Greetings, classmates. There are currently some 107 active class members (that’s you), 37 are lost (where are you?), and sadly, 730 have left us, making a total of 874 classmates when we were freshmen.
Helen Strong Hamilton, class president, of Exeter, NH, said a 72nd Reunion luncheon is planned for September in Kennebunkport at the Arundel Wharf Restaurant, where it was held last year. Family and friends are invited and hopefully more classmates will attend. (Warren Noyes plans on going, and so do Helen and I. We should have a bus pick up classmates from coast to coast!)
Isabelle “Izzy” Stearns Foss, of Temple (near Farmington), is “Plugging along, feeding the birds and bears,” and there’s “No way to stop getting older.” She drives a silver Ford Edge, turned 95 in May, and has two boys and four girls. Asked which is easier to raise, boys or girls? She answered: “They both have their good points, along with not so good.”
- Warren Noyes of Madison (80.8 miles north of Portland) had his 10-year-old great-grandson, Jackson, with him when I phoned. I asked Warren if he had visited classmate Woody Carville ’54G, who lives at Dirigo Pines in Orono. He said no, but he’d try to drive down and see him soon. Warren knows Tom Perry ’67, ’69G, ’75 C.A.S. of Orono, a former neighbor, and friend of Woody’s, who visits Woody frequently, and gave me Tom’s number, so I called Tom. He said he visited Woody last week, who has his own private apartment at Dirigo and said Woody is in “reasonably good spirits,” and engages with the help, particularly about sports. You know Woody and sports!
Dee Draper Weidemeyer of Clearwater, FL was busy when her husband, “Woody” (Carleton), answered and put her on the phone. Married since 1962, and living in the same house where their children grew up, Dee said she “does as little as possible, putters around.” Dee, who turned 93 in May, drives “some,” and does Sudoku, crossword puzzles, and exchanges cards at Christmastime with Dawn Miller Woodbrey and Lorraine Skolfield Lowell. Dee and Woody have three daughters (a son died some three years ago), nine grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
Lorraine, of Sisters, OR, was a medical technology major who lived at The Elms as a sophomore and married Lloyd (he died three years ago). Lloyd was in the Merchant Marines, taking cargo all over the world. They have four children (one died) and now have one daughter named Eini (after classmate Eini Riutta Johnson, who died 2022), two sons, and three grandchildren. The week I called, Lorraine was moving to another assisted-living facility in Redmond, some 30 minutes away.
Also, to continue with Dawn, of Stockton Springs (the late Ron Bishop had a farm there.) — Dawn does crossword puzzles, and her son and his wife live with her. And there’s Pippy the cat. She said she was glad I called and talked about classmates.
Lida Maxim Muench, my cousin in Spanish Fort, AL, said she’s getting too old (or was it “we”?), and said there’s a “pill for everything.” Now, mother of four (having lost her husband, Gerry, and two children), with eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, she recently celebrated her 94th birthday at the beach.
I tried to reach Cindy Cowan Dunlap, of Orono Commons, a zoology major, but found out she died in January of this year. Truly sad. Her obituary said that “Cindy passed on her passion for skiing to her children, teaching them to safely ride the rope tow at Bald Mountain in Dedham, and how to control their speed with the Stem Christie.” There was so much more.
When I was a patient at Maine Medical Center in Portland in February (I’m OK), two of my nurses were 2023 UMaine graduates: Michael Mark, of Houston, TX; and Katie Seekins of Oakland. They were great!
Please stay healthy and happy and call (or write/email/visit).
For a longer version of this column, see UMaineAlumni.com/classpage/class-of-1953/
Enjoy everything!