University of Maine - Class of 1953

Welcome to the Class of 1953 official webpage on the University of Maine Alumni Association website. Here you will find any special announcements or reminders the Class of 1953 needs to know.

The 2010 Summer gathering will be held on September 14 at noon at the Nonantum in Kennebunk.

 

Below is the longer version of the Class of 1953 Class Column. The shorter version appeared in the Winter 2010 issue of Maine Alumni Magazine.

1953

Nancy Schott Plaisted
7 Ledgewater Drive
Kennebunk, ME 04043
(207) 967-1380
nan53@gwi.net

“Where would I be if I were a crouton?” This from a white-haired gentleman at a local market on a steamy August day. (He looked like the actor in a Jacques Cousteau movie.) I had to smile. He made my day and I could help. As simple as that. (But not a classmate.)
However, here’s some classmate news. On August 11, our class met at The Samoset in Rockport for a 56th luncheon. Present: Isabelle Stearns Foss, Lorrie Skolfield Lowell, Woody Carville ’54G, Doris Ramsay Smith, Tom Laskey and Carol, Carol Prentiss Mower, G. Vernon Jordan (G), Peter and Kay Shumway, George and Rita Yardumian Weatherbee ’54, Helen Strong Hamilton, and myself. For their first reunion in 56 years: Larry ’54 and Dottie Booth Dimitre, and Doug Vollmer. Wonderful! Let’s see everyone at our 57th in southern Maine in August or early September 2010! (A postcard will be sent to all classmates with luncheon location, date, and time.)
Also present: Todd Saucier ’93, ’97G, alumni association president, and his wife, Dee Daigle Saucier ’93, ’96G; Chris Corro and Val Mitchell ’09 of the alumni association, indispensable to classes working on alumni projects; Pat Cummings ’89 ’44H of the development office; Danny Williams ’91, ’94G from the Foundation, with his spoonerisms; and Dr. Dana Humphrey, dean of the College of Engineering. University president Robert Kennedy and Mary Rumpho-Kennedy, honorary members of our class, were unable to attend. Monies for various named projects were voted on and passed, including scholarships, and a Class of 1953 recognition brick for the “Traditions Trail,” a gift the Class of 2010 gave to the university. Our class brick will go at the trail’s beginning near the Buchanan Alumni House entrance, with the trail winding itself to the Memorial Union.
To honor the late Frank Pickering, General Electric is naming a wing of the plant in Lynn, MA, in his honor. Frank served as vice president of GE for many years, and later was appointed chief engineer of GE aircraft engines. Frank was a loyal alumnus, and he and Clara contributed generously to the University of Maine, endowing two engineering laboratories and a scholarship fund.
On August 10, Pete and Kay Shumway, Doug Vollmer, Helen Strong Hamilton, and I stayed at Carol and Tom Laskey’s home in Camden. Tom had renovated an old house, lovely with its wrap-around veranda, on a street that led to the ocean. Carol taught us dominoes, and we all got involved with the “casual” cooking. Tom makes a good potato salad. I had to laugh when Tom took orders, waiter-like, offering apple pie with strawberry or peanut butter ice cream. What happened to vanilla or a slice of cheese?
This week I called Doug, a Delta Tau of Yarmouth, to ask more questions. His wife, Kristina, is a driver for Oceanview, a Falmouth assisted-living facility, and Doug, who went to Reunion “under pressure from Tom,” is entering his 47th year of teaching, an adjunct biology teacher at Portland’s Maine College of Art. His pastime? Playing with grandchildren, who come in the summer “with the good life”—he spoke of grandson Max, 7 months.
Doug and Kristina have two children: Niklas, in Atlanta, an associate professor in the communications department at Georgia State U., with son, Tannus (7); and Jennifer, who works for the Fun House on Orcas Island (north of Seattle), a community facility that provides entertainment for the island teenagers. Doug, who cycles daily, talked about his road bike “Specialized.” When he was 60, he cycled “self-contained” (camped out, cooked) with his daughter from Seattle to Yarmouth, some 3,500 miles in 48 days. He also cross-country skis with Tom and Carol at Pete and Kay’s Moose Mountain Lodge in Etna, NH.
Carol Prentiss Mower and I visited/had lunch with Pat McCormick Wilkinson, my freshman roommate, at her South China farmhouse after the May Reunion, and met her son and grandson. Thanks, Pat. Also saw my cousin, Lida Maxim Muench, of Lillian, AL, last week, who was visiting her sister Connie in Lewiston. And at my 60th Lewiston High reunion, I saw classmates Claire Filliettaz ’63G, Mary Maguire Riley, and Robert Hunter ’62G. Ray Robbins’ sons keep me posted on their father’s health at a NY facility. Zeke Mavodones, Poughkeepsie, NY, was in Scarborough for a summer family reunion of 26. His youngest daughter, of Belgium, who was expecting a boy in September, made Zeke a grandfather of five. He said Norm Brochu ’56 ran for mayor, and was sure Don Spear ’52 was mayor when we were freshmen.
Ann Twombly Bonang, of Brunswick, emailed me June 30. She and husband, Claude, went to a meeting of the Midcoast Maine Alumni Association held at the Bath Country Club, with some 100 alumni and spouses in attendance (no ’53ers). She told of upcoming meetings.
Fred Dolan, of Junction City, KS: I apologize. We had a nice talk, but I lost my notes. I’ll call you for my next column!
A March Bangor Daily News headline: “$12M, 5-story hotel eyed for Bar Harbor.” The article stated that Ocean Properties has “submitted an application to planning officials to build a $12 million hotel overlooking the harbor on West Street.” It also states that “Ocean Properties, which is privately owned by Bangor native Thomas Walsh and members of his family, owns more than 100 resort and hotel properties in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean.”
“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air …” Ralph Waldo Emerson.
In other words: “Enjoy the good life.”

 

Dr. Henry Woodbrey was awarded the Pine Tree Emblem Service Award at Reunion 2009.

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Class of 1953 Class Project To make a gift to our Class Reunion Fund, contact the Reunion giving department at 1-800-934-2586 or give using the online giving form.