phil reports the Hanpeters are spending more time at their Leland, MI, cottage, enjoying children and grandchildren. John and Barbara Gale Wood (woodbw@verizon.net), Hancock, NH, celebrated their 50th anniversary with friends of his from Pomona. Bad health twice stopped Barbara from a trip to Costa Rica, but she planned on Japanese and British gardens this spring. Donald Biles (dbiles@PTD.net) writes from Skytop, PA, that he has nothing to write about.

Constance Soelle Geerhart writes from Montgomery Village, MD, that she is tutoring at the Kingsbury School in Washington, DC. She is active with Kingsbury activities and with the Cornell Club of Washington and the Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church. She's visited with her son and daughter-in-law in San Francisco and with other adult children in Austin, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and had a trip to Durango. Howard, PhD '54, and Aliza Goldberger Shevrin (shevrin@umich.edu) are in Ann Arbor, MI. Aliza has a contract with Penguin to translate three Sholem Aleichem novels from Yiddish to English. On Howard's recent furlough from Michigan, they spent five months in New York and six in Cambridge, England. Aliza writes,"Happily, I am doing exactly what I love--big family, lots of travel, Howie doing his research."

Sad news from George Vlahakis (gvlahakis@comcast.net), Nashville, TN.While visiting in the Catskills last August, his wife Marina suffered a second stroke. They were able to return to Nashville in September, where Marina continues her rehab. It is slow. They pray for continued improvement. Helen Icken Safa (safa@latam.ufl.edu), Gainesville, FL, is retired but still actively writing, researching, and lecturing. She was just back from an international conference in Brazil where she presented a paper and gave a small course, and she published four major articles on Latin America last year. Robert Lamb (ecohaven2@aol.com), Terre Haute, IN, though retired as preservation and conservation librarian at the Cunningham Memorial Library of Indiana State U., is still repairing books of all shapes, sizes, and ages. He practices playing on his new piano and reads lots of metaphysical and mysticism books. Outdoors, he mows his lawns and raises a vegetable garden.

Joan Schoof Hoffman (Mrspeh@aol.com) is in Bogart, GA. She volunteers at a hospital, and in addition to gardening is relearning how to play bridge. Dean and Marilyn Heidelberger MacEwen (GDMHM@webtv.net) are in New Castle, DE, where Lynn is working on her church's celebration of its 350th anniversary as a congregation. "All well and happy," she reports. A trip to French Canada with Cornell friends was planned for October. Paul Herman had written of Bettie Buell Lyon's death last spring. Her husband Henry sent an elegiac note that concluded,"Many thanks to the blessing of friends in the Class of '52. You have no idea what joy you've added to our lives together. Go Big Red!"

.-- Joan Boffa Gaul, 7 Colonial Place, Pittsburgh, PA 15232; e-mail, joangaul@mac.com